with Sydenham High School at the beginning of March. The authors read from their latest novels, signed books for the girls who questioned them about their lives as authors, their inspirations, passions and beliefs as well as the hard graft and perseverance needed to finish a successful novel.
Ten competition winners had lunch with both authors and the girls showed trailers they had made for a film version of Gemma Malley’s The Declaration which they had studied in year 9.

Gemma Malley, a GDST alumna, believes passionately that young people have the energy and ideas to change the world, a message that resonated with the year 7 and 8s she addressed and was evident in her reading of The Killables, the first novel in her new trilogy.

Meg Rosoff, who credited Helen Fraser, GDST Chief Executive (formerly CEO of Penguin Books) with helping her writing career addressed year 9 and 10 students and read from her new book, There is no Dog which has been shortlisted for the Carnegie medal. Girls from year 7 through to year 10 are shadowing the Carnegie Medal by reading and commenting on the booklist in advance of the prize being announced in June.

The day started with an assembly by Head of English, Caroline Paice, who celebrated the impressive range of reading that girls undertake at school and invoked both Disney’s Belle and Jane Eyre’s Mr Darcy to remind them that reading should open up new worlds as well as allow them to improve their mind by extensive reading.