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TESTIMONIALS
'I was honoured and privileged to join Patricia Canning and Poet Laureate Sinéad Morrissey at the literary project gathering in Hydebank (prison) [...]This is valuable work which speaks to the light in a place of much heartbreak and darkness.'
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir,
Belfast Lord Mayor, 2013-2014
'Reading together helps with confidence. If my opinion wasn’t the same as everyone else’s I used to think it was wrong, but here, I know everyone’s opinion is different.
Reading group member, 2014
‘Before the reading session I felt tired and bored; after the group I felt awakened and alive'
Male reader
(cancer centre, Northern Ireland)
‘The reading group has significantly reduced my stress at work by taking my mind to a more thinking and alive point which allows me to step outside my day to day pressures'
Healthcare worker
(Belfast, Northern Ireland)
'Why can't we read like this all the time?'
11 year old male student
‘It helps me because somebody else has written something that understands how you feel.'
Female adult reader
'The reading group is a hugely positive initiative in Hydebank Wood [prison] and I have seen at first hand how much it is valued by the women who attend. The opportunity to read and learn together, and to have discussions in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere is treasured by them and the way Patricia makes that happen is really impressive.'
Sue McAllister,
Director General of Northern Ireland Prison Service
‘I love how we read a few paragraphs and then stop to discuss it [...] because I have read books in the past and wanted to discuss with others but they may not have read it. We can agree or disagree on the perceived message, and sometimes we can get a good debate going, which I really enjoy'
Female prisoner
(Belfast, Northern Ireland)
Reading for pleasure and writing together in prisons, schools, universities, workplaces, hospitals.
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Where there are people, there are stories.
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