TWO prolific children's book authors visited Shebbear College during Book Week, organised by the college library to support their policy to promote reading and the enjoyment of reading.

Pete Johnson has written more than 50 books for children — some scary, some funny and some, like his most recent vampire series, humourous horror. He was visiting Devon as part of the Appledore Book Festival and managed to fit a visit to Shebbear College into his busy schedule. He enthralled the pupils as he talked about vampires and ghosts, involved the pupils and read snippets from a number of his books.

Andy Briggs began his writing career working on Hollywood movie projects. In an animated and sometimes scary multimedia presentation he showed the pupils what it would be like to experience the dangers lurking in the jungle as he described the background to his latest successful series of books based on the classic Tarzan stories which he has brought firmly into the 21st century. Andy encouraged the pupils to make a difference by supporting the endangered species living in the jungles threatened by deforestation and poachers.

Many pupils had purchased and read books by the authors in advance which were then signed by the authors during their visit.