Children from 34 primary schools who work with Flying High English Hub took part in a huge virtual author event on World Book Day, with children’s author SF Said.

The writer of Varjak Paw, The Outlaw Varjak Paw, and Tyger, amongst other books, SF Said shared his journey of becoming an author with the children. He talked of his inspirations and journey to becoming published for the first time, recounting the many rejections of his work along the way.

Children joining the event came from 34 schools who work with Flying High English Hub spanning Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire, Derby City and Derbyshire, most of whom had arrived at school dressed as their own favourite story book characters for World Book Day.

Finley Lunn (11), who is a pupil at Bilsthorpe Flying High Academy, said: “S.F. Said talked about how he became an author and it was really inspiring. The fact that he has been rejected so many times by different publishers…I think it was 90…really shows how resilient he is!

“On his 91st try a publisher said ‘yes’ and look at him now! At lunchtime, me and my teacher looked on Amazon to order his books for our school!”

Katy Armstrong, Flying High English Hub lead, an organiser of the event, added “We know from research that children who choose by their own volition to read for pleasure have the most successful futures and we, at Flying High English Hub, want this for all children.

“In addition to the free training we offer to teachers and leaders, one way that we can support schools in encouraging their culture of reading for pleasure is to host virtual author events, which we do every term, to enable the children to interact with authors and be inspired by them. We’d love to see even more schools and classrooms engage in our events. Visit our website to find out how to do this.”