Kate Markland on Times Radio at Cheltenham Literature Festival

The Book That Made It Onto Times Radio at Cheltenham Literature Festival

October 30, 2024•1 min read

In October 2024, I sat in front of a Times Radio microphone at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and talked about a book I wrote during the hardest period of my life.

Not as a writer. Not as an author. As a mother who was separated from her son.

The Book That Made It Onto Times Radio at Cheltenham Literature Festival

The Adventures of Gabriel was created one hour a week, on a Friday night, over FaceTime. Gabriel would tell me his story. I wrote it down. Week after week, that one question, "What happens next?", became a book. Then an international bestseller. Then the foundation of a literacy methodology now validated by the British Psychological Society and used in schools across the UK.

What I told Times Radio that day is what I tell every parent and every teacher I meet: children do not need to be taught to imagine. They need to be invited.

Gabriel and his sidekick, Platy the Platypus, go on adventures in that book. They face fears. They break invisible cages. They discover that anything is possible with focus and a good story. Gabriel was eight years old when he created those ideas. He did it in an hour a week. With no writing desk, no classroom, and no red pen in sight.

If your child has stories inside them waiting to come out, this is where to start.

"When children write their own stories, they realise they are the heroes. They are strong, creative, and capable of facing anything."— Kate Markland

Kate

Kate Markland is a former award-winning physiotherapist with twenty years of clinical experience, the founder of StoryQuest Global, and the co-author of the international bestselling Adventures of Gabriel children's book series. She developed the StoryQuest methodology from clinical listening principles built across two decades of practice. Taken into schools across the UK, it achieved 100% engagement across 465 children in nine schools with zero behavioural incidents, including children with SEND, EAL learners, and reluctant writers. The research was conducted using Classic Grounded Theory across 318 children, identifying seven self-leadership transformations. It has been presented to the British Psychological Society, accepted by UK Parliament, and submitted to UNICEF. The methodology was built during the hardest period of Kate's life. One hour a week on FaceTime with her son. No desk. No classroom. No permission. What came out of that constraint became an Amazon number one bestseller, a validated research framework, and a movement now reaching schools and families across the UK, India, Pakistan, Canada, the United States, Nigeria, and Australia. Kate has been featured on BBC News, Times Radio, and in international publications across multiple countries. She has submitted evidence to the Justice Committee, the Independent Review of Social Work Regulation, and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. She was awarded the PhysioTimes Women in Leadership Award. She was told she was the danger. She built the proof that she was the answer.

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