School visits

Book a workshop or a school visit by author, editor and environmental journalist David Thorpe! David enjoys meeting children and adults, and conducting workshops in schools, residentials, festivals, and, really, anywhere!

The picture shows him meeting some brilliant kids in Lewisham where he read some questions at the annual Childrens Books Quiz. They all posed for this picture to send to HarperCollins to persuade them to publish the other books in the Hybrids trilogy.

In May 2008 he workshopped with 140 pupils bussed in to the Civic Hall in Sefton, Merseyside from ten schools in the vicinity. Two buzzing question-and-answer sessions were held in the morning and afternoon. Hybrids is shortlisted for an award in the Sefton SuperReads competition. About 100 copies were signed and sold.

David is a qualified FE teacher and has led a huge number of sessions on creative writing, media studies, film & tv scriptwriting and more.

What's on offer?

For example: David was honoured to open a new school library at St Matthew Academy, London, in May 2008. Everybody enjoyed the occasion and the lively discussion that followed on young peoples' attitudes to computers, mobile phones and their technology use, some of the themes of Hybrids.

He wrote afterwards on the SCBWI blog: "At St Matthew Academy, we had a very good discussion with year 7s about technology use. Nearly all said they themselves thought they used technology (PCs, mobiles) too much. This contrasted with just one third of the group (140 kids) I'd asked the same question of in Merseyside. I put this down to the perceived danger of being outside in south London - although their area is quite leafy. They said they didn't know what else to do with their time. When I modestly suggested "read" it was as if this was a strange idea! They agreed to attribute this to the addictive nature of technology use and - as pointed out by one girl who'd recently arrived in the UK - because the technology is so cheap, that everyone owns it and uses it to communicate with everyone else."

This gives a flavour of the type of lively discussions that happen. Topics can be anything from the themes raised in his books, question and answer sessions, writing workshops, comics and cartoons, to the business of being an author, editor, journalist and writing professionally.

David is always positive and enthusiastic, giving attendees a great boost and personal attention.

Fees and expenses can be discussed. Just email David to make an enquiry!