On Friday the 13th November at 9.30a.m., students from a wide variety of secondary and primary schools witnessed Darren Shan in the Wyvern Theatre. He spoke about his Darren Shan Saga, and a bit about the movie. He also spoke about the Demonata series. He read out extracts from the first book of the Demonata series, ‘Lord Loss’, and he also read an extract from ‘Cirque du Freak’ of the Darren Shan saga. During the reading of the Cirque du Freak extract, he had volunteers from different schools in the audience to read out speaking parts and also perform. As a student in the audience I thought it was great to see a ‘horror hero’, to learn about his life and why he wrote the novels. However I thought to improve the performance, he could have played with the lights a bit to create a more gripping performance.

Jessica Capstick and Jayde Woolhouse, both 9A, St Joseph’s Catholic College