St Mary's School Calne

Jamila Gavin visits St Mary's

Jamila spoke engagingly to all the girls in the LIV and MIV Forms about being a writer and about her Whitbread Children’s Book Award winning book Coram Boy, which the girls study during the Autumn Term of MIV Form.  She spoke at length about how she researches the historical aspects of her stories and uses her background in India, up to and after Independence, in The Wheel of Surya trilogy.  It was a very enriching experience for all who heard her speak.

Jamila was born in Mussoorie, India and moved to England when she was 12 years old.  She began her career by studying music at Trinity College of Music, London and she then worked for the BBC, first in radio, then in television, as a Production Assistant and Director of Music and Arts programmes.
After becoming a mother she published her first book, The Orange Tree and Other Stories (later republished as The Magic Orange Tree), in 1979, and has since written many short story collections, teenage novels and books for children aged six to sixteen years.  In 1992 her novel for teenage readers, The Wheel of Surya, was published, and was followed by two other books in the series: The Eye of the Horse (1994); and The Track of the Wind (1997).  All three books were shortlisted or runners-up in The Guardian Children’s Fiction Award.
In 2000, Coram Boy (2000), set in 18th-century England, won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award, and has been adapted for the stage. This was followed by The Blood Stone (2003), set in 17th-century India and Venice, in which a boy has to find a way to free his father who is held hostage in Afghanistan.

Miss C Smith