Our Year 7 students attended a virtual author visit at Brooke Weston Academy with children’s author Kate Poels.

Kate talked about her latest book, ‘On Wings to the Stars’, a dual narrative, timeslip adventure that was inspired by a photograph of Kate's grandmother and is about life in Malta during World War 2.

Kate gave students advice on writing historical fiction and the importance of research and linked this to the processes of world building and character development. She also answered as many questions from students as she could and gave our aspiring writers some great tips to unlock their own creativity and story ideas.

Scarlet Kilpatrick said, ‘I enjoyed the event, it was very informative, and she gave us lots of tips about how to start writing a story of our own.’

Ruta Ambrasaite said, ‘I found it fascinating to hear about all the research that Kate did before she started writing her book, and it gave me a better understanding of how important it is to research about history and characters when writing historical fiction.’

Matthew Philbey said, ‘It was an interesting talk and I enjoyed hearing about all the research that Kate did, especially as it was based on real events.’