Pam Cairns visits MHS

On Monday 17^th November, in a visit organised by the librarian, Pam Cairns came to speak to pupils in the Geography department about life in South America. Her first talk was to an S3 class who will be looking at the issues of poverty and shanty towns and the second was to the Higher geography class who will be looking at shanty towns, economic development and deforestation around the Amazon. Pam Cairns is a doctor who was for some years a director of the Vine Trust, working particularly with the Amazon Hope Programme and she now writes novels for teenagers; exciting adventure stories which draw on her experiences for their authentic backgrounds. Her first novel, The dead don’t hurt us, is set in the Peruvian jungle and among the street children of Peru; her second, Trampled Shoots, is for a slightly older age group and deals with the problems of human trafficking and organised crime in South America. Pam’s knowledge and passion for her subject shone through in both talks and their success can be gauged by the fact that there were pupils in the library at the end of the school day to borrow the books.