Hi readers, it’s Emily and William here talking about Dorchester Literary Festival.

We especially want to tell you about it as they chose People First Dorset (who support people with learning disabilities) as their chosen charity this year. That makes us happy as People First Dorset is a good local charity who’ve helped us both – like make friends and not be lonely. We’re more confident to speak up about our concerns – they even support us to edit this column. Support from Dorchester Literary Festival really helps continue this work, and raise awareness of people with learning disabilities in the community.

I, William, was at the launch night and presented to guests about what we do at People First Dorset. I’d met the week before with friends (who also have a learning disability) to write our speech, which was typed up for us so we’d remember it on the night. I was nervous but it went ok. I’d been practising talking slowly which made it better. I felt people were really listening to what we said, which made me feel very good, and more confident to speak again. That’s lucky because I have two more presentations soon – one to the boss of Dorset Council and one to Lloyds Bank Foundation in London.

We also sold tickets for the tombola, to win a set of books. We loved doing this, and sold the tickets very quickly! It was nice to meet new interesting people too.

A huge thank you to everyone at Dorchester Literary Festival for your support, especially to the organisers Paul Attenbury, Janet and Paul Gleeson. They don’t know yet, but we are inviting them to an event soon, so we can say thank you in person!

Also thank you very much if you donated at the festival. We hope you all had a fantastic week of talks.

  • The writers of the Our View column are supported in their editing by The Friendship Club– a project for adults with learning disabilities, run by People First Dorset