Community Programme Visit to Chatsworth

The Festival’s Shared Writing Programme started in style this year, with a visit by Derby College Lexis students to Chatsworth. Many Festival-goers will have seen the books the Festival produces each year of stories written by these young people who have only recently arrived in the UK and are learning English. Many of them are refugees and have had to flee difficult and dangerous conditions at home.

Our project, called ‘Heritage and Home’, aims to introduce the students to an important part of our local Derbyshire heritage, and for the students to use that as an inspiration for their story. They will each choose an object or picture from the House or garden that links to something in their home country.

One student, for example, found that the Chatsworth chapel reminded him of the Church he used to go to in his native Eritrea. An Egyptian student enjoyed looking at the statues and tablets originally from her home country. An Iranian student found the tapestries reminded him of the wall hangings found in Iran.

The project is supported by the Devonshire Educational Trust, who kindly organised access and information for our visits. The students will now write their stories, which will be published in a book designed by our partners, Burn the Book, and launched during the Book Festival next June.

The students were accompanied on their trips by three 3^rd year photography undergraduates from the University of Derby, who took documentary photos of the visits, a selection of which will also be included in the book.

If you would like to view our previous Lexis books, you will find copies on the Community Programme / Shared Writing pages of the website.