On Tuesday 18 May 2004 Malorie Blackman visited our school as part of our programme of author visits for reader development. We had roughly eighty minutes with her, as she held a creative writing workshop.

She began by doing some simple literary exercises with us. Firstly, we had to imagine the worst thing we could think of and turn it into a series on tangible objects. I came up with a snake, a snare drum and a silky voice. This encouraged us to use metaphorical language in our writing.

She then took us a step further and gave us an object, which we had to relate a character to. She showed us an arm bone and said that it belonged to a lady, and asked us to describe her. I got an old woman, witch-like in appearance, with a cackling voice. It was interesting getting the feedback from other members of the audience, as most of them also went for the ‘mad old lady who lives in a hut on a cliff’ vision. On the other hand, one person envisaged a thirtysomething lady with all the evil on the inside, rather like Mrs Marisa Coulter in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. This was a lesson in going for characters who also have a personality hidden beneath the skin.

A similar thing happened when she told us of the man who owned a woman’s evening glove. I came up with a relaxed, wealthy, cocktail-sipping man, but there again opinions varied widely.

In the second part of the session, Malorie Blackman talked to us about the inspiration behind her highly-acclaimed Noughts and Crosses, which many of us had read. There was a time for questions, book-signings and the purchase of some of her novels. Demand was very high, as can be seen from the photographs of the visit in this website. Overall, it was a very rewarding, enlightening and, most importantly, enjoyable event for the pupils, the teachers and (hopefully!) Malorie Blackman herself!

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