What do reading and stories mean to you? Well, school pupils from across the borough had a go at giving their feelings on the matter as part of Ealing Book Festival. And you could win tickets to one of the festival’s events as part of our competition.

The 4-day Ealing Book Festival 2025 begins on Thursday 24 April. It is due to feature renowned authors including Hanif Kureishi, Elif Shafak, Andrew O’Hagan, Tracy Chevalier, Roger McGough, Natasha Brown, Abi Daré and Laura Cumming, alongside other events including walking tours and workshops.

For the second year running, the festival has also involved state primary schools across the borough in a children’s poetry and illustration competition. This year, the theme was ‘My story, my future’. A panel of judges have shortlisted 16 of the illustrations and 17 of the poems, which are in with a chance of winning prizes.

“Entries flooded in from across the borough and our judging panel of experts remarked on the fantastic amount of local creativity,” said Catherine Jacquiss, the chair of the festival.

Pupils were shorlisted from local primary schools including Christ the Saviour Church of England, Drayton Manor, Stanhope, Ravenor, Selborne, East Acton and Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls. The winners will be announced during the festival and will then be displayed at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery in Ealing between 25-27 April.

“The Ealing Book Festival exists to promote and celebrate the joy of reading and creative writing across the borough,” said Nadine Thompson, one of the festival’s founders. “The programme for schools and children is a particularly important part of our work. Although we are only in our second year, our programme is proving hugely popular with residents and we are developing strong links with many organisations across the area.”

The line-up of events and authors will include:

• a talk with author Natasha Brown, who won the Foyle’s Fiction Book of the Year in 2021 and who has published a new book Universality, which is a daring exploration of identity, race and the constraints of the narrative form. With ‘razor-sharp satire’, Brown challenges how stories are told and who gets to tell them
• The Huntley Archive, with Lanre Bakare (The Guardian writer and author of We Were There). This talk will look afresh at black cultural history in the 1970s to 90s, including the story of Erica and Jessica Huntley, who founded one of Britain’s first black publishing houses in Ealing
• Simon Pollock, author of I Love Suburbia, who is focusing on the iconic buildings of west London, chaired by Ealing resident and architect Harbinder Birdi
• best-selling local children’s author Sam Copeland. His new fantasy series Alex v Axel is a hilarious case of mistaken identity and our event for 7+ children includes a Battle of the Heroes quiz
• a local authors’ showcase where 20 of the borough’s published authors share an open mic stage, sharing new ideas and making new connections.

Catherine Jaquiss added: “We are delighted to be able to offer such an inspiring programme for book enthusiasts and cultural lovers alike which reflects the diversity of our vibrant borough.”

Competition: win tickets

You can be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to one of the events. Ealing Book Festival is offering Around Ealing readers the chance to win one of 3 pairs of tickets to the Huntley Archive Talk with Lanre Bakare. It is due to be held at the University of West London, in Ealing, on Thursday 24 April at 7.30pm.

To be in with a chance of winning one of these pairs of tickets, you need to correctly answer the below question and email it to aroundealing@ealing.gov.uk before the deadline of 23:59pm on Monday 21 April 2025. Please make sure you use the subject line Ealing Book Festival competition, or your entry might not be counted.

Question: what was the name of the publishing business and bookshop that Eric and Jessica Huntley set up in the late 60s and early 70s to promote black writers?

The winners will be selected, at random, from those entries correctly answering the question, on Tuesday 22 April. Only the winners will be notified. Please see full terms and conditions below.

Terms and conditions

After the deadline has passed (at 23:59pm Monday 21 April), the winners will be digitally selected at random, before being contacted by email on Tuesday 22 April. Only the winners will be notified. Because of the immediacy of the event, if any of the winners do not respond by email by 5pm on Wednesday 23 April 2025, a new winner will be drawn at random instead and awarded the prize. 

Your contact details will be used for the purpose of administering the competition and contacting the winners to notify them of the prize. And, if you are a winner, we may also need to pass your contact details on to the organisation/company/individual that is due to provide you with the prize in order for you to claim it. 

The entry deadline and the random selection of the winner is final and binding in all respects on all entrants. No correspondence will be entered into. 

Entries that do not comply in full with these entry terms and conditions may be disqualified. If a winning entry is disqualified for any reason, the council reserves the right to award the prize to another entrant. 

There is no cash alternative to the prize. The council does not accept any liability on behalf of any third party supplying the prize. Some terms and conditions of the third party supplier may also apply to the prize. 

Entrants will be deemed to have accepted these terms and conditions by entering this competition.