Candy will visit a nominated school and perform her popular and entertaining presentation The Hero’s Journey, in which she uses favourite stories from Harry Potter to Pixar films to teach the quest narrative structure, while at the same time telling the story of her own journey to becoming an author. Candy is happy to speak to any size audience or pooled audiences from more than one school, though she requests a microphone for numbers beyond 40. After the presentation, Candy will lead a workshop for up to 30 children, using the Quest structure and comics techniques to develop story ideas. Candy is based in London — travel and accommodation (if necessary) will have to be covered by the bidder. Year 6 and 7. For the 2016-2017 school year only. The Hero’s Journey presentation takes from 45 minutes to one hour, while the workshop is ideally from one to 1 1/2 hours.

*NB* Candy is offering two of these, as separate lots (see also her Primary School talk).

Candy Gourlay is a Filipino author based in London. Candy cut her teeth as a writer working for the opposition press during the Marcos dictatorship in Philippines in the 1980s. She married a British journalist and moved to London in 1989, where she began to write for children. Her debut novel Tall Story won the Crystal Kite Prize for Europe and the National Book Award in the Philippines. It was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for 13 prizes. Tall Story was also selected as one of the 50 best books celebrating cultural diversity in the United Kingdom.  Her second book Shine was listed for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. A picture book is due to be published in 2018.