Calling all Writers, Poets, Artists and Photographers!!!

We need your help. We set ourselves the ambition of producing a tourism book to promote the Vale that is filled with contributions from local people. This book will be a compilation of poems, articles and imagery (photographic and illustrations) donated by you - members of the Vale public - to represent life in the Vale and showcase all of our wonderful natural and historic assets. We would very much appreciate your written and photographic contributions towards this. We hope that this book will be stocked by many good bookshops and will be used by residents, visitors and tourists, highlighting what is unique about the Vale of White Horse.

Why should you contribute?

There are many reasons. Nobody knows the countryside, the ‘distinctiveness’ of life in the Vale or the river walks and the best cycle routes quite like the people who live here. We will collate your knowledge to promote our area to visitors and by doing so, also benefit the many businesses based here. This competition will also give you the opportunity to see your articles and photographs published. We hope to publish over 100 short stories, articles and photographs donated by you and people like you. In addition the best four contributions will receive £50 prize money* at an Awards Ceremony to tempt writers, poets and photographers to pick up pens and cameras. There will be four prize-winning categories:

• Best written contribution (under 18)
• Best written contribution (over 18 and in full time education)
• Best written contribution (Other)
• Best photograph

All entries must be received by Tuesday 30th November 2010. These can be emailed to: economic.development@whitehorsedc.gov.uk or posted to Trudy Godfrey, Vale of White Horse District Council, Abbey House, Abbey Road, Abingdon, OX14 3JE.

We look forward to receiving your contributions,

The ‘52’ Team

*NB: Judge's decision is final!

The 52 Team include representatives from:Wantage Rejuvenated, Wantage Chamber of Commerce, Choose Abingdon Partnership, Focus on Faringdon and the Vale of White Horse District Council. Tel: 01235 520346 or email economic.development@whitehorsedc.gov.uk

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

We appreciate that you may have many questions about the proposed book and the kind of contributions we are seeking. Hopefully the following will give you the information you need. If you have any other questions please email us at economic.development@whitehorsedc.gov.uk, giving your contact details and any specific questions.

What contributions can you enter?

We are looking for articles, poems, photographs or illustrations that will inspire visitors to spend time in the Vale of White Horse, in our many picturesque villages, or beautiful historic market towns. There is so much to do in the Vale. We are spoilt for choice in terms of how we spend our leisure time. Some of the topics you might want to write about include:-

• Where is your favourite beauty / picnic spot and what makes it so special.
• How do you ‘while away’ a day in a village or town in the Vale or at your favourite attraction?
• Recount the time you cruised along the canal in a canal boat, or walked along the River Thames.
• Where are the best walks and cycle routes and what do you see while doing it.
• Take a look around your own village or town: what is there to do that would attract visitors?
• Famous people: there are many famous people who have links to the Vale (Lord Berners, Betjeman, Pam Ayres, etc). You could recount some funny stories or write a historical pen portrait.
• Describe the unique characteristics of your town centre.

Please bear in mind that this is for a tourism brochure so your articles / stories / poems should be descriptive, inspirational or funny. They could relate something about life in the Vale and the wonderful opportunities here for a day or an afternoon out. What would you say to encourage somebody to visit who has never been to your village / town before? If you are re-counting a day’s activities please go into details - where would you go for lunch? What would you do if you had a whole day to do it? Or a whole weekend?

If you need more inspiration or ideas about local attractions and things to do in the Vale please visit www.visitvale.com or http://www.visitvale.com/site/attractions 

We hope there is enough here to get you thinking. We have summarised a list of possible subjects, but this list is not exclusive and please feel free to write about something that we have not thought of. We also enclose the front cover of our proposed book to give you a feel for what we are trying to achieve in terms of the graphic and design content.

If you need further inspiration, then help is at hand. Hidden Britain have agreed to run a workshop in the near future to inspire budding writers and photographers. We will be in touch in due course to tell you more about this.

We very much look forward to receiving your contributions!