Leila d'Angelo "always sunny"

When I look back at my years at Thomas Tallis I remember it always being sunny. Of course, this can’t be true. But even when the weather was grey, there was something sunny about Tallis. It was (and I’m sure still is) a place where creativity was encouraged, nurtured, allowed to blossom. I got to sing ‘The Circle of Life’ at St Paul's Cathedral, perform Shakespeare at Greenwich Theatre, build a music playing robot for a competition, play the steel pans, visit the Millennium Dome before it was finished and combat homophobia in the school council. It is rare to have a school that offers its pupils so much.

My favourite lesson was always English and in Year 7 I had Mr Bradshaw. My parents once complained to him that I was reading too many Point Romances, not enough of the classics. He reassured them that, ‘even flowers are fed by sh*t’. And I think, apart from being evidence of Mr Bradshaw’s sense of humour, it tells you something about Thomas Tallis. Something great and unique. The teachers have faith in their students. 

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As promised, I did grow out of my diet of ‘trashy’ teenage fiction and went on to study English at A Level and then at Sussex University in Brighton. By then I knew that I wanted to write. I had received my first paycheque for an article written for the Guardian newspaper and couldn’t believe people actually got paid for doing something so fun. 

So, after University, and after a few jobs, one of them working on Come Dine With Me (an experience which will someday have to be turned into a book), I moved to Paris. There I wanted to live the cliché. To write a novel in a café, live in a tiny studio flat above a bustling street and drink coffee (even though I hate it). A year later, after much wine, cheese, baguettes, no coffee but lots of chocolat chaud, I have managed to finish my first novel which has been longlisted for a literary prize. And am still hoping to make my Tallis English teachers proud.