School visits in Hammersmith and Hoddesdon
On Tuesday 19th April, I visited Latymer Preparatory School, which already had a number of impressive projects on display.
‘Faberge Eggs’ in the Assembly Room
Objects collected for ‘Russian Week’
The discussion at the end of my talk covered the unnatural pallour of people living underground, alternative forms of technology (kitepunk!), etc. Finally I signed a stack of books supplied by the Lion and Unicorn Bookshop.
A week later, on Tuesday 22nd March, I ventured into snowbound Hertfordshire for two events organised by Books@Hoddesdon.
The first took place at The John Warner School in Hoddesdon, where I talked to two hundred members of Year 7.
A Memorable Question:
Q. Does being an author change the way you read books, and has it made you analyse them more?
A. My degree was in English, so I already tended to be a bit analytical as a reader. But yes, I am now more likely to sympathise with what an author is trying to do. I’m also much more likely to read a really good part and think, drat, I wish I’d written that…
There seemed to be a lot of keen readers, including a young contest winner who had read 60 books since September, excluding all the books she had read at home…
After lunch I visted the impressive campus of Haileybury School to talk to groups from Year 7 of the Lower School.
Nice little place
A Memorable Question:
Q: Do you ever brag to your friends about the books you’re writing?
A: I didn’t used to like talking about them at all. When people asked me sign books I used to hide under tables. But now a certain sort of ‘bragging about my books’ is part of my job. It’s called ‘self-promotion’.
I then signed a small mountain of books – some dedicated to ‘Brancombeast’ and ‘Manstrangler’…
Is it just me, or do ‘Brancombeast’ and ‘Manstrangler’ sound like they could be surnames for some of your less savory characters?
Also, I want the red-and-gold striped egg in the upper right of the picture. Very stylish.
‘Brancombeast’ would make a great name for a villain or legendary terror. (Mind you, if I introduced him as an innocent-looking character I think the reader might be instantly suspicious of him.)
The red-and-gold egg is indeed very fine. I like all of them, but I’m particularly taken with the dragony egg and the pale gold one in the bottom left.