Author Visit – Allan Boroughs

Pupils in Year 5 and 6 were extremely lucky to enjoy a visit from author Allan Boroughs on Friday 16^th January 2015, Allan, a traveller and a writer, came in to talk to the pupils about his debut novel, Ironheart and the January 2015 sequel, Bloodstone.

Both books follow heroine, India Bentley on thrilling and action-packed adventures that take her to Siberia and Antartica to uncover the truths about her missing father, a legendary fortress called Ironheart, and a mystery that lies deep beneath the Antarctic ice caps.

Allan started his presentation by talking to the children about adventure, the experiencing something new or visiting a new place. The children were all keen to put up their hands to tell Allan of where they would like to go if they could go anywhere in the world, or what they would like to experience. Some children talked of visiting places like the jungle tot he arctic, and some talked about trying deep sea diving or the ocean.

Allan entertained the pupils with funny and interesting stories from his travels to Siberia and Antartica (both places are the backdrop to Allan’s two books), emphasizing his passion for adventure and experiencing new places and people. The pupils laughed out loud to Allan’s stories of smelly penguins and getting his hand stuck to ice cold metal toilet door handles, and Allan managed to get in a little bit of education too, telling the children about the weather conditions in Siberia (on the coldest day in Siberia, temperatures can drop to -70’C), the need to be prepared when travelling to other countries, and meteors and meteorites (children were quizzed to see if they knew how fast a meteor can travel from space to earth – about 20,000 mph at its slowest and on hitting earth, if you were wondering).

When talking to the children about how he develops a character, he chose a pupil from the audience to help. In one of Allan’ books is a character who Allan envisaged wearing a brown leather jacket (much like Allan’s favourite adventurer, Indiana Jones), a flying hat and googles (much like an old spitfire pilot would wear) and a rocket pack with a red button, that you must not push (read Bloodstone to find out why).

Following a Q and A session and before forming a very long queue to purchase their own signed copies of Allan’s two books, the pupils enjoyed extracts from each book read by the author himself.

Many thanks to Allan for taking the time to come and speak to us, and to Mrs Woollard and Books@Hoddeson for arranging the visit.