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26 February 2020
Author and Actress, Lisa Williamson, treated Senior students from Littleover Community School, Trent College and Derbyshire’s top independent school, Derby High School, to a special visit on 29th January. The visit coincided with Lisa’s paperback publication of Paper Avalanche. Students experienced a motivational and insightful talk through her painfully shy schooldays, her leap into the performing arts and then back to her love of writing.
Born in Nottingham, Lisa spoke about her time growing up in the East Midlands and her move to London to study Performing Arts at Middlesex University. After sharing personal photographs of her childhood and accounts of her time as a professional actor, Lisa explored her inspiration behind her bestselling debut novel for young adults, The Art of Being Normal. This was followed with short and captivating readings from Lisa’s novels All About Mia and Paper Avalanche.
Speaking of the event, one Year 9 Derby High student said “she was really inspirational and gave me ideas for what I want to write as a budding author”. Another pupil went on to say, “I found her very insightful, Lisa is very passionate about her work”.
Sue Bussey, Library Resources Manager at Derby High School, organised the visit. Commenting on the event, Sue said, “You always know that an event has been a good one when the students are begging for copies of the visiting author’s books. Lisa Williamson was a very motivational and warm speaker who seems to truly understand the way that teenagers think and what they need to help them to understand a great deal about themselves.
I love her books and can highly recommend them. The themes are all very different and the characters very empathetic. The students’ questions revealed their interest in Lisa’s life and experiences and showed their wish to understand the issues of writing and how to develop the skills and story-lines required.”
Lisa delighted students at the end of the talk with a personal book signing and time to speak individually in the school’s Library.
