On Wednesday 3 February, years 7 and 8 pupils participated in a virtual event with Tamsin Winter, award winning author of Being Miss Nobody and Jemima Small Versus the Universe.

Realising from an early age that words had power and could elicit a huge reaction from people, Tamsin described her journey to becoming a published author from a childhood growing up in the countryside experiencing a fizz of excitement when visiting the local library, to an English and Creative Writing degree at university, and into teaching.

The image of a girl who was silent with all the words tumbling around inside her head came to Tamsin at work one day and was such a strong image that it became the inspiration for Being Miss Nobody, her first published book. Seeing her name on a book was a dream come true for Tamsin!

The idea for Jemima Small Versus the Universe came from a news headline about a schoolgirl losing her confidence and deciding to drop out of her school cricket team after the government initiative of checking BMIs of school pupils. This article was told from the mother’s point of view and Tamsin, wondering how the girl felt and how she herself would have felt at the same age, wanted to address the issue from the girl’s perspective.

Tamsin discussed self-esteem, body image, inspiring characters and wanting to quit with the students who were also treated to the first public reading by Tamsin of the beginning of her new book Girl in Real Life being published in July.

After answering a range of questions from eager students, Tamsin challenged them to start thinking of their own ideas for stories by thinking What if….

Find out more about Tamsin.

Tales On Moon Lane is offering copies of Tamsin’s books for sale with signed bookplates.