An acclaimed author returned to his former school to give a creative writing workshop to pupils.
Ross Raisin, the author of God’s Own Country, Waterline and A Natural, spent the afternoon with pupils at Bradford Grammar School. Later, he took part in one of the school’s In Conversation events, which was also open to students at Beckfoot Upper Heaton School, in Bradford.
Said Ross: “In all the ways that the school has changed over the past couple of decades – the ultra-modern new facilities, the more youthful face of the teaching staff, the beautiful library – it is the increasingly progressive policies of inclusion, of students from less well-off backgrounds and of the local community, that was the most pleasing thing for me to come back to. I left energised by my afternoon with the students.”
Ross has won or been shortlisted for more than ten awards, including winning the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2009 and being named in literary magazine and publisher Granta’s once-a-decade Best of Young British Novelists list. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018.
Ross teaches creative writing at Leeds University and as part of the Guardian Masterclass programme. His next novel, A Hunger, will be published in summer 2022.
Simon Hinchliffe, headmaster at BGS, said: “We’re very thankful to all our talented former students who come back to see us. We love hearing how they’ve fared in their careers and what advice they have for our students today. We’re always grateful to those, such as Ross, who give back to the school. The students loved his visit.”
“… it is the increasingly progressive policies of inclusion, of students from less well-off backgrounds and of the local community, that was the most pleasing thing for me to come back to. I left energised by my afternoon with the students.”
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