Students and staff at Saint John Bosco College in Battersea will be welcoming award winning author Alex Wheatle MBE to their school to help celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 2nd March.

The charismatic storyteller will be making his second visit to the school, having previously enthralled students with his tales of life growing up in care in London during the troubled times of the early 80’s. Having been convicted for his involvement in the Brixton Riots, Alex turned his life around by discovering a love for reading and was awarded the MBE for his services to literature in 2008.

Alex’s debut novel ‘Brixton Rock’ founded his characteristic style, focussing on dialogue reflected by the South-London streets of his boyhood; street-slang and the idioms of disaffected youth. After five further novels, the author turned his hand to writing for teenagers with the Carnegie medal nominated ‘Liccle Bit’, part one of the ‘Crongton Trilogy’ set in a fictional world of Alex’s own fertile imagination.

The writer has recently celebrated winning his first major literary award, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, with the follow up: ‘Crongton Knights’. The book details “schoolboy McKay’s rash attempt to help out a girl in danger of exposure for sexting after her phone is stolen takes him on a mission even more dangerous than his more usual challenge of dodging early-morning visits by the bailiffs to his tower block home.”

Alex’s original slang drew praise from judge David Almond who said that the novel “hums with the beat of real life and the language sings from the page.”

‘Varjak Paw’ author SF Said also described Wheatle’s writing as: “poetic, rhythmic and unique, remaking the English language with tremendous verve. Crongton Knights is a major novel from a major voice in British children’s literature.”

Alex’s work resonates deeply with the students of Saint John Bosco College and he will be a highlight to the World Book Day celebrations; which also promises a Book Fair, a Drop Everything and Write exercise and a special reading and writing activity with school governors for the most recognised achievers in literacy.

Headteacher Mr Paul Dunne said: “Alex’s visit proved a huge success with our students last year and we are very excited to be inviting such an inspirational speaker back to St John Bosco College on World Book Day.”

For further details about the event please contact Maria Bud via e-mail MBudzynska@sjbc.wandsworth.sch.uk, via Twitter @SJBC_London or visit the school’s website www.sjbc.wandsworth.sch.uk.

Article supplied by Richard Longley