BLOOD-red creatures with horrific things bursting out of the top of their heads came to life as author Ali Sparkes made a whistlestop tour around some of Swindon’s schools.

Thankfully it wasn’t dangerous – it was just a teletubby. But Ali made sure it was well restrained inside her bright green bag of tricks, just in case.



The visits to Nythe Primary, Goddard Park Primary and Oliver Tomkins Junior schools were organised as part of the Advertiser’s Christmas story competition, which Ali is a part of.

“I thought we had a fantastic day and it was very entertaining,” said Ali.

“I visit a lot of schools and on the ‘school fun gauge’ Swindon kids score very highly. They were very enthusiastic, very entertaining and very creative.”

The idea of the sessions was a fun way to help inspire youngsters and talk to them about what makes a good story.

Having written lots of books Ali, who is judging the competition, knows that starting the story can often be the hardest part – so has written three ‘spark-offs’ to get the creative juices of our budding writers flowing.

And after she read the three intros out to the children, they all had their own views on where the story was heading.

From snowball machines firing at evil bullies, witches in cauldrons and Santa being chopped into little pieces in a horrific accident at a department store, they let their imaginations run wild.

“They came up with some brilliant storylines, including some shocking ones that will stay with me forever,” said Ali.

“And hopefully we will get lots of entries for the competition.”

The competition is open to anyone aged 16 and under and entries have already started to flood in.

Ali said: “I can’t wait to read what they come up with,” she said.

“If it’s anything like what they produced during the visits then they will be very interesting.”

Pupils were also treated to a preview of Ali’s new book Frozen In Time, which is due to be released in January, as well as extracts from her Monster Makers and Shapeshifter series.