On Wednesday, the Year 5 and 6 pupils at Somerhill enjoyed a visit from not one, but two authors.

We also welcomed pupils from Year 6 at Capel Primary School, who join us for our September author visit every year. We are very lucky to be able to to share these experiences with our wider community.

First up was Tom Palmer, a writer described by Booktrust as ‘a true reading hero.’ Tom told us how he had come late to reading, showing the children that it’s all about finding the right book, and explained how his books are all an embodiment of his interests: football, history and fell running. Tom then showed us his writing process: writing notes, creating a scrapbook and then writing lots and lots of flashcards. He shared the scrapbook for his new book, “Resist”: a story based on the childhood of Audrey Hepburn who was a member of the Dutch Resistance in World War II.

Our second author was the Awesome Book Award-winning Jack Meggitt-Phillips, who presented his zany ‘The Beast and the Bethany’ trilogy. Jack entertained the children whilst developing their creative writing with his wonderful wit and stage presence. He encouraged the pupils to think about the stages of a story and inspired them to write a fantastic beginning, middle and end on the idea of ‘But then…’ He finished by performing the first chapter of ‘The Beast and the Bethany’ from memory with purple parrot props which delighted everybody watching!

The children then had the opportunity to have their books signed by both authors – we hope they enjoy reading them!