Today, our Year 7 students were treated to an exciting visit from local author Lou Abercrombie. Lou graduated from Durham University with a first-class honours degree in Mathematics, before working in television as an audio engineer and postproduction manager. When she had a family she moved to Bath, becoming a portrait photographer before taking up writing full time.

Lou came into school to discuss both her debut novel, Fig Swims the World and the more recently published Coming Up for Air, both of which can be described as coming of age adventure stories populated with quirky characters that are full of humour and spirit.

During her talk, Lou described the inspiration behind her books, explaining how aspects of her life and experiences become incorporated into her writing. Actively seeking adventures to feed her creativity, the girls learnt how Lou’s love of wild swimming contributed to the central storyline of Fig Swims the World and how learning to free dive played an essential part in the research of Coming Up for Air.

After a fascinating presentation during which Lou described swimming with mermaids in Denmark, discussed how she was influenced by Lord Byron and demonstrated the difficulties of holding your breath necessary for underwater swimming, students engaged in a lively question and answer session and were able to get their books signed.

Our massive thanks to Lou who was an animated and engaging speaker highlighting the fact that the inspiration for writing is all around us, hopefully encouraging any budding writers to give it a go!