Avid novel readers might want to look out for a bright 16-year-old sporting a bow tie who got five A*s and four As at Morpeth Secondary in London’s East End.

Alexander Elliot, who insists on adding “AKA Sandy” when you ask his name, is near to completing his first novel which might soon appear in bookstores.

He arrived at the school gates in Bethnal Green for his GCSE results in attire distinctive from the rest of the kids on the block, a smart herringbone tweed jacket, powder blue shirt and large, dark blue bow-tie, his light brown hair sweeping half-ruffled in the sunlight across his young face.

“AKA Sandy” doesn’t sound like a typical East End kid and would sit well in Kensington, yet was born in Bethnal Green where he grew up, close to St Barnabas Church just 15 minutes from the school.

“I’m from a media family,” he explains. “My parents are in television, mother in the sound department to do with microphones and stuff, father in the lighting and shots department—so you could, sort of, say that’s why I want to become a novelist.”

His top grades include drama, ancient and modern history and core subjects maths, English and science.

But he realistically wonders if he can make it solely as an author, so meantime his “other aspiration” is teaching.

“Writing is really my passion,” he tells you. “To be a novelist. I’m working on a novel at the moment.”

The plot is top secret, if you venture to ask—but any good author worth his salt will wet your appetite.

“I suppose it’s what you would call, sort-of science fiction,” he hints. “But not in a science fiction kind of way—even though that’s oxymoronic!”

Sandy is a huge fan of Vladamir Nabokov, the Russian-American author of Lolita with its love of intricate word play.

You can also read George Orwell’s influence in Sandy’s young mind, his 1984 novel delving into futuristic Big Brother science fiction and Animal Farm with everyone equal, though some more equal than others.

“I’m into social politics,” Sandy says. “I’m also a democratic socialist.”

Another favoured author is Jeremy Page, who he says he has actually worked with “on short stories and stuff”. His advice he believes “might probably be invaluable” when it comes to that first novel.

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East End schools notch up 80pc top grade GCSE results at A* to C grades