JS Ready Steady Book 2015

Excited school prepares for Ready Steady Book!

The nights are drawing in; the Halloween costumes are away for another year; and everyone is in fierce debate about whether it is too early to start talking about Christmas. It all means one thing: the school’s annual book week is here.

There is a wide variety of activities going on throughout the school, with author and poet talks, a writing competition with an awards evening, plus a talk in the brand new Larch Centre from Kate Miller, Secretary of the Hertford Writers’ Circle.

The event hopes to interest everybody, with author talks for all KS3 & 4 students. Year 11’s will be hearing from Clare Pollard, a poet whose work features on the A-Level syllabus. Award-winning author Piers Torday is giving a talk to Year 7 while Year 8 will be hearing from Christian Darkin, who is an ex-pupil, and Lydia Syson will be speaking to Years 9 & 10 students.

Librarian, Mrs Syme, firstly expressed her delight at the amount of authors attracted by the event: “We’ve got lots of author events, and we’ve got a really good mix of writers this time”.

She also spoke with great excitement about the English department’s Bake a Book competition and was particularly looking forward to a special event. The short story writing competition has been opened up for all students in Years 7-13 and will reach its conclusion at the Leaf Cafe, in the attendance of the Mayor of Hertford. On this she commented, “We are really grateful to the Leaf Cafe for providing us with the venue and awards.”

Her final words were ones of optimism: “Hopefully, the impact of the festival will encourage students to talk more about books and it enthuses them to read more”.

Alex Willis

Calendar: Monday 16th November

Piers Torday author talk: Year 7

Monday 16th November (3:45 - 4:45)

Kate Miller speaks to Y12-13 pupils and parents.

Tuesday 17th November

Lydia Syson author talk: Year 9

Tuesday 17th November

Lydia Syson author talk: Year 10

Thursday 19th November

Clare Pollard author talk: Year 11

Friday 20th November

Christian Darkin author talk: Year 8

Friday 20th November (1:05 - 1:45)

Journalism Society meets Christian Darkin.

Meet the authors.

With Ready, Steady, Book in full motion, students and staff are preparing for an insightful and inspirational week of literary indulgence.

Amongst the many events taking place, there will be an a-la-carte selection of well established authors visiting Simon Balle to talk to students about their experience of writing. The author line up this year is once again a comprehensive selection of novelists and poets, which is sure to prove popular with students across Years 7-13.

Piers Torday is to open our 5th festival. He was born in Northumberland, and his career started in the theatre and live comedy of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He later moved into television, where he develops programme ideas. In 2014, he was crowned the winner of The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for his book The Dark Wild. It is based around a boy called Kester. He is extraordinary, but all he knows at this very minute is that 1: there is a flock of excited pigeons in his bedroom. 2: They are talking to him. And 3: Life will never be the same again.

Kate Miller is a writer based in Hertford. Having written throughout her life, she had her first poem published when she was only 10 years old! She runs creative writing workshops in 'Leaf Cafe' and is fascinated by stories from the past which shine a light on present day issues! Kate has also achieved an MA in theatre in 2010 at the University of Essex and a First in (BA Hons) English at the University of Southampton. She has written many plays including: ‘The Last Witch’, ‘Circlemakers’, ‘Another Fine Mess’, ‘The Noose of Light’ and lots more. ‘The Last Witch’ has previously been staged and performed at Hertford Theatre.

Please join in the conversation, using #SBSReady and follow us on Twitter, using @Simon_Balle and @SBS_Library

Lydia Syson is a North Londoner who now lives south of the river with her partner and four children. After an early career as a BBC World Service Radio producer, she turned from the spoken to the written word and developed an obsession with history. Her novel, A World Between Us, is based on the events of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and follows Felix: a spirited young nurse. That Burning Summer focuses on 16 year-old Peggy during the Battle of Britain and Liberty's Fire is about four young people who rewrite their destinies in 1870s Paris.

Clare Pollard, a new face for Ready, Steady, Book, wrote her first collection of poetry whilst she was still at school. Since then, she has gone on to publish a further four collections including Look, Clare, Look. At present, Clare produces regular blogs about life as a poet and will be giving readings of an array of poems to Year 11 students.

We are fortunate to be hosting Christian Darkin, an alumnus of Simon Balle, who is renowned for his writing and animating. Working in south east London, he has written nine books ranging from novels to a picture book, introducing very young children to the concept of evolution!

Christian Darkin has also written for radio and theatre; this has resulted in him applying his literary skill to create graphics for movies. The SBS Book Club will be reading his newest novel, The Skull.

With this line up of outstanding authors it seems inevitable that the Library’s literary festival will prove as popular as ever!

Jasmine Bidwell, Ellie Hughes & Oliver Murphy