The 2026 Awards

The 2026 Awards

2026 Judges and shortlist

John Dougherty (Chair) is the award-winning author of over thirty books for children, including fiction, picture-books, poetry, and educational reading scheme content. From 2013-2015, John chaired the Society of Authors’ Children’s Writers & Illustrators Group. He was one of the first Patrons of Reading in the UK and is a Founding Patron of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival. A resident of Stroud since 2004, John has been involved with the Stroud Book Festival since its inception and is a fervent supporter of, and campaigner for, a strong public library service.

I’ve been a lover of libraries for longer than I can remember. Without them, my childhood reading habit would have been impossible to sustain, and as a parent and former teacher I believe they’re an essential public service – the evidence for the importance of a strong Reading for Pleasure habit in a child’s life is incontrovertible, and libraries are by far the best way of sustaining and nurturing that. Not that libraries are only for children; their value to the communities they serve is immeasurable, and it’s been heart-breaking to see them undervalued and downgraded over the last decade or so. 

Like so many of my colleagues, I feel certain that I wouldn’t be a writer now if not for libraries. They’ve helped to shape and broaden my reading, introduced me to most of the authors who have challenged and influenced my own work, and given me access to a broader range of literature than I could otherwise have discovered on my own. I owe them, and the people who work in them, an enormous debt.

Cheltenham born author, Jim O’Sullivan‘s early career focussed on urban regeneration in some of London’s poorest neighbourhoods. The pivot into a writing career was a long held dream finally fulfilled, and both his novels have been widely acclaimed. Fascinated by history’s nooks and crannies, Jim’s passion is to bring to life the stories of those overlooked or forgotten.

Libraries have given me access to the world’s imagination for more years than I care to remember. But it doesn’t just end at books. When my Dad was working nights, and silence at home was the order of the day, I spent hours studying for my O and A levels in my local library. Libraries are there for everyone. From reading to studying to staying warm to accessing the internet to a calm space. Libraries are brilliant. We should cherish them.

Dr Rachel Sargeant is an author of suspense fiction, including the Gloucestershire Crime Series. She holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham and is a judge for the Henshaw Press Short Story Competitions.

As a chartered librarian, she oversaw the design of two Gloucestershire school libraries and implemented study skills and reading for pleasure initiatives. Before moving to Gloucester, she taught English at a university in Germany. Previously, she ran a group of libraries and the mobile service in the London Borough of Bromley, led a lifelong learning project for Shropshire Libraries, and set up the Voices from Europe Festival, the forerunner to the Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival.

Thanks to a flaky 1970s experiment at my primary school that restricted decoding capability to a non-standard alphabet and accompanying reading scheme, I couldn’t read until I was eight and then only with difficulty. Reading remained a chore throughout my childhood. Even a trip to the library wasn’t the transformative experience I’ve heard other writers speak of. The ranks of book spines intimidated me, and the only words of welcome from the lady at the desk that I absorbed were about overdue charges. I grabbed the one book that was displayed with the cover showing. For the three weeks that All about Frogs, Toads and Newts was in my possession I barely touched the sacred pages, and I breathed a sigh of relief when it was returned to the library intact and on time.

Several decades later, and despite frankly tragic cuts to staffing and book funds, libraries have become vibrant places, with beautiful face-on displays and initiatives aimed at meeting the educational, informational and recreational needs and wants of diverse communities.

I was an adult before I found a love of reading for pleasure and made books my career. However, nowadays, whatever your background, experience or age, reading can be fun. Many school and public libraries offer a variety of opportunities in attractive and accessible surroundings. It is wonderful to see the Vaisey Awards supporting this valuable work.

Hereward Corbett was born on a farm in Sussex and as a child spent many hours in Hastings Public Library. He has worked in bookselling since the late 1980s, and currently runs the two Yellow-Lighted Bookshops in Tetbury and Nailsworth. He is a slow but persistent reader, and is passionate about words, stories, and how they enable people to understand and change their lives.

Julian Hasler is an arable farmer living near Tetbury; with a degree in Sciences and English Literature he has been a voracious reader from an early age.

Libraries have always mattered to me, places of wonder as well as places of usefulness, whether school libraries, university libraries, or research libraries. Most of all there were the local public libraries, at first very supervised visits, “Why can I have only three books?”, but later more freedom as knowledge expanded. Now the libraries themselves have increased what they do and how they reach the public, and so have become more important than ever.

Peter Hunt is Professor Emeritus in English and Children’s Literature at Cardiff University, UK, and Adjunct Professor at Dublin City University, Eire.

Peter was the first Professor of Children’s Literature in a UK university. He has lectured at over 150 universities in 24 countries, and has written or edited 38 books and more than 500 papers and reviews on the subject. His books have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Serbian.

Awards include the Brothers Grimm Award for services to children’s literature, from the International Institute for Children’s Literature, Osaka, and the Anne Devereaux Jordan Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature from the Children’s Literature Association (USA). He was a member of the initial Board of Trustees for Seven Stories, the children’s book centre in Newcastle.

Over the past few years he has been a Visiting Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Unversità Ca’Foscari Venice, Newcastle University (UK), and Hollins University (USA). His most recent books include The Making of Lewis Carroll’s Alice (2020), and Alice’s Oxford (April 2025). He is currently one of the editors of The Routledge Companion to Young Adult Literature.

He has four daughters and nine grandchildren, and lives with his extremely long-suffering wife in Horsley, just outside Nailsworth.

Tash Hyde is originally from North Lincolnshire via Derby & Toulouse. She moved to Gloucestershire in 2022 to work for Read for Good, a UK wide reading for pleasure charity based in Nailsworth.

Tash was previously a children’s librarian for Derbyshire County Council, she worked as a Sure Start Librarian doing outreach to encourage families to fall in love with books & promote the benefits of libraries. Now Books & Libraries Lead, she leads on pilot project work with schools in Gloucestershire, liaison with publishers including books reviews and events, manages Brilliant Box of Books and is also a judge for Oscar’s Book Prize.