A Selection of Andy's Books
Andy Mulligan
Type of Artist:
Andy was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2011 for his gritty, action-packed thriller, “Trash” – the movie is now out on DVD, cert.15.
He was the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2011 for the bizarre school series, ‘Ribblestrop’ and has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.
A former teacher, he has been visiting schools regularly for many years. “I don’t visit schools to push my own books: I visit to celebrate reading and writing. Children often enjoy talking about the process of writing, and how particular books came to be written – they want to know where characters come from, and they often find the whole publishing process fascinating.
A lot of schools do like to focus on ‘Trash’ as that’s my most accessible, fast-moving book- and that’s fine. Practical workshops usually offer starting points for direct, communicative story-telling, and I find the most productive days are when the organizing teachers have a real agenda – a real sense of what they want to achieve. I do my best to fit in with that, and am always happy to discuss and plan beforehand.”
Details
Preferred age range:10+ up to adult
No of sessions per day:
2 morning, 2 afternoon, depending on travel time involved.
Session Length:
Talk: 1 hr
Workshop s: usually 60 mins
with time for book signing afterwards
Areas prepared to travel to:
Anywhere if overnight expenses are met.
Transport:
I usually travel by train from Chichester, Sussex – first class when this is not prohibitively expensive
Fees:
Website:
Titles include:
Ribblestrop
Return to Ribblestrop
Ribblestrop Forever!
The Dangerous World of Joe McGinty
Trash
The Boy with Two Heads
Liquidator!
Testimonials:
I invited Andy Mulligan to visit my school to take part in our lower school World Book Day celebrations because his novel Trash had been voted ‘Favourite Book’ in a reading challenge which we had run for our Year 7s.
Andy’s creative writing workshop with a class of Year 9 boys held their attention well and they produced some quality writing in response to his ‘stealing a character’ advice. He also gave separate Powerpoint presentations in our lecture theatre to two whole year groups (Years 7 & 8) in which he revealed the inspirations behind his writing and in particular Trash. He then invited the audience to consider the importance of reading for pleasure and share with the group things they had enjoyed reading.
The content of the workshop and presentations elicited positive feedback from both the staff and pupils, and Andy’s experience as a teacher allowed him to engage with the groups and manage them well when things became a little too enthusiastic, especially in the Q & A part of the sessions.
Merchant's Taylor School, Northwood
The students and staff of Teddington School read Trash as a whole school read and so were delighted when we had the opportunity to invite Andy into school to talk to our year 9 students.
Andy’s presentation encompassed not only a talk about the story but also about the actual lives of street children who survive on the rubbish dumps in Manila. He contrasted this with the privileged lives of other children living in the same city. His inspiring talk was illustrated with dramatic and relevant photographs which certainly gave our students food for thought. He later engaged with a range of students answering their questions with insight into the lives of the people he had based his research upon.
As a result of his engaging presentation students were discussing his talk for days afterwards.
Teddington School
Andy Mulligan keeps the audience enthralled whether he is talking about dumpsite kids in Manila or about the wonderfully gruesome idea of a boy with two heads. Like his books, his talks are full of excitement, humour and moving stories. He explains where his inspiration and ideas come from and can give the inside track on the filming of his book Trash in Rio.
Lauren Bennett, Random House
Published work:
Photos:
