Stirring up memories at the Farnham Literary Festival

Home Care provider Right at Home GF and the Farnham Herald joined forces during the Farnham Literary Festival to host a free Writing Memories workshop.

The workshop was facilitated by former journalist Stella Wiseman, who shared her insights into the power of memories and how they can be used to inspire and inform writing. To assist with the unlocking and sharing of memories Hilary, a volunteer from the Farnham Herald’s digital archive project, brought along a collection of photos and back copies of the Herald.

Photos showing scenes from bygone Farnham and newspaper headlines about the great storm of 1987, the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and a report about a knife attack in Farnham Park, proved to be highly effective triggers, with attendees recalling vivid memories from their pasts and sharing them with the group.

Alastair Shanks, Managing Director from Right at Home GF said: “It is incredible how fast our memories fade yet with the encouragement of Stella, it didn’t take long for participants to recall their earliest memories and some wonderful stories from their childhood and early adulthood. We have captured the memories and will present them in a scrapbook as a souvenir of the day.”

The Herald’s digitalisation project is helping to ensure that the newspaper’s stories of everyday people and life are preserved. It is hoped that the Writing Memories workshop will be the first of many opportunities for the collection to be shared with a wider audience.

For information about the digital archive, contact Dan Gee at the Herald and for details about other community events organised by Right at Home GF, visit www.rightathome.co.uk/guildford-and-farnham.