Sunday 19th January, 2014, Commercial Union House, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne. What a brilliant way to spend a morning!

Dominic Berry’s Writing for Children and Family Audiences workshop was amazing. Dominic is engagingly enthusiastic and led a series of timed ‘stream of consciousness’ writing exercises followed by a thirty second reading of the first lines of the work we had managed to produce from this. The diversity of the work produced by all who attended was fascinating, funny and heart-warming to hear.  I have never worked in this way before, as I usually work in a very tightly controlled, insular, slow burning fashion – I was very pleased and surprised at what I managed to create under his direction and will definitely be developing this work further. Whether or not I can stick to his recommended short bursts remains to be seen however! It was a place of friendliness and lively debate and I attended in the first place as writing for children is something I have enjoyed doing for many years.  Many thanks indeed – I look forward to attending future events.