Yesterday I had the privilege of visiting Lytton House, the Junior Department of Putney High School, and giving a reading of Uncle Alonzo’s Beard to the Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children, before answering their questions about the book, My Freaky Family (the series that Alonzo belongs to), publishing and writing in general. I also had the chance to introduce them to Great Uncle Fred – another member of the family – and his most unusual pet!
The girls were a delightful and enthusiastic audience – very attentive during the readings and full of interesting questions afterwards. I’m only sorry that there wasn’t enough time to answer all of them before the session was over! I definitely got the impression that there were more than a few budding authors, illustrators and future publishers out there... :-)
At the end of the afternoon, it was a lovely surprise to be presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and three wonderful thank you cards – created by the girls themselves – which are now sitting proudly on the shelves above my writing desk.
Many thanks indeed to both Miss Brennan and Putney parent Gill Mais for organising the whole event, and to all the girls for making me feel so welcome. I look forward to visiting again soon...
British writer, director, producer and actor. Artistic Director of Shadow Road Productions (www.shadowroad.com), and creator of Secret Storytellers (www.secretstorytellers.co.uk). Festival Director of mixed arts mental health awareness festival UNBROKEN (www.unbrokenfest.com), and professional member of Stage Directors UK & the Society of Authors.
2 comments:
Fantastic, Emma. Thrilled it went well - and how lovely for them to give you gifts!
Visits are great, aren't they?
Nik
Thanks very much, Nik. My experience of visits is definitely rather limited in comparison to yours - you old visiting pro, you! However, I'd have to say that so far, nerves aside, they have turned out to be lots of fun!
It was indeed lovely of them to present me with gifts - I'll be looking at those great cards for many moons to come! :-)
Emma xx
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