For the love of reading: competition winner announced

The winner of QE’s summer competition, The Big Read, has been announced.

Boys and staff were encouraged to choose books from a reading list and photograph themselves reading in an extreme – though safe – way during the holidays.

Mipham Samten, of Year 8, (pictured left) came out top for his photo of himself on the archery course at a chateau on the School’s Normandy trip; he will be awarded with a copy of The Guiness Book of World Records during assembly. Head of English Susannah Sweetman’s shot of herself in front of a volcano in Tenerife (bottom picture) was one of a number of interesting entries from teachers.

“Mipham was pictured reading with an apple in his mouth and an arrow coming out of it – a nice allusion to the William Tell story!” said English teacher Yioda Menelaou, who organised the competition.

“The Big Read is a fun way to encourage pupils to engage with reading, prompted by our very eclectic reading list. Of course, boys may choose to read books that aren’t on the list, but we’ve certainly tried to ensure there is something on there to appeal to all tastes.”

The list included work by more than 80 different authors. It mainly featured fiction and included books as diverse as Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, Kerouac’s On the Road, Tolstoy’s War and Peace and George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones series.