Wainwright Children's Fiction Prize - SHORTLIST for Portly the Otter

‘O bliss! O poop-poop! O my!’ My little book about The Adventures of Portly the Otter - Untold Tales from The Wind in the Willows - has made it onto The Children’s Wainwright Prize Fiction Shortlist 2026!

This book is a bundle of joy and love for the world of the riverbank, illustrated by the incredible Polly Dunbar and published lovingly by Farshore Books. We all believe in the power of stories to connect young people with nature, so today we will all be skipping!

And what an incredible shortlist to be a part of. I wish a hearty congratulations to all my fellow authors and illustrators on the list. The prise is announced in late September, so keep your fingers crossed for us! 🍀🦋

Free Audiobook - Hunt for the Golden Scarab

Are you looking for a summer audiobook for those long car rides with the kids? If you are, then I have some great news.

Apple Books has chosen Hunt for the Golden Scarab for their FREE kids’ audiobooks collection. They are celebrating storytelling and the #NationalYearOfReading2026!

Available in UK & Ireland for a limited time, only on Apple devices. This offer runs from Thursday 16th of July to Tuesday 21st July inclusive, 2026.

Wainwright Prize for Children's Fiction - Longlist for Portly!

Today I am dancing like a wild-wooder! It is with utter joy and delight that I can tell you that THE ADVENTURES OF PORTLY THE OTTER has been longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for children’s fiction. 🦦

I’m so proud of the book Polly Dunbar and I have created along with the amazing team at Farshore Books. I love brave little Portly. It is wonderful to see his adventures recognised in this way.🦦

The Wainwright Prizes honour exceptional nature and conservation writing. There are five categories of prizes which spotlight writing and illustration that celebrates the natural world and inspire readers of all ages to protect it.

The longlist is stuffed with glorious books by excellent authors. If you’re looking for a nature infused read, then look no futher.

The Children’s Wainwright Prize for Fiction

● Tadpole Summer, Catherine Bruton (Nosy Crow)
● The Waters and the Wild, Eilish Fisher, illustrated by David Rooney (Penguin Random House Children’s UK Puffin)
● The Green Kingdom, Cornelia Funke and Tammi Hartung, illustrated by Melissa Castrillón (DK flip)
● The Lone Husky, Hannah Gold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
● The Shell Keepers, Truly Johnston (Chicken House)
● Swanfall, Sophie Kirtley (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
● The Adventures of Portly the Otter: Untold Tales From the Wind in the Willows, M.G. Leonard, illustrated by Polly Dunbar (Farshore, HarperCollins)
● The Danger of Small Things, Caryl Lewis (Simon & Schuster Children’s Books)
● Birdlands, Anthony McGowan, illustrated by Keith Robinson (Rock the Boat, Oneworld Publications)
● The Monsters at the End of the World, Rebecca Orwin, Oriol Vidal (Penguin Random House Children’s UK Puffin)
● Alyssa and the Enchanted Forest, Alexandra Sheppard, illustrated by Bex Glendining (Faber & Faber)
● The Horse Dreamer, Holly Surplice (Chicken House)
● Tree Thing, Piers Torday, illustrated by Matthew Taylor Wilson (Quercus Children’s Books)

#wainwrightprize #storiesthatconnect

Looking back at Hay Festival

M. G. Leonard at Hay Festival 2026

I really enjoyed the Hay Festival this year. It has always been one of my favourite literary festivals. I usually bring my family with me to it. There are so many great events for young people, and things to do in the surrounding countryside.

This year I had the honour of hosting two events, one with the lovely lexicographer, Susie Dent, and the other with bestselling author Juno Dawson. These talks were a lot of fun because I got to indulge my inner fan girl and have all my questions answered. I even got to teach Susie Dent something - that a woodlouse is a crustacean - which felt amazing because she took me to school with her wisdom about words.

The main reason I was there, was to deliver my Time Keys talk, taking a marquee full of readers back to Ancient Rome and into the Colosseum for fun and games to celebrate the third book in the time travelling series - The Impossible Gladiator. I was glad that my event was at 11am, because the festival took place during the first heatwave of the year. By the time I was on stage it was already unbearably hot. You can see me slowly melting in the pictures!

I want to thank everyone in the two hour signing queue for their patience and good temper. It was a trying temperature, but there were lots of smiles, and it was wonderful to meet so many eager readers.

I ended the weekend taking a swim in the river Wye to cool down.

The Annual RHS Picnic and Portly the Otter at Wisley

Saturday 4th July was the annual RHS Picnic. This year, to celebrate The Wind in the Willows, I took part in an extra special event, introducing family content creators to my book The Adventures of Portly the Otter.

I did The Wind in the Willows trail, had a delicious picnic and then did a public reading and signing in the garden centre book shop.

It was a really lovely day. I saw ducklings, brown trout, a heron and lots of gorgeous planting, but the best bit was meeting the children who are so creative and such brilliant readers and nature enthusiasts.

I must thank Maddy, my publicist, and the wonderful Ruth and Sam from RHS Wisley who all organised the day and took such good care of us.

Appearance on Valhalla Conversations Podcast

It was my great delight to talk to Becky Hill of the Valhalla Conversations podcast about The Legend of Viking Thunder. It’s not often you get to nerd out about the research you’ve done for a book when you’re an author of children’s books. I really enjoyed this chat and the opportunity to enthuse about Viking times with someone who loves the period as much as I do.

If you like listening to a history ramble about Norse mythology, Viking times and writing adventures for young people, then I think you’ll like this episode.

Wonderful World Book Day 2026

World Book Day is such a wonderful celebration of reading books. I spent the week visiting schools all over the country, talking to young readers, conducting creative writing workshops and sharing my tips for creating stories. It is always a joyful time and so inspiring to hear the ideas that young people are harbouring in their marvellous heads.

I like to celebrate all the creative costumes that people have put together when dressing up as characters from my books. To let the children know that I have seen them, I post theire pictures here in an annual blogpost. This is the 2026 gallery of this years heroes who have sent me their pictures. I cannot tell you what a joy it is to see you all.

Thank you to all who have sent pictures. If your child would like to be added to this gallery, you can email a picture to info@mgleonard.com . If you want me to see the picture but don’t want me to add it to the gallery, please say so in your email. If at any time you wish me to remove a picture of your child, please email and make the request and it will be taken down immediately.

The Funday Times is back for 1 Week Only!

To celebrate the National Year of Reading, The Sunday Times has brought back the Funday Times for one week only!

To my great delight, I was invited to be a part of it. I have contributed one of Portly the Otter’s adventures to the supplement.

I used to love the Funday Times when I was a kid, and so, to find my name on the cover of an edition in 2026 is surreal and wonderful.

My story inside is accompanied by Polly Dunbar’s beautiful illustrations. I hope children and families enjoy reading it.

Ten Years! It's my author anniversary!

Image credit: Rankin 2026

Ten years ago - this week - Beetle Boy crawled into bookshops.

The past decade has been the most creative of my life. I’ve travelled extensively and met the loveliest people, authors, illustrators, editors, PRs, booksellers, teachers, librarians, event planners, as well as readers young and old.

I’ve sold over a millions books in the United Kingdom which I find mind boggling. If you have supported me in any way over the years, whether it be by recommending my books, writing reviews, borrowing them from the library, or buying them in a bookshop, I want to thank you. An author’s life is a precarious one, with no safety net except the kindness of story-lovers. It can play havock with your head and your bank balance. The fact that I am still producing books that people want to read is a marvel to me, and one I hope won’t end, ever. I love what I do.

To mark the 10 year milestone, I took part in Rankin Live and had my portrait taken by one of my favourite photographers. It was a lot of fun.

Image credit: Rankin 2026

Image credit: Rankin 2026

Cover Reveal for Book Four in the Time Keys Series

Ta Da! Check out this stunning cover from Manuel Sumberac for ATTACK OF THE SEA DOGS, a Tudor time travel adventure where our heroes, Sim, Jeopardy and Nelson, climb aboard Sir Francis Drake’s ship Elizabeth Bonaventure and find themselves at war with Spain!

You can find an extract from the fourth Time Keys story at the back of THE IMPOSSIBLE GLADIATOR.

ATTACK OF THE SEA DOGS will be published 17 September 2026.

From 7am on Tuesday 17 Feb until 23.59 Friday 20th February Waterstones are running a special online offer. You can get 25% off RRP if you enter FEB26 at the checkout. The offer is exclusively available on the Waterstones website and the Waterstones app and available to all customers.

2026 is the National Year of Reading

2026 is the National Year of Reading! I love reading. It’s one of my favourite things to do, so I’m proud to be supporting the campaign to GO ALL IN and read a book.

I thought about ways to promote reading and after a few requests from teachers, I’ve made a short video to play at home or in classrooms to encourage young people to pick up a book and read. You can watch it below or in YouTube.

Please share the link and feel free to use it as you see fit.

10th Anniversary Edition of Beetle Boy coming in 2026 with additional material

“Funny, exciting and genuinely eccentric”

— Author PHILIP REEVE

Beetle Boy was first published in 2016. Can you believe that that was ten years ago?

To celebrate Beetle Boy’s tenth anniversary, Chicken House are publishing a special edition of the book with a refreshed cover and featuring new material.

The anniversary edition will be available from June 2026 to coincide with National Insect Week.

It will feature an introduction from me and a never seen before prologue which I was originally asked to cut from the book. The prologue answers the often asked question: how did the beetles came to colonise Mug Mountain.

Cover art and all internal illustrations by artist Julia Sarda

If you haven’t read it, Beetle Boy is wonderfully weird and bursting with brilliant beetles that will charm you into an interest in entomology. You can learn more about the Beetle Trilogy here.

Beetle Boy is an international bestseller, translated into forty languages, and it won the prestigious Branford Boase Award in 2017 for ‘outstanding first novel by a first-time writer of a book for young people’.

The Adventures of Portly the Otter is chosen as one of ten Titles not to miss in March 2026

The Bookseller, Children’s Previews, December 2025

When I opened my copy of the Bookseller today, I discovered that The Adventures of Portly the Otter was being recommended as one of the ten titles not to miss in March 2026 by journalist Charlotte Eyre.

The review is lovely and I’m very grateful as I cannot wait for readers to meet Portly. Every author hopes their stories will find their readers, and reviews like this really help.

Waterstones roundup of Books You Need to Read in 2026

I was further excited to find Portly’s adventures selected by Waterstones in their round-up of books that you NEED to read in 2026. You can read the full list here.

What’s your favourite Roald Dahl book? BBC Radio 5Live interview

Roald Dahl with his dogs

I was delighted to be invited onto Tony LIvesey’s Radio show, on BBC 5LIve, to talk about Roald Dahl with Jenny Worton (Artistic Director of the Roald Dahl Story Company). We discussed the evergreen appeal of Roald Dahl’s stories and his greatest books, as well as celebrating the opening of the new Roald Dahl theatre show, The BFG at the RSC.

LISTEN BELOW

illustration from George’s Marvellous Medicine by Quentin Blake