News Release
- Wednesday 18 June 2008
Celebrities Help
Launch Nationwide True Story Project
A host of Scottish celebrities have
joined Scottish Book Trust, BBC Radio Scotland
and Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund to launch Days Like This, a new and exciting campaign
which will help paint a contemporary picture of Scotland through the real life stories
and memories of its people.
Days Like This will give
people across Scotland
the chance to be a part of the nation's history by writing about a
special day in their life which made a strong impression on them. The project
aims to gather thousands of extraordinary tales from ordinary people and reach
as wide a section of the population as possible, from born-and-bread Scots to
newly-arrived immigrants, and from all corners of the country, from Edinburgh to Orkney.
Marc Lambert, Chief Executive of Scottish Book
Trust said "Days Like This is a
groundbreaking national project which will showcase the ordinary genius of
Scotland's people: their everyday lives are full of incident, colour and
variety, which we want to capture and celebrate with as much participation and
diversity as possible. By the end of the project we hope to have created a map
of the country through its people's stories - a resource which will
entertain, inform, and generate a shared understanding of what it is like to
live in this creative modern nation"
Author Irvine Welsh, broadcaster Hardeep
Singh Kohli, actress Siobhan
Redmond, mountaineer Jamie Andrew,
percussionist Evelyn Glennie and
Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble have joined the project as celebrity curators, and will be writing and
recording their own story as an inspiration for people to do the same.
Irvine Welsh said "The great thing about Days Like This is that it
simplifies and demystifies what writing is actually about. When people start
from the known or the personal, it gives them the confidence to build up and
then explore new issues and forms of storytelling".
Roddy Woomble said
"Days Like This offers everyone in Scotland the chance to contribute, to tell their
story, and create a literary time capsule, detailing the experiences, the
trials and tribulations, the yarns and histories, the fortunes and mishaps of
the people living in Scotland
in 2008. It's got the potential to be quite a book".
Evelyn Glennie said "I enjoy projects of this nature because they
enable me to go beyond my day to day events and to reflect on what is special
about my life, my career and my future. I am really looking forward to reading
the entries and sharing other people's experiences".
Jamie Andrew said: "I
believe that everyone has an interesting story to tell. As a very
ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, I am greatly aware of the
incredible lives that ordinary people lead. Days Like This is a wonderful
opportunity to provide a platform for those stories, to collect them together
and make them available for everyone."
To take part in Days Like This, all people need to do is
write about a day in their life that was a bit extraordinary: It could be the
day they didn't get married, or the day they got lost in a supermarket.
It can be a childhood memory or something that happened yesterday. It may be a
day that still makes them smile, or makes them cry.
Anyone can send a story! Stories
should be no longer than 1,000 words and can be about anything as long as
it's true! All stories will appear on the BBC website for everyone to
read. The celebrity panel will choose their favourites to be recorded and
discussed in a series of radio programmes and published in a book in 2009.
Details of how to enter can be found on www.bbc.co.uk/radioscotland/dayslikethis
David Stenhouse, Senior
Producer at BBC Radio Scotland said "Days
Like This is a major project for Radio Scotland in 2008. We want to hear about
the most important day in your life. If your story is true, personal, and a
little bit unexpected, Radio Scotland
wants to hear from you."
Iain Munro,
Co-director of arts at the Scottish Arts Council commented "Days Like This is an exciting,
inclusive project which is open to everyone and will encourage the nation
to share stories and get writing. We hope that it will help collect the
extraordinary experiences of Scottish citizens which can be enjoyed now and
kept for posterity".
Scottish Book Trust is the
leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland.
It develops innovative projects to encourage adults and children to read and
write, supports professional writers with a range of projects including skills
development and awards, funds a variety of literature events and promotes
Scottish writing to over 10 million people worldwide. www.scottishbooktrust.com
Scottish Book Trust will receive
£489,097 from the Scottish Arts Council towards the cost of foundation funding for 2008/09 to support the organisation
which leads the field in reader and writer development, delivering high
calibre, innovative, bespoke programmes to people of all ages across the
country. Days Like This is supported by the Scottish
Arts Council National Lottery Fund with a £25,000 grant to support
outreach work and help promote the project to a wide section of the population,
including minority and immigrant groups.
Days Like This was
inspired by Paul Auster's book True Tales of American Life and by a
similar project developed by BBC Northern Ireland.
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