The organisers of Shrewsbury’s Children’s Bookfest are holding a party next month to mark its 10 year anniversary.

A variety of authors will be at the event at the Shropshire Wildlife Trust on March 18 and plans are already in place for this year’s festival which will run from May 1 to 4.

Former Children’s Laureate and best-selling author Dame Jacqueline Wilson, who is president of the Bookfest, has been confirmed for the festival, as well as Robert Muchamore and Michael Morpurgo. Lynn Henry, who has written a series of books called Think Like a Pony, will also be demonstrating her skills with her ponies at the festival and Ian Wyebrow, author of the Harry and the Dinosaurs, will be appearing.

Caroline Thewles, one of the organisers, said: “Jacqueline Wilson is our president and I was looking back over the books and she came to our festival the first three years running. She is just such a lovely person and we are so lucky to have her as president.

“Ten years is a big achievement. We started off so small with a weekend at the Gateway. We had some really nice local authors and we sold books and it was just going to be a one-off but then we got rung up by parents asking if we were doing it again the next year. It’s grown really big and we are now a charity.”

Mrs Thewles added that Image Theatre would also be doing a performance of the Railway Children as part of the festival programme.

She said the party on March 18, which is by invitation only, will be a chance to thank people who had helped the festival.

“We are going to have an enormous pink birthday cake and some candles and a drink to toast to our 10 years and we hope we will keep on a bit longer,” she said.