Visiting Authors

Football Author Tom Palmer visits Port Regis

Port Regis was exceptionally fortunate to have a visit from football author Tom Palmer during the World Cup! Tom is the author of the 'Foul Play' and 'Football Academy' series. He is also writing an on-line football story. He adds a new chapter each day throughout the World Cup. He gave a football quiz to B, C and D forms and invited the winners to a penalty shootout! The winner was presented with a special trophy. He then ran a penalty shootout for F forms with one of his books as a prize. It was terrific fun and we all enjoyed his visit.

 

Jeremy Strong visits E and F forms

 

On Tuesday 2nd February the E and F forms were lucky enough to be visited by Jeremy Strong; the highly successful author of books like:

• "The Invasion of the Christmas Puddings"
• "There’s a Pharaoh in our Bath"
• "My Mum’s Going to Explode"
• "My Dad’s Got an Alligator"
• "My Granny’s Great Escape!"

Mr Strong entertained everyone with his description of life as an author, especially when he told us about his cat, Jeeves, disturbing him whilst writing in his ‘shed’ at the bottom of the garden. The children were very well behaved and asked intelligent questions; they were rewarded by having the opportunity to get their favourite Jeremy Strong books signed by the author.  LLF

"Where I Belong” by Gillian Cross

Beta was very fortunate on Monday 22nd June when Gillian Cross dropped in to show us all the stages of preparation for her latest book. A teacher had asked Gillian to write about Somalia as she had children in her class who came from there and there did not seem to be any books for children about their homeland. Gillian decided to do research and used the internet to find some facts. Then she saw some DVDs, talked to some people and discovered some sad stories about children who had been taken from their parents at a very young age, given false passports, and were sent abroad to start new lives. Many had not seen their parents or their homelands for years. Gillian went to talk to some of these children to see what they knew about the country of their birth. She also met up with Elizabeth Laird, a writer who has written some marvellous children’s books set in other countries, such as “The Garbage King.”

 

Gillian also investigated what it felt like to wear veils, and some of her characters try on veils to see how they feel wearing them. Then Gillian discovered that some famous models, including David Bowie’s wife, were Somalian, so Gillian investigated the world of high fashion, and went to Paris for a fashion show. Gradually the germ of the idea for her book came to her. It would be called “Where I Belong” and be about a Somalian girl who becomes a model and send the money she earns back to her family. The family keep in contact via email. Then her brother, who is still in Somalia, is kidnapped and his sister is asked to pay a large ransom to ensure his release. At that time there were news stories about Somalian pirates attacking larger boats, and Gillian found the coverage helped her to understand the Somalian people more. She showed us all her research, the various drafts of her book, and versions of the cover. She said that Google earth had been especially useful to help her recreate a journey which she describes in the book. The book is almost ready, but she is going to show it to Somalian people to hear their feedback. She read us the dedication, which she had sold at auction for Cancer Research and someone had bought it to commemorate their grandmother who had inspired them to read.

 

It was a fascinating insight into the process of researching and writing a book, and we are very grateful to Gillian for letting us into her world, and giving us an insight into the Somali community. We were also fortunate as Gillian promised us a copy of the book for our Library when it is published in April 2010.  LLF

Malorie Blackman Outing

The Senior Librarians went on a treat on the first Friday of term. Malorie Blackman was appearing at the Daily Telegraph Bath Children’s Literature Festival, and we were going to hear her talk. Even the journey in the taxi was exciting. We arrived at The Guildhall in good time and managed to get good seats.

 

Malorie was a dynamic speaker. The room buzzed from the moment she appeared.

 

Before she was a writer, Malorie had a number of jobs including Database Manager, Systems Programmer, Documentation Assistant (in other words, a glorified filing clerk) and she had a number of temporary summer jobs whilst she was doing my O and A Levels, including working as a telephonist / receptionist / typist, a Catering Assistant and Saturday jobs at Littlewoods and British Home Stores. The worst job she ever had was working as a kitchen porter. She lasted a day and a half!

 

When she was at school, she wanted to be an English teacher but the teachers advised her against it so she went into Computing instead. After a few years in the Computing industry she did an acting course, and then became a writer.

 

Malorie types on an ancient PC and tries out the early versions of her books on her daughter, who is now a teenager. Malorie likes all her books and says they are like her children. “Pig-Heart Boy” is special to her because of the issues it raises about transplant surgery. She also likes her “Noughts and Crosses” which deals with racism, and we were shown a DVD trailer for her latest book in the series.

 

The talk ended with questions from the floor and we were delighted that three of our party had questions answered about how to be a writer. Malorie’s advice was to “read, read, READ.” It was a terrific evening and we enjoyed our packed suppers on the bus home. BJM

Author Gillian Cross visits D forms

The author Gillian Cross came to visit the D form on Tuesday 6th October and talked to the children for an hour about life as an author. It was a fantastic talk, with Gillian giving us all a great insight into how she approaches her story writing. We learnt about where she gets her ideas from, how she has to write sometimes as many as 4 or 5 drafts of the same book before she is happy with it, and how she works with her editor.

 

Gillian told us the synopsis of a number of her books and she explained how she carried out her research before writing.  She also highlighted the importance of accurate punctuation; not just so that her writing made sense but also so that the reader would read what she had written in exactly the way she had intended.

 

At the end of the talk, the children were able ask Gillian questions and some even managed to get her autograph!

 

Gillian was most inspiring about writing stories and many of the children rushed off from the talk already planning their next story.  BJM

Dr Patrick Ryan visited C forms

I really enjoyed Patrick Ryan, the Storyteller. He was exciting because he spoke in a LOUD voice and sometimes he was very quiet. This sucked me in. He told us riddles which made us laugh, but sometimes we had to think very hard to understand the answer. His stories were extremely interesting, especially The Graveyard story which made me jump out of my skin! I liked the story about the King and the Three Identical Dolls because it was clever that the hairs from the King’s beard did different things in the different dolls. However my favourite story has to be The Chicken and the Hedgehog. I loved the bit where he made the towel look like a cooked chicken. It was very funny. Patrick Ryan is the best storyteller I have ever met.  Adam, CH

Stewart Ross - Blast Off!

Children’s author Stewart Ross visited us on Thursday 25th June. The day started with a fascinating assembly about the Apollo Moon Landing which happened 40 years ago.

 

Stewart’s latest book “Moon” commemorates the event and he shared interesting information with us.

Later in the day he talked to C forms about research skills, basing much of the session on the stages he had gone through from when he was commissioned by Oxford University Press to write “Moon.”

 

He gave B forms a fascinating introduction to War Poetry, and went to the Pre-Prep where he helped them compose a story and talked about being an author.

It was an excellent day, largely because Stewart is a charismatic man and a brilliant communicator who enjoys meeting children.  BJM

William Nicholson inspires the A and B formers

A and B formers were privileged to hear William Nicholson, children’s author and writer of the screenplay of “Gladiator” talk about writing. William started by saying fear of failure held most people back from trying to do things. He said that, in writing “you can create anything you want to create and you can get into the minds of people who aren’t you.” William believes character is everything, not plot, and that you have to make your readers care about your characters. He feels writers are more alert and more aware than other people because they listen, watch and learn.

 

The talk was inspirational, and we are very grateful to the Daily Telegraph Bath Festival of Children’s Literature that sponsored the event.  BJM

G P Taylor

C forms were treated to a wonderful workshop from best-selling author G P Taylor, author of Shadowmancer and Mariah Mundi and The Ghost Diamonds.

Everyone - adults and children alike - were spellbound by Graham’s performance. The hour flew by as Graham encouraged and enthused us all about reading and creative writing.

CM’s favourite parts were when Graham was talking about his teachers, especially the Chukky, who threw things at children, and the story about the chavs, especlally the demonstration of chav kung fu. They said he was the funniest visitor they have ever heard and an inspiration.  BJM