WHERE STORIES COME ALIVE!

We are a registered charity offering FREE creative story writing workshops to under resourced children aged from 7-18 in West Dorset.

We have three wonderful books available, each written by young writers from schools in West Dorset. Not only do you get an enjoyable read, but also every penny from the sale goes directly back into the charity to provide more FREE workshops to young writers. Click HERE to order.

Our publications

Bank your stories with us and they will grow interest.

Every story deposited in the Bank of Dreams and Nightmares gets interest. Like any good bank we'll help your instalment grow and grow. We'll give it eyes and ears to see and hear it, words to appreciate it and applause to motivate it on. So believe in what's in your head, believe in what you can create, believe in your dreams and nightmares.

Our Partners / funders / supporters

Our method

  • Children in charge

    We allow learners’ imaginations to take the lead and put young people at the centre of all our programmes.

  • Professional input

    From poets to playwrights, story makers to speechwriters, all our programmes are devised and delivered by professional writers and practitioners.

  • Small group mentoring

    Our specially trained volunteer mentors provide individual support for young writers. All our volunteers are DBS checked and trained in safeguarding procedures.

  • Educational partners

    We work in partnership with schools and teachers in West Dorset to help get their students buzzing about learning.

  • Purposeful outcomes

    We’re always working towards sharing, publishing or producing real work and partnering with organisations such as the BBC and UK Parliament to make this happen.

  • Community

    We create a safe and inspiring space where creativity can flourish and young people feel proud to explore their identities and localities through writing.

 What some of our customers are saying:

Featured

“The only bank with any interest…I am going to put everything I ever think up in The Bank Of Dreams and Nightmares, knowing they will be safe and cared for.”

Nick Hornby

“What an amazing opportunity for young creative minds to flourish and to develop stories together through a range of inspiring workshops and activities. Instead of coins and notes, you can open an account rich with words and pictures, and let's be honest, they are worth way, way more! “

Laura Ellen Anderson, creator of Amelia Fang and Rainbow Grey

"deposit your passion and watch all your dreams come true"

- Isaiah Dreads

"You can find endangered dragons unheard of elsewhere, Wizards and Warriors, and a very special ancient magic at The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares…"

- Cressida Cowell, creator of How to train your dragon

“A safe place for my most magical and mayhemic dreams. Vaults that are vast enough for dancing around fairy rings, that don’t melt under phoenix fire or corrode under witch’s spells, and with a most charming and unflappable teller!”

Briony May Smith, creator of Margarets Unicorn

‘There is dream jars in every crook and nanny of my cave so I is packing up my splendid phizzwizards and frightsome trogglehumpers and bringing them to The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares’

The BFG

“Pinching the idea from Abbie Hoffman, I have long since advocated that people should steal my books as all I really want is for them to be read. So now I guess the only safe place to keep them would be in The Bank”

Clive Stafford Smith

'In this time of nasty viruses it's great to be a customer of a bank that will look after my stories and keep them safe and funny.'

Roddy Doyle

Stuff & Nonsense

We’ve joined forces with creative drama dynamos Niki McCretton and Jenny Harrold, to enlist the help of Year 4 children to build a brand new theatre production of the Three Little Pigs, which will premier at Poole’s Lighthouse Theatre late in 2023.