TR&W Issue 20

26 | www.teachwire.net Ned and his mother lodge with Mrs Thomas (the local teacher), her son Harri and Anni, a Jewish refugee. Anni’s father has been interred as an enemy alien and her mother is away on war work. Mrs Thomas, who relies on Kip, her guide dog, looks after Anni as if she were family, but some in the village aren’t as welcoming to refugees. Ned’s mother is tasked with running the Picture of the Month scheme, (which still carries on to this day!), taking one piece of art fromWales back to London once a month. When something happens to Ned’s mum, he is left to carry out her vital war work, because if he doesn’t, she’ll lose her job and they’ll be sent back to Bletchley – something that neither of them can face. With his old friends from Bletchley Park, as well as new ones fromWales, by his side, and of course, Kip, the fantastic guide dog, Ned embarks on a dangerous and desperate journey to London, carrying with him the most precious and priceless cargo. Hide and Seek is the second book in the Bletchley Park Mystery series. B ased on historical events, Hide and Seek is about Ned Letton and his mother, Helen, who are swept up in the government’s efforts to save the nation’s art collection from destruction during the secondWorldWar. They are sent fromBletchley Park, after signing the Official Secrets Act, to Manod in NorthWales, where they are led into a secret quarry. Inside this ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ are thousands of priceless masterpieces – and an army of workers from galleries and museums across the country, striving to conserve and protect the collection. Hide and Seek: a Bletchley Park mystery by Rhian Tracey WAGOLL Hide and Seek: a Bletchley Park mystery (£7.99, Bonnier Books Ltd) is out now. DOWNLOAD RESOURCES AT Download your FREE , exclusive teaching pack to help you explore both this extract and the rest of the book with your class. tinyurl.com / tp-RhianTracey LOOK AROUND Link the present moment to the past with visual objects that the reader can spot, such as a telescope. WHY ARE YOU WRITING THE SCENE? What do you want the reader to learn from this extract? Flashbacks must serve a purpose, shining a light on a moment from a character’s past. LESS IS MORE Keep it short. You don’t want your reader to get lost between the present and the past, or worse, to get confused. FEEL THE STORY Sensory language allows your reader to connect in a four-dimensional way with the character’s past. Think about going to a 3D or 4D screening at the cinema; your writing should feel the same. Activate the flashback by bringing your character’s sensory world to life. SOUND IT OUT Listen to your writing using one of the free text-to-speech software packages that are available. You’ll be able to hear the flashback and listen to how it fits with the section of writing that comes before and after it. Pretend it’s an audiobook you are listening to! Peer inside the mind of the author, and help pupils understand how writers can create a flashback to provide background FIVE TOP TIPS ONWRITING A FLASHBACK