British Council UK | Vietnam Season 2023

Friday 24 November was declared the first ever National Illustration Day, which was an apt occasion as Royal Over-Seas League hosted an afternoon opening for The Return of the Spoon-Billed Sandpiper. This exhibition is the culmination of a year-long collaboration between Pop Up Projects (UK children’s literature development agency), Nhã Nam (Vietnam publisher) and Simon & Schuster (UK children’s publisher).

On view in the Central Lounge until 3 December, it displays the work of 15 Vietnamese illustrators. Trang Nguyen wrote a new narrative nonfiction picture book text called The Return of the Spoon-Billed Sandpiper. It tells the story of a near-extinct bird species returning to Vietnam, due to the efforts of conservationists to restore and protect its habitats.

The exhibition will be presented at the Royal Over-Seas League in London, Manchester School of Art’s Vertical Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University (11 December 2023 – 7 January 2024), and in Hanoi at Nhã Nam’s bookstores.

Also as part of Friday’s afternoon opening we welcomed British television and radio presenter, screenwriter and children’s author Konnie Huq, spokesperson and editor for fundraising project ‘Children For Change’ – an anthology of writing and illustration by over 50 of the UK’s brightest stars in children’s books, to inspire children and young people to make actions, small or large, local or global, to change the course of the climate emergency. Pop Up Projects’ ambition is to get this Children For Change anthology into every primary school in the UK and beyond, into hundreds of thousands of children’s homes.

To support the Children For Change crowdfunding campaign, visit: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/children-for-change