JT Williams Visits Tetherdown School
The research for the book took many months, because Joanna Williams wanted to make sure it was historically correct.
On Friday 17th June, J T Williams came to our school and presented her new book, “The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries”. The book is set in 1777 and the main characters are Lizzie and Belle. The book is told from Lizzie’s point of view, and Joanna is planning for her next book to be from the perspective of Belle. Lizzie Sancho owned a tea shop with her father Ignatius Sancho in Westminster and Dido Belle lived in Kenwood House with her aunt and uncle. The two girls lived very different lives. The author imagined what would have happened if the girls had met in real life. The research for the book took many months, because Joanna Williams wanted to make sure it was historically correct. The characters from the book were all real people from history.
J T Williams showed us pictures of Muswell Hill from the past and the present, so we could see how things have changed in our area. After that, she showed us real life pictures of characters from the book. She also showed us a painting of Dido Belle with her cousin. It looked as if she was pushing her cousin, but we could never be sure because it wasn’t a photograph. A painting takes hours, and it would have been hard for them to stand still for so long. We can only guess what was really happening.
Some people bought the book and had it signed. Arabelle said, “It’s brilliant and makes you want to read more!” Vincenzo said, “I like it because I like mystery books and the girls save people.” And Elodie thought, “I really like it because you get to know what Lizzie is thinking and feeling. After a while you know what Lizzie is going to do because you know her character so well.”
By Grace Lewis, Year 4 Jaguars