Always on
This project successfully funded on 12th March 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
This project successfully funded on 12th March 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Because it would be so absolutely incredible to send out 10 more poems that we plann...
Support the publication of a new and important poem, with original illustrations - in the form of a limited edition commemorative booklet.
This is your chance to own something important, beautiful, powerful and unique. All for a fiver!
Elizabeth Fry was a prison reformer who worked to ensure that women were kept separate from men in prisons. She was born over 200 years ago and yet we're still having to work hard to keep women safe.
This poetry booklet contains a new and powerful poem that speaks to Elizabeth Fry and the work that she did. It is a song for those of us who navigate a world that is unsafe for women, who bring daughters into a world in which we have to teach them how to protect themselves. It asks why we face challenges centuries later, why we have to keep going round and round again with the same arguments. It celebrates women and those who ceaselessly labour to safeguard our bodies and our rights.
Beautiful and moving: We think it is a very beautiful and powerful thing. And it is what poetry is made for. We would love to send out copies to organisations, politicians and campaigners. As someone has said, 'It is a short cut, a direct line to the heart of the matter.'
The timeline: We are against the clock. We want to get the first run of booklets out to arrive with you by International Women's Day - so we are moving fast! We will extend the project beyond this timeline but we'd like a first wave to happen now. We are poised and ready...
Rebecca Leek, poet: Rebecca is an author, presenter and musician. She produces The Ditty Bag podcast, she has had a smattering of poems published, won a poetry prize in 2025 which she is very proud about, and this poem is her favourite yet. Her time at Oxford University around the millennium was marred by a serious assault and the work of Elizabeth Fry has stayed with her to this day. Rebecca is a Quaker and is grateful to all those who have read and heard her poem in its infancy, and assisted with the editing of it. She knows that the poem speaks to people in ways that other media cannot.
James Mayhew, illustrator: James is a prize-winning illustrator, artist, performer and writer. He is prolific! He is also a champion of things being done well, and being done right. James met Rebecca in Hertfordshire twenty years ago and they have weathered all the storms that life has thrown at them, remaining firm friends and allies. James is illustrating this poem because he thinks it’s such a brilliant and visual piece of writing, but also because it carries an important message about women’s rights and also women’s safety, which is just as relevant today as in Elizabeth Fry’s lifetime.
Who gets the money?: We are seeking funding to print the booklets so that we are not out of pocket. It's been a lean year! And we are also hoping to pay ourselves a tiny bit of money for having created the original pieces. Postage and printing all adds up and so we are definitely not going to end up with a huge sums coming back to us. However, we both think it is ok to pay ourselves for, well, working as writers and illustrators.
We also want as many people to receive the poem as we can manage - so any help on this would be brilliant. There is an option to buy one for yourself and elect for another to be sent on elsewhere. We really want to be able to do that.
If the unlikely happens and we end up with surplus funds, we will make a donation to the Elizabeth Fry Charity - and we will keep supporters fully informed if we reach that stage.
Breakdown: each booklet will cost around £3 to produce but there is also the 20p + 2.4% transaction fee to factor in for using this platform. When you take account of postage and envelopes there is a very small margin left over. If we sell enough copies (that would be so amazing) then we will retain a small artist's fee. This does not take into account any of the admin - of writing out addresses and going to the post-office...
Spread the word: Please consider sharing news of this project with anyone and everyone. We like how it is very homemade - simple, straightforward, with a message that needs to be heard.
Social media: We have listed Rebecca's social media pages as the main links. James has Facebook, Insta and X too and he is very easy to find. Tag us wherever you are and we will be very happy to engage and re-share.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made