The Town Crier's House – 2021

Events related to Frances Hardinge and her work.

2021 brought its share of lockdowns and dark times, and a lot of events were still online. Aside from many virtual school visits, Frances was able to appear at the following:

Staffordshire Libraries Young Teen Fiction Award (YTF) Book Chat

10th February

This was a very entertaining joint virtual event with Lauren James, who was discussing her book The Deep Sea Duke while Frances talked about her equally aquatic Deeplight. It was perhaps appropriate, therefore, that Frances had created a handmade 'steampunk submarine' interior to appear behind her during video calls. (Frances had no excuse for this, but we all reacted to the boredom of lockdown in different ways.)

ConFusion (Virtual Eastercon)

2nd–5th March

During the four-day virtual convention, Frances hosted a kaffeeklatsch (where the virtual nature of the event thwarted her policy of giving the attendees biscuits). She also appeared on several panels – Beyond the Wardrobe: Modern Children's SFF, Virtual Escapes: Travelling During Lockdown, and Brave New Words.

Neev Virtual Festival

8th April

As part of the Neev Festival, Frances took part in an Author Interaction session, answering questions from the organisers and audience.

Warwickshire Secondary Book Award Ceremony

1st July

This was an entertaining virtual event with fellow finalists Kerry Drewery, Sarah Hagger-Holt, Tom Mitchell, Louisa Reid, and Elizabeth Wein. Congratulations to Kerry Drewery, who won the prize with The Last Paper Crane! (The only problem was that Frances encountered a serious technical glitch that prevented her being able to unmute for most of the session. This was only solved at the very end, which meant that she had to cram her speech into about three minutes, by the end of which she was talking so fast she was virtually whirring.)

Online event for MA in Writing for Young People

19th October

Alexia Casale interviewed Frances about her worldbuilding, language, imagery, and names, as a virtual event for the MAWYP course at Bath Spa University.