Report by Niamh:
Year 10 students, along with a selection of Year 9 students, recently had the pleasure of welcoming former Cardinal Heenan student and bestselling author Tom Hindle back to school for a fascinating talk about his writing journey. It was especially nice to hear that during his time at Cardinal Heenan, Tom was taught English by our own Ms McMinn.
He spoke about how his love of writing began as a hobby and gradually developed into a full-time career, showing us that following your interests can lead to incredible opportunities. Tom has now written five murder mystery novels, all of which have been published by Penguin. One of the most exciting things we learnt was that his novel Murder on Lake Garda is being adapted into a Netflix series, which was amazing to hear. Although becoming a successful author sounds exciting, Tom was also honest about the challenges of the job. He explained that writing isn’t always glamorous and that much of an author’s career involves waiting, whether that’s waiting for feedback from editors, hearing from publishers or seeing a book finally reach readers. His honesty gave us a realistic insight into the publishing industry and helped us understand. Throughout the talk, Tom answered our questions and encouraged us to keep reading, writing and believing in our own ideas. His visit was both inspiring and motivating, and it was wonderful to hear how a former Cardinal Heenan student has gone on to achieve such success.
