Award-winning author Tamsin Winter inspires Year 7 during her visit to BWA
Brooke Weston Academy was delighted to welcome back award-winning author Tamsin Winter, who spoke to Year 7 students about her journey to becoming an author and the inspiration behind her books. Tamsin, who trained as a teacher at BWA and taught English here until 2005, has published four books, with her fifth book, ‘I Dare You’ set to be released on May 8th.
During her visit, Tamsin shared how real-life issues such as bullying, body image, and social media usage are central themes in her books.
Tamsin said, ‘My dream of becoming an author started as a child back in 1987, but it wasn’t until 2017 that I achieved that dream. I studied creative writing at university, then got a job, but kept on writing. It wasn’t until 2015 that I had this powerful daydream. I saw this girl, sitting in a classroom, being completely ignored by everybody around her, but there were all these words tumbling around in her head. I really wanted to write this girl’s story. That became ‘Being Miss Nobody’. That story led to me getting my book deal, something I had dreamed about for 30 years.’
Tamsin also discussed her upcoming book, which follows best friends Willow and Alma as they film and share dares online. As the challenges escalate, the story delves into the consequences of their actions. She encouraged our aspiring writers to ‘write whenever you can in your spare time, believe in yourself, and never give up the dream.’
Highlighting the writing and editing process, Tamsin produced ten drafts of one book to illustrate the time-consuming nature of writing. She said, ‘A lot of people think that when you are a writer it all comes out perfectly, and you send it off to your publisher. That is certainly not the reality. I’ve got over 400,000 words in the drafts which have gone to make a book of 60,000 words. Words have been deleted, changed, edited, cried over, ripped up and then eventually they became a book.’
Students had the opportunity to ask Tamsin questions about her books and writing career, and they also had the chance to have one of her books signed by her.
Copies of all Tamsin’s books are available to borrow from the school Library.
Find out more about Tamsin and her books here.
See a selection of photos from Tamsin’s visit here.