Chris Martin, author of the Inky Stevens book series, visited Bolton School Boys' Division for a day of workshops with keen readers in Years 7 and 8.
The morning was dedicated to talking about Inky Stevens, the Great School Detective. Chris spoke to the boys about 'The Case of the Caretaker's Keys' and 'The Case of the Abominable Snowball', explaining the setup to both mysteries and how main character Inky becomes involved in solving them. This included recruiting members of his audience to act out key scenes, bringing them to life for everyone. He also used this portion of the day to share his own writing journey and talk to boys about being an author.
In the afternoon, Chris and a group of five boys acted out a mystery play about a poisoning at the football final between two rival schools. As well as being packed full of footballing puns, the play contained all the information needed to answer the question of who poisoned the star football player. Boys in the audience were asked to share their own deductions before the big reveal at the end!
As well as learning lots about the writing process and the key components of writing a mystery story, the boys thoroughly enjoyed their day with Chris.
