Quentin: Wivenhoe, ’94 / cover photo: © Kosti Ruohama, design: Geraldine Goller / illustrations by various photographers.
Compiled by Leila from her recordings of kids at local schools, and from the work of men and women in a U3A “Writing for Pleasure” group she ran at home in Wivenhoe.
Members of the group were all but one aged 60-80.
Originally suggested by the Colchester-based North Essex School of Art and Design for the Essex Festival, 1988 (subject to confirmation)
Leila says:We compartmentalise everything. We compartmentalise ages… as if children weren’t aiming to be grown-ups, as if old people had never been children. In this book they hold hands.
Backwards and Forwards is simply children talking about their grandparents, and elderly people – who might be the grandparents – remembering and writing about their childhoods.
Click below to see a spread and the back cover from Backwards and Forwards.
