On Friday 10^th July, a group of Year 7 boys were lucky enough to speak to the children's author Richard Middleton about his latest book 'The Wyrm Conspiracy'. The discussion took place over skype – a first for the English Department. During the session, questions explored plot, setting and character as well as the author's reading interests and plans for the future.

Some comments from students:

• “The talk with Richard was a new and different experience – to talk to the author face to face. I have learnt that I should take inspiration (for my next writing task) from real life events."
• “I learnt a lot about writing a book, the process and how long it takes. I was more intrigued in narrative writing after the event. I like the more fantasy type story because I usually read modern day/event books."
• “I enjoyed the workshop because it really gave me an insight into how he writes and gets inspiration. It was interesting seeing the author describe the process of writing."
• “I learnt that he develops characters as he writes the plot so that they fit in."
• “It was good to hear what he had to say about writing a book and what method he uses."
• “I enjoyed using skype to talk to Richard about his book. Richard answered the questions really well."
• “Our talk with Richard was very interesting and I learnt that he finds it hard to sit down and physically write the book."
• “It was really good talking to the author because it was a chance to ask him questions about the book and about the inspiration for the book."
• “I would recommend it to other year groups."

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Richard very much for joining us. He gave his time freely to STRS for the event and made the novel available to students to download from Amazon at no charge, prior to the session.

Students invited to the event were Freddie Dockar-Drysdale, Luke Hopwood, George Palmer, Jack Fletcher, Ben Lindgren, Ben Wyman, Innes Peek, Ed Hulls, Alex Johnston, John Carrington, Gabe Knight, Thomas Weygang, Alistair Ryan, Max Macdonald, Hanzalah Randera, Tom Morris, Max Marshall, Allyn Cooper, Adam Blackwood and Will Roberts.

'The Wyrm Conspiracy' is available on loan from the LRC.