The Beacon Welcomes Dominic Sandbrook

On Monday evening, we welcomed British historian, author, columnist and television presenter, Dominic Sandbrook, to The Beacon to give our audience an inspiring talk about his new series of history books for children. Dominic has spent most of his career writing books for adults, and has now delved into the world of children’s literature. His new series of children’s books ‘Adventures in Time’ have been written in a fun and exciting style, with colourful characters and thrilling cliffhangers. The books have subsequently received excellent reviews from The Financial Times, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Dominic has excellent knowledge of history, having been a University History Lecturer and now a visiting Professor at King’s College London alongside his freelance writing. His first 4 books in the series are based on the Second World War, Henry VIII, Alexander The Great and The First World War. Another two books are due to be released this year and are based on Cleopatra and The Vikings.

Our Beacon Boys and guests from Heatherton School very much enjoyed listening to Dominic go into detail about the different historical figures that he has written about, as well as answering some excellent questions from the audience at the end of the presentation. Following his talk, Dominic kindly took part in a book signing for everyone who had purchased a book.

A Year 8 boy said “It was pretty inspiring to learn more. It was cool”

Mrs Howard (Librarian) said “We were delighted to welcome historian and broadcaster Dominic Sandbrook to the Beacon for our first Author Event of the year. Bringing history to life is a big challenge and Dominic’s fascinating presentation of some famous, some lesser-known, figures from his inspiring books went down really well with our audience. The boys tell me they are already getting stuck into the books. Great news!”

The event was run in collaboration with Chiltern Bookshop in Chorleywood. If you would like to purchase one of his signed books, click here. Be quick though as the books will fly out the door! The deadline to order a book is Wednesday 28 September at 17:00.

A big thank you to Dominic for visiting us and sharing the background behind your inspiring books.