My Favourite Childhood Book, British Library

Everyone has at least one book from their childhood that has stuck with them, whose words and pictures captured their imagination at a tender age and never let go. The British Library and The Folio Society are celebrating those very stories in My Favourite Childhood Book, a panel discussion linked to their current Picture This exhibition that promises to take you on a joyous, heart-warming trip back in time.

Three top award-winning writer-illustrators for children will join the Guardian’s children’s books editor Julia Eccleshare to discuss the stories that enchanted them when they were little’uns and perhaps even inspired them to create their own. Lauren Child has found huge success in recent years as the author and unmistakeable illustrator of the adorable Charlie and Lola series, as well as the Clarice Bean and Ruby Redfort books for older kids. Ian Beck has been an established illustrator since the 1980s and is a prolific writer and illustrator of his own books as well – over 75 of them – including picture books Home Before Dark and Alone in the Woods. And Laura Dockrill is one of children’s literature’s brightest young things. Feted by everyone from The Times to Elle magazine as one to watch, the author, illustrator and performance poet has recently launched her Darcy Burdock series to great applause. Enjoyably off-the-wall and infectiously passionate, she is straight-talking, funny and worth every penny.

So, three writer-illustrators from three separate generations: their favourite childhood reads are likely to be wildly different. Whether they'll be famous classics or undiscovered gems, cosy tales of talking animals or swashbuckling adventures, fantasy stories of magic and myth or gritty portraits of war and hardship, who knows? Discussions about what makes a memorable and enduring children's book could veer from Beatrix Potter to Enid Blyton, from C. S. Lewis to Roald Dahl, and to everyone in between, so expect an evening of lively conversation, with a healthy dose of nostalgia thrown in.

tickets £7.50

Where: The British Library, 

How to get there: King's Cross tube station