CHILDHOOD ambitions of becoming Batman or an astronaut left pupils at Isambard Community School in fits of laughter yesterday as author Dave Cousins tried to inspire the next generation of writers.

Dave, who visited the school as part of the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature, entertained the Year 7 pupils by revealing his unlikely route into the profession having initially started out as a musician in band.

“When I was a little boy growing up in Birmingham I had no ambition,” he said. “I wanted to be a footballer or Batman and eventually an astronaut to the point where I got an old pair of white pyjamas with a helmet.

“There was one day where I was told that I couldn’t be an astronaut and that was the first time someone told me I couldn’t do something from where I come from.

“It was watching a film of the Beatles that I noticed wherever they went, they had a massive crowd follow them.

“From that point on, I started writing songs and I became obsessed. Whatever we were learning about at school to everyday things, I decided to write down my feelings into a song and that was the moment I became a writer. The way I made sense of things was to write it down and in storytelling that is what it is all about.”

Dave’s Charlie Merrick books among others including his 15 Days Without A Head have received national commendation in recent years and he won the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Undiscovered Voices Anthology award in 2010.

But as Dave told students on Wednesday, it was from being a rock star with his college band that helped guide him towards writing as a career.

“We got a record deal but the reality of being in a band is that you are doing the stuff you imagine in going to gigs and recording for around 20 per cent of the time,” he added. “The other 80 per cent is waiting around or travelling.

“One thing I love about books is that you can get lost in them and that is how I used to escape when the band was on the road. If you are having a bad day you can escape into someone else’s world which I think is great.”

Stella Rogers, learning resources centre manager at Isambard Community School added: “The problem we are facing is that people see reading as something which isn’t cool so we are trying to show that people who write books love stories and they love to share them with people and everyone has a story to tell.”