LONDON 
Thursday 31 May Burlington Danes Academy, W12 0HR
Wednesday 13 June Islington Arts and Media School, N4 3LS
Monday 2 July George Green’s School, E14 3DW
Wednesday 4 July Queens Park Community School, NW8 0NL
TBC Charles Edward Brooke School, SW9 6UL
Thursday 19 July Pimlico Academy, SW1V 3AT

NOTTINGHAM
Thursday 28 June Nottingham University Samworth Academy, NG8 4HY

OXFORD 
Wednesday 20 June Oxford Spires Academy, OX4 2AU

The launch events will be taking place at the schools, beginning late afternoon. To reserve your place please email info@firststory.org.uk and we will also confirm timings once available. For security reasons schools kindly request we supply them with a guest list in advance of the event. Please note launch event dates are subject to change.

Anthologies will be on sale at the schools for £10 each and proceeds will go towards the First Story programme. Light refreshments will be provided.

Sunday 27th May 2012 at Wormsley cricket ground, Bucks

Join the event on Facebook!

Gates open 11.30am - Lunch 12.30pm – Match Starts 2pm - Afternoon Tea 4pm – Close of Play 7pm

Edwardian cricket team the Authors, which once featured the likes of PG Wodehouse and Arthur Conan Doyle, has been revived and now stars amongst others today’s best-selling writers Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong), Tom Holland (Rubicon) and First Story founder William Fiennes (The Snow Geese). On Sunday 27th May they will be donning pads in battle against the Lords and Commons CC at Sir Paul Getty’s Wormsley cricket ground, described by many as the most beautiful in England.

Join us in support for the two teams, or to simply spend a day in a beautiful setting overlooking the Chiltern Hills. Bring a picnic or enjoy food by Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts. A children’s entertainer will be available throughout the day.

Tickets and Hospitality Packages: Adults £10 and concessions £5. Hospitality packages are available for this unique occasion, priced at just £50 per person, or £500 for a table of 10. Contact the Wormsley Cricket Office on 01283 569667 for more information or book online at www.wormsleycricket.co.uk.

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If you would like to help publicise this very special event, please download this flyer with event information.

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Proceeds are being generously donated to First Story and cricket charity Chance to Shine. First Story is hugely grateful to the Authors CC, the Lords & Commons CC and Wormsley for enabling this day.

Saturday 19th May, 10.30–18.30

Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA

£7.50 or Day Ticket £25

Tales of the Thames brings together a host of top writers and historians for a special one-off event, delving deep into the riveting history of the capital’s waterway. Andrew Motion opens the day with a reading from his new children’s book Silver; architectural guru Dan Cruickshank introduces the river’s magnificent bridges; Susan Brigden guides us on an imaginary trip down the Thames; Robert Douglas-Fairhurst tells us about ‘The Great Stink’; and Iain Sinclair closes the day with female vocalist MacGillivray.

Visit the Somerset House website to find out more and to book online.

First Story is offering you the chance to win a pair of tickets to Andrew Motion’s opening talk at 10.30am. Please send your contact details to info@firststory.org.uk by Friday 11th May and we will select a winner at random.

Terms & Conditions

We have no further Literary Lunches planned at present but keep checking our website for new events.

Born in penury, died in luxury.

Well done Andrew Steven!

It was a night for passions at the Tabernacle on Wednesday evening. The passion for storytelling, the passion for poetry, and the passion for individuality of voice were celebrated in this very special event organised by Intelligence² in support of First Story. William Fiennes, Founding Director of First Story, kicked the event off with a very personal account of the origins of the charity and how he was blown away by the creative energy he found in an unexpected place. Salena Godden moved between the bittersweet and downright hilarious in her account of growing up black in the harsh terrain of her Northern comprehensive. Then the actor, Sam West, supplied a little RSC magic with a mesmerizing reading of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy. Lemn Sissay exposed a dark chapter in our recent history but commanded laughter along with the tears.  Mark Haddon revealed how he breaks from his writing pattern to enjoy a Thames dip three times a week, but when it came to flying he was a fish out of water. The evening culminated with First Story student Mohamed Mardadi’s  hypnotic performance of two of his own works, including ‘I Remember’, an account of his first years in England after moving from Africa and the hostility towards the Islamic faith he has encountered since September 11th. His extraordinary rhyming energy earned a rapturous applause.  A star is born.

Thursday 9th February 2012

On a particularly snowy evening on Thursday 9^th February, First Story’s first Nottingham fundraiser got off to a fantastic start with the legendary William Ivory. Ivory is one of Britain’s leading screen writers with credits such as Made in Dagenham, The Sins, Common as Muck and the adaptation of D.H Lawrence’s Women in Love.

In conversation with First Story’s writer-in-residence Amanda Whittington, the audience were treated to an insight into the life of a successful screen writer. At a young age, a chance meeting with Nottingham writer Alan Sillitoe gave Ivory the hope that, with lashings of ‘hard work’ and ‘determination’, his dream of becoming a writer may, one day, be fulfilled. The authenticity of Ivory’s work is testament to his roots and we were given anecdotes of his childhood in Nottingham and the influence he has drawn from local heroes such as D.H Lawrence. From the teenage angst that saw him locked away in his bedroom and first putting pen to paper to accomplishing a Hollywood screen play, Billy Ivory has achieved quite a feat… well worth the sixty-odd drafts he once claimed to have written.

We hope that this will be the first of many Nottingham events. With special thanks to William Ivory, Yorkshire Bank and Antenna and to everyone that made it despite the weather!

On the 23^rd January, a passer-by in the usually noiseless galleries of Somerset House would have been distracted by the audible whirring of a hundred young minds. Creative cogs were going into overdrive as five acclaimed authors used art to ignite the imaginations of these aspiring writers.

This is the second First Story event at Somerset House. The day gathered seven London schools currently participating in the First Story Programme. Students were regrouped and paired with a writer who introduced them to a carefully selected painting which became a fertile platform for a crop of exceptional poems and stories. The variety in the offerings was as impressive as the inventiveness of language. The culmination of the day’s activities was a public reading where students volunteered to share their pieces in front of their classmates, teachers, parents, and First Story supporters.

The confidence and pride in their work exhibited by these readers was a testament to what First Story seeks to achieve: promoting not only a passion for the written word, but also the self-assurance in expression that allows these voices to be heard.

We shall be posting some of the brilliant work here very soon. Oxford students on the First Story programme will take part in a similar exercise at the Pitt Rivers Museum, while Nottingham students will shortly be picking up their pens at the Galleries of Justice.

Here are a selection of stories written on the day.

Lara Tate, QPCS

I was lying hot and feverish, paralysed in my bed, my body shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly I stopped and lost consciousness and my dream began… I was in bed, feeling serene and emotional but disturbed for I felt like I was being watched. I glanced behind me and saw people whispering about my health, but, looking twice I saw a raven black as anything his beady, hatred filled eyes gazed into mine. I felt unnerved. He was the messenger and guider of death, he sensed my time was at a horrible end and with a horrible shriek death appeared with a scythe in hand and whispered ‘join me’.

Freya Everest, Highgate Wood School

It was dark down the warped burrow, perfect for the scene to commence. Mr Barkly had already wound his way down the grand stairs to find himself wading deeper into the building’s hidden dangers. To any onlooker such a frighteningly large building would have intrigued and enticed, making most people forget the sinister possibilities hidden amongst the walls. However, occasionally you find someone who notices that there is a missing piece from the gigantic puzzle of opportunity and he or she will use that fact very much to their advantage. In this case it was Mr Barkly, a man whose mind was a great fit in this quirky outcast of a building. He had never achieved much in his life, but now was his chance. Slowly, he pranced his way round the entangled corridors, hypnotised by the sincerity of the building. He finally reached his destination after a further 15 minutes of wading. Now it was just a long wait for the right moment to attack.

Camiron Gordon, Highgate Wood School

Oblivious of the silhouette darting from shadow to shadow, Sir Bellingham strolls down the cobbled poorly lit path. With each step down this maze of a walkway, the mysterious creature that is following takes two… sensing he is being followed, he tries to lose his stalker by walking through various twists and turns and the occasional servant quarter… all the time knowing this will only buy him a bit more time. The red light on his tweed suit started to beep.

“Finally”, he mutters.

Continuing up the swirling staircase he takes a moment to appreciate the architecture then turns around to look the monstrosity in the eye. Taking one step back and diving over the banister, Sir Bellingham disappears.

“Not another one”, the thing snarls.

We are delighted to announce that the Duchess of Cornwall has become Patron of First Story.

Katie Waldegrave, Executive Director, First Story, says: ‘It is a great honour to have the Duchess of Cornwall as our Patron. Since we  began running our first workshops three years ago, the response from students, teachers and parents has been overwhelmingly positive. With Her Royal Highness’s support, we hope to expand the reach of our activities and help more young people to access the world of books and grow in self-confidence.’

Her Royal Highness was invited to become the charity’s Patron after officially launching First Story in the East Midlands and talking to students in Nottingham about the writing workshops they had attended. Improving literacy is a cause close to the Duchess’s heart; she is Patron of the National Literacy Trust and Booktrust amongst other organisations and First Story is honoured to have her support.

Read the Press Release