A SONGBOOK and CD of children's songs written by women prisoners has been launched.

The work was created by inmates at three prisons, Askham Grange, in York, Durham Prison and Low Newton, in Durham, who each produced nursery rhymes and a lullaby.

Musicians with the Irene Taylor Trust's Music in Prisons project spent several days in each prison, to put music to words written by the women, and they recorded some of the songs for the Beyond the Secret Door CD and songbook in studios set up in the prisons.

Project worker Peter Spafford said it was an emotional process for some prisoners, who were missing their own children.

He said: "Some of the women had children, some didn't. For some of them it was quite hard to talk about children at all, let alone think about these kind of things, because they weren't with their children.

"A couple did find it very, very difficult, but did carry on with it and created something very beautiful."

One of the singers, Nikki Hellier said that, whether the women had children or not, they all had to use their imaginations to create something that would appeal to youngsters.

She said: "Prison is just four walls and a door, so your imagination has to run a bit, but because we were more imaginative, there's more feeling and emotion in it. It just came together."

The CD contains 16 songs, about everything from pancakes to a rhinoceros in a sweet shop. Some of the songs were performed live by prisoners at the launch, held at Durham Prison.

* The songbook costs £15 and is available from Irene Taylor Trust, Unit 315, Bon Marche Centre, 241 Ferndale Road, London SW9 8BJ, or by ringing 0207-733 3222.