Private School News

FIRST EVER FESTIVAL FUELS PASSION FOR READING

With fourteen events packed into one week, involving thirteen star authors, illustrators and poets, attempting to summarise the highlights of the first ever Bishop’s Stortford College Festival of Literature is an almost impossible task!

This extraordinary celebration of all things literary was launched with a controversial lecture on the true origins and identity of Shakespeare by Charles Beauclerk before sixteen teams from the College and other local schools competed in a fiercely fought Kids’ Lit Quiz, with Eleanor Cavill, Charlotte Morrison, Sashini Mariathasan, Grace Compton and Ben Withers from the Fourth Form emerging as winners.

Conn Iggulden, international best-selling author of historical fiction and the only person ever to top the Sunday Times Fictional and Non-Fiction lists at the same time, spoke about why it is dangerous for boys not to read and after his humorous and entertaining talk it would be impossible not to want to read his own stories. Simon Armitage, one of the nation’s leading poets, read from his work with power, passion and humour, including his signature poem ‘The Shout’, which harks back to his youth in a Yorkshire village and excerpts from his translation of ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’.

Anthony Browne, the Children’s Laureate, is a highly influential artist and author whose illustrated stories are loved by children and adults in equal measure. The rush to buy his books after his talk speaks volumes for the impact he had! After speaking in the evening, he worked with the Junior School the following morning before presenting the first ever Bishop’s Stortford Picture Book Award, which was voted on by 1400 children from local primary schools as well as the College. The clear winner was ‘Morris the Mankiest Monster’ by Sarah McIntyre.

You can read Sarah’s account of the event on her blog:

http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/272418.html

Junior School teacher Simon Bailey had produced one of his cartoon specials depicting Anthony Browne presenting Sarah McIntyre with her trophy much to the amusement of both author-illustrators!

Local authors, Marcus Sedgwick, Pauline Francis and Gareth Mottram gave a fascinating workshop with questions and answers about their writing, Matt Haig and Meg Rosoff worked well with College Junior School pupils showing how inspirational it can be for pupils to meet and question the authors of the books they have been reading. In the evening, Meg joined Pauline Francis, Anne Harding and Marilyn Brocklehurst to provide wisdom and insight on how to keep teenagers reading.

Master storyteller, Hugh Lupton, captivated his audience with stories on a Russian theme, including three different tales beautifully woven together around the escape of his great uncle (Arthur Ransome of Swallows and Amazon fame) from Russia during the Bolshevik revolution. He also entertained and delighted our younger pupils with his storytelling, telling pyjama-clad pupils magical tales from around the world.

Radio 4’s Saturday Live poet-in-residence, Luke Wright, concluded the star-studded festival week with a fantastic performance of his work before judging the Senior School House Reading Competition. The winners of this were:

Junior – 4th Form Young House
Claire Devine had the audience in tears within seconds reading ‘Stop All the Clocks’ by W.H. Auden.

Intermediate – L5th and U5th Benson House
Kirsten Lane, Gabby Nellis-Pain, Jess Gibbs, Louise Reilly and Abi Kessock-Philip gave a brilliant, sinister and disturbing reading of ‘The Devil’s Wife’ by Carol Ann Duffy.

Senior – 6th Form Hayward House
Tom Emmett’s reading of ‘Eulogy for Malcolm X’ by Ossie Davis was simply outstanding.

To round off the Festival of Literature, Marilyn Brocklehurst from Norfolk Children’s Book Centre provided an amazing book sale for Junior School pupils and her passion and knowledge about children’s books was infectious, with children and parents leaving with yet more reading gems to discover.

A hugely successful and inspirational week which has more than achieved our aim of fuelling the passion for reading in young and old alike.

Photo: Hugh Lupton telling bedtime stories to BSC Pre-Prep children