West Buckland School Visit

Published on Wednesday, April 1st, 2026

Way back in the mists of time, on World Book Day (March 5th), Giles visited West Buckland School to talk about Dick’s life and career, and to read from his books. This event took place, as the photo shows, in a proper auditorium – what you can’t see so well are the costumes that many of the children were wearing, based on characters from children’s books. I couldn’t recognise any DKS characters, but then all my attempts at identification were pretty hopeless. Case in point (maybe this is an age thing): I mistook Willie Wonka for the Mad Hatter – cue polite derision from the children.
The children were engaged and well informed, with plenty of interesting questions. There’s always one question that has me floundering, and this time it was: “What is the worst book your father wrote?” I think the family need to do a bit of homework to decide that one! My thanks to Flo Hale and Dom Carter for making me so welcome.

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