On Wednesday 17th November, we were delighted to welcome Patrice Lawrence, award winning Author.
Patrice Lawrence is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. She was also awarded the MBE this Summer for services to literature and is a champion of social justice and diversity. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize‘s inaugural children’s and young adult category for her book ‘Eight Pieces of Silva’ (2020).
Year 7 to 10 pupils attended a talk about Patrice Lawrence’s love of reading and writing and how she wants to portray all kinds of diverse families in her books, having always felt “other” herself. Patrice spoke movingly and with humour of her influences, which included books read to her as a child by her Trinidadian mother, seeing people like her in a Malorie Blackman adaptation, and the brilliant storytelling in Korean television series.
“I like the way her characters seem like real people, with real interests like K-Pop and Marvel. It was very interesting that she didn’t see book characters like herself growing up, so she decided to write them.”Katy, Year 7 pupil
At break time, the pupils had the opportunity to get a copy of their book signed by the author.
“She was very inspiring because she was open and honest about her own life. My favourite part was when she showed us the diary she wrote when she was 13. It shows that even though we are a new generation of teenagers, we still find the same things intriguing and baffling.” Joy, Year 9 pupil
