Author Visits

As a teacher currently running Y6 Book Clubs and Creative Writing Courses, I am very familiar with the workings of primary schools.

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Option One: The Runaway Children of Chennai will be published at the end of May. The middle-grade novel was inspired by Railway Children, a charity supporting street children in India and written in

collaboration with a group of Y6 children at Cherry Tree Primary School, Watford.

This option looks at the stories behind the charity, the process for writing the book and finally

introduces an exciting creative writing competition. The winning short stories (with a theme of

hope) will be published in a special book in 2024.

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Option Two: My middle grade book, It’s Raining in Moscow and I Forgot my Umbrella was written as an adventure story but has the unusual twist of being set on the dementia floor of a care home. The idea was to introduce children to a more positive view of dementia than we usually see.

The presentation, however, is not so much about the content of the book, rather the

process an author goes through to publish a book. Children have been fascinated to hear

about the journey from the author’s first idea to the published book on the shelf, a world

not seen by most readers. A valuable insight.

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Author Visit  £50/class (min 2 classes)

(Appropriate for Y4-8)

Each session lasts between forty to fifty minutes (this can be adjusted to suit the timetable), and to make the most of the visit I would suggest one class at a time in their own classroom. My visits usually take place on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday afternoons, but I can be flexible.

I am passionate about encouraging children both to read and to write, so I am trying

to keep my costs down to £50 per class (this includes my own travel costs). I would,

however, appreciate a purchase of two signed books for the school library, and for the

school to encourage the children to buy their own copies.

I hope to see you soon!