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Who are Beyond Words?
Beyond Words is the UK’s national charity for visual literacy and emotional wellbeing. Everyone knows pictures can be more powerful than words. Being able to ‘read’ the images we see is how we know a green light means go, a smile means someone is happy to see us, or that a piece of art is telling us a story. This is the core of visual literacy – the ability to make meaning from the pictures in front of us.
We work with people with lived experience to co-create word-free picture stories that help people understand and communicate their feelings, learn about new experiences and tell their own stories. We set up Book Clubs that give people with learning disabilities a space to have fun, make friends and socialise. Our books help children and young people to develop their emotional intelligence, vocabulary and talk about their feelings in schools through our Open Book Project.
The Beyond Words story: Nearly 35 years of helping people communicate
Founded in 1989, the Books Beyond Words series of picture stories grew out of the personal family experience of the Hollins family and even today several family members remain involved in one way or another. Nigel’s learning and communication disabilities had sometimes led to him being excluded from ordinary opportunities in life. Nigel’s parents, Sheila and Martin Hollins found innovative ways to help him join in. This included creating visual cartoon like stories. Sheila adapted what she had learnt at home in her professional work at St George’s University of London to create When Dad Died, the first book in the series, assisted by artist and storyteller Beth Webb and bereavement expert Dr Lester Sireling. Nigel and his sisters were our first readers to check the story worked.
Over the next 22 years, the creative storytelling process and way of reading the books was developed and thoroughly evaluated under the joint guidance of Sheila as Editor with Managing Editor, Dorothea Duncan. Nigel and other volunteers with learning disabilities were deeply involved throughout. For some of this time, the series was co-published with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the books’ use was professionally led, being used mainly within the NHS as well as in psychotherapy.
Sheila wanted people who are often excluded from ordinary life to benefit from having direct access to the books in their local library - just like Nigel was doing in his Book Club. This first Beyond Words Book Club was co-facilitated by Nigel and his wonderful support worker, Sonya, and then Sue Carmichael began to develop Book Clubs throughout Kent and to train people in other areas who wanted to learn from her experience. Sue remains in Kent to this day, developing and maintaining a large network of Beyond Words Book Clubs.
In 2011 with the support of the University, Sheila launched a new charity in which she hoped Nigel’s leadership potential would be able to develop. Since its launch in the community, Beyond Words has evolved in unexpected ways, always seeking to find ways to empower people in their own lives - including in schools. Beyond Words is now an award-winning small charity with a growing impact, even finding new ways to reach people during the pandemic.
Co-production remains a key principle. Several people with learning disabilities, including Nigel, are long term volunteers with the charity and involved in many aspects of its work including training people to start new Book Clubs.
In 2022, Nigel was awarded a Learning Disability National Leadership Award, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from Beyond Words. Beyond Words was awarded a National Learning Disability Award for its work on stories for Covid-19 and won the Patient Information Award from the British Medical Association for our book Having a Baby.
Sheila became a Life Peer in 2010 in recognition of her leadership in mental health and learning disability. Baroness Hollins is Chair of the Board of Trustees and editorial content is still overseen by her, together with a wider team of expert authors, artists and readers who find pictures easier than words. The number of titles continues to grow, with over 80 stories published since 1989.
As well as books and ebooks, we also offer:
Elearning courses in how to use the Books Beyond Words series
The BW Story App: a mobile app available on both Android and iOS
Help with setting up local Book Clubs and reading groups
Free leaflets to read online, download and print at home.
Our team is based in Leatherhead in Surrey but we also provide training at City Lit Institute in London. We are proud of our roots as a 'spin out' social enterprise from St. George’s, University of London and maintain links with both the St George's Hospital Charity and the University.
Books Beyond Words CIO became a charity in 2019 (Registered Number 1183942).
How to read a Beyond Words story
Start at the beginning and read the story in each picture. Encourage the reader to turn the pages at their own pace.
Whether you are reading the book with one person or a group, encourage people to tell the story in their own words. You will discover what each person thinks is happening, what they already know, and how they feel. You may think something different is happening in the pictures yourself, but that doesn’t matter. Wait to see if their ideas change as the story develops. Watch, wait and wonder.
It can help to prompt the people you are supporting, gradually going deeper into the meaning, for example:
I wonder who that is?
I wonder what is happening?
What is he or she doing now?
I wonder how he or she is feeling?
Do you feel like that? Has it happened to you/ your friend/ your family?
You don't have to read the whole book in one sitting. Allow people enough time to follow the pictures at their own pace.
Some people will not be able to follow the story, but they may be able to understand some of the pictures. Stay a little longer with the pictures that interest them.
What are Books Beyond Words?
Books Beyond Words is the name for our award-winning series of word-free picture stories that engage storytellers of all ages.
Our stories explore feelings and relationships in everyday, as well as out of the ordinary situations. They tell of neighbourliness and belonging; of loneliness, friendship and love; and of different ways to cope with traumatic events in our lives. They explore the things that get us out of bed in the morning: hobbies, sport, work, volunteering and adventure. They introduce us to less familiar topics involving healthcare and criminal justice.
Each story is co-created with and for people who find pictures easier to understand than words. This includes people with learning disabilities and/or autism, people with cognitive or communication difficulties, such as Dementia, people who have difficulty with reading, including some Deaf people, and people who do not use the language of the country where they are living.
Our stories are used in health care settings, schools and colleges, libraries, supported living settings, therapeutic services, and community organisations, amongst others.
Why do we need word-free stories?
People who can’t read or who don’t like written words are often very good at reading pictures. We call this visual literacy, and it’s the reason why there are no words in our picture stories.
All of our books tell a story, but because there are no words, they also let the reader tell their own story – whatever it is that they see in the pictures. How they interpret the pictures can tell you a lot about their understanding of a situation and experiences they have had. Importantly it will help you to understand someone’s feelings and the things that matter to them. We call this emotional literacy.
All of our books explore the relationships between the characters in the stories and the feelings and reactions of each character to what is happening. We sometimes call our stories a curriculum for life. You can read about the Belong Manifesto for more information about our well-being strategy, and the annual Mental Wealth Festival for details of our partnership with the City Lit Institute.
Our picture stories do provide information, but the main aim of the books is to open up conversations, conversations that make it possible to check for understanding, support decision-making, share past experiences, prepare for new ones, and explore feelings. They will help to develop our listening skills, and help people feel safe and understood.
The storylines are co-created to illustrate best practice arising from lived experience and research. To learn more about the research evidence behind word-free stories and the Beyond Words development approach, see: Beyond Words - A manual to help understand the theory and practice