Introduction
In any room where people are gathered to discuss a subject, the audience is often the expert. We find ways of recording this expertise.
The eight minute book and book in a day are two similar products developed and refined by Brian Lewis and Pontefract Press. Both are excellent ways with which to record an event, or do qualitative research.
The book in a day is ideal for small to medium sized groups. Text and photographs are recorded over the course of a day by our team of writer-researchers. For longer or more involved events, we can produce a book over the course of several days, as with the example below: Poems from the Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture.
The text can either be delivered as a book, complete with high quality photography, or as qualitative research.
Below are some examples of recent work.
Toll Bar-on-Sea
for the Academy for Community Leadership
"In the summer of 2007 the UK experienced some of the heaviest rainfall since records began. As the relentless downpour continued the people of Toll Bar, South Yorkshire, watched helplessly as their village and homes began to flood.
In this book they tell their story; what happened during the flood, how the cleanup is progressing and what needs to be done to stop it happening again."
Toll Bar on Sea was produced in December 2007 for the AfCL. A team of Pontefract Press researchers spent the day in Toll Bar community centre, and recorded the words of the residents. Combined with photographs of the floods taken by the villagers, these stories were combined into a book that commemorates the floods, one book per resident.
