Manjeet delivered an illuminating and highly engaging talk to all students in Years 9 and 10 about her journey into writing and the real-life inspiration for her books, including her work with refugees through the charity Care4Calais and her own non-profit organisation Run the World. Manjeet also spoke about the barriers she has overcome both as a writer and, before that, as an actor, and the importance of not believing in glass ceilings, words which resonated strongly with her audience: students were queueing up afterwards to ask Manjeet to sign copies of her books. 

The day ended with a writing workshop just for students in the winning class (now in Year 10) in which students further explored key themes of The Crossing through a variety of short writing activities. 

You can read some of the students' comments on Manjeet's visit below:

'The talk was an inspiring experience for all of us, and it gave us some perspective on the writer and what her thinking behind her The Crossing was.' - Shivani

'During Manjeet Mann's visit, it was clear how passionate she is about her work. It was inspiring to hear about her own personal journey as an actress and a writer, and I found her creative writing workshop to be very engaging, as the free writing exercises we did made the experience unique and rewarding. I particularly enjoyed hearing her read some extracts from The Crossing, one of her amazing verse novels, which she read aloud beautifully.' - Jo

  

'Manjeet Mann was very inspirational - she revealed that being great does not come from natural talent, it comes from dedication and that anyone could be a magnificent writer if they only took the time to put pen to paper. I enjoyed both of her books very much, particularly The Crossing, which was beautifully devastating and reminded me that "No matter how dark it gets, there are still stars in the sky.' - Eshaal

'I had already read Run, Rebel and I really enjoyed the writing style and the story it tells, but the way she talked about The Crossing definitely made me eager to read it as well. I loved that she talked about her perhaps unusual route into writing as well as her writing process because it allowed me to understand how and why she realised she wanted to be an author and just  how much work goes behind making a verse novel. Finally, her overall message that you can do anything you put your mind to and that there are no glass ceilings made me feel very motivated even after the session ended, and this idea has definitely stuck with me.' - Roberta

'It was such a unique experience to hear Manjeet Mann in person. It is so rare to get an opportunity to meet an author you love in person, and it was wonderful to hear her talk about her books and her inspiring introduction to writing.' - Hana 

Many thanks to Manjeet for her visit, and to Prue Goodwin from the UK Literacy Association, whose generous sponsorship of the Our Class Loves This Book award enabled this visit to take place.