Thursday May 16th 2024

Dear Diary,

It was an absolute privilege to spend the whole of today at Brookthorpe Hall School – a specialist school in for autistic young people in Gloucester. I’m beginning to realise there’s so much more to being an author than just writing and selling books. A whole new world of opportunities has suddenly opened up to me, and I can’t believe my luck! My school visits are always so varied, but today’s visit was entirely different to any I’ve done before. Each of the five sessions I put on was with a small handful of pupils, making for a much more personal experience. And in one of them I got to spend a chunk of one-on-one time with a pupil who, to my delight, wore magical fancy dress!!! I’d expected there to be far less two-way interaction during this visit, but that wasn’t the case at all. So many of the young people were participative in the activities – and lots of those initially reluctant to join in eventually became intrigued and got involved. It’s been fantastic to try out all of my School Pack activities today, to see how they work in practice and which ones need tweaking for future visits. And coming away with photos of some of the masterpieces that were created was the icing on the cake!!! I’m so grateful to Emma and the staff for inviting me to their incredible school and making me feel so at home. And to all the pupils for accepting a stranger into their midst and providing me with memories I’ll treasure forever. Oh… and it was a real treat receiving a free cooked lunch – spaghetti Bolognese – which was delicious without Uncle John’s compulsory huge dollop of mashed potato on top!