Today at Westwood the amazing author Garry Dix came to visit us. After battling with the traffic like so many of us today, he came straight in to do an assembly. The plan was for him to talk to year 3 and 4 but we invited year 6 to join since their classrooms were unavailable! Garry took it all in his stride! He told us about his 6 part series of books that he has written over the last 5 years. He read an extract from his third book, ‘Scowl of the Scorpion,’ describing the menacing villain Carl Scorpion.

Now I don’t know if authors ever worry they won’t get many questions but this is never an issue with Westwood children! They always have LOADS of questions. A young boy kicked it off with the classic, "Do you like football?" question! After that though we had plenty of wonderful insightful questions about the world of writing, creating books and the life of an author. Our children were very impressed that he knew Liz Pichon!

After our fabulous assembly Garry visited our four year4 classes. Again he answered LOTS of questions, it was wonderful to see our children so excited and engaged.  

A couple of classes also had time to go through with Garry, his key 5 steps for starting to write a  book. The children quickly came up with ideas, characters, villains and lots went away inspired and ready to write their own stories. Mrs Keenoy kindly wrote out the guide so we can share it with everyone!

It was truly a wonderful visit, probably a record for the amount of questions asked, even the teachers and Mrs Delaney had lots to ask! Garry's passion for writing was infectious, everyone was brimming with ideas! When Garry was asked if he’d won any awards and he sadly replied that he hadn't, a year 4 boy put his hand up and said, "Well you have now, I award you best author visit ever!"