Top author Philip Reeve visits White Lodge

On Friday 9 March Philip Reeve, award-winning author of young people’s fiction, treated Years 7, 8 and 9 to a compelling talk.

He described how he had been inspired to write his first novel ‘Mortal Engines’ by the fantasy stories he read as a child and then by the new style of science fiction of the Star Wars era. He has gone on to write a large number of very successful books in this genre.

Philip began by drawing on his training and first career as an illustrator and cartoonist. He sketched a cartoon of himself and then as he talked about his characters in the most recent books, he drew illustrations of them explaining how he arrives at the plots and characters in his novels by picturing them almost in the same way as a film unfolds.

In the afternoon, Year 10 had the opportunity to see Philip at work as an illustrator as he talked them through how he had started his career and then how he became a writer.

Many members of Year 10 are now the fortunate owners of an original Philip Reeve illustration and the flipchart he used during the talk will become a prized possession of the School.

Philip completed a long book-signing session and left a large number of students inspired to read more of his books and to find more of his illustrations.

This is the latest in series of visits to White Lodge by top authors, organised by the English Department to give students a deeper understanding of the written word and encourage them to read.

Pictured: Philip Reeve with his enthusiastic fans at the Lower School

Photo: Suzanne Gunton