Sarisbury CE Junior School Visit

I was given a terrific welcome by the children at Sarisbury Junior School. Their teacher, Mr Munsie, told me that they will be starting a new project on Arthurian Legend and other areas of mythology very soon. I was honoured to be asked to go along and start it all off by giving a talk about Anglo-Saxon and Norse Mythology. When I asked if the children had been on my website every hand in the room shot up.  

The pupils were particularly interested in how myths and legends get started. So to show them, we made our own modern day myth with a modern day hero – a fireman. We changed the story to make it more fantastic - more mythical! There were some brilliant ideas for superhuman powers. One was for icicles that quenched the flames, another was to fly around the building at supersonic speed which would blow out the flames, and one idea was to dig a hole and bury the building as well as the fire.

When I was asked about my first favourite book, I had no hesitation in saying, The Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton. I was delighted when most of the children smiled and nodded in agreement - it seems that this book is just as popular as it was when I was younger. Other questions were: How long did you take to write your book? Where did you get your inspiration from? Did you do your own illustrations? How many books have you written? Do you have a special place that you go to write?

These are just a sample of some of the terrific questions I was asked. I had a really great time, and I can’t wait to see the drawings and descriptions the children will do for my competition. They will be making a start as soon as I leave – which is just as well as there isn’t a lot of time left until the deadline. Keep watching everyone – the winners will be announced on my website at the beginning of December.       

Sarisbury is a truly lovely school – thank you Sarisbury pupils for a very warm welcome.