Day 1: Reading to Live Well

Reading really does make you feel better, especially when it’s shared, and one of the main purposes of Day 1 was to explore this topic with a variety of professionals from public, private, and third sector organisations. Our Get Into Reading groups read aloud together in places ranging from care homes, GP surgeries, libraries, schools, community centres, in-patient mental healthcare settings, and prisons, improving wellbeing and providing stability, support, and a love of literature for their members. The day consisted of a mix of general plenary sessions complemented by breakout sessions focusing on a particular area of The Reader Organisation’s work.

Charlotte, Reader-in-Residence at Liverpool Hope University, highlights one of her top moments:

“‘The Consequences of Reading’, in which TRO Director Jane Davis spoke to Professor Jonathan Rose about his book ‘The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes; was without a doubt one of my favourite parts of the first day of the conference. It was brilliant to see Jane in such enthusiastic conversation with a person who is clearly a personal hero of hers, and whose book has meant so much to her. I thought it was really important that the session felt like a conversation, and was fairly informal, rather than a typical ‘lecture’ or formal Q&A session.

As an English graduate myself, I found it incredibly interesting hearing Jonathan speak about his views on the responsibility of the academic to address the over-theoretical approach to literature in education environments in modern times. He commented that, 50 years ago, English was one of the most popular subjects at university, but that in recent times there has been a significant ‘falling-off’, and that he saw the cause of this to be the de-personalisation of literature, and lack of focus on the role of the reader. I was very interested by Jonathan’s comment that he saw it as his duty to put ‘the reader first and foremost in literary history: they are the one who gives the book individuality and agency – ‘they make it do something.’

Towards the end of the conversation, Jane and Jonathan spoke about the fact that there is not much opportunity given to children in society now to listen to a story over a long period of time. ‘Story times’ in schools tend to focus more on short snatches of reading, in which the child is asked to look for specific things, and feed-back on afterwards. Jonathan commented that he saw it as incredibly important that we don’t necessarily ‘ask for something in return’ when we read to a child – that we should let the story wash over them, and sink-in over time.”

Our twitter hashtag for the Conference, #TRO2012, also prompted an enthusiastic response from the audience:

#TRO2012 if only every GP could see what Dr Iona Heath can see. (@TriciaCanning)

#TRO2012 Inspirational stuff yesterday & such enthusiastic staff, would love to see it rolled out in our organisation (@OT_LisaB)

#TRO2012 CRILS – Entertaining, informing and challenging – the best presentation by academics I have ever seen (@devonbiker)

The knowledge of the speakers and the passion displayed by everyone both on stage and off was truly inspirational. Exhausted, but elated, we geared up for Friday…

Day 2: Living to Read Well

This day was exclusively designed for people who had completed our Read to Lead training and are practising as Shared Reading Facilitators. Day 2 was therefore a combination of practical sessions on reading aloud and choosing material, problem solving and literary masterclasses. Equally valuable was the opportunity to meet and catch-up with other Shared Reading Facilitators from around the UK and beyond, providing encouragement and advice on this challenging but rewarding practice.

Credit Steve Wasserman, http://readmesomethingyoulove.com

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the day for many was Lemn Sissay in conversation with Jane Davis. An advocate for Looked After Children, young people with whom The Reader Organisation also works closely, he was by turns hilarious and heart-breaking, as Michael, our Events and Publications Intern, explains:

“There was a great deal of hype surrounding Lemn Sissay’s conversation with Jane.  An expectant audience had heard a lot about this

c.Helen Kielt

charismatic writer and, I have to say, he didn’t disappoint.  What could be added to Lemn’s already extensive list of job titles (including: poet, playwright, social commentator) is performer. His energy on stage kept us on the edge of our seats, whilst his anecdotes had us laughing and murmuring our agreement in equal amounts.

But what shone through most was Lemn’s passion for children and the effect great literature can have on their minds and their lives. ‘Books open up a free space inside a child’s imagination’, Lemn affirmed.  He listed a number of characters from literature who were orphaned at a young age or who grew up in care – Oliver Twist, Harry Potter, Bruce Wayne, Jane Eyre – and argued that it is these characters that should be utilised more effectively to demonstrate to us all just how significant looked-after children are, and the important part they play in our society.”

Twitter was buzzing in response, once again:

Fabulously moving and funny Lemn Sissay #TRO2012 (@HelenKielt)

#TRO2012 what a day! What a day! What a day! What a day! (@RachelNiblock)

train home from @thereaderorg#TRO2012 conference @britishlibrary – words not enough to voice my awe of the past two days. Amazing people.(@ajeastwood)

The impact the conference had on all of us here at The Reader Organisation itself was phenomenal  – we were intellectually stimulated, re-energised and inspired, and hope you were too. The Twitter hashtag is still live, so please continue to voice your thoughts online @thereaderorg.

There’ll be more on the blog in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, roll on 2013…

Internships at The Reader Organisation cover a wide-range of engaging and exciting activities, all of which will play a significant role in helping us to grow in the coming months. Our latest round of internships are open for application now, and we’re on the look-out for five keen, energetic graduate-level individuals to join us at our Head Office in Liverpool for a four-month internship.

These internships will last for sixteen weeks, for a total of 21/25 hours per week (unpaid, but with travel expenses paid). Current roles are:

• Communications: Events and Publications Internship (download Job Description)
• Communications: PR and Publicity Internship (download Job Description)
• Arts Adminstration Internship (download Job Description)
• Business Support Internship (download Job Description)
• Organisational Development Internship (download Job Description)

Previous interns at The Reader Organisation have gone on to take up posts such as Editor at Vintage Books, Marketing Manager at Princes Ltd, Digital Executive at a design company, Marketing Assistant at an architect’s firm, Accountant Graduate Scheme at KPMG, and a variety of positions within The Reader Organisation, including our current Communications Assistant, Research Administration Assistant and Development Manager.

How to apply

Please complete the required application form and return by email to jobs@thereader.org.uk or in post to The Reader Organisation, The Friary Centre, Bute Street, Liverpool L5 3LA.

Deadline for all applications is Friday 1st June at midday. You will be notified if you are to be called for interview by the end of the day on Wednesday 6th June. If you have not heard from us by then, you have been unsuccessful. Volume of applications may make replies to everyone impossible.

Interviews will be held at The Reader Organisation Head Office at The Friary Centre, Bute Street, Liverpool on Thursday 7th June 2012.

If you have any queries, please call The Reader Organisation on 0151 207 7207.

This week’s Recommended Read comes from Lois Walters, our Lambeth Get Into Reading Project Worker, who has returned again and again to W Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil.

I was a late comer to Somerset Maugham; perhaps wrongly thinking him a white male colonial writer, but The Painted Veil has converted me. His 1925 depiction of a woman’s journey from shallow social privilege to spiritual awakening and maturity took me on journey that reflected that of the woman, Kitty.  From South Kensington in London, through Hong Kong and the cholera ridden remote depths of mainland China Kitty and I, stumbling at times, discovered a world beyond our own.

The book’s title refers to Shelley’s sonnet ‘Lift Not The Painted Veil’ which suggests we should ‘lift not the painted veil’ of life for ‘behind, lurk Fear and Hope, twin destinies’.  At the start of the novel Kitty leads a vacuous and superficial life – her destiny defined by her social status and gender. The book cleverly mirrors Kitty’s intellectual and mental  state- starting with short, often mawkish chapters where the characters are given  physical descriptions and little depth, and then developing into longer deeper chapters as Kitty, often accidentally (or through destiny), is exposed to a world beyond privileged South Kensington between the wars.

The opening chapter is one of great tension before Maugham flashes back and forth between past and present explaining to the reader how Kitty comes to be caught in flagrante delicto in the opening pages. Even after several reads it still amazes me that the book was first published in 1925, and more amazingly that it was written by a man. As Maugham slowly lifts the painted veil of Kitty’s life we the readers are drawn into her world, as she, in the words of the poem ‘sought…things to love’. Kitty like most of the characters is not wholly likeable; she is vain, judgemental and selfish – or perhaps, real? We discover as the book opens up that behind the painted veil of her life do indeed lurk fear and hope; Kitty marries a man she doesn’t love, or even really know, out of fear that she will be ‘left on the shelf’- partly spurred on by the chance that her younger sister  will beat her to the altar. She then experiences hope when she falls in love with Charlie and starts an affair with him, only to then be sent back to fear as he lets her down and she is forced to travel to cholera ridded Mei-tan-fu with the husband she does not love.

Shelley’s poem refers to hope and fear as ‘twin destinies’ and throughout the book we see them juxtaposed. Not just for Kitty though. Her cold and calculating mother fears that Kitty, when she is still unmarried at 25 (again important to remember the book was written in 1925), will be a burden on the family. One of the parts of the book that I found most disturbing is when Kitty arrives in Mei-tan-fu, full of fear, and thinks of running away but then realises

It was out of the question. If she went where would she go? Not to her mother; her mother would make her see very plainly that, having married her off, she counted on being rid of her.

But there is still the hope that her lover Charlie may come to her rescue, for Kitty has not yet lifted the painted veil that she has draped over Charlie Townsend hiding the reality that he is also self serving and superficial.

One of the reasons I love the book is that although Kitty is selfish and vacuous, she is also a product of her environment. She is naive and sheltered, there to look pretty and support her husband – but as we see her thrown into situations she is unfamiliar with she shows as certain bravery and stoicism. She also matures and starts to see the world outside her very parochial upbringing. There is a very beautiful scene, when she has arrived in Mei-tan-fu and is miserable and missing Charlie. She awakes from dreaming about him and observes the morning mist slowly dispersing and;

suddenly from that white cloud a tall, grim bastion emerged. It seemed not merely to be made visible by the all-discovering sun but rather to rise out of nothing at the touch of a magic wand.

This vision moves Kitty to tears and is the start of her spiritual maturity (and I think the moment that the members of my Get Into Reading group started to empathise with her);

she had never felt so light of heart and it seemed to her as though her body were a shell that lay at her feet and she pure spirit. Here was Beauty. She took it as the believer takes in his mouth the wafer which is God

The novel opens up as Kitty opens her eyes to the outside world and Maugham subtly changes the structure of the writing. Kitty is still flawed and selfish, but she is also human, for which of us has not made mistakes and shown poor judgement at some point in our lives?

I have read the book now twice on my own and once with a Get Into Reading group and still find much to love about it. Sharing it with others, who admittedly at times struggled to see the advantage of reading it during the early chapters when it seemed to be a novel filled with privileged and shallow character, has made me cherish it more.

I would like to thank my Get Into Reading group members at the Lambeth Walk Group Practice for their inspiring reactions to the novel and their trust that it is a book worth sticking with. It is!

LIFT 2012 will also be playing host to the UK premiere of Gatz, a spellbinding and seductive word-for-word staging of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s modern classic The Great Gatsby.

One morning in the office of a mysterious small business, an employee finds a copy of The Great Gatsby in the clutter on his desk. He starts to read it aloud and doesn’t stop.

Termed ‘the most remarkable achievement in theatre not only of this year but also of this decade’ by The New York Times, Gatz is an eight-hour event performed by New York’s Elevator Repair Service, spread over four parts to take the audience from early afternoon into the evening (including a long dining interval). Imagine your favourite book coming to life before your very eyes, losing yourself in the words as they are read aloud…this is the exciting and engaging prospect that Gatz offers its audience.

Gatz will be taking LIFT 2012 into the West End for 23 performances only – if you’re a Fitzgerald aficiando, you don’t want to miss out.

Gatz runs from Friday 8th June-Sunday 15th July 2012 at the Noël Coward Theatre in London. All performances start at 2.30pm and finish by 10.30pm, with tickets costing between £27.50-£77.50. Tickets are available through the Gatz London website or by calling 0844 482 5141.

Last week I read Thomas Hardy’s Her Dilemma with one of my community groups in Birkenhead. The poem had been picked by one of our newly trained reading assistants, who explained her choice by saying, ‘It’s funny, just when I was scanning this, before I even read it properly, something just grabbed me’.

The rest of the group clearly shared her initial arrest, as we all sat in stunned silence after reading it for the first time. When we began to pick it apart, the poem typically threw up more questions than answers. We were unable to work out exactly what the lie was, with everyone keen for a definite answer to the question, ‘did she say yes or not?!’

There was a general consensus that the poem is desperately sad, with each new reading bringing forth different ideas of what might be going on. Someone wryly observed, ‘it’s a bit more than a white lie really, isn’t it?’ another interjecting with, ‘yeah, it’s not like ‘d’you like my new coat, it’s ‘do you love me?’ One member was quite struck by the idea that this man may have returned from war, weakened by his experiences and nearing death. The women, he said, may be unable to turn down someone who has already suffered so much: ‘I mean, he’s ‘holding hard her hand’ – he’s really gripping it’. Another theory was that she doesn’t say yes, though she does love him, there being something – a partner perhaps – rendering it impossible for her to say how she really feels. Several group members were sure she said yes ‘to be a moment kind’ but didn’t mean it, which led to why this ‘mocked humanity’. One man quickly said, ‘Because life sets up these conundrums – that’s what life is, a series of dilemmas.’

The descriptions caused a lot of mulling over, with the group curious as to why so much space was taken up with allusions to age and waste: ‘is it like a wasted life – him being so young?’ Another member immediately came back with ‘oh, I thought he was old!’ at which point both laughed, saying, ‘isn’t that funny – we’ve both seen it so different!’ We talked about the possible significance of certain details, including the ‘wormy poppy-head’. One usually quiet man asserted, ‘they’re the first thing to grow after something’s been destroyed – like Flanders after the war; it was awash with them.’ Another member then mused ‘like a symbol of strength, maybe?’ Our youngest member was quite taken with the fact the two are in a church and kept coming back to it: ‘it’s a mess – it sounds purely manky… is it worse for her because she’s stood in church, like it’s a sin or something?’

Right at the end, one woman bent over the poem very closely and said, ‘It’s easy to think it’s a couple, but it could be a father and daughter, couldn’t it?’

Her Dilemma

The two were silent in a sunless church,
Whose mildewed walls, uneven paving-stones,
And wasted carvings passed antique research;
And nothing broke the clock’s dull monotones.

Leaning against a wormy poppy-head,
So wan and worn that he could scarcely stand,
–For he was soon to die,– he softly said,
“Tell me you love me!”–holding hard her hand.

She would have given a world to breathe “yes” truly,
So much his life seemed hanging on her mind,
And hence she lied, her heart persuaded throughly,
‘Twas worth her soul to be a moment kind.

But the sad need thereof, his nearing death,
So mocked humanity that she shamed to prize
A world conditioned thus, or care for breath
Where Nature such dilemmas could devise.

Last time we went off to Romania; this time around we’re heading to the second-most populated country in the world – so there are lots of stories to tell – and a fascinating cultural mecca: India. Over to our Events and Publications Intern Michael McGrath to give the lowdown…

India. The name alone can stir one’s imagination. It’s not difficult to conjure up images of the country’s warmth and charm: vibrant, colourful landscapes; fresh, exotic foods; the beaming smiles of passing children. What lies beneath these familiar images and sensations, however, is an incredibly diverse country. There is an ever-increasing gap between the urban rich – in cities like Mumbai and Delhi – and the rural poor that make up the majority, for example. Cultural differences also exist between the many different religious groups that coexist in the country. But perhaps it is India’s astounding array of languages that is its most divisive feature.

Charles de Gaulle once asked of his native France, ‘how can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?’ If France’s plethora of all things fromage demonstrates its varied national identity, then surely it is India’s profusion of languages that gives one a sense of its magnificently diverse population. There are at least 1652 languages in use in India today, with the government recognising 112 mother tongues that have more than 10,000 speakers.

The lingua francas for most Indians are Hindi and English, but it is the latter that has flourished in recent decades. India’s emergence on the world stage (including its membership to the G20) has given the country a more outward-looking identity, with English becoming the language of the educated, the prosperous, and the aspirational. A 1997 survey by India Today magazine estimated that about a third of the country’s population of more than one billion could hold a conversation in English. This linguistic trend has had an undeniably large effect on Indian culture, particularly its literature.

A new wave of Indian novelists and poets writing in English has materialised in the last few decades. Not only have these writers created an exciting new branch of English literature, but they are also receiving some of the most coveted accolades in literature for their efforts. The Nobel Prize in Literature, for example, has recognised Indian writers, awarding Rabindranath Tagore, V.S. Naipaul and Indian-born Rudyard Kipling honours for their works. In the last fifteen years three Indian writers have received the prestigious Man Booker Prize for Literature: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997), Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006), and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008).

This recent success has revitalised the literary scene in India. Jaipur, the famously pink city in the middle of the Rajasthan desert, has held an incredibly popular literature festival since 2006 – attracting the likes of Tina Brown, Ian McEwan and Oprah Winfrey.

Perhaps one of the most famous pieces of fiction to emerge from India in recent years is Salman Rushdie’s much-lauded Midnight’s Children. The book begins with the story of the Sinai family and the birth of its newest member. Born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, at the precise moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai is celebrated in this new country and welcomed by Prime Minister Nehru himself. But this coincidence of birth has consequences for Saleem, namely: telepathic powers that connect him with 1,000 other ‘midnight’s children’ – all born in the first hour of India’s independence.

Saleem, using his telepathic powers, assembles a Midnight Children’s Conference, bringing hundreds of ethnically diverse children together while also attempting to discover the meaning of their gifts. It is also at a time when Saleem’s family begin a number of migrations, and witness a number of the violent outbreaks that cripple the subcontinent during its separation. Saleems’s path in life mirrors India’s varied fortunes during this period, allowing Rushdie to examine the effects of colonialism, independence, and partition.

Midnight’s Children has won a host of literary awards, including The Man Booker Prize in 1981. In addition, to celebrate its twenty-fifth and fortieth anniversaries, the Booker Prize presented Midnight’s Children with ‘The Booker of Bookers’ and the ‘Best of the Bookers’ awards respectively.

Rushdie’s magnum opus is but one example of the many great works that have emerged from India since the country’s independence. What links the majority of these works is their ability to challenge long-held assumptions, confront difficult issues, but also enthral readers with their exquisite language and beautiful verse. If Midnight’s Children heralded a renaissance in Indian writing, then the future of Indian literature (and indeed world literature) is looking rather exciting.

Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1; The Young Victoria) will be reading The New Dress by Virginia Woolf,  Sonya Cassidy (star of stage versions of The Lion in Winter and Inherit The Wind) will read an extract from I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Mathew Horne (Gavin and Stacey) will be reading extracts from Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith.

Stories Before Bedtime, held by the Criterion and in partnership with Vintage Books and The Reader Organisation, is a series of special late-night readings celebrating and championing the love of reading, transporting the audience back to a time when being read to aloud before bed was a fundamental part of life.

Stories Before Bedtime: Summer Time
Friday 1st June 2012, 10.30pm
Criterion Theatre, 218-223 Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, London, W1V 9LB

Tickets cost £12.50 (£10 GIR member/concessions) and are available from the Criterion Box Office or online.

Here is one of those moments from Liz McGaw, Project Worker for Get Into Reading in the South West:

At the Yeovil Library Memory group we have been reading extracts from Cider with Rosie, with accompanying poems by Seamus Heaney, an unfamiliar poet to the group members. Sometimes faces are pulled when we read more ‘modern’ poets, and the group feels on unfamiliar territory.

Last week the group process beautifully illustrated the theory behind the Get Into Reading model, with the poem linking the feelings arising from the text, to an opening up and a shared understanding of the poems, which we would have otherwise found harder to reach.

We had puzzled over the lines at the end of Seamus Heaney’s poem Sunlight;

and here is love
Like a tinsmith’s scoop
Sunk past its gleam
In the meal bin

The group had been remembering people from their past, and all felt that ‘love’ was the most important word. One member of the group was accompanying his wife for the first time, and surprised both of them by expressing his understanding of the poem. She said, ‘Fifty years married, and I’ve learnt something new about my husband this afternoon’.

The following week we puzzled again over the last line of Heaney’s Personal Helicon. Like the previous week, all was clear until the last verse;

I rhyme To see myself, to set
The darkness echoing

What could it mean? There had been memories shared during the text of going down wells, going to the bottom and fishing around in the darkness, and remembering smells and textures.

We thought that the poet was writing to recall for himself and bring out his memories from the darkness, just as the group had done during the reading of the text. One man wrote in the comments book;

I didn’t realise how much of my childhood I can recall. Most edifying.

He had stopped us whilst we were reading to express his amazement at the variety of stories and memories the group had shared around the table, whilst reading Laurie Lee.

A collective understanding of this last verse was shared by everyone, as buried memories echoed around the table, and my image of the previous weeks poem was of a hand plunging into a bran tub ‘like a tinsmith’s scoop’ and bringing out a hidden prize.

We read again, ‘I rhyme To see myself, to set the darkness echoing’, and there were smiles and nods around the table. We decided that whatever the poet meant by these lines, we knew and could share our understanding of them, and that the poem echoed the group’s own personal discoveries brought out of the darkness. The poems had expressed for the group the experience of digging up these buried memories, and delighted them.

For more ‘wow moments’ and testimonials about the impact of Get Into Reading from group members themselves, visit our website.

I first encountered Stephen Crane during my first year of university. There was a text on my reading list: The Red Badge of Courage. The problem was my tutor had listed it in inverted commas, implying it was a poem or short story I could quickly read the night before my seminar. Imagine my annoyance when I realized it was a full-blown novel. I loaned it from the library and being a conscientious 18 year old I read it cover to cover in one night, made possible because it was an excellent book. I have not encountered a more deliciously poetic term than ‘The red badge of courage’ meaning a war wound the protagonist strives for as a soldier in the American Civil War, so I decided to move beyond Crane’s prose and into poetry.

A seemingly strange desire is the obvious theme of I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon, a simple, short and disjointed poem by Crane. The poem packs a rapid punch that as a reader you can relate to and understand. At some stage in life we have all wanted something more, chased a dream, and hopefully we all still do.

The real challenge of this poem is that ‘a man’ is not pursuing a highly unlikely goal, he is pursuing the horizon, something that is constant and cannot be reached. The man is chasing an impossible dream.

If you were to withdraw from the poem and were told of an individual going after something that is actually impossible (e.g. if I was trying to fly around the solar system by flapping my arms), then you would understandably think this ludicrous. However, when I read this poem I support the man pursuing the horizon, and implore him to carry on regardless.

I have used this poem in Get Into Reading at Liverpool Hope University and there has been a variety of responses. Many students, but not all, are wholeheartedly behind the man. One student said that you cannot be told you are unable to do something, it makes you more determined and the man is on a journey with value in itself, much like life. Some have related it to deluded TV talent show contestants who simply refuse to accept they cannot sing.

Another observed that the poem is told from the perspective of a naysayer, and said we do not know what this person does themselves. It just seems like they sit there, not pursuing their own dreams and pouring scorn on others, the man’s pursuit may be fruitless, but at least he’s chasing something.

Plato and Aristotle argued we should strive towards a telos, or end purpose, and this has informed a lot of study on morality and ethics. However, Einstein defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ Let’s get them in a Get Into Reading group together and watch them fight it out.

I Saw a Man Pursuing the Horizon

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
“It is futile,” I said,
“You can never —”

“You lie,” he cried,
And ran on.

Ransom Publishing specialises in publishing books specifically targeted towards struggling or reluctant readers, offering easily-accessible, high-quality and high-interest reading material that engages and excites without being offputting or patronising.

Titles are aimed at readers of all ages, from children and young emergent readers to adults. The Dark Man series by Peter Lancett, aimed at older, very reluctant teenage readers has proved incredibly popular, winning an Educational Resources Award. New titles include Vampire Dawn, an edgy and contemporary reworking of the classic vampire genre also geared towards teenagers and young adults, and Spook Squad, a series all about four girls and a poltergeist who have a very important job to do: protecting the human world from ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night…

For more information and to see the full range of titles, visit the Ransom Publishing website and blog.