AgeUK Lambeth creates ‘South of the River’ poetry anthology

26 June 2019

Written by: Jess Jarvis, Age UK

Focus on Brixton

Age UK Lambeth runs a creative writing group twice monthly in Brixton. The writers have collaborated on their first new book of poetry.

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AgeUK Lambeth creates ‘South of the River’ poetry anthology

AgeUK Lambeth runs a fortnightly creative writing group through our events service, MYsocial, and new poetry book ‘South of the River’ is the result.

Publication

Ray Little has run the group – one of many events that Age UK runs to bring older people together for health and wellbeing – for about 18 months now and it has been a huge success. So much so that the writers have pulled together all their work and created and published their own book.

Confidence and creativity

Ray says: “The individuals in the group have really grown both in confidence and creative technique, so much so that this time last year I decided to start a project of collecting poetry, short stories and essays from both this group and my other group in Bromley, with the idea of putting it into one volume.

20 writers come together

south of the river book cover designed by Ray Little

‘South of the river’ book cover designed by Ray Little

“After much hard work from the 20 writers involved, we have released a paperback anthology of this work, titled South of the River. This is an enormous success not only for the members of my group, but for Age UK Lambeth and MYsocial,whose backing has enabled these writers to find a place to express themselves which they otherwise might not have found.”

Imagination – it’s all here

The book is a labour of love and completely non-profit. The whole point of the project was to encourage the writers to dig deep inside themselves for their best work and to enjoy the thrill of seeing their name in print, and they are so excited. Some authors are already published, others are showcasing their work here for the first time, but they all have one thing in common; imagination. Romance, history, murder, sci-fi, sex and horror – it is all here.

For more information

  • The creative writing group is open to all and is held twice monthly at the Vida Walsh Centre in Brixton.
  • The South of the River anthology is available now from Amazon. A free Kindle version will be available soon.
  • For more details of MySocial events organised by Age UK Lambeth see their information pages
  • Follow Age UK Lambeth on Facebook