Who number one: Mr Frank McCourt.
What a funny, fearless, honest, insightful man. To spend over an hour in his audience and listen to his stories first hand was a real blessing. I love his writing and Angela's Ashes came to me at a point in my life, several years ago, when I really needed to hear about someone else's crap. Boy did he go through some crap! Well, misery was the term he used to describe his childhood to us - and yet we all smiled, no, we laughed. And that is what a great story teller does. They can make the most tragic and awful events humorous. Yet enable us to understand the poignancy of the story and perhaps remind us to be resilient in times of adversity.I really liked his opinion on poetry...leave it alone. Stop dissecting and analysing and just enjoy it for what it is. On children...there isn't a single child who cannot achieve if we'd just believe in them and give them all the opportunities they deserve. On education...many current methods are outdated and do not serve the students at all. I'm an educator, albeit one who is having a hiatus of service, and much of my time teaching was spent feeling despondent at the tangled mess of the education system. Too many people who sit a long way from the classrooms, where the real business of education resides, have far too much power and influence and it does not serve the students, it serves the system!
Anyway, back to Mr McCourt and his sharing of stories of his early years in Limerick; the tragic deaths of his siblings; how he came to be a writer; and his first day teaching on Staten Island, NY. There was so much more he said and there was so much more we wanted him to say but sadly our time together had to end.
Thank you for sharing, Frank McCourt...I'm inspired!
Who number two: Mr Anthony Horowitz.
Talk about motor mouth, enigmatic, humorous, generous and downright entertaining. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids...if not more. My young Master is a big fan of Horowitz
's novels but today I had to coerce, nay, drag the young man out of his bear pit to see one of his favourite authors. There was much protesting, foot stomping and not very nice looks in my general direction as I dragged him to the venue. His father, Mr, was behaving in a very similar manner also! Admittedly Master also had to go and see Frank McCourt - but I know he secretly enjoyed that too. I'm happy to say my efforts paid off as both Mr and Master had an enjoyable time, laughing more than they have in a good while. And let's face it... we all need a jolly good laugh to keep us on the right track. Master came away with his favourite novel signed and a lovely photo taken with Anthony Horowitz.What I enjoyed most about Anthony Horowitz (apart from his million miles an hour vocabulary) was that he is so willing to share. Share his ideas, his passion, and an excerpt from his yet to be published novel. But, I can't talk about that, he made us all promise to not breathe a word and I really don't want to be the person to end up as an evil character in one of his future novels. You see, he has a habit of writing in characters for people who have not been very nice to him; such as the gentleman who put an end to Horowitz's dream of seeing a movie sequel to Stormbreaker. An outcome that he's none too happy about - and who can blame him. So in true creative style he wrote a character for the nasty (my inference) man who ended his dream and avenged the harm done to him in real life. So there, Mr Nasty Pants!
But there's still more. What a revelation today - I didn't know that Horowitz also wrote Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders, to name just two television series. He's a prolific writer and I was going to say, I don't know how he does it...but if he thinks and writes as fast as he speaks, then the man operates at double the rate of the average human being!
Thanks Mr Horowitz, you were amazing!
