Billericay School – SpeakUp!

Now, I am a big fan of Kathy Reichs and her creation, Temperance Brennan. She’s so popular that she inspired the hit TV series Bones, due to the sheer cleverness of plot, accurate detail and witty writing style. With crime novels you can’t really change the basics of the storyline- someone’s murdered, the main character [...]

When I picked up this book I wasn’t quite sure what genre it was. Possibly romance, since it talks about “love in all its forms”. Or maybe adventure, for it chronicles the happenings of Elly, a young girl born in 1968. Even after reading it, the genre still isn’t crystal clear. A bildungsroman is my [...]

              Ward & Walter were in the school over these past few weeks (you may have seen us!). Below you will find all the videos we made of staff and students talking about what they are excited about reading over the summer.   Mrs Smith Mrs Hammond Mrs Shearer [...]

The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Dear Friend, I’ve met the most wonderful chap he’s funny, slightly blunt at times and as cute as a button unfortunately he’s fictional.  Charlie is a young teenage boy and main character in Stephen Chobsky’s novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” who finds comfort in [...]

Girl from Mars by Julie Cohen   Girl from Mars is what I would call a pick-me-up book from the Little Black Dress group. It follows a young woman called Philomena Desdemona Brown, who is the animation artist for the popular comic, Girl from Mars. Her 3 best friends are all male and romance has [...]

Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella Sophie Kinsella is renowned for her creation of Rebecca Bloomwood in the Shopaholic series, so seeing her newest novel, Twenties Girl, was a pleasant surprise for me. In brief it is about a twenty-something woman named Lara Lington who is forced to go to her great-aunt Sadie’s funeral, who she [...]

Barnaby Walter on why this is Book of the Week The Hollow is a nice cosy whodunit, perfect for a quiet night in during the autumn. I was first introduced to this wonderful novel by Agatha Christie by the 2004 film adaptation, or television adaptation one should say, since it was adapted by Granada Television [...]

Barnaby Walter on why this is Book of the Week: Hero is a thrilling superhero adventure told with a stab of knowing humour. It’s about a teenage boy called Thom Creed, the son of one of the world’s greatest superheroes. But Thom’s dad is no longer a practicing superhero – he’s retired from that world [...]

Hello I am Barnaby Walter, a former student of The Billericay School, and now honorary Film Critic and arts contributor to the Speak Up website. As of October, I will be doing a degree in English Literature & Film Studies at The University of Southampton, whilst Charlotte Ward, my fellow honorary contributor, will be starting [...]