This week we held our fourth Godolphin Literary Festival and the variety of authors and diverse subjects they spoke about brought a great buzz to School and made for much discussion amongst girls and staff.

The internationally renowned novelist Christy Lefteri spoke fascinatingly about her bestseller, The Beekeeper of Aleppo and her new title, Songbirds; Mary Ann Sieghart impressed us all with a powerful talk about everyday sexism and the influence unconscious bias has on our thoughts; and Nigel Farndale, interviewer to the stars, obituarist and historical novelist, found himself in the spotlight for a change when Giles Kime asked the questions about his famous interviewees and the changing world of journalism.

During the school day we welcomed schools from Wiltshire to join our schools' programme. Tracey Corderoy spoke about her picture books, award-winning author Onjali Q Rauf gave a compelling talk about what influenced her to write The Boy at the Back of the Class and teen author MA Bennett spoke about her hugely popular S.T.A.G.S series. On Friday it was a great treat to have OG Katie Greenall return to Godolphin to talk about her writing and stage career and we thank her for all the great advice she gave our girls.

Davina Jones, Librarian, Godolphin.