War of the Worlds country

(Note: I wrote this blog entry on the 16:25 from St Pancras back to Sheffield, Tuesday 20th)

“I feel tired (from an early start) and travel weary, but I’m writing this while it’s still quite fresh…

…A wise man once said that “you should never work with children nor animals” (though I forget who this so-called “wise man” was – as is the norm for such worthy quotations, the originator becomes a faceless voice of wisdom). For someone, say, in show business, or perhaps a farmer of llamas these are wise words indeed - but I held this philosophy in disregard when (arranged by a good friend of mine) I visited St Andrews school in Surrey to deliver a presentation on The Secret War (and writing in general) to three classes of school children.

I admit I felt certain trepidation. After all, I remember what it was like to be a kid and how sometimes children can act or be distracted (I was no saint – no monster maybe – but are any children truly angelic?). The last thing I wanted was a horde of children reducing me to a gibbering wreck at the end of three hours!
Also, The Secret War is not really a children’s book – it was written with adults in mind. So when you’ve been asked to deliver a presentation and a few readings to that very same audience you can forgive me for being a teensy bit nervous.

In the end, such trepidation was hardly warranted.

Stripped bare, The Secret War is just an adventure story, and one – that it seems – kids around 11-13 are interested in. The book is no more violent than say Raiders of the Lost Ark, or no more nasty than HG Wells War of the Worlds (which I find an apt reference as St Andrews is not that far from Horsell Common and it’s a book that many of the children at St Andrews have already read).

And there was another factor…

St Andrews school is a model school. It is a school where the children are well behaved and highly motivated. You have an inkling their days are not spent in front of the Playstation, or cramming junk food down their throats. They spend their time outside playing sports, or reading or other wholesome activities that I found surprising and encouraging. It was this discipline and the resulting aptitude that was certainly evident during the three presentations I did for the 11, 12 and 13 year olds. In each case, where I might have been met with blank stares and disinterest, I was overwhelmed not only by the enthusiasm the children had for my book and writing on the whole, but overwhelmed by the intelligence of questions fired my way during the informal discussions.
Some questions truly caught me off guard - not because I didn’t expect them from a class of school children - but because no one had ever asked these pertinent questions of my writing before – not friends, not family, and not even the several interviewers thus far.

Towards the end of each presentation I signed copies of The Secret War and took further impromptu enquiries (for the bean-counters among you – I shifted around 50 books in total – not bad for a morning’s work).

Following the signing, I planned to deliver the first reading of the first chapter of A World of Night. However, in a fantastic twist, Mr Murphy (the English teacher) nominated pupils to take turns reading parts of the story to the class. I must say it was wonderfully surreal to hear my own work read aloud by the audience it was intended for, and gratifying how the book sounded so magical through their voices, the pupils reading it with such gusto and animation.

For me, this was the highlight of the visit.

So in summary – if a summary does it justice – the visit to St Andrews was quite simply amazing. I learned much that morning – about my own writing, about my ability to stand up in front of a class of children (children who are, by their very nature, the harshest of all critics) and also about my audience, if only for A World of Night.
If – and it’s a big if because nothing is certain in this business – A World of Night is published, then perhaps I will start a tradition and have the book twinned with St Andrews (I’ve already suggested having a book launch there).

As ever - for further developments, watch this space.”