Valley Writers

... is a group of mixed age and experience formed from residents of and around the Deerness Valley in North West Durham although, it is important to say, residential qualifications are not considered when welcomimg new members. Anyone who shares their aim, namely to write to the best of their ability, to have fun doing so and to encourage others by showing that writing is not an elitist pastime, is more than welcome to join them. They meet fortnightly in Esh Winning Library.

The group emerged early in 1997 from the nucleus of a creative writing course, tutored by Jackie Litherland on behalf of the Workers' Educational Association. When they learnt of the 'Arts for Everyone' scheme being organised by the Arts Council of England, some members of the group set about applying for a grant to fund a series of writing workshops and out of that grew their first book Write Up Your Valley, an anthology (out of print now) in 1999.

In 1998 the group was represented on the steering committee of the Durham Lit Fest and the same year had a lot of fun brainstorming a script for the pantomime of a local Community Association: Cinderella and the Pit Folk.

As soon as the first book was published, the group applied for another award from the National Lottery and that led to the publication of Monks, Miners and Moonshine in 2000.

Their last book Laying Ghosts (again funded by a grant from the National Lottery) was their most ambitious project so far by being a truely collaborative effort. Seven different individuals worked together in order to achieve a very rare result: a cohesive narrative that was worked on and improved by everyone. Blending seven distinctive writing styles into a credible narrative seemed strange at first, but as fictional characters came to life, confidence among the group grew. Valley Writers faced a challenge that would have daunted many - and succeeded.

They are now striving to pass on their experience by hoping to set up collaborative creative writing projects in schools. Stanley Technical College is the first to start such a programme with all of year 8 in June 2004, with the Valley Writers overseeing the end result.

Here, in no particular order, are some of the members of the group:

John Gamblin

was a founder member, stalwart and the main fundraiser of the Valley Writers. Born in Sunderland, he spent most of his working life on Tyneside and took up writing after retiring as a publican. He loved writing and always tried to portray the funny side of things. Nothing gave him more satisfaction than hearing, say, a WI audience giggle when he read them one of his stories.

He died in June 2003 and as a memory to his writing and his contribution to the local writing scene Durham City Arts set up a Short Story Competition, which they fittingly called A Sense Of Mischief. It was launched at the 2003 Durham Lit Fest and ran through to 2005. The competition was open to everyone, children and adults alike, and was judged by children!!

Tina O'Neill

Was born into a small mining village on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border. She works with children with learning difficulties in main stream schools. Tina has always wanted to be a writer and used to write short stories at school, which were read to younger pupils by her English teacher Tina has been with the group since its start and enjoys all aspects of writing. She has been told that her forte is poetry but she tends to write humorous short stories. She has been challenged many times by the group to write sensible piece but has so far been unable to do this.

Sandra Salmon

Is a Yorkshire lass. She has been with the group since its inception. She is a volunteer Countryside Ranger and a member of a local theatre group. Other interests include painting, badminton and walking. She prefers to write short stories.

Elizabeth Bone

Determined not to vegetate at retirement, some years ago, she joined a writing group and enjoyed the experience of having some of her work aired and discussed within the group. To date she has written short stories, often flippant and some poems of a more serious nature. She is interested in poetry reading and one of her favourites is Hiawatha, particularly the wedding feast. Another is 'The Prisoner of Chillon' which she finds very moving. She contemplates writing crime fiction of the who-done-it genre but would also like to embark upon writing fantasy for the older child.

Ron Gray

Ron was brought up in the middle of Sunderland Street, Brandon Colliery, Durham, where he was born in 1939. The pit heaps and the polluted rivers were his playground in the summer or the air raid shelters and home-made camps in the winter. He has fond - and very funny - memories of all of them.

He started Pit House Colliery in 1954 where he was carried out in 1958 with a spinal injury due to a fall of stone. With the help of his many friends he recovered eventually and now came to rely more on the subjects he had always been good at, writing and art. To write about real drama, real people, the salt of the earth, is his main concern. As he says, ‘Pen and paper costs nowt, but what is in your memories that counts.’

Eve Stockmann

Eve was born in Berlin and came to Newcastle as a German Assistante to teach German for a year. She fell in love with the place and its people and is still here, 40 years on. Her German background informs some of her writing, but she is just as happy to take events from County Durham history and turn them into fiction.

She has written almost only short stories so far but toys with the idea of a novel.

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