Award-winning author Helen Dennis to inspire Derry students

Year 9 students at Foyle College are in for a real treat on Thursday (June 12) when author Helen Dennis visits them.

Helen Dennis is the author of the hugely popular River of Ink and the Secret Breakers series - both gripping series full of adventure, codes, puzzles and links to history. Book three of the Secret Breakers series was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

Before becoming a writer, she was a teacher for 20 years and a Head of English. As a student she worked at two schools for deaf children as well as Brighton Deaf Centre.

Her talks and workshops are designed to encourage creativity, curiosity and perseverance as well as a love of story and her books are equally popular with both boys and girls of all abilities as they tap into the exciting worlds of code-breaking, symbol reading and real historical mysteries. 

Helen will be talking to five classes of Year 9 students about the inspiration for their own writing, enthusing them about the joy of reading and stimulating their creative writing and code breaking skills.

Each participating student will also be gifted a copy of Secret Breakers Power of Three, which Helen will sign and dedicate. A signed book can be a permanent reminder of a special experience and can reinforce the message about the pleasure and importance of reading.

The visit is part of a Literacy Project funded by the Merchant Taylors’ Foundation working with Authors Aloud UK, taking authors into schools in Southwark, Aylesbury, Wallingford and Derry.

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The aim is that by meeting the authors, young people will be encouraged to increase their reading for pleasure and develop their creative writing skills, and it will support the literacy work that is done in the school.