From the Jungle to the Junior School: a visit from Rev. Richard Coles

It is always exciting to welcome an author into school, but when that author has also appeared on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, the excitement reaches a whole new level. 

Rev. Richard Coles spent the morning in the Junior School, captivating pupils with outrageous – but entirely true – stories from his first children’s book, A Heist before Bedtime.

Filled with dastardly heists, daring escapes and bungled burglaries, the book sparked curiosity among the children who were eager to ask about its quirky characters and wonderfully silly stories. 

They were also keen to hear why Rev. Coles decided to write a book for children. Speaking about his own love of reading as a child, he explained how books had fired his imagination from an early age, and how he hoped to inspire that same sense of wonder and creativity in young readers today.

Posing a number of questions about his time in the jungle, the juniors were excited to hear about his campmates, the jungle toilets, and what Ant and Dec were really like, and listened with a mixture of horror and delight as he described some of the more unusual things he had been challenged to eat and drink during his trials.

At the end of his talk, children and teachers were treated to an unexpected surprise when Rev. Coles sat down at the piano in the Consterdine Hall to play a rendition of his 1980s Communards hit, Don’t Leave Me This Way, proving that before writing books and going in the jungle, he was indeed a popstar!

To round off the morning, Rev. Coles spent time chatting to children as they collected a signed copy of his book, answering more questions and reminding them to keep reading.