Harry Oulton - Writing
Harry
Oulton
AIM High Writing
Summary
Age range Primary
Books Yes
DBS Checked No
Booking
Contact
+44 (0)1535 656015
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Harry worked at the BBC and Granada for longer than he cares to remember before publishing his first book, A Pig Called Heather, in 2014.
About Harry
The second Heather adventure came out in August of the same year and a third in summer 2015.
When he was growing up, Harry’s dad wouldn’t allow the family to have a TV, so he had no choice but to read, read and read. As soon as he left home he got a job in television (obviously!), but he kept on reading. Now a full time children’s novelist (and occasional screenwriter), Harry likes nothing better than coming to talk to schools about writing, about TV, about cruel fathers and generally how he thinks watching TV and reading books are basically the same thing.
He lives in Highbury, North London with his wife, 3 children and a cat to whom he is allergic.
Harry’s AIM High Writing Days
Harry’s AIM High Days are a fun and exciting mixture of games and exercises designed to stretch the children while ensuring they enjoy themselves as much as possible.
The first session (9.45am – 11am) is an introduction to literacy, how we read and why. Having worked in television and film for many years, Harry is a strong believer in visual storytelling and explains that our brains are visual organs and that we don’t read books so much as ‘watch them’. This is a fun presentation which is designed to make the children think about reading and storytelling in a totally different way. The children are then encouraged to ‘see’ a story in their heads and Harry guides them through classical oral storytelling and on the hoof story construction. This session is designed to break down inhibitions and free up the children’s story-telling muscles. These stories can end up in some unusual places…
11.15am – 12.45pm - the group switch to more traditional storytelling as they write short autobiographical poems, before moving on to ‘tweeterature’, where they are encouraged to tell complete three act stories in 140 characters, an exercise which encourages them to be concise and selective about narrative. They discuss figures of speech, and Harry gives them tips for how to use and remember some tricks of the trade! If there is time at the end of this session they play a fun but fiercely competitive literary game involving word creation against each other and the clock.
The final session (1.30pm -2.45pm) covers dialogue as the children are given a literary cue (sometimes one of Harry’s books, sometimes Treasure Island) and then encouraged to continue the story in the form of a written conversation between two or three characters. If there is time then the dialogue is acted out, as there is no better way to learn about dialogue than to speak it, and to hear it spoken.
A Selection of Harry’s Books
Bookings
To book Harry Oulton please contact
aimhigh@caboodlebooks.co.uk
Harry also offers visits to schools and other settings, click here for more information.