On the 1st July 2025, Queen Mary’s Sixth Form College celebrated the launch of Sunny Side Down, a new poetry anthology created by student writers from the Dead Poets enrichment group, founded and led by English teacher Charlotte Reilly. The book has recently been published and is available on Amazon, with all proceeds going towards mental health support for young people at the College.
Sunny Side Down: A Poetry Anthology
Sunny Side Down is a hardback anthology featuring over 155 original poems by 29 young writers. The project represents approximately 1,829 hours of writing, editing, and production. The group began as a small weekly workshop for six students, designed to explore poetic forms and encourage original writing. It quickly expanded, with sessions regularly filling classrooms and attracting wide student interest.
Over the academic year, members studied and experimented with a range of poetic styles, from Anglo-Saxon kennings and structured villanelles to protest poetry and lyrical verse. The group’s work has reached the wider community through performances at a local care home, eco-poetry readings during Basingstoke Green Week at Festival Place, and public readings at The Gabardine Bar.
QMC’s Principal, Mark Henderson, praised the students’ “talent and commitment to their craft”, highlighting the collaborative effort behind the publication. He championed the poets as an example of everything he hoped an enrichment would be, praising the culture of the students and calling their book a “remarkable achievement”. The new anthology follows the group’s first anthology, Scrambled Eggs and Other Ramblings, which you can purchase here.
The Launch Event
The launch event featured live readings from contributors and marked a significant milestone for the group’s creative journey. Charlotte Reilly remarked on the privilege of guiding these new voices in poetry and was delighted to share in their enormous success. To quote one student: “Nothing is more punk than empowering young voices.”
