Award-winning script writer and ex-Malet Lambert student, Harry Duffin, visited school today to take a tour of the site and donate some of his own books to the school library.
Alongside two of his novels, ‘Chicago May’ & ‘Birth of the Mall Rats’, based on hit Channel 5 series The Tribe which he co-created, he also gave a gift of two book tokens for staff to award to deserving students.
Harry attended Malet Lambert back in the fifties when it was a grammar school and has very fond memories of his time here.
He said, “It’s wonderful to see how the school has changed - I’m very impressed with it. Especially how they have merged the old with the new, and kept the green tiles.
“I loved being a student here which is why I wanted to come back and visit. I remember being awarded book tokens and going to choose my books. I still have them now, all these years on.
“My teachers’ passion for literature, which really came across in lessons, inspired my love of writing.”
During his career, Harry worked at youth theatres as a manager and theatre designer before breaking into script writing, and worked on huge TV shows like ‘Howard’s Way’ and ‘Eastenders’.
He then became a founding member of production company Cloud 9, and created popular TV drama ‘The Tribe’ which ran for five series and was shown in over 40 countries, before turning his hand to writing novels in recent years.