04 February 2010

Marcus Sedgwick

Award winning author Marcus Sedgwick visited Abingdon and spoke to over 800 local children about his books and where he finds his ideas. This entertaining event, jointly organised by the Librarians from Our Lady’s Abingdon, Abingdon and St Helen & St Katharine schools, was the 5th annual Joint Schools' Author Visit, with the aim to also invite children from local schools who may not have the opportunity to see a ‘big name’ author.

In the morning there were two talks to secondary students featuring his vampire novel My Swordhand is Singing. All of OLA's year 8 and year 9 found out about the background research and reading which had gone into creating this terrifying tale.

In the afternoon children from local primary and prep. schools were introduced to his new and funny series The Raven Mysteries, and found out how he planned his books. There was plenty of time to ask questions, and some took part in a mini play featuring the characters from the Raven Mysteries.

Next year's event will take place at Our Lady's Abingdon.