DRAMA students from Shebbear College enjoyed a special visit by a Hollywood film star best known for his role in the award-winning Shakespeare in Love.

Actor Joseph Fiennes accepted an invitation to the college by the school's head of religious studies, Dr Richard Warner-Hoskins, who has written a book called 'Sacrifice', which is being made into a film starring Fiennes.

The actor worked with around 30 students aged between 14 and 18 during a drama workshop.

Liz Burwood, for the school, said: 'Joseph Fiennes was wonderful with the children and they were delighted to learn from his acting experiences.

'He was very down to earth and a genuinely nice person.'

Dr Warner-Hoskins' book will be published later this year by Little, Brown books. The book has two parallel stories: one is how he came to be involved in the investigation into the murder of a young African boy in London; the second is about his journey to Africa when he left school in the mid-1980s, and what happened to him there.

As the book progresses the two stories come together, and it shows the effects of that on his life and the things he had to deal with. The final chapter of the book has him at Shebbear.

Dr Warner-Hoskins said: 'He (Joseph Fiennes) first read a draft of it a couple of years ago after his agent received it from mine, and Joseph and I began talking seriously about the film.

'Now that I have the green light to publish there is nothing to stop Joseph going ahead with the screenplay. He will be playing me in the film. So although he is coming down to do a drama workshop at the school at my invitation, it is also a very important couple of days for he and I to discuss the development of the film.'