Do you remember your first love? Did you marry your childhood sweetheart? Did you have a glorious affair with a secret lover? Is your love story a fairy-tale ‘Happy Ever After’, is it simply shades of grey, or is it tragedy and heartbreak all the way? Join us to write about REAL women in (and … Read more ►

Supporting Mental Health Through Learning Something New. Come and join us for these free fun relaxed sessions and develop confidence in a friendly environment. We begin on Friday the 11th of January 2019 for 6 weeks at Ilkeston Library, Market St, Ilkeston DE7 5RN 10.00am – 12.00 noon For booking and more information tel. 01629 … Read more ►

Thank you to all the lovely talented women who worked so wonderfully well together at Denman beginning to write their life stories. What a privilege it to share time with you all in that ‘Denman Bubble’. We’ve heard about the problems of escaping haymaking to roam on a deserted American Airbase which turned out not … Read more ►

Thank you to all those sparkling ladies who escaped to the lovely Denman College to enjoy our Creative Writing Winter Retreat. We had a happy and productive time together. We heard about being a Toastmaster/mistress! and scary spider stories, real experiences written to entertain an audience while exploring a debilitating phobia which affects so many … Read more ►

With a Poetry Residency from Erewash Borough Council Arts Development Team Chrissie Hall was asked to identify a group to work with as part of the Winter Solstice event planned to take place in Ilkeston’s Award Winning Victoria Park in December.   Challenges • Making contact with a group. • Arranging a venue. • Agreeing … Read more ►

A Positive Route to Good Mental Health and General Well-being The brief With funding secured by Erewash Writers working with Erewash Voluntary Action, Chrissie Hall was asked to write and deliver six creative writing sessions at Long Eaton Library based on the Five Ways to Well-being, and designed to support good mental health. Creative Writing … Read more ►

Thank you to the delightful and talented students who came along and enjoyed a weekend of comfortable rooms, excellent food, great company and lots of creative writing. We shared our weekend, our ideas and our stories, and what an amazing variety of pieces emerged. The funny and the poetic, the descriptive and the moving. We … Read more ►

Thank you to the lovely group of students who worked together writing their life stories … and doing all that filing and labelling!! What a modest group you were, so many heroines, so many jobs and careers, in banks, schools, hospitals, the military, hairdressing, youth work, and how lovely to work with an early pioneer … Read more ►

Case Study PDF —- Join us for these free friendly photography and creative writing sessions at Big Kirk Hallam Community Centre on Friday mornings this Summer. As well as working on our photographs and creative writing inside the Community Centre we’ll be taking some interesting trips outside, finding inspirational places where we can write, take … Read more ►

Join us for this brand new collaborative course and learn ways to boost your self-confidence! You’ll enjoy one to one sessions with life coach Rachel Morgan and reconnect with your creative self with life writing facilitator Chrissie Hall. You’ll reflect on your life story so far and the chapters ahead, finding ways to nurture your … Read more ►

Thank you to all those talented writers who joined Denman’s very first Creative Writing Summer School. Students were working on such a variety of writing and it was great to be involved with all those different genres and writing projects. We had a wonderful sunny, happy week working on our projects and supporting each other. … Read more ►

Thanks to the writers who joined me at the wonderful Denman College to enjoy life writing together. What a diverse group we were, with a wealth of life experience to write about. Nostalgic stories of home and childhood, living and working in England and elsewhere, the military life, farming life, camper van adventures, working at … Read more ►

Thanks to the writers who joined me on the Winter Writing Retreat. What a productive time we had. Prolific descriptive nostalgic writing (four complete tales plus a sketch script) from a writer who confessed to arriving with absolutely no idea of what she was going to write! Others who disappeared for hours at a time, … Read more ►

Erewash Borough Council are delighted to have been awarded Heritage Lottery funding to restore and renovate the town’s Victoria Park and a great programme of work is underway. Stories in Victoria Park is part of it . To mark the centenary of the Park Chrissie Hall has been commissioned to write a short story about … Read more ►

To celebrate 100 years of the Women’s Institute in Derbyshire the Federation will publish an anthology of stories and poems edited by Chrissie Hall, written by members of Derbyshire Federation and submitted for judging as part of the Derbyshire Eisteddfod in 2015 The brief consisted of:- Category 1 – Poetry Writing – an original poem … Read more ►

Thank you to all the Life Story Writers who travelled to Denman to begin writing their life stories. We learned that there is no such thing as an ‘ordinary’ life as we wrote stories about ‘rags’ to riches – amazing women of the 20th century who survived and prospered against all the odds. Tales of … Read more ►

Thank you to all the ladies and the gentleman students who worked so hard on this intensive two night residential course and began writing their life stories. What a wealth of different experiences we were privileged to have in the room. We heard and wrote about our amazingly diverse lives. Working and/or growing up in … Read more ►

Thank you to the group of talented and enthusiastic writers and poets for their contributions to the Winter Retreat. With writers from Norfolk Federation and elsewhere we enjoyed working on short stories, sketches, a novel, a first journalistic project for a W.I. President, and some memoir writing. Several students were inspired to write after discovering … Read more ►

Thank you to all the talented students who produced some fascinating pieces of creative writing, including the gentle art of letter writing, memoir, and a performance piece during this course and were so generous to each other when sharing and commenting on work. It was great to meet you all. Keep writing! — Research tells … Read more ►

Thank you to all the Writers who made this such a wonderful creative experience. What a diverse and talented group – a real privilege to work with you all. The creative writing talents ranged from scripts, memoirs, stories and songs. Congratulations to everyone on this memorable Writing Retreat. — Escape to Denman – it’s the … Read more ►