Award-winning author Julian Sedgwick recently visited Corby Business Academy to deliver an interactive assembly to Year 7 about his recent novels Tsunami Girl and 100 Tales from the Tokyo Ghost Café.  

Tsunami Girl, which is set amidst the 2011 tsunami on the East Coast of Japan, is a product of Julian’s own interest in Japan and its culture. Julian’s presentation allowed our Year 7 students to hear first-hand his own experience with ghosts and the part they have played in his own life and also those of his characters.  

The book, which is part prose and part Manga, appealed to many of our students who are already avid readers of our Manga volumes. The ghostly element also peaked the interest of our horror fans, of which there are many!  

Julian also delivered a more intimate writing workshop to 30 of our students who wanted to develop their creative writing skills. The students had to imagine and create their own ghost story using prompts from Julian, who shared his writing and ideas.  

The finished ideas were pure imaginative genius, with one story in particular taking place in CBA, with a ghostly Mrs Ashley coming back to haunt one last detention session!  

Students thoroughly enjoyed taking part in the day’s sessions and Julian himself was most impressed with their attitude, engagement and also with staff engagement throughout the day who were there to support the students, discover and ignite their reading for pleasure.  

Students also had the opportunity to purchase one of Julian’s books from a local bookshop, Quinns of Market Harborough, which they could have signed on the day.  

Librarian, Mrs Keelan said ‘It was an absolute pleasure to host Julian at CBA as we head towards the end of term. Hopefully, the students who attended the assembly and writing workshop took away something positive from the experience of meeting an author in real life and learning about the writing process. We have a huge group of students who devour our Manga section, so it was a real joy to see them learn more about Japanese culture and their ghost stories.

We thoroughly enjoyed welcoming Julian to the Academy and hopefully will return again sometime.