Cheltenham Literature Festival Thursday 12th October

Pupils from Year 7 visited the iconic Cheltenham Literature Festival to experience two very different author sessions. Carnegie-winning author, Tanya Landman’s session was all about the gothic. She focused on the challenges of re-writing and editing well-known stories into shorter but equally powerful retellings. She emphasised the importance of capturing the strong characters in Jane Eyre as well as the decisions she had to make in identifying key parts of the story when adapting Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights. She talked about her love of suspense and how she very much embodies the characters during the writing process.

Our second session was completely different and we journeyed with author Julian Sedgwick and Manga illustrator Chie Kutsuwada to explore their new creation, 100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café. During the session, they shared their own ghost stories before Julian explained how he had travelled to Japan and talked to people about their own stories. We were then introduced to the stories behind some of the more well-known ghosts from Japan as well as being able to watch Chie draw some Manga characters live during the session.

After the sessions, we were able to visit the Waterstone’s on-site bookshop and get signed copies of Tanya’s books as well as being given a sample preview chapter from the Tokyo Ghost Café book. The trip was both entertaining and inspiring and we enjoyed asking questions in the sessions as well as being able to meet the authors.

Written by Dr Jones, Head of Library and Enrichment