ReadFest 2025: BLITZ KIDS with Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi

Name: ReadFest 2025: BLITZ KIDS with Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi
Start: 2025-09-18T18:30:00+01:00
End: 2025-09-18T20:00:00+01:00
Location: Dagenham Library

By Pen to Print

Authors Duncan Barrett & Nuala Calvi share true stories of 15 kids who survived the Blitz in their new book Blitz Kids.

Date and time

Location

Dagenham Library

1 Church Elm Lane Dagenham RM10 9QS United Kingdom

Good to know

Highlights

1 hour, 30 minutes
In person

About this event

When the Second World War began, there were 10 million children living in Britain. Many of them fled to the relative safety of the countryside, but others stayed behind and witnessed the Blitz close-up in cities around the UK.

In their new book, BLITZ KIDS, Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, authors of the Sunday Times bestseller The Sugar Girls, tell the true stories of 15 boys and girls who endured the terrors of the German bombing campaign.

From Jewish East Ender Kitty, who ran away from school in Hertfordshire because she missed her home in Spitalfields too much... to Liverpudlian Chris, whose father went missing presumed dead at sea... to little Irene, who saw the American troops depart from Southampton on D-Day.

In this event, Duncan and Nuala share all their stories and more, looking over the fruits of a research journey which took them all over the country, to meet with more than eighty Blitz survivors.

A testament to a generation that spent their formative years sheltering in cold, cramped air-raid shelters, hearing the rumble of planes and the crash of bombs overhead, this event is not to be missed.

Click here to purchase BLITZ KIDS

If you have any accessibility requirements, please directly get in touch with us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk

Booking is essential and you will be asked to present your booking confirmation upon arrival.

Pen to Print shall not be liable to attendees for any injury, loss or damage of or to personal equipment belonging to the attendees or any indirect or consequential loss or damage whatsoever arising out of the attendance of the event.

Pen to Print reserves the right to cancel, delay or postpone the event for any reason, including adverse weather conditions, an emergency situation or unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances out of its reasonable control. In such cases, the event organiser will endeavour to inform participants as quickly as is possible.

Organized by

Pen to Print

Pen to Print provided by Barking & Dagenham Libraries is working to build a network of support for aspiring writers in Barking and Dagenham.

We identify local writing talent and provide them with opportunities to produce quality writing for publication.

We publish our own suite of publications, Write On! our free quarterly print magazine, alongside Write On! Extra online and our Write On! Audio podcast

In addition to our main competition The Book Challenge we offer other free writing competitions, author events classes, workshops and other activity supported by established creative writing experts, authors and artists.

A majority of our events are available for free and open to everyone and are designed to inspire and encourage writers, as well as providing entertainment to the wider reading public.

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NB: Due to increased costs, we will be making a small charge of £1 (plus any charges applied by Eventbrite.) for people attending sessions online, this comes into effect from 1 January 2024 onwards.

Taking part in all of our sessions in-person at a venue remains free.

Any profit we may make will be invested back into the programme, contributing to making our digital offering more environmentally sustainable. We are starting with an upgrade to our website that will be coming soon.

We do regret that we have to make this difficult decision however, our grant funding is not increasing and we are experiencing increased costs that we can no longer afford to absorb.

We are aware that this could prove cost prohibitive for some people, if cost is a barrier to you taking part, if you are UK based , please do email us directly: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk to discuss this further.

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Pen to Print is supported using public funding by Arts Council England funded by UK Government, as a Library National Portfolio Organisation .

Web Address: pentoprint.org

Email: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk

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