Four award-winning authors of young-adult fiction discuss how writers tackle some of the life and death issues when writing for the young. Patrick Ness is author of the Chaos Walking trilogy, which explores love and war, truth and betrayal. He won the 2011 Carnegie medal for Monsters of Men and is also author of A Monster Calls, a story of love and death completed from an idea left by the late Siobhan Dowd.

He discusses the ambitiousness of young-adult fiction with Tim Bowler – also a former Carnegie Medal winner for River Boy and the author of books with powerful themes of society and spirituality including Starseeker,  Apocalypse, Frozen Fire, Bloodchild, Buried Thunder the groundbreaking Blade series, and a new novel Sea of Whispers due out in October – and with Sally Nicholls, author of the life-affirming, tear-jerking Branford Boase winner Ways to Live Forever and of a new historical novel set at the time of the Black Death, All Fall Down. They are also joined by Moira Young, author of the Costa prizewinning debut Blood Red Road, about survival in lawless future. They will be chaired by 19-year-old English student Rebecca Clee.

This event is sponsored by Critchleys.