‘Yes, that’s a good answer. And who else?’ She looked at her audience carefully, to make sure she didn’t overlook a shy child who might have a good idea.

‘Writers?’ This came from one of the older girls at the back.

‘Writers, authors, yes, they make stories. But who else do you think can make them?’

Several rows of children looked at her, transfixed but bemused. ‘You can!’ said Laura triumphantly.

This caused a certain amount of uproar but Laura dampened it down quickly enough. She was beginning to get the hang of this. ‘Yes, you can all make stories. And soon, when your teacher tells you it’s time, you’re all going to write a story. Now you could write a whole story each – that would be quite difficult – or you could make a story up as a class. Your teacher will decide which you should do. Now, have any of you written stories before?’ A forest of hands shot up. ‘Yes! All of you! That’s brilliant! Well, when you’ve all written your stories, and drawn pictures to go with them – can you all draw pictures? Wonderful! So when you’ve written your story you must draw a picture of the people in the story. These are called “characters”. So now, what sort of thing do you think you can write about? Where do stories come from? They come from ideas and ideas are everywhere!’ She looked around to indicate the ubiquitous nature of ideas and the children did likewise, as if half expecting an idea to come popping out from behind a plant pot.

‘But although ideas are everywhere, we have to look for them, to recognise them when we see them! Now . . .’ Laura suddenly realised her mouth had dried up completely and she took a gulp of water from the paper cup Mrs Johns handed to her. At the same time she realised she was really enjoying herself.

‘Has anything good happened to any of you today?’ she asked her enraptured audience.

A little boy almost followed his hand skyward as he fought to get her attention. ‘My dog had puppies!’

‘Oh, that’s a brilliant idea! You could write a story about a puppy. Or a fairy, or a cow. Or even a teacher!’ This caused much amusement. ‘Then, when you’ve written your stories and done lovely illustrations – that means pictures – your teachers are going to send them to me and if they’re very good, they’ll be read out loud to lots of people, including your parents. What about that?’

This notion was very well received.

‘But before you start, a real-life writer, one whose stories are in books you have read, is going to come and talk to you some more about how stories get into books.’

A couple of minutes later she finished her talk to huge applause.