On Friday 3 October 2014, Ms Squires in the library organised the latest event in our on-going ‘Meet the Author’ series, where students from across the school are given the opportunity to listen to a writer talk about the process of writing.
This time, the visitor was Nigel Hinton, author of ‘Ghost Game’, a book which was given to all of the new Year 7s in September. Nigel spoke to all students in Year 7 for an hour. He began his talk with the slightly surprising revelation that when he was younger, it had never really occurred to him he could write as a career, in spite of the fact that he loved books from a very early age. Nigel gave many personal anecdotes, making it clear that he is a writer who has been greatly influenced by his own experiences. An example of this was an accident he witnessed during his schooldays when a friend died of a broken neck whilst playing rugby. This incident left Nigel thinking about the concepts of ‘accidents’, which eventually led to his first novel, ‘Collision Course’.
Nigel described how important it is to “feel emotions” while writing, explaining how it is actually the words that come last in the process. He emphasised the importance of “seeing and feeling” what you are writing, in order for the audience to be able to empathise with the settings and characters.
Following his talk, Nigel took part in a question and answer session with the students. The questions asked were very insightful, with the boys keen to find out more about what it is like to be a writer. The final question concerned inspiration; upon being asked what inspires him, Nigel commented that he is “inspired by people who do things well.”
Students were highly engaged in this talk, with Sekeriye Hassan (7A) commenting that Nigel was “funny and exciting”. Many thanks to Nigel for giving his valuable time to the talk, Q&A and also the book signing which took place afterwards. These events continue to be important events in the school calendar, encouraging the students to continue on their reading journeys.
Tags: 2014-15, Library, Meet the Author, Visit
