A session – or game – of two halves with football fanatic and children’s author Tom Palmer at the Henry Bloom Noble Library mixed elements of the ‘Beautiful Game’ with reading to striking effect.

The session kicked off with a football quiz where the children tackled questions from newspapers, magazines and books posed by the writer who confessed to discovering the world of words and books only slowly, with a little help from his mother.

Borough librarian Jan Macartney (pictured above) also pitched in as children took penalties against her and before the full-time whistle blew there was book signing and a question and answer session.

(Left: Tom Palmer with a copy of 'White Fear', his second book in The Squad series, with Sam Ashworth, 11 and Thomas Macartney, 10. Right: Tom Palmer explains some of the intricacies of writing...and football)

(Tom Palmer with the library's Jan Macartney and Sophie Mills...and some football and reading fans) All pictures: Andrew Barton