Teenage tricks

AUTHOR Nigel Hinton never planned to be a writer, as pupils discovered when he visited St Anne's School this week.

Nigel, famous for children's novels such as Time Bomb, Buddy and Collision Course, spent all of Wednesday in the island.

He detailed his own school days when asked why he became a writer.

'I was a bad boy at school,' he said. 'I was always off smoking behind the cricket pavilion or finding ways to annoy teachers. My friends and I did some terrible things and got punished terribly for them.

'I never got told I could write or that I could be a writer one day. I just thought I was the dunce who got hit.'

Despite having no aspiration to write for a living, Nigel loved books as a child.

'Even though I spent all my time reading and nagging my dad to take me to the movies, I thought writing books was something that special people did - not people like me. My dad was a carpenter and my mum cleaned office blocks. I thought I would end up working in a bank like my sister.'

After working in a series of jobs, Nigel decided that he wanted to study for an English degree.

'At the age of 33, I found myself being a teacher and I loved it. I didn't like school, but I loved being in the classroom,' he said.

'I had no intention of becoming a teacher. I only went to college to do an English degree, but found that only a teacher training college would take me on. To make progress, I had to go out and be a teacher - which was a horrible idea - but I stood in front of some children, shaking like a leaf, and I started talking and they were listening to me. It was obvious that the children liked me and the tutor said I was a natural.'

Nigel set up a drama class and came up with a script after needing to source a production with 40 parts - one for each child. He was then challenged by one of his pupils to write a novel.

'I was teaching a Year 8 class and we were reading a book which was truly awful. I said: "Let's stop this and go to sleep - anything but read this book." A girl called Kay, who always sat at the back making fun of me, said: "Mr Hinton, you shouldn't say anything stinks unless you can do it better yourself." I said I could write something better, and she replied: "Prove it, then."'

An all-night writing session and umpteen exercise books helped Nigel write his first book, Collision Course.

'I didn't want Kay thinking I was an idiot, so I spent the Easter holidays writing. I then read it to the children and they loved it.'

Nigel tried to get the book published, at the request of his pupils, but was knocked back by 13 publishers.

'They kept writing back saying that teenagers would be bored by it, but I knew that was wrong as I'd tried it on teenagers and they'd enjoyed it. That's what gave me the confidence to keep going,' he said.

'I finally sent it off again and two days later I got a call from a man who said he thought it was fantastic and that he'd like to publish it. Then out it came.

'When I opened the first copy, I looked at it and thought, "I'm a writer". I read it and thought: "It's good, how did I do that?"'

Speaking after his workshop with Years 10 and 11, Nigel said the importance of reading must never be forgotten.

'As far as I'm concerned books give everyone, but particularly teenagers, access to thoughts which are not their own. I got to understand more about myself through books than anything else, so it's very important that young people today keep reading.'

Nigel said he had enjoyed his first visit to Alderney.

'All the children were great. They aren't used to long lessons these days, as everything is in bite-size chunks, but they sat through 70 minutes and took everything in.'

Head teacher Mike Gaunt said: 'Nigel got a wonderful reaction from all the children. The whole day was educational, inspirational and enjoyable.'