Award Winning Novelist Leads Creative Writing Workshop

On Thursday, Mrs Epsom’s Remove group had the opportunity to take part in a creative writing workshop led by the award-winning novelist for historical fiction, Philippa Gregory, on behalf of The British Library. In conjunction with the British Library’s current exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, as well as Ms Gregory’s new non-fiction book ‘Normal Women’, pupils were introduced to stories of women who have been marginalised in history. They were given the opportunity to choose one woman that inspired them, then create short imaginative descriptions of moments in the life of these women. Ms Gregory appraised two pieces of descriptive writing and commented on what she considers to be successful crafting; pupils were then encouraged to critique their own work and set targets for what they would like to discover to enable their work to be more authentic. After the workshop, each pupil continued their research and edited the first paragraphs of their writing. The 45-minute session was an invaluable insight for pupils into Ms Gregory’s process when writing historical fiction. In addition, it taught pupils the importance of crafting writing so that it is carefully written and has an authentic voice.