{"id":77,"date":"2008-03-07T13:00:40","date_gmt":"2008-03-07T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/?p=77"},"modified":"2008-03-07T13:00:40","modified_gmt":"2008-03-07T21:00:40","slug":"dazzled-in-dagenham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/?p=77","title":{"rendered":"Dazzled in Dagenham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s big event for me was a visit to Jo Richardson Community School<\/a>, in Dagenham, Essex – one of the finest-looking and best-equipped schools at which it has been my privilege to do my stuff so far. The JRCS Boothroyd Hall<\/a>, where my sessions were held, in particular, is absolutely jaw-dropping – take a look:<\/p>\n

\"BoothroydHall\"<\/p>\n

This pic’s a bit dark, but the whole of the rest of the school seems designed to be as light and airy and modern as possible: it looks fabulous, and its facilities (particularly the music department) are nothing short of stunning. But my positive feelings about the place were more than matched by the impression I got of the JRCS students, who were without exception an absolute pleasure to speak to. Each of the three sessions bubbled and fizzed with energy and enthusiasm – and questions, on everything from inspiration to Batfink<\/a>. Awesome!<\/p>\n

\"Hands!\"<\/p>\n

My thanks to Miss Meek and Miss Foreman for inviting me to JRCS and for making me feel so welcome. My thanks, too, to the students: I hope you got something out of listening to me – I certainly enjoyed speaking to you.<\/p>\n

\"Yeesh\"<\/p>\n

Wow. What a week it’s been. I am absolutely shattered, and just like last year (ew) someone I met at one of these events has left me with a powerful cold to remember them by! My nose is running like a tap, I feel like I’ve been punched between the eyes, and – now all the day’s coffees are finally wearing off (thanks, Heather!) – I’m drooping like a puppet whose strings have just been cut. But when I think of all the terrific young people I’ve met this week, I couldn’t be happier with how it all went.<\/p>\n

As an author of books for young people, I sit at my desk and write books that I think young people would like – or, more accurately, what I think \/I\/ would have liked when I was eleven to fifteen. But of course, I’m an adult: separated by years, there’s no way of knowing whether my stuff is really getting across to my audience unless I take it out to schools and libraries and bookshops and actually put it to the test. Speaking to young people – listening to their questions, discovering their concerns and interests – is a crucial source of inspiration for me and my work. I’d therefore like to offer my thanks to every single young person I’ve spoken to over the last five days.<\/p>\n

Sincerely. Thank you.<\/p>\n

-So: just one more event now remains before my second World Book Week as a published author comes to an end. Tomorrow is a bit special: it’s the gala opening day of a brand new independent bookshop in my area – The Big Green Bookshop<\/a>, in Wood Green. As you’ll see from their blog if you click on the link, samurai booksellers Simon and Tim have been working flat out to get everything ready in time – I can’t wait to see how it’s all turned out! Do come down for a natter if you’re in the area: I’ll be there <\/strong>(to help celebrate!) from about 2pm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

But now… now I’m going to fall into a deep sleep. Hope I can muster the energy to turn the computer… off… before… I… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ;p<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s big event for me was a visit to Jo Richardson Community School, in Dagenham, Essex – one of the finest-looking and best-equipped schools at which it has been my privilege to do my stuff so far. The JRCS Boothroyd Hall, where my sessions were held, in particular, is absolutely jaw-dropping – take a look: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.timdefenderoftheearth.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}