M.G. Leonard – The Ice Children

Guildford Book Festival

Join award-winning author M. G. Leonard, as she  dazzles audiences with her future Christmas classic with a powerful message at its core.

Guildford Baptist Church

Join bestselling and multi award winning author of Adventures on Trains, Beetle Boy and The Twitchers, M.G. Leonard to hear about her new book The Ice Children, a modern fairytale celebrating the magic and wonder of winter.  At the stroke of midnight on the dawn of December, five-year-old Finn Albedo is found frozen in the city park standing on a pedestal of ice. His heart is beating, he is smiling serenely, but no one can wake him.  Finn’s big sister, Bianca, suspects that the beautiful sparkling book Finn got from the library has something to do with it, but the book has vanished. Does the tall mysterious stranger who first discovered Finn know more than they will admit?  Each day, more children are found frozen and Bianca realizes she’s running out of time. Her quest to discover the truth and rescue her little brother hurls her into a fantastical winter wonderland, full of beauty and danger, where all is not as it seems.  Can Bianca save her brother and the other Ice Children before they are forever lost?

ABOUT THE AUTHORM. G. Leonard has made up stories ever since she was a little girl. Back then adults called them lies or tall tales, so she didn’t think to write them down. Now that she has grown-up, her favourite things to create stories about are beetles, birds, and trains. She is the bestselling writer of children’s books such as Beetle Boy, the Adventures on Trains series, The Twitchers stories and The Ice Children. Her books have been translated into over forty languages, and Beetle Boy is currently in development as a live-action series for TV. Her books have won many awards, including the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year 2021, Crimefest Award for Best Crime Novel for Children 2021, British Book Awards, Book of the year 2021 - Children’s fiction, Books Are My Bag Reader Award for Children’s Fiction 2020, China’s Children's Choice Book: Gold Medal 2018, the Branford Boase Award 2017, as well as being shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, nominated three times for the Carnegie Medal, and shortlisted twice for an Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America.She burst into bookshops with her quirky debut Beetle Boy in 2016, and the success of her beetle books have led to her becoming a vice president of the insect charity Buglife. She and her beetles have appeared on Blue Peter, Springwatch Unsprung, Countryfile, Meet the Author with James Naughtie, Sky News, and featured in the BBC documentary, The Bug Couple.Maya lives in Brighton with her husband and her two sons, a dog called Nell and a tank of exotic beetles. She spent her early career in the music industry running Setanta Records, an independent record label, and managing bands, most notably The Divine Comedy. After leaving the music industry, she trained as an actor, dabbling in directing and producing as well as performing, before becoming a digital producer for Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and Harry Potter West End. Maya is one of the founding authors of #Authors4Oceans, with Lauren St John, campaigning to reduce single-use plastics.

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