Exeter School welcomes award winning author and former pupil

Exeter School was delighted to welcome back alumnus Kevin Brooks on Friday 26 June to speak to pupils from both his former school and four local secondary schools.

Carnegie Award winner Kevin Brooks was born in Exeter in 1959 and received a scholarship to attend Exeter School from 1970-1977, before studying Psychology and Philosophy in Birmingham and Cultural Studies in London.

Author Kevin spoke to a music hall of around 200 excited pupils from Exeter School, St Peter’s Church of England Aided School, St Luke’s Science and Sports College, St James School and the Isca Academy.

He discussed his childhood and how much he had enjoyed reading as a boy travelling to school on the bus and immersing himself in the adventures of story characters.

“Books are powerful and can do wonderful things and this has stayed with me for the rest of my life,” he said.

On returning to his former school, Kevin said it felt strange but nice to revive buried memories.

“Exeter School taught me how to think and believe in myself. It instilled a kind of personal sense of morality where I learnt what is right and wrong and to be a decent person,” he said.

Year 8 pupils Aaron Tucker, Nicholas Armstrong, Henry and Redmond Coleman said: “He showed us how anyone could become a writer, or do whatever you wanted, as long as you tried hard and never gave up.

“What inspired us was how he never stopped trying after publishers had said no to him and turned him down. It was an extremely thought-provoking event.”

Kevin spent much of his early life writing and recording music, and later turned to painting and sculpting. Before becoming a full-time author, he worked as a civil servant, a crematorium handyman, a hotdog vendor at London Zoo, a post office counter clerk, a petrol station attendant, and a call centre operator. He commented that writing a novel requires patience, commitment and attention to detail.

His first young adult novel, Martyn Pig, was published in 2002, and since then he’s published ten YA novels, three books for younger readers (featuring teenage private detective Travis Delaney), six short novels for reluctant readers, and a crime-fiction trilogy for adults (featuring private investigator John Craine).

His novels are published worldwide, and have won numerous literary prizes, including the Branford Boase Award, the Angus award (twice), the Kernow book award, the prestigious Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis (twice), the Mare di Libri award, and the Buxtehude Bulle. In 2014 his novel The Bunker Diary was awarded the CILIP Carnegie Medal.

He lives in North Yorkshire with his wife Susan and a host of animals.