Visit from author Andy Briggs

On Tuesday 25 February the author & screen writer Andy Briggs visited Calthorpe Park School to talk to Year 8 boys.  Andy gave a very lively talk & screen presentation about how he became a writer, describing his books, including his re-working of the Tarzan stories, the Hero.com and Villain.net series (set in cyberspace) as well as his upcoming film Legendary.  The session finished with Andy’s Jungle Survival Quiz where some but not all of the boys managed to ‘survive’!

Students also had the opportunity to ask Andy questions as well as buy one of his books and have it signed by him.  The sessions were certainly animated and enjoyable with comments such as ‘[liked] his humour because he didn’t treat us like children’ and ‘how “cool” it is to be an author’.  Andy also had time to talk to a Year 9 class in the morning. 

The students loved the idea of working together on a group story as it was similar to the way Andy described his creative process as he often writes in a team setting. Here is what some students had to say about their experience:

“I enjoyed creating the story pitch because I could put into practice the new techniques I learnt.”

“He gave real, useful advice”

“I enjoyed hearing about his career because I would love to become an author when I am older so it was very interesting to me!”

“The session was fun and active. It is useful to English because he provided inspiration for creating our own stories.”