A RENOWNED author visited a school in Ellesmere Port to inspire budding young writers.

Steve Skidmore, co-author of more than 200 children’s books, was a guest at University Church of England Academy, where he spoke with year seven and eight pupils.

A former teacher, Mr Skidmore is one half of the writing partnership ‘The 2Steves’ with his colleague Steve Barlow.

They have also acted as series editors on numerous reading programmes for major publishing houses.

Mr Skidmore gave a humorous but informative talk about his life, how he became an author and the challenges he overcame.

He encouraged students to write creatively themselves and gave them some useful tips and tricks for creating captivating stories of their own.

The visit was arranged by the iRead Centre, a dedicated library within the academy, aimed at encouraging the school’s students to read for pleasure and to improve their creative writing skills.

The winners of a previous iRead Centre competition even had the opportunity to sit down for dinner with Mr Skidmore, where they were able to really get to know him and ask him anything they desired.

During the afternoon Mr Skidmore hosted two writing workshops for more than 60 pupils from years seven and eight, which proved to be extremely informative and fun for the children.

Jayne Hughes, the academy librarian, said: “Staff and students alike had an amazing day with Steve Skidmore. As well as being highly entertaining, he was also very informative and gave students lots of ideas on how to write creatively themselves.”

The event received positive feedback from pupils, who described it as being the “experience of a lifetime” and “wonderful”.