Before they broke up for the Easter Holiday Upper 4 pupils welcomed three authors for a very special Book Festival. They were fascinated to learn more about them and how they became writers...

ANNALIESE AVERY 

Annaliese Avery is a big fan of Science, and this is evident in her Empire of Albion books The Nightsilver Promise and The Doomfire Secret. In fact, during her lively and engaging talk, she admitted that she puts all of the things she loves into her books; castles, astronomy and fantasy fiction. 

The world of Albion is ruled by science, where everyone's destiny is pre-determined by a track of stars on their wrist, but thirteen-year-old Paisley Fitzwilliam is shocked to discover that her fate is to die before her fourteenth year. Paisley has a series of breath-taking adventures through Floating Boroughs, a vault guarded by Dragon Walkers, and the dark sewers of lower London, and goes on to learn that she must harness her power and seek new and dangerous alliances. 

Annaliese spoke about her journey to become a writer, using anecdotes from her childhood, and shared some of her more unusual writing habits, such as throwing away the first draft of all of her books, using some dice to decide which characters to kill off and which will survive! She also mentioned her bullet journal method, and her use of spreadsheets to track her progress. It was fascinating to hear about such a scientific approach to writing fiction! 

In addition, she stressed the importance for her of finding fun and joy in the process of writing, and talked about some of the skills needed such as goal setting and project management, which often aren’t mentioned when discussing the creative process of writing. 

Annaliese’s new book The Immortal Games is due to be published in May ’23 and many pupils are already looking forward to reading this one! 

BREIS 

Rap artist BREIS gave an interactive, dynamic and engaging talk. He explained how his name is, amongst other things, an acronym for “Brilliant Rappers Educate Intelligent Students” but asked pupils to come up with their own ideas for his name. Some of the suggestions were: " Best Rapper Ever In Society", " Beyond Reality Evaluates In Sociality", " Be Real Even In Strife"   

BREIS’s career in music and performance poetry has taken him to America, Africa, Asia and across the UK, and it was only after his initial success that he decided to teach young people about rap and hip hop in order to express themselves creatively through lyrics. After he started speaking in schools, he was asked if he had a book published – he didn’t, so he wrote one! This book, Briliant Rappers Educate Intelligent Students, and his later Diary of a Creative Mind, about returning to music after recovering from passed loved one, were both on sale at the festival.  
 
Along with a comprehensive history of the genres of hip hop and rap, starting in New York in the 70s and including the SugarHill Gang, Run DMC, Public Enemy, Rakim, LL Cool J and more,  
BREIS also discussed the political side of rap, such as racism, police brutality, and political corruption, as well as the rappers who transitioned to acting, the likes of Ice Cube, Will Smith and Queen Latifah. He spoke about Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac – both killed within six months of one another, and some UK rappers including, Little Sims, TY, So Solid Crew, Wiley and Stormzy. 

There was of course plenty of rapping. The audience were engaged as the "hype man" for him, and BREIS finished with some freestyling, based on objects chosen by pupils.  

BALI RAI 

Bali Rai spoke about forgotten people in history and unsung stories from our past, a topic that he has been writing about for some time. He outlined the themes in three of his books which focus on overlooked historical figures, and spoke about the myriad of people who have arrived on our island and made it their home since Roman times.  

Now or Never looks at the story of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, Company 32, and a soldier called Fazal as he and his friends make their way to the beaches of Dunkirk in May 1940. The Company’s captain defends his troops in the face of a betrayal, and Fazal sees that the help brought by Company 32 is not appreciated by everyone involved. 

Mohinder’s War tells the story of Joelle, a 13-year-old girl in France in World War II, who stumbles across an Indian-born RAF pilot when his plane crashes in occupied France. Her family, members of the Resistance, hide him from the Nazis but they are betrayed, and Joelle and Mohinder have to act fast to evade the enemy. 

Royal Rebel is the story of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, a forgotten heroine of the early twentieth century. Born in 1876, she was the daughter of the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab, and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. After her father was exiled to England, Sophia had a privileged but troubled upbringing that left her unsure about where she belonged – in India or England. Sensitive to injustice, she became an suffragette and fought hard to win the vote for women.  

All of these stories are based on real events; Bali spoke passionately about the need to take a fresh look at British History and offered many different perspectives of famous historical events and the prejudices which were experienced then and now. 

With thanks to Close Up Photography Club for the images.