Knights, Wizards, Dragons and Frogs…

C.J. Busby writes fantasy with packed with humour, pace and inventiveness. Her first book, Frogspell, is a magical adventure set in Arthurian times which was a Richard and Judy Children’s Book Club choice for 2012. The four-book Spell series brings together would-be wizard Max, his sister Olivia and an assortment of knights, wizards, evil enchantresses and a very dim dragon called Adolphus. Her new series is a multiple worlds trilogy set partly in modern times, with a powerful amber jewel, two sinister black-suited men who want to find it, and four children from different worlds who have to join forces to stop them. The first book, Deep Amber, came out in March2014; the second, Dragon Amber, has just been published.

Students at Priory School and Christ the King College will join Cecilia to find out how a childhood living on boats inspired her stories, and have a go at doing a bit of magical writing of their own, whether it’s learning the trick of writing powerful magical spells, or imagining themselves entering a portal to another world. What will they see? Who might they meet?

Shot and wounded, blown up badly- TWICE- and here he is to tell the tale

His CV reads like one of a fictitious super hero from the realms of fantasy and fiction, yet “Simon Chambers” is the real deal (albeit with a fake name), and he has the credentials to prove it. As a former paratrooper, Chambers was trained and ready to form the spearhead for the Army’s rapid intervention capability; soon progressing to the first battalion as part of the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). The years that followed cut similar paths in various other army roles, among which Chambers was only marginally slowed in pace by a particularly bad Parachuting accident while jumping as part of the Royal Corps of Transports Parachute Display team- The Silver Stars.

Yet even once he was discharged from the forces following 22 years’ service, he almost immediately found himself volunteering for a further 6 months in Bosnia.

This is a man who sought (and still does seek) to survive on the near constant presence of adrenalin pulsing through his veins, so it should be of no surprise that when he eventually became too old to soldier in the British Army, there wasn’t a very long list of civilian jobs to match such a colourful work history. But there were Private Security companies. Having attended a close protection course, it wasn’t long before Chambers was offered a job with one of America’s top close protection companies. This was the just the beginning of another 7 years of putting his life on the line but this time, as a hired gun for some of Iraq’s biggest named security companies – Blackwater, Erinys, Aegis and EODT- after he was first positioned there as part of Paul Bremmer’s Bodyguard team. As might be expected when living life on the edge, Chambers came close to losing his balance. During that time he was shot and wounded- twice -and blown up- twice. And yet he has survived such perils.

The man himself will be speaking at Cowes Enterprise College on Friday 17th October, with invites to other island secondary schools. He has recently written his second novel “The Devil’s Playground”, which is about his adventures and published by Percy Publishing. Simon is still active in the field and therefore no pictures or videos are to be taken. Unless your in the audience, his face will remain a mystery.

Beauty and talent personified in star poet Sabrina Mahfouz

Award Winning performance poet to stun students

Sabrina Mahfouz is currently a Sky Academy Arts Scholar for poetry; an Associate Artist at the Bush Theatre; Poet in Residence at Cape Farewell – a climate change and arts organisation; a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum and a Writer at Liberty for the civil rights charity, Liberty. Her first collection of plays and poems, The Clean Collection, is published by Bloomsbury.

The award-winning performance poet will lead a workshop at Cowes Enterprise College on writing and performing your own work. The participants will spill their stories onto paper through a number of fun writing exercises and engage in some performance exercises in order to prepare them for presenting their favourite pieces to the rest of the class on Friday 17th October.

Sabrina will also be performing on Friday night as part of the Friday Fringe to the main Isle of Wight Literary Festival.

Sarah Holding’s VERY BIG WRITE

Students across multiple year groups from Christ the King College and Carisbrooke College will work together to create a collaborative story- On a giant scroll! Sarah Holding will be leading ‘The Big Write’ workshop on Friday 17th October, taking the game of ‘consequences’ to a whole new level. Attendees will also be fortunate to hear about Sarah’s own highly successful science fiction trilogy which features a sense of ‘Dr Who’s tardis’ with time travel adventure (look out for the SeaBEAN trilogy). Reduced priced books will be available for students to buy on the day and there’ll be opportunities to get them signed by the author herself… don’t forget to bring some extra cash to school that Friday! There are stacks of glowing reviews on the website and if you can crack the code, you can win prizes so click the link and find out more.

Author of the SeaBEAN trilogy and brain behind the very successful schools workshop- ‘The BIG Write’