What would happen if you dedicated a whole year to creativity? Author, Screen-Writer and Olivier Award Winning playwright and director of Paddington the Musical, Jessica Swale is encouraging you to do just that.
 
A Year of Creative Thinking is a treasure trove of 366 fun and rewarding prompts, provocations and practical exercises to help you spark new ideas, hone your craft and unleash your creativity.
 
In this conversation with Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival Honorary Patron and novelist Margaret Meyer, Jessica will share what she herself has learned about the creative process over her glittering career -  how to overcome blocks, find flow, and build creativity into everyday life - and why she believes that making things is not a luxury but a necessity.
 
Whether being creative is a professional goal, your aspiration or simply your hobby, you'll discover a storehouse of ideas and inspiration in this thought-provoking event for makers, writers, artists and curious minds of all kinds.
 
Format: Conversation
Themes: Non-Fiction, Adults, Art, Writing
 
Jessica Swale Books: A Year of Creative Thinking
Jessica is a two-time Olivier award winning film maker, writer and director. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and Exeter University. Her latest feature, Merv (Amazon), came to screens in 2025 and she wrote the book for Paddington: The Musical, running at the Savoy Theatre, which won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2026.
Her first play Blue Stockings (Shakespeare’s Globe) won her an Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright nomination and is now on the GCSE drama syllabus. Her second, Nell Gwynn, transferred from the Globe to the West End starring Gemma Arterton, and won the Olivier for Best New Comedy. She is currently writing the screenplay for Working Title.
In 2012 she won a place on BAFTA’s JJ Screenwriting Bursary Scheme, on which she wrote Summerland (writer/director). Other screen writing and directing includes: Horrible Histories: The Movie, Ten Percent , Leading Lady Parts – a short film to support Times Up which went viral with 25 million views in the first month.
Jessica is an Associate Artist with NGO Youth Bridge Global, author of a best-selling series of drama games books and she is also involved in Times Up UK, actively campaigning for greater equality and diversity across theatre and film.
 
Margaret Meyer Books: The Witching Tide
Margaret Meyer grew up in New Zealand and has lived in the UK since 1990. She has been a journalist, editor and publisher, and was for five years the British Council’s Director of Literature. After training as a mental health therapist she worked in schools, prisons and recovery centres as well as private practice. In 2020 She completed the University of East Anglia’s prestigious MA in Creative Writing. The Witching Tide (2023), her best-selling debut novel, was inspired by the events of the East Anglian witch hunt of 1645-7 and is dedicated to the more than 100 innocent women who lost their lives. Margaret is an Honorary Patron of the Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival.