The Book in my Head is now on the Page, 2011

Commissioned by Leeds City Council for Light Night 2011. This project for The Leeds Library was first presented at Light Night in Leeds on 7 October 2011. A Quiet Word worked with Leeds City College and staff at the Library to create an event for our friends and families and for anyone else in Leeds who has ever imagined their name on the cover of a book…

The shops are closing on a Friday evening. Twilight – the city is quiet. You are outside the Library which would usually be shut by now, but you are expected. You are the author of the Book, once in your head but now on the page, and it is time to celebrate… An administrator takes your details, another issues you with an electronic swipe card and shows you how to enter. At either side of the entrance, which you may never have noticed before, behind the glass windows of a bank on one side and a stationer on the other, burlesque dancers are typing manuscripts to a soundtrack you can just make out through the glass. This is a visit to a library of your dreams, open to you alone, when the rest of the city is heading home or meeting friends for a drink or dinner. When you find yourself in the lobby, a welcoming committee congratulates you, assures you that you are not late, but asks you please to make your way upstairs.. as you enter the main body of the library, you realise that you are the author of the book which is to be launched this evening. Just one small matter – crucial pages are missing. Your task is to find the missing text and insert it, before the rest of the guests arrive…

The ideas were further developed in daytime workshops with Pyramid of Arts and young people with a learning disablilty in November, with a public showing of work. Two performances of The Book in my Head were held at the Library on 21st and 28th November.