The author, Linda Strachan visited the school for a session with three of the S1 classes. Linda writes for all ages (she is responsible for the Hamish McHaggis series) but it was her gritty teen titles – Spider, Dead boy talking and Don’t judge me –  that she  was here to talk about. She told us how she got inspiration, how she researched her ideas and also read extracts from her books which had us all intrigued. It was obvious that the pupils enjoyed  the visit. Quite a few purchased one of her books on the day and library copies are still in great demand. Here is some of the feedback we received:

“Interesting – especially finding out about how an author gets inspiration or research. I also liked that the books had a “message” behind the story eg Don’t Judge Me is about trust and judging someone from what you see and know”

“Linda was very inspirational for all the pupils here. Her books look so detailed, fun and lots more”

“I really enjoyed Linda’s talk because it really made me understand what she does to get an idea of what the characters go through and what they feel”

“I think she was awesome. I loved how she said every word with emotion”

“I think it was very interesting and having the privilege of having an author here is cool”

“I thought Linda’s talk was very interesting and I loved getting to know the research that goes into her books”

“I thought it was wonderful! I loved listening to the author talk about her books”

“I loved it and the books are awesome! Helped me with my writing”

“It was very interesting and nice meeting and finding out about Linda Strachan and her books. It would be nice to do this more often”

“She has made me start reading again”