My first YALC

This year was my visit ever visit to YALC (young adult literary convention) where I got to meet some of my favourite authors in person and attended some brilliant talks. I met the wonderful Theo Parish who wrote Home Body - one of my favourite graphic novels. JP Rose, the author of Birdie, an incredible story of mixed race identity and friendship in 1950s Yorkshire and Lizzie Huxley Jones, the author of the Vivi Conway books.

YALC is designed to be an accessible festival for fans so your ticket price gets you access to everything from workshops to panels. Helen Lewis of Literally PR ran a great industry panel on indie authors and the rise orf self publishing. And watching Juno Dawson and Malorie Blackman discussing 10 years of YALC was a particular highlight. Of course, I also bought a lot of books. Now I know why people brought suitcases with them!