Youngsters were most definitely shaken and stirred by famous comic actor and author Charlie Higson at the College Junior School on Tuesday night. Posing as quiz master, Charlie Higson hosted his first fun quiz evening on a nationwide tour, testing the knowledge of over hundred pupils on the “Young Bond” novels and Bond trivia. Twenty teams from ten different schools answered forty searching questions. The evening reached a nail-biting climax when one of the College Junior School teams, who were declared the winners with 37 points, were honest enough to point out an error in the marking of one of their questions. The resulting tie-break with a second team on 36 points saw The Bishop's Stortford High School team emerge as overall winners and presented with a Young Bond goody bag.

“There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the evening and all the teams did really well,” said Rosie Pike, librarian at the College Junior School. “I try to use as many creative ways as possible of encouraging boys and girls to read. Last term I set a reading challenge for our pupils called Mission Impossible. They had to read eight novels and complete eight tricky assignments, each linked to the spy theme. They loved it and we had a great response. The winners of the Mission Impossible reading challenge were rewarded with the opportunity to fire their own questions at Charlie Higson in a special interview before the quiz event began.”

Well known for his comic work in TV’s The Fast Show and Harry Enfield’s Television Programme, the 48 year old actor turned author has penned the first two hugely successful Young Bond novels, Silverfin and Blood Fever and the newly released third book in the series, Double or Die, looks set to be just as popular with young readers.