On her eagerly-anticipated return visit to the school, award-winning author Gillian Cross spent the day giving us an insight into her inspiration, research and writing methods.
Over 300 staff and pupils, from St Edmund’s, Dunmore, Carswell and The Manor schools as well as OLA Junior pupils from Years 5 and 6, enjoyed a lively session on The Demon Headmaster in which Gillian stressed the importance of reading as a creative process, using a range of cover designs from across the world.
Years 7 and 8 learnt about the inspiration and research for The Great Elephant Chase and how small details can spark important ideas.
Year 9 followed the creative journey that resulted in Wolf and Calling a Dead Man: a process that included the “magic moment when the whole book comes to life”, an encounter with a pack of wolves at London Zoo and some questions to surprised Army sources about the “squidginess” of plastic explosives.
