Multi-award-winning author Kiran Millwood Hargrave visit
Senior School
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Students enjoyed an end of term treat when we were delighted to welcome the multi-award-winning author Kiran Millwood Hargrave to Royal High.
Kiran has won, and been shortlisted for, many book awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the British Book Awards Children's Book. Most recently in 2023 she was awarded the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing for Children for Leila and the Fox. Many of the students in years 5, 6 and 7 were already familiar with Kiran’s books and were very excited to hear about the latest book in her new Geomancer trilogy The Storm and the Sea Hawk.
Kiran began by discussing how her reading in childhood influenced the writer that she has become. She explained that drawing a map to create an island was the starting point for her award-winning book The Girl of Ink and Stars and went on to reveal that much of the inspiration for her stories comes from the natural world.
From 800-year-old Greenland sharks, which was the catalyst for Julia and the Shark, to the arctic fox who walked over 5000 miles across sea ice from Norway to Finland (the inspiration for Leila and the Blue Fox), from tropical rainforests in Wales to rainbow trees and trees that could walk, Kiran shared a plethora of varied and interesting facts. Perhaps the information that students will remember most was the discussion about Zombie Fungi which can cause an ant’s head to explode!
Kiran was a warm and engaging speaker who both entertained and discussed a wealth of interesting facts and ideas. Her enthusiasm for the wonders of the natural world and her encouragement to students on their own creative journeys was both motivating and absorbing. To get started she advised “ask a question, the answer is the story”.
We wish Kiran the best of luck with her Geomancer series and look forward to welcoming her back to the Royal High in the near future.
