Gruffalo Granny storytelling events come to Forestry England forests this October half term

Notes to Editor

1. Forestry England manages and cares for the nation’s 1,500 woods and forests, with over 326 million visits in 2025/26. We use our scale and expertise to grow and care for the nation’s forests for this generation and the next. We are continuing the work we have already started to make the nation’s forests resilient to climate change and by 2026 we will:   

• create at least 6,000 more hectares where we integrate wilding activities in our productive forests.
• increase the diversity of visitors to the nation’s forests and have one million hours of high-quality volunteer time given to the nation’s forests.
• plant at least 2,000 hectares of new, high-quality woodlands.

For more information visit forestryengland.uk. Forestry England is an agency of the Forestry Commission.

2. Macmillan Children’s Books is a leading UK children’s publisher with over 150 years of history. We publish a wide range of children’s books, from classic heritage titles like Alice in Wonderland and The Jungle Book to future classics such as InvestiGators and You Are A Champion by Marcus Rashford. 

We are the number one picture book publisher, and are proud to publish groundbreaking writers and illustrators including Julia Donaldson, Axel Scheffler and Rod Campbell. Our imprints include Two Hoots for fresh new picture book talent, Campbell for innovative board books, Rocket Fox for commercial non-fiction, Kingfisher for illustrated non-fiction and First Ink for YA.

3. Julia Donaldson has written some of the world’s best-loved children’s books of the last 30  years, including bestselling modern classic The Gruffalo, which has been translated into 119  languages and dialects, and its sequel The Gruffalo’s Child. Her other books include Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale and The Highway Rat, all illustrated by Axel Scheffler, The Hospital Dog and Gozzle, illustrated by Sara Ogilvie, and the hugely successful  What the Ladybird Heard adventures, illustrated by Lydia Monks. Julia also writes fiction, including the Princess Mirror-Belle series, as well as poems, plays and songs – and her  brilliant live shows are always in demand. She was the UK Children’s Laureate 2011-13 and  has been honoured with a Damehood for Services to Literature. Julia lives in West Sussex. 
4. Axel Scheffler was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1957. He studied history of art in Hamburg,  before moving to the United Kingdom to study illustration at Bath Academy of Art in 1982.  Since then he has worked as a freelance illustrator in London. He is best known for the children's books he has illustrated through his partnership with author, Julia Donaldson. Their  first book together A Squash and a Squeeze was published in 1993 and has sold 2.2 million  copies worldwide. The duo then went on to create The Gruffalo, which has sold over 19 million  copies, in 119 languages and dialects. He lives in London. 

Participating Forestry England sites: