PEMBROKE’S Golden Grove School-Ysgol Gelli Aur welcomed author Tom Palmer to the school recently.

A prolific writer about football and rugby, Tom gets his inspiration from the daily running of the game.

He spoke to Key Stage 2 pupils in assembly and later visited individual classes for Q&A sessions.

Questions about his sporting books covered subjects such as how long it takes to write and publish a book to his research techniques.

Tom said: “I wasn’t keen on reading when I was young. My mum was worried about me because I didn’t do very well at school. She encouraged me to read about football in newspapers, magazines and books. Gradually I came to love books. From that point, my life changed. I wanted to know everything about books.

“I went to night school when I was 21. Then I did a degree in European Literature when I was 24. It was brilliant.”

After his sessions in classes he held a book signing in the school library.

Head Teacher Andy Williams said: “The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the visit from Tom, there is no doubt he has inspired them in many different ways, we wish him well with his future publications."