Project Description

Author Visit

Funding from the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature Programme enabled Queen Anne High School to invite author Chris Brookmyre to the school to speak to Advanced Higher English pupils.

To obtain the funding, an application was submitted detailing how an author visit would be beneficial to pupils. Queen Anne initially asked for funding for give author visits and were awarded funding for two. Previously, author Alan Bisset spoke to S4 pupils in November.   

Chris Brookmyre spoke to around ten Advanced Higher English pupils about his work, how he became an author and gave them tips for their creative writing folio which makes up a percentage of their overall mark. 

Chris read the opening of his book, ‘Quite Ugly One Morning’ and gave pupils tips on how to improve their creative writing. Upon being asked how he overcame writer’s block, Chris told pupils: “Writer’s block is just a fear of committing. You have many ideas that you could go with, but you refuse to commit to one as you are worried it might not be the right answer. You just need to take the leap.” 

The event was a huge success, with pupils then saying they were going to change their creative writing folios after advice from Chris Brookmyre.  

Class teacher Grace Dodkins said, 

“It was a pleasure to have Chris in to speak with the Advanced Higher English class. It was a fantastic experience to enable pupils to understand the writing process and be inspired to write what they are passionate about.”  

All pupils enjoyed the event and Chris said, 

“They were a gratifyingly attentive group. It was a pleasure to talk to them.” 

 

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