Emirates Airline Festival Of Literature Announces Whizzpopping Poppyrot

Fabulous fun and frivolity for all the family is guaranteed at the 2020 Emirates Airline Festival (4-9 February). From exploring the universe, to saving the planet; whizzpopping poppyrot to frobscottling facts of Roald Dahl; plus an unmissable finale to raise funds for child refugees, it’s happening at the Emirates LitFest in one action-packed weekend!

Revel in Roald Dahl’s Rotsome and Repulsant Words with Fiona Ross and Sara-Jane Arbury, who’ll be bringing oodles of foulsome fun with wacky word games, mouth manglers, shouting matches and whizzpopping poppyrot as well as some frobscottling facts. Roald Dahl’s anarchic words lets children discover etymologies, definitions, and fascinating language facts along the way.

Children can take a grand tour of the solar system with space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, inspiring new generations of astronauts, engineers and scientists with her infectious enthusiasm. She will encourage the audience to reach for the stars and find out what’s beyond the final frontier at her lively, fun session.

The amazing ways the human and animal worlds connect will be revealed with author and storyteller Christopher Lloyd, who offers an entertaining look at how slime moulds can help navigate a maze, how rats tickle and laugh out loud, how bees vote in bee elections, and lots more.

Ross Collins brings quirky drawings of animals of all sorts, shapes and sizes or while drawing fun is on offer with Kate Hindley, the illustrator of The Royal Rabbits of London series, and author Santa Montefiore who’ll tell how even the smallest rabbit can be a hero with luck, a moist carrot, a wet nose and a slice of mad courage!

Five fun ways to save the world are on offer with conservation crusading authors who’ll share their ideas on how to protect the planet and make the world of tomorrow one we want to live in. Martin Kiszko, the “UK’s Green poet”, explores what it means to be green and how to save the planet through the power of poetry. Vegan YouTube sensations BOSH!, Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, shares how to live the vegan life. Jeannie Baker, the superstar of Australian children’s literature, will discuss the environmental themes of her beloved books and show her short film Where the Forest Meets the Sea. Poet Harry Baker and musician Chris Read will bring their optimistic comedy-rap-jazz take on conservation, and songs of hope for the planet. Kiszko also uses poetry to get people talking and thinking about all things green in his solo session, while Jeannie Baker offers insight into her astonishing artistic techniques enabling a look at the world with fresh eyes.

As always, there are story-tellers galore. Onjali Q. Raúf, the author of the award-winning book The Boy at the Back of the Class, returns with an equally thought-provoking book, The Star Outside my Window. Nadiya Hussain’s latest picture book, My Monster and Me, reassures younger children who feel anxious in a comforting and charming way. Zanib Mian, the creator of Planet Omar, brings more tales of the wonderful Omar, the Accidental Trouble Magnet, and shows why being different is a very positive thing. Feelings of not fitting in are also addressed by Tamsin Winter in her funny, heart-warming and moving book Jemima Small Versus the Universe. Tamsin is a previous winner of the Festival’s Montegrappa Writing Prize, as is Lucy Strange, the bestselling author of The Secret of Nightingale Wood, who returns to Dubai with her latest gripping novel, Our Castle by the Sea.

Young festival visitors can meet Lizard and Toad and hear about their wadi adventures with Festival favourite Julia Johnson. Rachel Hamilton brings a tale of The Falcon Who Found His Wings, and children will be delighted by one of Dubai’s best-known entertainers, Magic Phil conjuring up amazing magical marvels and super colourful storytelling.

Fans of YA fiction can explore The world of 5fingers with Joshua Raven, where characters fight for freedom against an enemy with a multitude of faces. Fantasy writer Alwyn Hamilton’s Rebel of the Sands series is an epic story of swirling desert sands, with adventure and danger always close at hand while Rehan Khan offers a quest to locate a fabled suit of armour in sixteenth-century Istanbul. Greek Mythology as you’ve never seen it before is presented by Maz Evans, with an interactive theatre presentation based on her Who Let the Gods Out series.

The Festival will be brought to a close with an extravaganza of music, poetry and readings in support of Dubai Cares’ programmes for child refugees across the region, featuring exceptional performances from the best of the Festival’s renowned poets and writers and  featuring the premiere of a song composed to celebrate the extraordinary story of refugee Nujeen Mustafa – Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo. All proceeds will go to Dubai Cares and tickets are priced from AED 99 to AED 799.

Big names taking part in the Festival Finale include:

• Bettany Hughes; Historian, writer and TV presenter.
• Cecilia McDowall; award-winning Oxford composer whose distinctive style speaks directly to listeners, instrumentalists and singers alike.
• Chris Read; award-winning jazz musician and songwriter.
• Farah Chamma; Dubai-born Palestinian writer and performer whose work is mainly focused on multilingual poetry performances.
• Harry Baker; World Poetry Slam Champion.
• Hazzaa AlMansoori; the first Emirati to travel to space.
• Kevin Crossley-Holland; prize-winning poet who has worked with acclaimed composers, including Cecilia McDowall with The Girl from Aleppo.
• Markus Zusak; the international bestselling author of six novels, including The Book Thief.
• Nujeen Mustafa; the inspiration for The Girl From Aleppo. Aged 16, with her sister, Nujeen braved inconceivable odds to travel in her wheelchair from Syria in search of a new life.
• Onjali Q. Raúf; author of novel The Boy at the Back of the Class, a story inspired by a Syrian mother and baby she met in a Calais refugee camp which portrays the refugee crisis through the eyes of a child.
• Ziauddin and Toor Pekai Yousafzai; best known as the parents of Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The festival also has an exciting range of children’s workshops including illustration, journalism, story-writing classes and an acting skills workshop

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature takes place from 4-9 February 2020 and is held with Founding Partners Emirates Airline and the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated authority for heritage, arts, and culture, and under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

All events take place at the InterContinental, Dubai Festival City, for further details and to book tickets, visit http://www.emirateslitfest.com/shop

More information about the Emirates Literature Foundation can be found online and year-round news about #EmiratesLitFest is available on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.