FAMOUS LOCAL CHILDREN’S AUTHOR VISITS CONIFERS SCHOOL TO TALK TO PUPILS ABOUT WRITING BOOKS AND SCRIPT WRITING FOR TV

Famous local children’s book author and ex-Conifers parent, Michelle Magorian, visited Conifers School today on the invitation of Mrs Jennie Peel, Acting Headmistress, to talk the children about all aspects of writing, book writing and script writing for TV.

Although originally trained as an actress, Michelle shot to fame in 1981 when her first book, “Goodnight Mister Tom”, was published and received universal acclaim. It won various literary awards, has been published all over the world in thirteen different languages and was later turned into a successful TV drama starring John Thaw in 1988. The book has also been adapted as a musical and there is also a DVD. Since then she has published four more books, two collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, two picture books and on 7th May 2008, her new book, “Just Henry”, is being published.

Her visit was divided into two sessions; firstly Michelle talked to the 6th Form (Year 6) pupils about the many different ways of writing, different writing techniques, how script writing differs from book writing – she showed the children the original “Goodnight Mister Tom” TV script written by Brian Finch - and how book outer jackets can be illustrated in different ways; she then concluded her visit by reading some of her poems to the younger children.

Commented Mrs Peel, “We were absolutely thrilled when Michelle agreed to come in and talk to the children. It was also very exciting being able to see an original TV script and hear how this differs from book writing. The younger children enjoyed listening to Michelle read some of her poems and hopefully everyone has been inspired to greater literary achievement. We would also like to wish Michelle all the very best for her new book launch in May and are sure it will be another huge success.

Our career talk series continues with a ballet dancer who danced with the Royal Ballet in the first Beatrix Potter film at the end of February and a teacher turned successful garden designer in March.”