Niall, Zoe, Mark Thomas from the Liverpool Post and Donna from WECC celebrate The Reader Organisation's Social Enterprise Mark award

Gaining the Social Enterprise Mark shows the world that our work is driven by an aim to positively impact people and the communities in which they live in on a day-to-day basis. Get Into Reading is continuously making that strong  and noticeable social benefit felt across Merseyside, providing group members with outcomes such as increased general positivity about life, a better understanding of those around them and enhanced social interaction – recent evalution showed that 95% of people enjoyed having the opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t usually meet in day-to-day life by attending a weekly reading group.

We were joined in our headquarters at West Everton Community Council to celebrate receiving the prestigious award by Mark Thomas, Editor of The Liverpool Post, and Donna Ellison, a WECC volunteer. Being officially recognised as a Social Enterprise will allow us to increase our activity in the local community, connecting more people with reading and meaningful social activity.

Zoe Gilling, The Reader Organisation’s Business Manager said:

“We’re really proud to have been awarded the Social Enterprise Mark. It’s really important to us that we are able to generate trading income to reinvest directly into the local communities where Get into Reading began, is growing, and is needed most.”

The Reader Organisation joins other ethical businesses that have been recognised by being awarded the Mark such as Age UK, Blackburne House and the Big Issue.

Lucy Findlay, Managing Director of the Social Enterprise Mark Company said:

“We are delighted to award the prestigious Social Enterprise Mark to The Reader Organisation. Social enterprises come in all shapes and forms so it’s great to see vital, local charities understanding the importance of being part of the wider social enterprise movement.”

To celebrate this momentous day and most of all, the man himself, we are showcasing the brilliance of his work and highlighting the very definite impact reading Dickens has on a wide range of people; writers and readers alike.

As a very special birthday treat, enjoy listening to two readings from the recent London Penny Readings – marvellous oral offerings from AS Byatt and Louis de Bernierès that truly capture the comedy, tragedy and true heart of Dickens’ writing.

Reading the first chapter of Great Expectations, AS Byatt reveals how she first read the book when she was the same age as its hero Pip and how, being utterly entranced by the book, became inspired to follow in the footsteps of Dickens and become an author herself.
Click to listen to AS Byatt reading Chapter 1 of Great Expectations – with a personal introduction

In complete contrast to the wit and dark humour of Magwitch and Pip’s first meeting comes one of Dickens’ most emotionally wrenching passages – the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. Here it is masterfully and poignantly read by Louis de Bernierès.
Click to listen to Louis de Bernierès reading from The Old Curiosity Shop

Pip meets Magwitch in Great Expectations

The reading of Dickens has also been taking place much closer to home in Get Into Reading groups in Wirral and Liverpool, where group members have been immensely enjoying the experience and embracing every dramatic twist, wonderfully descriptive sentence and deeply emotional juncture in his stories. Kate McDonnell takes us through how one Get Into Reading group in Wirral has been enjoying what is considered to be the most autobiographical of Dickens’ novels…

“My Friday morning group at The Lauries Community Centre in Birkenhead is reading David Copperfield at the moment – and we’re having a wonderful time of it! The last session was particularly good: we read Chapter 14 – My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me, in which little runaway David finds out whether or not his formidable aunt will adopt him or send him back to his cruel stepfather, Mr Murdstone and his terrifying sister, Jane. The Murdstones arrive at the aunt’s house and there are some hilarious ‘King Kong meets Godzilla’ moments as the two women clash which made us laugh out loud. We cheered Aunt Betsy on with enormous relief when she finally opted to keep David and gave the odious brother and sister a piece of her mind! It was funny and entertaining, yet we also recognised that this was about deciding the fate of a small, frightened child and remembered children of today put up for adoption or waiting for foster parents, helpless to influence the result. How does Dickens do that?

Reading the book aloud together slowly over the weeks is like donning a pair of super-clear spectacles, enabling you to examine and wonder at every little detail – nothing is missed.

Here are some comments from the group on how they’re finding the experience of reading Dickens so far:

‘There’s lots of description in it, but it’s never boring.’ (A Dickens convert!)

‘I’m surprised at how much humour there is – I thought Dickens was all workhouses.’

‘It’s like Shameless – full of big characters’.

‘I didn’t think I would like it’

‘Dickens can make you laugh and make you cry in just a few pages’

‘He makes you feel like you’re in the room with them.’

‘It’s so colourful. You don’t read it in black and white, somehow.’

Emma Gibbons has also been reading some Dickens – the great Great Expectations – with a Get Into Reading group in Edge Hill Library. Reading the book has been quite a journey – the group read it with three different project workers over some months, but enthusiasm for it never waned. Indeed, it was enjoyed so much that the last three chapters were read twice over for the benefit of members who had missed previous sessions – the other members who had already read the ending were more than happy to hear it again, which shows just how much they appreciated the book.

Reading Dickens has proved to be a highly enjoyable experience for group members and project worker alike, as Emma herself testifies:

“Great Expectations is a wonderful book and reading it aloud has made me appreciate Dickens even more.”

The book has also  encouraged greater participation amongst some members of the group:

“One group member, B, did not read aloud when starting the group, but does now, and seems to really enjoy it. B has also been very keen on reading the footnotes to the text when an arcane term or an unfamiliar reference crops up. In particular, the reading of Magwitch’s death had a powerful impact on B, who had tears in his eyes.”

The impact of Dickens has even stretched beyond the group; one group member’s carer has said that she will read more of his work as a result of the group member’s enjoyment of Great Expectations. The wonder of Dickens’ words knows no bounds!

Dickens in 1850

This certainly shows how much influence Dickens has – and will continue to have for many more of his anniversaries to come – upon our reading experiences. We’ll leave with some wise words from the man himself…and wish him a very happy bicentenary indeed!

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

Across their 300 care homes in the UK, Bupa will this week get residents as well as members of the local community sharing stories and bringing the act of storytelling to life. Alongside a number of special storytelling events, Bupa residents will also get the chance to take part in a special poetry and short story competition, sharing their own stories.

From our time spent partnering Bupa, and as the range of our work with older people tells us, we know that sharing stories with care home residents has a great effect in a number of ways – boosting wellbeing, increasing relaxation and good mood, stimulating memory and encouraging connections not just with themselves but with relatives, care home workers and one another.

The strongest testament to the power of shared reading  has amongst Bupa care home residents comes from family members of residents who have witnessed firsthand the positive effects of storytelling on their loved ones, and how it leads to the telling of personal stories:

Since attending the group my Dad has rediscovered his love of literature. He does not have the concentration to read for himself so being able to read out in a group and have poetry read to him and discuss the piece together has been great for him. He has also met other people from the other house where the group is held with whom he has interacted.

At one session recently Dad started chatting to another member of the group and it turned out that the three other gentlemen had attended the same school as my dad. My dad is in his 80’s and it was lovely for us as a family to see him becoming animated about stories he had shared with the 3 guys. He talks very fondly of the atmosphere in the group, it sounds very welcoming and creates an environment where people can chat freely about the piece they are reading.

My Dad also told me that one of the people in the group used to have difficulty speaking and since going to the sessions has now started talking to the other members – this is a massive credit to the group and the way it is presented…it has given my dad so much joy.

The Reader Organisation fully supports the ongoing storytelling sessions at Bupa care homes nationwise, knowing that the act of storytelling holds great therapeutic benefits for older people, and we hope that as many people as possible – old and young alike – will get involved in the activities to experience for themselves the wonder of reading and storytelling.

If you would like to find out more information on how to attend or take part in a Bupa storytelling event, call 0845 600 4622 or e-mail storytellingweek@bupa.com .

Our Northern Ireland project worker Patricia Canning fills us in the ongoing progress of Get Into Reading Northern Ireland, highlighting the powerful impact words and literature have amongst a wide range of people:

Every Wednesday afternoon I read with a group of women who tell me that being a part of this Get Into Reading group makes them feel relaxed, ‘chilled’, less stressed, and on the whole, liberated. The irony is, that this GIR group is in Hydebank Prison, Belfast. Reading an extract from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol a few weeks back, the women talked about how his depiction of the biting cold had made them all feel very chilly: ‘he really knows how to describes things, doesn’t he? I’m freezing here!’

Being able to ‘feel’ what the writer is describing – even if it is the cold – is a testament to the power of words, and of the benefits of reading good literature. These women, like everyone else who benefits from attending Get Into Reading groups across the mainland, enjoy that liberating feeling of being able to identify with other characters, with events and with feelings and emotions that they might otherwise struggle to understand, articulate, or even acknowledge. Words can do that – as Ferdinand Pessoa puts it:

To express something is to conserve its virtue and take away its terror. Fields are greener in their description than in their actual greenness. Flowers, if described with phrases that define them in the air of the imagination, will have colours with a durability not found in cellular life.

Reading a difficult Shakespearean sonnet recently, one of the women read the line, ‘I all alone beweep my outcast state’, and proclaimed, ‘it’s about depression, isn’t it?’ In our group, Shakespeare has helped us understand that depression is a timeless phenomenon and can chance upon the best of us.

Thankfully, these benefits are reaching further afield because people are attending to the positive effects of shared reading here, as Health In Mind’s recent poetry and prose event at Coleraine library so wonderfully demonstrated. We now have a fantastic Get Into Reading group in Queen’s University, Belfast, every Thursday afternoon, which is well attended by a spirited bunch of people who read, chat, drink tea, chat, read, and marvel at the ways in which reading together enriches both the reading experience and our day in equal measure.

The Reading Revolution has begun in Northern Ireland, but we need passionate people who believe in the power of reading to help take it even further. We are hosting an open Read To Lead training course at Holywood Library over three weeks: Friday 3rd, 10th and 17th February 2012. If you want to share the joys of shared reading in your community, there are a few places left on the course. For further details and to book your place, please contact Jessica Reeves for more information: jessicareeves@thereader.org.uk

It’s especially important that children are given the opportunity to express themselves openly, as well as respect and listen to those around them – and we’ve found that literature and shared reading sessions provide a particularly effective outlet for these things to happen. Quite spectacularly as a result of engaging in shared reading 89% of children in schools across Liverpool said that they were more confident discussing their ideas and opinions as a part of being in a group.

Even more encouraging is the fact that 96% of children agreed that they were more understanding towards the ideas and opinions of other people as a result of shared reading. Absolutely wonderful findings, showing that reading isn’t just about academic education - but emotional development too.

We celebrated both Dickens’ bicentenary, and the expansion of our Get Into Reading groups across the capital, with a truly magical line-up of readers, comedy, and music which had the audiences in stitches one minute, and tearful the next. The British Library provided a suitably literary venue and Vintage gave everyone a free Dickens novel to take home with them. No wonder the public tickets sold out in a day!

Charles Dickens casts a critical eye over proceedings

Whilst a portrait of the great man himself looked down on us, his actual DNA appeared on stage in the form of Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, his great-great-great granddaughter, who apologised for reading A Tale of Two Cities from a well-loved paperback rather than a precious family heirloom. This made no difference to the quality of her performance, however; all of our readers left the audience in spellbound silence. 

The wonderful AS Byatt read the opening to Great Expectations, reminiscing about the effect it had on her as a child and delivering Magwitch’s threats with relish. It might be January, but our own Phil Davis’ portrayal of the loving Cratchitt family in A Christmas Carol  still kindled a warm and fuzzy feeling, whilst  Angela Macmillan movingly recreated Peggotty’s loyalty and devotion to the young David Copperfield, leaving one audience member ‘weeping like a burst water pipe’.

Ida Barr does her thing

TRO's Director Jane Davis and Tweedy the Clown

 Judging by the enthusiastic response from the audience and the reaction on Twitter, the event was an enormous success:

“I didn’t know I could be entertained like that”

“Clowns, cowbells, magicians and AS Byatt should be mixed more often!”

“Pure joy”

Dickens himself was a consummate entertainer and would surely have approved of the eclectic line-up, a perfect mix of comedy and pathos, just like the novels we were there to celebrate.

A big thank you to everyone who was involved and made it such a special event. If you came along, we’d love to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment below.

Don’t worry if you didn’t make it this time around – we will be back in Liverpool as usual in December and fingers crossed our London escapades will be the first of many!

As part of their reading sessions, children in three Liverpool schools we’ve been working in have been discovering the connection between literature and life. In our recent evaluation, 76% of children said that they can relate their life to things they’ve read in books more readily as a result of taking part in sessions.

I’ve been running a group for two years at the Plymouth MIND drop-in centre. One of the core group of committed regulars, M, had a social phobia and would never have dreamt of reading in front of others. She is now one of our best readers:

 ”I have come to learn the power of words in our lives…the group has become the highlight of my week and I clear the calendar to ensure I can make the sessions.”

I love both the variety and stimulation the weekly groups provide.

Plymouth City Council are funding Get Into Reading for community-building and recovery at Plymstock Library. It is an open group which also invites GP referrals.

In the isolated village of Newton Ferrers, I’ve begun a community group in an Edwardian ‘Fisherman’s Reading Room’. It was an all-male snooker club until TRO entered the premises! This is the first step in a big South West project to restore old reading rooms in hard to reach places to their original purpose. The aim is to get reading happening again, training up local people to take over and help spread the Reading Revolution across the village.

Have you thought of becoming a shared reading facilitator?
The next South West 3-day Read to Lead open training course is at Dartington, Monday 23rd January – Wednesday 25th January 2012, 9.30am -5.30am. For more information, ring Sarah Hopkins (SW) on 01364 653994 or Casi Dylan on 0151 207 7207/e-mail casidylan@thereader.org.uk .

Our recent evaluation of reading sessions in Liverpool schools has revealed that 80% of children questioned agreed that reading helped them to relax. This is great news – and shows another aspect of reading that is so beneficial to children’s lives.

Three women recently told me what had made them join shared reading groups. All three had moved to the area suddenly due to their husbands’ retirement and consequently had left families and friends behind. They came to shared reading because they felt lonely, isolated and depressed. This is what they had to say about attending the group:

 ”This has been my lifeline.”

 ”I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t had this each week.”

If you’d like to become a shared reading facilitator, our next 3-day Read To Lead open training course takes place in Dartington from Monday 23rd January – Wednesday 25th January, 9.30am-5.30pm. For more information on booking a place, ring Sarah Hopkins (SW) on 01364 653994 or Casi Dylan on 0151 207 7207/e-mail casidylan@thereader.org.uk .