On Wednesday this week a party of Year 7 (I Group) was invited to hear celebrated children’s author Piers Torday speak at a David’s Bookshop event held at St Francis’ College.

Piers is a superb storyteller, and we were all held captive as he told us about the origin of his stories.  Piers is the son of author Paul Torday (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) and grew up in a house full of books and stories.  He told us, very movingly, about how he came to write There May be a Castle (2017) partly as a response to the death of his father in 2013.  His latest book, The Frozen Sea, is a sequel to The Lost Magician – Piers explained that his inspiration for the first book was C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and he was delighted that so many of the children in the audience knew of, and had read, Lewis’s classic tale.

Piers is perhaps best known for his Last Wild trilogy of books – superb stories, grippingly told, and highly recommended.  Piers explained that the genus of the books came from his growing concern about our threatened environment, and the accelerating loss of animal species.

After an entertaining and inspiring talk, some of our students queued up to buy their own copies of Piers’ books, and have them signed by the author.  Copies of all Piers’ books will be in the library very soon and available to borrow for anyone who didn’t buy their own copy.

Linda Aird
Librarian