Let's Hear It For The Young Writers!

I have had a text from a former Addiscombe Young Writer and I am both proud and delighted to say that she has written a book. She has asked if she can send me some sample chapters to read and also if I'd help her put a synopsis together. She is fifteen. She was a member of AYW for about a year and she was alsways so shy, often only speaking to me at the end of a session after everyone else had gone. To hear four years later, that she was so influenced by those sessions she felt confident enough to write a book, is just astonishing - and also extremely humbling for me!

I sometimes underestimate just how crucial those Creative Writing sessions were and how much they meant to the children who attended them - often year in, year out. I was sharing my passion for the written word with 110 per cent of myself and I delighted in every step the members took, every certificate or award they won, every trophy - and very very delighted that they managed to produce enough excellent work to fill three little books! They gave me a brilliant send off when it closed down and I moved - and it is amazing to think, three years later, that the whole ethos that was the Young Writer group between 2012 and 2018, is still inspiring so many! I just don't know what to say. Seriously, I don't!

Maybe this is a sign that I should go ahead and find a publisher for the Guide Book I wrote a year or so ago, because Writing is clearly still an extra-curricular activity that is overlooked and under estimated yet still needed - even in our push-button electonic world; especially if children like this enterprising young lady are going to follow their dreams and become the next generation of writers, poets, reporters, journalists - whatever. I have told her I will give her all the help she needs. She keeps thanking me, which is sweet. But in reality, I should be thanking her!