Adam Hart-Davis : Kids

Thanks to Derek Vane, who sent in this photograph of his granddaughter and her school friend, pupils at Cheltenham Ladies' College who attended my talk at the Science Festival at Cheltenham in June 2004.

Duke of Edinburgh Awards- click on thumbnails to see photographs with me and the winners!

I was lucky enough to present the Write Here, Write Now awards in December 2003....here's me with the winners.

Meet Annie (9 years) and Jethro (8 years) who were inspired to make this paper tower after a Science Shack episode on constructing high buildings last summer. Thanks to their grandmother Janet Gilbriath for sending in this photograph.

Emma, a 13-year-old fan (in July 1999!) emailed me to say that after watching an episode of Local Heroes she had a completely different view of science, physics in particular. Emma says, "I decided I would attempt to make your very clever Thunderstorm detector and put it up to the test. As my Dad and I collected a few bits and bobs we had the right equipment to make the device. The ringer was not as good as the one on the T.V. but still I sat it on my windowsill and went to sleep. After about one hour the device begin to make a very faint sound and gradually got a little louder. All of a sudden the heavens opened and soon after you could hear the crackle of thunder and the flash of lightening. It was all very exciting."

In January 2004 Stephen Pullar from Scotland wrote to my agent, who passed on his letter, which was full of interesting facts about his home town. His letter is here for you to read:

Dear Mr Willcocks,
My name is Stephen Pullar and I am 13 years old. I am a huge fan of Adam Hart-Davis.
I watch all of the Local Hero programs and bought some of his books, I even received his autograph which was very kind of him. I was on his website and saw that I could write to you to maybe organise a visit from him. I know that I am only a school student and will probably not have the right but would he ever consider coming to Dundee? We have The Royal Research Ship Discovery, The Unicorn, The North Carr Light Ship, The Verdant Works (an old jute mill museum) and various other pieces of history. We are famous for our Jute, Jam and Journalism. As well as having the only public Observatory. Dundee was well known for the Tayside area like The Broughty Ferry Castle, The Dundee Museum with the skeleton of a whale in it and original tools used to catch the whales. James Chalmers from Dundee invented the postage stamp, The Tay Rail Bridge was the longest in the world when first built and then of coarse there was the terrible disaster of it falling down into the Tay. James Bowman Lindsay was in Dundee when he gave a demonstration of a light bulb but did not actually invent it, this could however still be an interesting point. I have enclosed some pictures and a map with the points of interest for you to have a look at in case you decided to come to Dundee wither for the Local Heroes program or history programs that Adam does.
There is a science centre in Dundee called "Sensation" which might be of interest to you and some historic buildings around the city. I feel that Adam would have plenty to talk about here.
I can only hope some of this may be of interest to you and will maybe receive a reply about your decision.
Yours sincerely, Stephen Pullar.

How many of us know so much about the history of the place where we live? Sadly I was too busy to go to visit his school; but when early in 2005 I instead sent a copy of my book for him to give to his school library he wrote me a lovely letter of thanks - with a better suggestion:

Dear Adam
Thank you very much for the lovely letter you sent me on the 31 January, it was ever so kind of you and to receive a signed edition of your books was one of the best privileges I will ever have. Although my school would appreciate the book very much, I know that in time it would get slightly worse in condition with all the people touching and handling it, therefore I would like to ask you, would it be possible for me to hold onto the book and when I am out I will buy another copy of it to give to my school, on your behalf. I hope you will not mind this but please let me know if you would like the school to receive the book and I will of course do so.
I would also like to mention that coincidently your new program that is to start on Tuesday 15 February which is my birthday so I will be tuning into that with great delight. You will have probably noticed that the letter is addressed to you personally, this is simply because your address was quite clear under the sticker and so I hope you do not mind.
Once again thank you ever so much for the letter and the book you sent me/my school.
All the best, Stephen Pullar.
PS. I have enclosed a small photo of myself (which I had taken a few weeks ago for my holidays) just to let you see who you have been writing to and receiving letters from.
PPS. I was on Amazon looking for your other books after receiving your first reply letter just before Christmas and so my grandfather bought me some of them, I have 100 LOCAL HEROS, MORE LOCAL HEROS, THE WORLDS STUPIDEST INVENTIONS and TALKING SCIENCE.
They are all fantastic books and I have read half of THE WORLDS STUPIDEST INVENTIONS which is very interesting, some of the patents these people took out were crazy in some ways but clever in others.
Thank you very much once again.

Here is the picture of him:

I received this lovely letter asking my thoughts on Aliens in the Universe...........

I was also honoured to receive the first letter a very young fan called Bessie had ever written. Here it is:

Howard Storey tried some of the challenges I set in 'Why Does a Ball Bounce?' and sent in photographs of his results............................

And Henry Coleman (aged 5) sent me a very nice thank you letter...............

As did my dedicated fan Ella..................................

Matthew Wicks wrote to me about his Mechanical Analogue Video Machine...........