Herring House: Stories and Other Writing

  December 12th and everyone gathered - the trustees, the friends, the staff, the writers - the lights clicked off and we were met with a series of chilling tales.  It is after all close to Christmas, the nights are darkening, the sun rises late, it is the perfect time for a haunting story. Read these scary tales here - written by Simon, Dave and Alan - all linked to Great Yarmouth - itself a town of tales.  The Haunting of the Star Hotel By Simon   In the heart of Great Yarmouth stands the Star Hotel. It’s a grand building with a long and mysterious past. Overlooking the river it has grown derelict. I was a carpenter, a good craftsman and I can remember looking at the architecture of the place, still grand despite its neglect but inside. The heart of the hotel was empty as if it had stopped in time. It was up to me as the top carpenter to create a new heartbeat in the place. I thought this many times over the six months I was there. It was strange working th...

  The summer had come at last with long light days. This meant more time out of the houses we lived in or just stayed at.  This was because we were all related and lived in a close community as a family of travellers from Ireland.  We all stayed together. This was also the time to do whatever we wanted. There was a varied age gap between us all. There must have been about twenty of us and the age bracket was 8-12.  Me - I was ten going on twenty; just like the others, older than you would have thought.  So we could stay together and not get into trouble. We would go camping, never too far only two miles to the meadows and a wicked river with many things to do, including lighting a fire in camp which felt naughty because we were so young.  We could always go back and get food.  I was one of the youngest and I loved to get about so i would always go back and return with some goodies.  I remember one time I went back to see my Nan but she wasn't in s...

  We experimented by putting words and phrases randomly together making odd and sometimes lyrical connections - this was a favoured mode of expression for David Bowie who used it to construct his songs and many others. It was a favoured way of writing for the Surrealists and Dadaists.  This is one of my favourites by Mat. Limping postman slow pensioners I went to ask what mattered. Daylight, the clouds, the river silent and their tears in the middle of me.

  Actors Joanna Swan and Martin Kray performing the group-created audio drama - The Train. Sue - Lived Experience Coordinator introducing us all and the Lived Experience Collective. Rachel and Mel making the presentation. The audience who turned out on a fine Friday afternoon were rivetted. It was a very special event...thank you to St. Peter Mancroft Church...our actors and everyone who came. 

  This Friday, 8th August at 2 pm - there will be a presentation from the Lived Experience Collective and readings/performance of the Writing Group's Audio Drama at St. Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich.  Martin Kray and Joanna Swan will be reading from the book and performing the audio drama, testing their ability to come up with different accents. It will be GREAT! The event is taking place as part of the Homelessness Exhibition which is on show in the church as part of the HIDDEN installation by sculptor Peter Walker. It is a moving and powerful experience. 

  Herring House Trust is bringing its Homelessness Exhibition to St. Peter Mancroft Church in the centre of Norwich as part of the HIDDEN project in the church during the month of August. There will be the exhibition, a presentation by the Lived Experience Collective and readings from Untitled, Writing from Recovery, our wonderful anthology of prose, poetry and other texts written by the writing group at the hostel. The exhibition is in the church from Tuesday 5 th August until Monday 11 th August 10 am to 4 pm. The presentation and readings take place on Friday 8 th August at 2 pm where members of the group will be present and we will be selling copies of the book to raise money for more creative activities at Herring House Trust. Inside the church, ‘Hidden’ is an artwork by renowned sculptor Peter Walker exploring the concept of what is unseen or concealed in the world around us. It delves into the idea that things may not always be what they seem, encouraging vie...