Ali Sparkes Visit to MTS Library

Ali Sparkes Visit to MTS Library

Wednesday 15th June 2016

The previous day the reading group had been to the Sefton Super Reads award afternoon, where Ali Sparkes had been declared the winner for her novel Car-Jacked. As this book is about a child genius called Jack, who is driven away when a bank robber steals his parents’ car, Ali started off her talk to year 7 and 8 boys with a quiz to find out if any of the pupils (or their teachers) were as bright as her main character! She revealed that she had not always wanted to write, and found learning to read difficult. Her first ambition was to go to drama school, but when she was not accepted she did several jobs like being a Pontins bluecoat, singing in a band, and journalism in local newspapers. She finally realised that writing was what she wanted to do, and says there is nothing she would rather do for a living.

The boys were eager to ask questions at the end of her talk, especially about how she writes. She explained that Car-Jacked needed a lot of editing, as her publishers wanted several changes, so it took her longer to write than usual. She likes to do a lot of research beforehand, so that her backgrounds and characters feel authentic. For Car-Jacked she asked a Glaswegian friend to check the speech of Ross the bank robber. Her favourite books include Jessica’s Ghost by Andrew Norris, and Joan Aiken’s The Whispering Mountain.

During lunch Ali was joined by members of the creative writing group, whose work will surely benefit from all the advice they received from an award winning author.