Skip navigation to main content

Our Read, Our Train, Our Brilliant Day!

Written by The Reader, 4th March 2011

To launch Our Read, we took 25 young people from Get Into Reading from Liverpool to London in a private carriage of a Virgin Train with author Frank Cottrell Boyce(!). Instead of writing it up, I have made a montage of photos, news clips and newspaper articles, and a video diary (I'm no Danny Boyle, sorry):

We were also joined by a number of media folk and there's also some footage to see on:

And here's some pics, (c) Liverpool Daily Post and Echo:

And here are some of ours (c) Charlotte Weber at TRO (and a few others!):

In the First Class Virgin Trains Lounge

The 'man who can' from Virgin Trains, Gary Iddon

Wirral Councillors Sheila Clarke and Don McCubbin

Our Read's First Class Carriage!

Frank and Jane at the  Children's Library in Idea Store Whitechapel, London

That's just the start of it! More to follow over the weekend and next week...

12 thoughts on “Our Read, Our Train, Our Brilliant Day!

Niall Gibney says:

Jen, love it! There should be a Jen’s diary for every event ever! However you should not still be watching Friends it is so 90’s.

Great day, great kids, great atmosphere… Thanks to The Reader for giving the kids (and me) some good memories

Polly Moseley says:

Brilliant! What a great shared experience! Congratulations for pulling it off!
I can’t wait to read the book – the snippet Frank read in January at the launch of the Decade of Health and Wellbeing has already wetted my appetite bigtime.
And you made the MA class – what a woman!
Am guessing it was a flipcam. I haven’t quite got my head around how to use mine yet, so this is a motivation.
X

[…] Unforgotten Coat aloud to the young people amid interviews with national and local media. If you visit our blog, you’ll find links to all the media appearances we made on the day – including the BBC […]

Colin says:

Congratulations and thanks to all involved in the planning and execution of this wonderful event.
A real joy to see so much happiness and enthusiasm – shared reading brings a vital spark to our lives.

Ali Desovska says:

Hi this looks awesome, and having spent two sessions reading it with my group at a centre for physically disabled, who loved it and laughed and almost cried along with me, they also wanted to know whether, as it was a nationwide ‘read’ whether there was anywhere online they could share their experiences of reading it with the wider our read network? should i post here, or is there a shared space elsewhere?
thanks, Ali x

Ali Desovska says:

I am with my group at the moment, we have spent two sessions reading the book, and everyone wanted to leave comments! We have just watched Jen’s video diary too, and particularly liked seeing the polaroid cameras, and the illustrator’s explanation of the eagle picture / cardboard cut out – creating images the same way as Chingis would have done!
But over to the group
Colleen wants to say that she liked Frank the best! He is all she has talked about!
Steve really liked how Chingis and Nergui became more ‘scouse’ and how the narrator learned a lot about Mongolia – the swapping of the two cultures. He also was fascinated by the images that accompanied the text, and said that he really liked the story, that it made us laugh out loud.
Marion loved how ‘wonder-ful’ as in full of wonder, “it was about perception and how you look at things” – the metal mountains / scrap heap, desert oasis behind the bins -“it makes you realise it’s all about how you look at life”, and the importance of imagination to a child – Chingis brought a creative imagination to his classmates.
Adrian said it was really enjoyable, great descriptions, and though it was funny all the way through it was very sad at the end. The group was glad it didn’t end with the undeveloped polaroid, that contact was made and the brothers were ok and forgiving.
The group loved the fact we were reading it at the same time as groups up and down the country (Colleen especially at the same time as her hero, Frank!), and we felt connected to a wide range of reading groups.
Thanks to all at The Reader for our shared Our Read – and Colleen says could Frank get the train up to Cumbria sometime?!!
Thanks, Ali, Mark, Tracy, Adrian, Shirly, Leslie, Marion, Steve x and staff at COSC, Maryport

Jen says:

Ali, that’s brilliant!

I’m glad you’re all feeling connected – that’s the whole point of Our Read. Have you left your comments on the Our Read Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/OurRead

Thanks for all the feedback and who knows, maybe we can get Frank up to Cumbria sometime soon…

[…] Jen, Charlotte and a few others were speeding down to London on “Frank’s Train” for the launch of Our Read, I was happily reading away at the Chain Read down at the Bluecoat (all […]

[…] A new series of books featuring that famous flying car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is being written by Our Read superstar novelist and screen writer, Frank Cottrell […]

[…] Our Read author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce will be heading up the bill of performers on the night, joined by local poets Eleanor Rees and Paul Farley. Also appearing are playwrights Lizzie Nunnery (Intemperance, Unprotected, Anthology) and Laurence Wilson (Urban Legend, Lost Monsters, Tiny Volcanoes), songwriter Martin Heslop, Lindsay Rodden (The Almond Tree),  percussionist Vidar Norheim, writer Jeff Young (Quadrophenia the Musical), film-makers Sam Meech and Tim Brunsden, amongst many more. […]

[…] become a very enthusiastic young member of Get Into Reading. Kevin says his favourite authors are Frank Cottrell Boyce and Michael Morpurgo. Walker Books very kindly sent The Reader Organisation a copy of Dragonborn […]

[…] from Our Read readers as far afield as Spain, Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria and Hong Kong). The Our Read launch day took a special reading train from Liverpool to London and back (with Frank himself on board) and […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Contact us

Get in touch and be part of the story
You can also speak to us on: 0151 729 2200
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.