Seven Million Sunflowers: the writer’s perspective brought to BBA

As part of The Big City Reads – a campaign to encourage everyone in Nottingham to get reading – BBA was thrilled to invite the writer Malcolm Duffy to our academy. He joined a class of year 8 students to talk about his recent book ‘Seven Million Sunflowers’ which explores the life of young Kat, forced to leave Ukraine for the UK in order to escape the ongoing war.The talk focused not only on the book itself, but also gave interesting insight into his experiences leading up to becoming a full time writer and what had motivated him to write on themes such as dyslexia and homelessness. In the latter part of his talk on ‘Seven Million Sunflowers’, the students learned of the reasons behind Malcolm Duffy sponsoring a Ukrainian family in his home and the knowledge and insight that he gained from talks with them over dinner. This formed the basis for his plot and characters in the book, though the author did underline that he has aimed for his writing to be a source of entertainment to the reader as well as a true reflection of a very harsh reality.Many questions followed from the students at the end of the talk which showed their genuine interest in the author’s experience and curiosity in how a professional writer goes about his work on a daily basis.Copies of the book will be available in the BBA library and The BBA School of Sanctuary Committee will be engaging in group readings of a selection of chapters during their weekly meetings. This will hopefully lead to further discussion and a greater understanding of the needs of all students and families who have undergone similar experiences.