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Award-winning children’s author will be special guest at Birdland

A bestselling writer of children’s books such as Beetle Boy and the Adventures on Trains series will make a special visit to Birdland Park & Gardens during February half term.

M.G. Leonard, who is also author of popular wildlife detective series The Twitchers, will be at the Gloucestershire attraction for a signing of her books Twitch and Spark on Monday, February 20, ahead of the launch of her new book Clutch.

Maya has made up stories ever since she was a little girl, but she didn’t write them down because adults dismissed them as lies or tall tales. Unperturbed, she continued to create stories into adulthood and she burst into bookshops with her quirky debut Beetle Boy in 2016.

The success of her beetle books has led to her becoming a vice president of the insect charity Buglife and she has appeared with her beetles on Countryfile, Blue Peter, Springwatch Unsprung and Sky News, among others.

Her books have won many awards, including the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year 2021, British Book Awards and Book of the Year 2021 – Children’s fiction. She has been nominated three times for British literary award the Carnegie Medal and also shortlisted for an Edgar Award, named after American author Edgar Allan Poe.

Maya lives in Brighton with her husband and her two sons, a dog called Nell, Kasper the cat and a tank of exotic beetles. She spent her early career in the music industry running Setanta Records, an independent record label, and managing bands, most notably The Divine Comedy.

After leaving the music industry she trained as an actor, dabbling in directing and producing as well as performing, before becoming a digital producer for Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and Harry Potter West End.

Maya is one of the founding authors of #Authors4Oceans, with Lauren St John, campaigning to reduce single-use plastics.

She will be at Birdland on Monday, February 20, as part of the attraction’s two-week celebration of bird-watching from February 11-26. Copies of her books Twitch and Spark will be available to buy in the shop from February 11.
BOOK TICKETS for Monday, February 20 or any other half term date, visit www.birdland.co.uk