One thing about knowing very little about an author is that you have no idea what to expect from them in person. This was certainly true for Alan Gibbons, author of ‘The Edge’, ‘Shadow of the Minotaur’, ‘Caught in the Crossfire’ and the Total Football series (to name but a few), who visited us on Thursday to give a talk to years 5, 6, and 7.
From the moment he began talking, the entire room was
captivated (students and teachers alike!). Embellishing his sentences with a
quick snippet of song or different voices for his many characters, there was
never a moment that was not filled to the brim with infectious energy and humour.
He even got the whole hall to mime as he told a story about a gorilla!
However the great joy of listening to Alan Gibbons was that
within the comedy there was poignancy and hidden learning. Whether it was
autobiographical anecdotes or thoughtful answers to students’ questions, we all
left the Great Hall better off than when we stepped foot in it that morning.
Here
are some of our favourite quotes from the day:
On teachers:
“Daleks grow up to be teachers – ‘EDUCATE! EDUCATE!’”
On teachers:
“Daleks grow up to be teachers – ‘EDUCATE! EDUCATE!’”
On his literary competition:
“I had to beat Harry Potter,
something even Voldemort’s not done!”
On comic books:
“The things I read were comics. Comics were cool because
there were heroes but they weren’t invincible. These are the stories of us
weird, imperfect human beings who have adventures.”
On music and writing:
“Music teaches you stories. It teaches you how to tell them.”
In response to the question: What gave you the idea for the
books?
“It was having to do it I suppose – I was teaching and had a
lot of kids with challenging behaviour (they kicked the daylight out of each
other). Was I going to spend my career shouting at kids? No, the best way is to
tell them stories; get them laughing, get them on the edge of their seats.
Discipline through stories […] Teaching made me a writer.”
On his favourite children’s book:
“Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, possibly the
greatest adventure ever written.”
‘My first book was called, “Pig”. It was about a pig.’
