Readers lend ear to fantasy author

11:10am Tuesday 14th February 2006

BOOKWORMS were treated to a storytelling session when the author of a new children's book paid a visit.

Schoolchildren assembled in Ottakars bookshop on Greenwich Church Street to hear writer Val Tyler read extracts from her second book The Time Apprentice in the Greenwich Chronicles series.

The first book The Time Wreccas was released in January last year.

The 53-year-old mother-of-four and former teacher used to live near Greenwich and regularly visits, she says the town inspired the setting for the fantasy story.

She said: "There is a huge tree in Greenwich Park which inspired me to write about an enchanted underground workshop where Old Father Tim lives he's one of the goodies in the book."

More than 60 pupils from St Joseph's Academy Primary School, Lee Terrace, Blackheath, and Blackheath High School, Vanbrugh Park, Blackheath, met the writer when she visited the bookshop last Friday.