Fantasy literature is renowned for bringing ancient
civilisations and contemporary fiction together. You only have to think of the
success of Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and Kate O’Hearn’s Pegasus series to
know that the classics still have a relevance for today’s young readers. It was
with this in mind that the Kimbookworms ventured to Oxford to explore how
ancient myths and histories have inspired our favourite literary worlds.
The Iris Festival of Imagined Worlds offered a chance to
meet authors and illustrators and to walk through different fictional worlds
with workshops and activities based on Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lewis Carroll and
J.K. Rowling. We were able to see costumes from the Lord of the Rings films,
handle ancient artefacts from the Ashmolean Museum, write in Elvish and even
have our futures read with some tea leaf divination! The visit finished with a
chance to take tea in the Alice in Wonderland café and make some booky purchases.
The chance to dress up as characters from our favourite
fictional worlds couldn’t be missed either. Here are some of the Kimbookworms
preparing for our journey with some wizarding magic.
