Some fantastic intergenerational connections were being made as our Pen Pals project culminated in a meet and greet between the young writers and their correspondents from our local community of residential homes.

The legends are beginning to emerge! Talented young authors from Beaminster School have begun writing stories based on the landscape around them. Today we looked at how to immerse a reader in the author’s world. We tried to capture what it really felt like to be in the locations of our tales.

With stories and articles coming thick and fast for our next edition, this week the News Crew interviewed author, TV presenter and comedian, David Walliams. He opened up about his writing process, the importance of diversity in stories and whether or not pineapple belongs on pizza!

Come and see the beaver enclosure with us! With the help of Elliot Milson, a superb local filmmaker, we visited Slape Manor, where they have successfully re-introduced wild Beavers to their land. https://vimeo.com/820959168/b69bbb2fe1

Extraordinary stories from unfeasibly talented writers! The young authors from Axe Valley Academy are done with their tales. Dark, funny, surreal and playful the stories are in the can!

Our press gang headed out to Slape Manor this week to investigate the ‘rewilding’ work that’s been going on and to try to spot the reclusive beavers that are being re-introduced to the environment.

Keep an eye out for our feature article in our next issue of ‘What’s Going On?’

The ridiculously talented authors from Axe Valley Academy have been working hard and creating extraordinary stories. We’re editing and improving them as we speak and we can’t wait to unveil them to the reading public.

One rainy evening

volunteers meet at the bank

for tea and haikus.

Those incredible storysmiths from Salway Ash Primary School were at it again this week. We got to work with Badger Class on a superb story involving Billy, our deaf hero and his best friend NoIdea. It is ‘Bring-your-pet-to-school-day’ when Billy is very nearly abducted by mysterious Time Stick!

Our latest story making workshop with the amazing writers from Membury and Mrs Ethelstone’s Primary Schools produced this pocket epic! Chunky Jo, one of the most successful Sumo wrestlers of her generation, dreams of becoming an elephant…

The inventive Dr Jimmy,A.K.A Marvin the Gwock, is working hard on his inventions. Together with his lab assistant and best friend Moley (Gwock and Moley, geddit?!) they discover a mysterious orb. Our story follows their attempts to open the orb and uncover it’s surprising and extremely stinky secrets.

We had a great time working with the super-talented young authors of Jackdaw Class at Kilmington Primary School. They came up with the amazing, epic and surreal story of Skellie, a heroic young skeleton, wrongly accused of a terrible crime! Will she be able to escape the evil clutches of Fiery the Dragon and his team of bone-loving tigers?

We had a brilliant day working with the awesome Year 5s from Salway Ash Primary School yesterday as they started a correspondence project with some of our local residential care homes.

We couldn’t let the day pass without taking the opportunity to celebrate all of the authors, volunteers, teachers and collaborators we have worked with over the last 2 years. The number of stories in our vault grows ever larger and the gremlins in our printing press are having to work harder than ever - don’t worry, tomorrow is their day off.

We worked with Osprey Class on a thrilling tale of derring do, an evil genius and a helpful demon named Stephen. Our hero, Cluck, is a chicken with exceptional powers, but even he might struggle to defeat the might of Jack Fire!

Cogden Class has some very talented authors, as we discovered when we visited them this week. They wrote us a story that pitted the heroic B.O.T. (Beans On Toast) against the evil robber tomato, Miss Scarlet. With a little help from his sidekick, ‘The Sauce’ , maybe B.O.T. can still save the day.

The young authors at Loders took us into the heart of a mystery when we visited them, this week. Is Pedro the Pigeon really as grumpy as he first seems? Is Jeremy the Giraffe to be trusted? and will Mr Coffee help save the day or just go back to sleep?