The Derbyshire Libraries Reading Detectives project (Cromford) finale event, LIVE @ Masson Mills, is at Masson Mill Shopping Village Restaurant on Saturday  January 29^th 2011 from 2.00 - 3.30pm with a lively programme featuring songs, sounds and stories.

There will be readings from some of the more unusual  ‘finds’ that the reading detectives have uncovered as well a s a live performance from the Mills and Chimneys folk group, featuring songs from Derbyshire.

The Cromford phase of the Reading Detectives project was launched in in October when Berlie Doherty, Derbyshire’s Reading Champion, encouraged detectives to investigate clues to the undiscovered and forgotten literature written around the area.   Finds have been recorded on the special Reading Detectives blog 

Discoveries include Roy Goodall’s  “Two Engineers. It’s a beast of a job”, a “crazy about cars” story based in Matlock; “The Wintry Peacock” by D. H. Lawrence , set in Ible ; “Cotton Dust” a song about mill work written by Elly Lucas, a member of the “Mills and Chimneys” folk group; and Keith Jackson’s poem on Cromford in the style of Longfellow’s ‘Hiawatha’.   Also you will find out the link between Frankenstein and Matlock Bath and how a Cromford folktale has travelled across the world to Springfield, Illinois.

Derbyshire Reading Detectives project started in South Derbyshire in July and is now moving on in January to Grassmoor where the project is entitled ‘mining your memories’.  Launch on 15^th January at Grassmoor Community Centre.