Back to school for writer Frank (From St Helens Star)

Back to school for writer Frank

10:46am Tuesday 9th February 2010

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FRANK Cottrell Boyce went back to school recently and showed present day pupils at St Bartholemews in Rainhill the exact seat where he decided to be a writer.

Screenwriter, novelist and occasional actor, Frank was paying a special visit to talk to pupils at his old primary school.

Originally from Rainhill, Frank went on to Keble College, Oxford and then completed his doctorate in English, also at Oxford.

The former pupil also held a workshop for Year 6 pupils at Rainhill Library.

Before his career as a screenwriter, he wrote for the magazine, Living Marxism and also for the ITV soap Coronation Street.

When he met film director Michael Winterbottom, his screenplays began to make it onto the big screen, for example, Butterfly Kiss, Welcome to Sarajevo, The Claim, 24 Hour Party People and Code 46, and their last collaboration, A Cock and Bull Story.

He said: “I just had to move on…what better way to walk away than by giving Winterbottom a good script for free?”

Frank has also worked with other film directors including Danny Boyle (Millions), Alex Cox (Revengers Tragedy), Richard Laxton (Grow Your Own) and Anand Tucker (Hilary and Jackie).

Described by Roger Ebert as, “one of the few truly inventive modern-day screenwriters”, Frank has been awarded and nominated for several awards including the 2004 Carnegie Medal for his debut, Millions, and he was shortlisted for the Whitbread Book of the Year for his novel, Framed.

Teacher Michelle Gibson said: “Frank read an extract to the youngsters from his book Millions; which is about two boys called Anthony and Damian. He has also written Cosmic and Framed.

“He told us that when he was in school his class would draw funny pictures of his teacher on the blackboard. When she came into the classroom, everyone would start laughing!

“Frank gets his ideas mainly from the time he spent at St Barts when he was a child.”

Frank lives in Liverpool and is married, with seven children.

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