English Students Meet Award Winning Author

GCSE students at Ellesmere welcomed multi-award winning author, Bali Rai. He delivered a talk to Year 10 and Year 11 pupils and provided a unique insight into his life as a writer. Bali Rai was born in Leicester and grew up in a multicultural, multi-racial community close to the city centre.

His first novel '(Un)arranged Marriage', published in 2001, is now cult young adult reading. 'The Crew' and then 'Rani & Sukh' followed the first novel - both well received and widely read. In 2010 'Rani & Sukh' became a set-text for GCSE.

Bali Rai is now well established as a distinctive voice in young adult fiction. His books have been translated into 10 languages and have won many awards. He has been invited all over the world to talk about his writing. Gemma Heald, English Teacher, said "reading for pleasure is a passion for Bali and he tries to instil that in everyone he talks to. We felt his visit was an opportunity not to be missed."

Bali gave talks to the students about his books, followed by question and answer sessions, in order to get students more interested and excited by reading and inspire them to write. "You don't have to have been on an amazing journey or involved in extraordinary situations to be able to write great stories, and the stimulus for much of my own writing is everyday life," Bali explained. He also spoke about issues surrounding multi-culturalism, ethnicity, citizenship and politics, which he often covers in his books.