Our Patron of Reading, Emma Carroll, visited yesterday for the second time.
Since her last visit in September, ‘The Somerset Tsunami’ has been published and Emma spoke to Forms 1, 2 and 3 about how actual historical events inspired her to write this story set in 1607in the reign of King James I, which involves an actual tsunami in Somerset and a witch trial. The pupils were fascinated to learn about the things that could cause you to be accused of being a witch; in one session there was only one boy who didn’t qualify!
For the Upper School sessions, Emma gave a talk entitled ‘The Gothic Influence’ which focused on her fascination with Mary Shelley and her book ‘Frankenstein’. 5+, who have been studying Edgar Allan Poe’s writing with Mrs Awwad, had a writing workshop with Emma looking at the atmosphere surrounding a gothic story including weather, setting, times of day and characters’ emotions and will carry on with this in their lessons.
Alison Fenton, librarian, says, ‘It was a busy day but an enjoyable insight into the life of an author’.