A group of 40 Year 7 students were selected by their class teacher to represent St Peter’s School at an online author event with the wonderfully imaginative writer and illustrator Thomas Taylor. We delved into the exciting world of Eerie-on-Sea and learned a lot about the author’s inspirations for his stories – including sea glass containing uranium, which Taylor showed us glows under UV light and can be found on the beach! We also saw fossils, including one shaped like a white cat that was the inspiration for Erwin, a key character in the series, and learned about Taylor’s clever construction of names and his writing process.
After the interview, students attending the event were allowed to conduct their own interview, meaning Thomas Taylor was bombarded with a huge number of insightful questions. The students at our school thought of lots of brilliant ideas – they were really keen to find out more – and they were very pleased when one of our thoughtful questions was selected to be answered: ‘What is your favourite part of writing?’ To which Taylor replied: “When I finish the day and I have written 2000 words that I think are brilliant and I can include them in the story. It doesn’t always work out that way, because sometimes the writing isn’t very good, and I have to keep working on it. But when I’ve had a successful day, I walk back into the house feeling happy and allow myself to have a chocolate biscuit!” (paraphrased).
The students were treated to a brilliant experience which sparked their imaginations and fuelled their desire to read the stories and create their own.
The English Department are delighted to be able to provide these vital, enriching opportunities for the students at our school and we are very much looking forward to our next in person author event with Manjeet Mann in November.
