The Island of Brilliant!
Nadia Shireen and Frank Cottrell Boyce have been shipwrecked on the Island of Brilliant with nothing but a pair of hammocks, a pile of children’s books and the world’s greatest ukulele band (The Ukulele Uff Trio) to keep them going. Everyone wants the best for their children. Everyone should know that reading for pleasure not only increases educational attainment but also helps build happiness and resilience. If you’re going to read for pleasure you need choice. Nadia and Frank will be chatting about what’s new and brilliant in children’s writing with the help of visitors to the island and reviews delivered via sea-shell from the doyen of children’s literature critics, Emily Drabble from Book Trust. Music: The Ukulele Uff Trio Producer: Geoff Bird
Episodes
![Jonny Vegas' Favourite Character](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
7 days ago
Jonny Vegas' Favourite Character
7 days ago
7 days ago
Nadia and Frank continue in their efforts to work out who their own favourite character from children's books is by asking other people who theirs is in the hope it'll give them inspiration. Fat chance, it takes them three hours to decide which side of their hammocks to get out of in the morning - but still, you never know. Today it's the turn of Jonny Vegas to recall his happy childhood days at Thatto Heath public library, pestering the librarians for new books featuring... well you'll just have to use your noggin and have a listen to find out.
![Sophy Henn (& A Coronation)](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Tuesday Jul 02, 2024
Sophy Henn (& A Coronation)
Tuesday Jul 02, 2024
Tuesday Jul 02, 2024
A HUGE day on the island as our Frank becomes the new children's laureate! It's been quite the journey from Coronation Street to coronation, but nobody deserves it more. Everyone's delighted though he does seem to want to rub our noses in it just a touch so let's see how long that lasts. It could be a long two years.
Nadia and Frank are joined by the glorious wonder that is Sophy Henn who talks brilliantly about the joy of facts, her circuitous route to the world of children's books - and why some books just wouldn't be quite the same without sugary sweets to light their spark.
![Julia Donaldson](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Saturday Jun 01, 2024
Julia Donaldson
Saturday Jun 01, 2024
Saturday Jun 01, 2024
Nadia's been at the papaya juice again, only this time she SWALLOWED THE WORM! 🪱Thus ensues a fever dream in which she imagines her and Frank interviewing JULIA flippin' DONALDSON at @brightfest (never gonna happen obvs).. Frank's efforts to bring Nadia down from her brain-worm trip fail as he gets cross about not being Adam Kay - the only remedy is a blast of the St Trinians Battle Cry. Thank goodness Emily Drabble of Booktrust is on hand to bring everyone back to earth. Or sand.
![Julie's Favourite Character](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Friday May 24, 2024
Julie's Favourite Character
Friday May 24, 2024
Friday May 24, 2024
Who's your favourite character from children's books? Just the question Frank and Nadia have been asking themselves, and to help prompt them they're going to be asking some friendly folk to name theirs. First up is one of the funniest, warmest and most talented women you could hope to meet, that legend of stage and screen, the Accrington Thunderbolt herself, Julie Hesmondhalgh!!!!
![Rob Biddulph](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Rob Biddulph
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Wednesday May 01, 2024
Well we've had some talented coves wash up in our coves but never a world record holder, not until now that is. Rob 'Draw With Rob' Biddulph is a triple-threat cubed: a Youtube sensation, a writer, illustrator and not least a snack-mongering champion-of-champions. He tells Nadia and Frank all about his life before children's books, working for the NME and The Observer among others, and how happy he is to have found his true calling as a storyteller for children - and that, as Frank says, really is something to be.. EMily Drabble from Booktrust is back with more picks from the May bookshelves, and Nadia breaks Frank's heart by telling him in no uncertain terms that there are occasions she just needs a bit of me-that-means-not-you time.
![Elle McNicoll](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Monday Apr 01, 2024
Elle McNicoll
Monday Apr 01, 2024
Monday Apr 01, 2024
GET OUT OF THE WATER!! Sharks spell trouble, unless of course they're in the employ of the one and only Elle McNicoll, who's heading to the island on the back of one with snacks aplenty and aplenty to say about her writing life. Since making a huge splash with 'A Kind of Spark' Elle has established herself as one of the most exciting writers back in Blighty, and a brilliant advocate for better representation of neurodiversity in children's books. Frank and Nadia are mustard-keen to hear about her latest, 'Keedie' that once again takes us to the Scottish streets of Juniper.
![M.G. Leonard](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Friday Mar 01, 2024
M.G. Leonard
Friday Mar 01, 2024
Friday Mar 01, 2024
I hear that whistle blowing - the beautiful sound of a train emerging from beneath the waves with the fabulous M.G. Leonard aboard, ready to scatter joy with her fabulous snack choices and fascinating insights into her seemingly endless list of endlessly brilliant books - including Beetle Boy, the Adventures on Trains series and The Twitchers books. She's been translated into over forty languages but sadly, as yet, not the native language of the Island of Brilliant. Perhaps that's about to change.
![Christopher Edge](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Thursday Feb 01, 2024
Christopher Edge
Thursday Feb 01, 2024
Thursday Feb 01, 2024
Nadia has made the most of her extended Christmas break, but Frank’s been sleeping it off. For a month. He needs to get his act together sharpish, though, because there is a rip in the space time continuum just above one of the palm trees, and Christopher Edge, author of bestseller ‘The Escape Room’ and the forthcoming ‘Black Hole Cinema Club’, is hurtling towards the island at the speed of light, all the way from Eccles. Before he arrives Frank and Nadia discuss Truckers by Terry Pratchett and new wonder-book ‘The Final Year’ by Matt Goodfellow.
Emily Drabble from Booktrust is back with her pick of the crop of new children’s books, this month featuring:
The Pandas Who Promised by Rachel Bright and Jim Field published by Hachette
Time Travellers: Adventure Calling by Sufiya Ahmed published by Little Tiger
Fright Bite by Jennifer Killick published by Farshore
Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan published by Andersen
Look Out! Hungry Lion by Paul Delaney published by Harper Collins
![Christmas Special with Alex T. Smith](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Thursday Dec 14, 2023
Christmas Special with Alex T. Smith
Thursday Dec 14, 2023
Thursday Dec 14, 2023
It's not easy turning a tropical island into a festive grotto but yule surely agree we've done our level best, with recommendations for books of the year from some of the most exciting names in children's books, including previous visitors to these shores Katherine Rundell and Maisie Chan. We also have a silver-lamé-bedecked Alex T Smith talking Nutcrackers and all things festive. We kick things off, though, with a tribute to that giant of a man Benjamin Zephaniah, whose body of work included some of the greatest poems for children of recent times - including the immortal hymn to a veggie Christmas, Talking Turkeys. This one's for you, BZ.
![J.T. Williams](https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/16339028/image0_rns5dm_300x300.jpeg)
Friday Dec 01, 2023
J.T. Williams
Friday Dec 01, 2023
Friday Dec 01, 2023
J.T. Williams is the author of the incredible Lizzie and Belle Mysteries, featuring two girls who spend their time solving mysteries in 19th Century London - who better to come along to the island to try and solve the great mystery of the ages: why can't Frank get the name of the Ukelele Uff trio right? Though she's going to need more time to crack that particular conundrum, J.T. is more than up to the job of keeping Nadia and Frank enraptured with her tales of the real people Lizzie and Belle are based upon. Another strike-out on the snack front though, according to a rather ungrateful Nadia Shireen at least.
Emily Drabble is back with reviews of a fresh batch of new titles:
The Den, Keith Gray Barrington Stoke
The Very Special Thing, Alex Willmore, Tate publishing
The Wild, Yuval Zommer, OUP
When The Sky Falls, Phil Earle
The Nutcracker, Alex T. Smith