Elizabeth Wein talks women aviators in wartime on a flying visit to Norfolk

Thomas Jefferson
By Thomas Jefferson Posted in Children's Book Tour
July 5th, 2016

EW-1

The Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour went south of the border this June, hitting the B roads and navigating our way to 9 schools the length and breadth of Norfolk with just an ordinance survey map, a compass and historical fiction author and daredevil pilot Elizabeth Wein!

Elizabeth’s current trilogy of historical fiction centring on heroic women pilots in wartime are creating quite a buzz in the literary world, her latest novel Black Dove, White Raven receiving nominations for Carnegie Award and shortlisted for the Scottish Children’s Book Award.

Throughout the week Elizabeth enthused and enthralled pupils, teachers and librarians alike on how she researches her books and how she is inspired by her own colourful experiences and research trips.

Whether it was discussing how friendships are formed in conflict, depicting tales of survival in concentration camps or the importance of detail when setting a story in a distant civilisation and time, pupils absorbed all the information readily, before firing lots of questions back at Elizabeth!

We were lucky enough to be able to deliver a session at FLY Literature Festival in Norwich’s amazing Millennium Library, where Elizabeth ran a workshop for two schools as a conclusion to their day of literary events.

The schools did some fantastic work in the run-up to the tour. One school created a whole display about the real-life heroes who inspired the characters in Code Name Verity, Elizabeth’s espionage, survival thriller, the first in her aviation trilogy.

A huge thank you to Elizabeth, to all the schools we saw and to FLY Festival for hosting and organising our session at the brilliant Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library!

Congratulations to Rochelle Rodger from Greenock who won a signed copy of Black Dove, White Raven in our Elizabeth Wein competition!

Super Stats!

  • 300 models planes given out and flown around classrooms!
  • 1000 miles covered on our epic journey starting in Edinburgh and ending in Caister-on-Sea!
  • A third of all pupils bought a book!






The information provided in this article was accurate at the time of publishing and should be read in the context of the date it was published. Views in this article are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the view of Scottish Friendly. No advice has been provided by Scottish Friendly. If you are in any doubt as to whether a savings or investment plan is suitable for you, you should contact a financial adviser for advice. If you do not have a financial adviser, you can get details of local financial advisers by visiting www.unbiased.co.uk. Advisers may charge for providing such advice and should confirm any cost beforehand.