St Mary's Calne
We were delighted to have Julian Sedgwick come and give a talk to LIV and MIV (Years 7 and 8). Julian spoke about his journey to being a published author, from the first stirrings of his desire to write at the age of seven, the huge influence his father had on both him and his brother Marcus, also a published author, as his father was able to conjure up fabulous stories in an instant, to publishing his first book, The Black Dragon, in 2013. A lifelong interest in the arts and culture of China and Japan has influenced much of his work, as has his fascination with performance, street art and circus.
Julian showed the girls images from his trips to Japan, images that were a vital part of his research for his novel Tsunami Girl, that is based in Japan in 2011, just at the time of the triple disaster of the earthquake, tsunami and then radiation from Fukushima hits the eastern coast of Honshu Island. The images showed empty towns, deserted shops and pachinko parlours, spaces that nature is beginning to reclaim. But places that, once the radiation levels were safe, people began to slowly return to, with one woman planting thousands of flowers in gardens to brighten up the town and attract others back.
Julian spoke about how ghosts are a large part of Japanese culture, how they are often thought to have unfinished business, and that Noh Theatre will often portray someone being visited by a ghost needing their help to move on.
It was looking at these images of deserted towns and shops, and the ideas from the plays of Noh Theatre, that formed the basis for the task that Julian then set the girls. They had to think of a normal, everyday place, such as a shop, and then make it deserted, using their senses to build a real setting for their story, choosing a time of day and a season to best set the scene. Next, they needed a witness, someone who happens to come across this deserted place, and finally the stranger, or ghost, who has unfinished business.
The girls devised some fabulous scenarios – here are a selection:
An abandoned petrol station, where a Deliveroo driver out on a delivery stops as their headlights don’t work – to find a ghost waiting for their food!
An abandoned hospital, where a journalist who is researching hospitals turns up at dusk, having been directed there by Google Maps, and she stumbles across the ghost of a doctor who’s grandson died at the hospital.
A fish and chip shop, long since abandoned, where a group of girls find the ghost of the dead owner frying chips for his next customer.
And a dorm in School house, where a student from many years ago comes to see her old dorm, only to find a girl hiding under the bed covers, where she hid in a game of hide and seek and was never found!
It was an insightful afternoon, and hopefully the girls have taken from this both a greater understanding of the devastating events in Japan in 2011, as well as some great creative ideas for their next writing project.