Creative writing tutor: Looking at peoples lives - Jones Sally, Jones Amanda 2015

Guess who i am

Here is some information about: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Queen Elizabeth I, Rudyard Kipling, Queen Elizabeth II, William Shakespeare, William the Conqueror, Francis Drake and Louis Pasteur. Decide which person each biography belongs to. Now write a short paragraph for each. Use an introduction, points in paragraphs and a conclusion.

Born: 21st April 1926

Place: London

Parents: Albert George and Elizabeth Bowes Lyon

Sister: Princess Margaret

Married: Philip, Prince of Greece and Denmark

Job: Driver in the Women’s Territorial Service in the war; Ruled England after her coronation in June 1953

Achievements: Has ruled England as sovereign for nearly sixty years; Well loved and fulfils lots of social engagements

Born: 30th December 1865

Place: Bombay, India

Married: Caroline and had two children

Job: Journalist and writer of fiction and poetry

Achievements: Was an immensely popular writer and poet for children and adults; Wrote the Jungle Book and the Just So stories; Received the Nobel prize for literature in 1907

Born: 1028

Parents: Illegitimate son of Robert, Duke of Normandy.

Achievements: Became Duke of Normandy in 1035, aged seven; Claimed that King Edward had promised him the English throne; Won the Battle of Hastings, killing King Harold on Christmas Day 1066; He ordered a survey of Britain, which is known as the Domesday Book and is the oldest legal document in Britain.

Born: 1757

Place: Salzburg, Austria

Siblings: Youngest of seven children, but five didn’t survive childhood.

Achievements: He was a talented genius. At the age of four, he was writing short compositions; At five, he was performing on stage; At the age of seven, he picked up a violin at a concert and played it perfectly, although he’d never had a lesson; Toured Europe with his father and sisters; Composed many operas; During his life, wrote a lot of music that we play today.

Born: 26th April 1564

Place: Stratford Upon Avon

Parents: A wool merchant and glove maker.

Married: Ann Hathaway

Job: Poet and playwright; Performed plays at court

Achievements: Working in theatre in London in 1592; In Kings Company in 1603; Wrote poetry, sonnets and plays, like Midsummer Nights Dream and Romeo and Juliet.

Born: 27th December, 1822

Place: Jura, France

Parents: Father worked as a cleaner.

Married: Ann Hathaway

Job: Poet and playwright; Performed plays at court

Achievements: Got a PHD; Taught chemistry in the university; Did research on bacteria; Discovered germs attack the body from outside; He explained the causes of disease and developed a vaccine against rabies; An institution in Paris is named after him.

Born: September 1533

Place: Greenwich

Parents: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

Childhood: Exiled from court; Imprisoned by sister Queen Mary briefly in the Tower of London

Married: Never married.

Died: 1603

Achievements: Succeeded to the throne in 1558; Made England a Protestant country; Expanded trade overseas; Attacked by Spanish Armarda - but united country against enemy.

Born: 1541

Place: Tavistock, Devon

Job: Seaman; Worked on first English slave ships

Achievements: Sailed a ship called the Golden Hind; Was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe; He fought the Spanish in the American colonies; Eventually he defeated them in the Spanish Armarda.

Write some more biographies about famous people, for example:

· MPs and politicians (Winston Churchill)

· Historical figures (Florence Nightingale, who started a training school for nurses and served in the Crimean War as the ’lady of the lamp’)

· Scientists (James Lister, who discovered antiseptic)

· Celebrities (movie stars, T.V. stars, singers) (Marilyn Monroe)

· Musicians (Beethoven)

· Sports men and women (football players, golfers, rugby players) (Eric Liddell - a famous marathon runner)

· Members of the royal family (Queen Victoria)

· Authors (Jane Austen, an eighteenth century novelist)

If you write about yourself it is called an autobiography. Below is a piece of autobiographical writing. Vlad is going to meet a family he’s never met before.