Nadiya Hussain at Bath Children’s Literature Festival

As the mother of a barking mad 5 year old, I was very excited to see that Nadiya Hussain was appearing at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival.

We caught the train to Bath and settled in to the Aix-en-Provence room at the Guildhall amidst an audience of mixed ages, all swept up in an air of sugar-fuelled anticipation. At last Nadiya took to the stage. Although visibly nervous at first, she soon relaxed and was an engaging and amusing interviewee.

The session took the form of a Q and A, followed by a demonstration of one of the recipes from the book Nadiya was there to promote, Bake Me A Festive Story.

This was an event better suited to children slightly older than my daughter, whose attention drifted after a while, although she did enjoy watching the VT of Nadiya reading a story and the baking demonstration. I found Nadiya very easy to watch and listen to, and she was generous with anecdotes, both of her family life and of her experience on the Bake Off.

After the demonstration, there was an opportunity for the audience to ask questions, most of which were more interesting and original than those posed by the official interviewer, who I felt sadly failed to draw the best out of her subject.

We chose to stay and queue to have our book signed after the event and, in fact, this was the highlight. Nadiya was encouraging and charming with my rather shy but very lovely daughter and signed her book while giving her a confidence boost which kept her smiling all through the next day, which we spent covered in sugar and having fun trying some of the recipes and reading their accompanying stories.

We both enjoyed the event, and the concept of recipes (both sweet and savoury) mixed with stories has proved very popular with the whole family- both those who love to bake and those who love to eat the products of the baking frenzy!

 

See more about Bath Festivals here

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