The Royal Literary Fund is a charity which was set up in 1790 'for the relief of poor and distressed authors'. Then, about two hundred years later, it was left royalties from the estates of Somerset Maugham and A A Milne. Suddenly, it was in the money! Then Disney bought the rights to Milne's Winnie the Pooh, and things got even better.

The Fund came up with the idea of using the money to put writers into universities to help students to improve their academic writing. Writers who are lucky enough to be chosen spend two days a week working with students, usually for two years, and are able to use the rest of their time for writing.

I've been a fellow at the University of Exeter for a year now, and I love it. The students are lively, hard working and enthusiastic, and I've learnt an enormous amount from them about all sorts of things - Greek naval warfare in the Middle Ages, the history of film, slavery in America, and lots, lots more. In return, I've been able to help them to express their ideas more clearly - and to write better essays.

Get in touch if you would like me to come along and talk to your sixth formers about how to improve their essays; I can tell them exactly what universities will expect of them.