February 10, 2013

A return visit to Sarum Hall, Swiss Cottage

The second official tour day dawned with some sunshine.  I was really excited to be heading back to see the girls at Sarum Hall, a school I had visited last year.  This time we went by car and it was lovely to see the beautiful buildings enroute – and the extraordinary houses in the area surrounding the school in suburbs like St John’s Wood.

We were greeted warmly by Tina Pritchard, a teacher I had met last year and the lovely Kate Agnew from Muswell Hill Bookshop.  Lisa from Random House met us there and soon enough I was having a great time talking to the girls in Years 3 and 4.  I’d met the Year 4 girls last year and so it was terrific that they already knew Alice-Miranda.  They had lots of fantastic questions and I also had the opportunity to introduce them to Clementine Rose and do some drama from the book.

The library at the school is small and perfectly forrmed – a real haven for booklovers and after the talk we went upstairs so the girls could purchase books and I could sign them.  Alice-Miranda certainly has a lot of friends at Sarum Hall 🙂

The last child I spoke to was a little girl called Frederika, who already knew me from Australia.  Would you believe she recently moved to London from Roseville College in Sydney.  She had all of the Alice-Miranda books and was hoping that her mother was going to Sydney soon so she could add Alice-Miranda In Paris to her collection when it comes out in March.  It was great to see her and I think I do remember her a little from my past visits to Roseville.

I adore Sarum Hall and can’t wait to visit again soon.