Meet the Team
Elspeth Giddens, Director. I was involved from the beginning and then instrumental in creating the IW Story Festival. From the start, I had the support of a team of volunteers who shared this vision of starting a unique three-day festival dedicated to children and families. We wanted to offer our audiences a fun and inspirational experience which would encourage them to be creative, to reach their potential, and to achieve a "voice' for their future. My role as Director is to make sure we keep a clear vision of creativity at the heart of our festival, to ensure we offer a diverse and ambitious programme, and to support the creative community on the Isle of Wight. I'm involved in planning, networking, recruitment to our organisation, bid writing and other fundraising - which keeps tickets family affordable . I'm one of the leads in planning our outreach Stories in Schools programme of free author visits to local primary schools. Our family audiences say they love the festival because it is fun , imaginative, inspirational and they see their favourite authors and performers . Families always want to come back the next year! We know IW Story Festival has a great reputation for outstanding events and there are exciting times ahead . Future festival events are guided by audience feedback on favourites and invitations which we send out to wonderful authors and performers. Many of my favourites have come to the festival so it is too long a list.
Morgan Outlaw It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I'm Morgan, eccentric small town creative, a writer by trade and an artist when I put my mind to it! I have been involved in the IW Story Festival since February 2024, I was doing a little bit of shopping when a flyer appeared on the other side of the self-checkout and I stumbled into a fun volunteering weekend. Said weekend has since bloomed into lots of pretty, overly organised and colour coded spreadsheets as I admin everything IW Story Festival and aid coordinating our Stories in Schools programme; as well as a few wonderful workshops making giant paper snakes and evil door to door toy frog salesmen! My favourite parts of the last couple years have been Enchanted Cinema in 2024, where the audience created a live soundtrack to Where The Wild Things Are and I only nearly fell down the theatre stairs once while handing out instruments. As well as crafting an unlikely friendship between the evil door to door salesman and a little old lady with Naomi Ishiguro this past Festival. To quote some wonderful feedback from 2025, the IWSF is "fun, funner, funtacular" and these are three words that certainly do the Festival justice. My favourite children's authors, a few of whom I have discovered through the Festival itself, include but are certainly not limited to; Kes Gray, Maz Evans, Eva Ibboston and Terry Deary.
Jules Marriner As an author and illustrator with ink-stained fingers and a head full of stories, I first leapt into the world of book festivals back in 2016, when I teamed up with Elspeth on one of her magical projects. From there, the IW Story Festival took root — and I’m proud to have been one of its early instigators! Since then, I’ve worn many hats (some quite glittery): from programming and scheduling, to performer herding, designing all the graphics and printed programmes, creating the ferry promo films, and even stepping on stage myself as an author. Last year, I dreamt up The Secret Library — a hidden nook where curious minds could crawl through a Narnia-like doorway into a world of wonder. Inside, children discovered tiny treasures left behind by Borrowers of old and found their own imaginations sparking to life. Festival highlights? Dressing up as Wilbur the cat from Winnie the Witch and sharing the stage with Korky Paul definitely top the list. I’ve also had the joy of meeting some of my illustrator heroes (and now friends) in the Green Room — a good place for a cup of tea and a natter. Looking ahead, I’m excited to see the festival grow with even more dynamic storytelling — from puppetry to immersive shows — and to seek out the next generation of awe-filled story makers and illustrators. At the moment, I’m happily lost in October, October by Katya Balen (my current favourite author), alongside long-time loves Katherine Rundell, Quentin Blake, Alex T. Smith, and my childhood favourite, Molly Brett.
Jake Curran I first volunteered at the festival in 2022 and was soon invited to join the organising team. I've now helped organise four editions of the Story Festival, booking some of the main headliners. I help publicise the festival by writing the press releases which get sent out to local media. I also run the social media accounts during the festival weekend and interview authors. During the planning stages of the event, I book some of the top billing speakers - often the ones you may know from TV! My favourite moments include standing at the side of the stage ahead of the appearance from Horrible Histories star Simon Farnaby and hearing the cheer from the audience as he was introduced. Three words that sum up the festival for me, are- Family, Energetic, Busy I'd love us to host the legend that is Michael Rosen, as well as some famous TV faces you may not know have written books for children. I'd also like to bring an environmental element to the festival, with speakers focussing on climate change and how to help our planet. My favourite children's authors are Roald Dahl, David Baddiel, Julia Donaldson and Michael Rosen.
Sue Bailey Whilst the roots of my involvement stem back to the Youth Zone of the IW Literary Festival, I have been involved with the IW story festival since its first festival held at the Riverside Centre in 2020. What do I do? The bit I like best is finding great performances and engaging authors to bring to the Island. I do lots behind the scenes to make sure the festival runs smoothly such as keeping a watch on what needs doing and when, liaising with authors, performers, venue, trustees, committee members and schools. We have a great team that works well together to put on the story festival and Stories in Schools. There is nothing more satisfying than being in the midst of the festival with Quay Arts buzzing with children meeting authors, being inspired by performances and taking part in workshops. Of course, I am also a storyteller, and love doing a story session each year. They are always good fun and bring a smile to my face looking back at them. I remember in last year’s Jack Tales, one girl did an amazing rendition of ‘This is the house that Jack Built’ after hearing it only once. Every year, I have favourite highlights, but over the six years, stand out ones for me have been listening to Cerri Burnell talk about her book, Wilder than Midnight, and Gareth Peters talk about his book Two Daddies. On the performance front I loved the interactivity of the Enchanted Cinema, and was bowled over by Opera Prelude’s rendition of Nicholas Allan’s The King’s Pants. Three words that I would use to sum up the festival are: Interactive, entertaining, thought-provoking. I would love to see authors Lauren Child, Michael Rosen, Cressida Cowell, Onjali Rauf, and Hannah Gold at the IW Story Festival in the coming years. As a child, I loved the Narnia books by CS Lewis (especially, The Silver chair). As a mother, I spent many cosy hours reading all of the Harry Potter books aloud to my sons and those books were instrumental in turning them from basic readers to bookworms. As a family we loved all the Roald Dahl books and books like Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg and Alfie gets home first by Shirley Hughes have been important ‘bedtime’ stories. One of the fun parts of being involved with the story festival is reading the books by authors coming to the IW Story festival and Stories in Schools. My favourites now include Kes Gay, who wrote the Oi Frog series and books by Onjali Rauf (The great foodbank heist) and Isle of Wight author Kieran Larwood of Podkin fame.
Lottie Begg I hopped aboard this year (2025)—and it already feels like I’ve been part of the adventure forever! I’m the ideas-magnet and mischief-maker for all things programming and publicity. If it involves dreaming up events, cheering on authors, or shouting about stories from the rooftops, I’m probably in the middle of it. Even though I’m a newbie, sneaking a peek at last year’s storytelling sessions—kids absolutely buzzing as they created their own characters—was pure magic. I can’t wait to help make moments like that happen again. Three words that sum up the festival for me are - Joy-packed • Imaginative • Inspirational I would love to see a giant poetry picnic, a few mythical creatures (dragons totally allowed), and maybe a surprise visit from one of my favourite illustrators in future festivals. Right now I’m loving Rob Biddulph, Lauren Child, and Julia Donaldson—each of them makes the impossible feel wonderfully real.
Nigel Cox I became involved with the IW Story Festival when my wife and I retired to the Island in the summer of 2024. My roles on the committee are to help with the planning and general running of the February Half Term Festival and the Summer Term Stories in Schools outreach programme. As an English teacher and librarian for over forty years I hope to be able to contribute some insights into the world of education as well as sharing my knowledge of children’s books. I’m happy to do anything from setting out chairs and driving our visiting authors between venues to helping to find writers to appear at our events and keeping my ear to the ground for interesting social media content. My highlights from last year’s festivals were watching Kate Wakeling enthusing primary school children with her delight in words and rhythm with her performance of poems from her award-winning collections Moon Juice, Cloud Soup and There’s a Dinosaur at the Bus Stop. In February, I loved Alex MIlway’s high energy presentation of his Hotel Flamingo series – a perfectly balanced hour of reading, drawing, singing and dancing! The festival in three words: positivity, creativity and inspiravity. (Yes, I know the last one isn’t a real word but it rhymes and shouldn’t it be one?) In the future, I’d love there to be even more poets at the festival and for us to be able to continue to tempt some big-name writers over to our beautiful island. Are you listening Katherine Rundell, Cressida Cowell, Onjali Raύf, Lauren Child, Frances Hardinge, Hilary McKay, Tom Palmer, Eoin Colfer, Katya Balen…? My favourite children’s authors? As a child: Tove Jansson, for her Moomin books; Michael Bond for Paddington, C.S. Lewis for The Chronicles of Narnia, Anthony Buckeridge for Jennings, Norman Hunter for Professor Branestawm, Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series. As an adult: see the wish list above but also, Michael Morpurgo, Lucy Strange, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Philip Pullman, Season Songs by Ted Hughes, Meg Rosoff, Ruta Sepetys, Jamila Gavin, Mark Haddon, Eva Ibbotson, Anne Fine, Susan Hill, Manon Steffan Ros, Julie Hearn, Eloise Williams, Laura Wood, Robert Swindells… just don’t get an old librarian started!
Katie Churchill As the Social Media and Content Manager for the Isle of Wight Story Festival, I get to sprinkle a bit of storytelling magic across our digital world. I work with brilliant authors and creatives to shape fun, engaging content for our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube audiences, helping bring the festival’s stories to life long before the doors even open. I’m also busy helping to craft our very first festival newsletter and joining as a trustee - from ideas and writing to design, delivery and even the budget planning. It’s all about making stories feel exciting, accessible and interactive for families across the Island… and I absolutely love being part of it.