Author and adventurer Matt Cartney (pictured below) visited Craigroyston High School on Friday (4 October) to talk to the S1 pupils.
He entertained us all for 90 minutes with tales of his adventures to Morocco and Norway that were the inspiration for his first two novels in the Danny Lansing adventure series: ‘The Sons of Rissouli’ and ‘Red, White and Black’. Matt gave us an insight into how his love for adventure has been with him since childhood, and that he wanted to write the sort of books he loved reading as a boy.
The pupils sat enthralled for an hour, before quizzing Matt with a series of penetrating questions – we found that Tin Tin was his favourite book at school, though he also loved books by H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Ransome. It can take him a year of researching and travelling before he starts to write a book. He has also taken some of his childhood friends and used them as the basis for Danny’s friends. We found out that of all the countries in the world that he has visited, his favourites are Morocco, Tibet and New Zealand.
His next novel due out in 2014 will be set in a tropical jungle and the fourth Danny Lansing adventure – which he has just started – will be set in Russia.
Well, we can’t wait to read these when they are published!
Craigroyston Community High School
