An Evening of Folklore and Fairytale at Waterstones

On Monday, 21st November, the English department took nine Year 10 and 11 members of its two reading groups to Waterstones Piccadilly in London.

English teacher Miss Marvin, who organised the enrichment trip, said: “The purpose of the trip was to celebrate some of the authors that we’ve been reading in our reading groups.”

The students enjoyed listening to Sunday Times bestselling author Kiran Millwood-Hargrave chat to authors Frances Hardinge and Melinda Salisbury about magical, mystical mythological themes in fiction. 

Frances Hardinge’s debut novel, Fly By Night, won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the School Library Journal Best Books. Her 2015 novel The Lie Tree won the 2015 Costa Book Award, the first Young Adult book to do so since Philip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass in 2001. 

Melinda Salisbury is the four-time Carnegie nominated and bestselling author of multiple Young Adult novels, including the Sin Eater’s Daughter series, the State of Sorrow duology, Hold Back the Tide, and Her Dark Wings. 

There was then a lively question and answer session at the end of the evening. Commenting on Miss Marvin’s question to the authors about the importance of planning, Year 10 student Yasmine said: “I enjoyed Miss Marvin’s question because it was really helpful, and it’s encouraged me to plan more in my English language writing.” 

The students had the opportunity to browse eight floors of Waterstones’ flagship store as well as buy signed copies of the bestselling authors’ latest novels. 

Emily, also in Year 10, commented: “I enjoyed browsing the bookstore. There are so many options: it’s so varied and everything is amazing!”