The seventh St Ives Book Jam was described as a “splendid day” thanks to support from community groups and local businesses.

The Hunts Post: Author Matty Long attended the Book Jam event in St IvesAuthor Matty Long attended the Book Jam event in St Ives (Image: Archant)

More than 400 people visited the event held at the St Ives Corn Exchange on June 8.

"It was a splendid day consisting of 15 workshops with more than 400 visitors. It was completely free thanks to the support from several local businesses as well as ACE The Friends of the Corn Exchange and CIC," said Ros Pascoe.

"Everyone had a wonderful time, including all the brilliant presenters. Children were excited to meet such authors and illustrators as The Cambridge Cats - Fitz and Will, Matty Long and Gary Northfield and they were able to handle small animals from Lion Learners," she added.

Book Jam features workshops and reading material to inspire adults and children to celebrate literature and read more.

The Hunts Post: The Lion Leaners attended Book Jam in St IvesThe Lion Leaners attended Book Jam in St Ives (Image: Archant)

The event is organised by ACE and this year's workshop presenters were Matty Long and Elys Dolan.

Matty is an author and illustrator of picture books and children's fiction, originally from Surrey. He graduated from the children's book illustration course at the Cambridge School of Art in 2011. His first book, Super Happy Magic Forest, was published by Oxford University Press and won the Cambridgeshire Libraries' Read It Again! award in 2016.

Elys Dolan is an author and illustrator of books for children. Elys makes books about everything from seagull detectives, capitalist bunny rabbits, weasels plotting world domination, to German goats and marauding doughnuts. Along with her work as an author and illustrator, Elys is a lecturer on the master of arts course in children's book illustration course at the Cambridge School of Art.

INFO: For more details of the day's events and the workshops (booking is open) go to: website www.stivesbookjam.com.