Award-winning author Tom Palmer visits Elstree

Award winning author Tom Palmer spent the day at Elstree School, Berkshire as part of their World Book Day celebrations.

Tom gave an interactive presentation based on his popular war, football, history and rugby stories.  The children asked questions about developing characters, inventing plots and becoming an author.

He also gave a sneak preview of his new book ‘After the War’, a story about children that survived the holocaust and relocated to the Lake District in Britain.

After lunch, over hot chocolate and marshmallows in the library, Palmer explained how he had not enjoyed reading as a child, but having discovered newspapers and magazines, then moved on to books, which helped improve his writing.

School Librarian Ruth Walker said: 

“Tom Palmer’s visit was a huge success.  Our pupils loved the presentation, and the highlight was using an indoor goal in the school hall for his excellent reading quiz.”

Elstree pupils also thoroughly enjoyed meeting and talking to Tom. Sergey said:

“I loved his talk, because I love history and I found it really interesting.”

Torren said:

“It was inspiring because although he found things difficult, he didn’t give up, and kept going.”

Tom concluded:

I had a fantastic time at Elstree School for World Book Day. Rarely do I hear a school talk about such a breadth of reading, as I heard at Elstree. The children and staff have a real passion for books.”

Tom has been awarded The Ruth Rendell Award for Services to Literacy by the National Literacy Trust in association with the ALCS, and the Children’s Book Award. He was nominated for Carnegie. His new book ‘After the War’ is due to be published on May 7th 2020.