“Words on the Mount” at the Mount Lavinia Hotel

Make a date this July with some distinguished British authors when the Mount Lavinia Hotel celebrating 210 years presents, “Words on the Mount”.

On Saturday, July 9, four British authors will take the stage at the hotel to celebrate their particular genre of writing. Louis de Bernières (war and romance), Peter Grimsdale (suspense and thrillers), Stephanie Calman ( writing about life and Rohan Candappa ( a tongue in cheek look at what it means to be British).

On Sunday, July 10, children’s author and illustrator, Nicholas Allan will hold three fun workshops for children of different age ranges (from toddlers to 17+ year-olds) assisted by Angela Seneviratne. These workshops are designed to motivate and encourage young and older children to colourfully illustrate unusual templates and to create their own picture story books. The main focus will be on a visual context to accommodate children of differing language abilities and needs, (signers for deaf children will be available).

To start the morning there will be a special screening of the British film ‘Paddington’, based on the well-loved books written by Michael Bond, full of exciting and lively animation. The film follows the adventure of a young bear ‘from darkest Peru’ who travels to London in search of a home. Running parallel to these workshops will be four Masterclasses facilitated by the authors on their specialist subjects. This will be an extraordinary opportunity for older teenagers and adults to participate, learn and acquire the key skills needed to write with greater confidence and fluency. The subjects covered will be; on how to write a successful novel and a question and answer session will examine Louis de Bernières’ international best seller ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’. Peter Grimsdale will look at how to maintain a sense of suspense in writing a thriller, Rohan Candappa on ‘How to write funny’ and Stephanie Calman on ‘Discovering your writing voice’.