Archive | Wiltshire RSS feed for this section

The Knowledge of The Silence Teacher – Robert Peake at Swindon Festival of Poetry

3 Oct
Not sure when I’ll be strong enough to read this
Robert Peake

Robert Peake came out quietly swinging, a fist in a cotton wool glove, and delivered his knockout blow.

About three lines into his poem, Father-Son Conversation, I was sniffing and concentrating REALLY hard on getting the highlights and shadows right on the photo I’d just taken. Okay so he had caught my weakness – with an eighteen month old the hormones are still somewhat surging – so his tale of a baby boy who didn’t make it (seven years in the telling) made me weep.

Sometimes poetry makes straight for my veins and converts my blood to emotion. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , ,

Surprising yourself with Cliff Yates at the Swindon Festival of Poetry

3 Oct
A certain rock star and Milo
Something not yet fully formed and may never be

I guess the most surprising thing about this poetry writing session was that I managed to write four pieces.

I wasn’t surprised about the range of poetry written by people – some wonderful, some in need of work, Cliff offering advice. We were asked: who would we like to be? Where did we visit? Who was the surprising guest? And: there is/are plenty of – what in my house? We were prompted to observe and record the surprising details to bring alive our verse.

I am always worried (but not surprised) at a smile response at my work. That says: yep, that doesn’t stir any emotion, or, sorry what were you saying? It was so boring I forgot it instantly. I could interpret it as: ‘that’s perfect as it is’. But that wouldn’t get me anywhere. Next time perhaps I’ll write something really atrocious and see what happens. Or maybe that smile is the ‘really atrocious’ response?

Neuroses aside, I am left with a question. Surprisingly for me I was reticent to talk. I looked around the room, at the quality of poets present, and felt I would waste everyone’s writing time if I asked why the poem Cliff had read to us by way of example, was actually a poem. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but it looked like flash fiction with really short lines. Answers on a postcard.

Props to Cliff though – prompts and space to write. Suggestions to do your own thing. Not expectations of form or the such like. And a top piece of advice for newly scribed work? Lose the last two lines.

And for anyone who’s interested, here’s one inspired by the surprising visitor. Totally true, y’all:

The Morning After

There we were
Lying around, pyjama clad
Fuggy voiced
Toxic sweat.

The phone rang. ‘Sorry I couldn’t make it last night.
Could I take you up on the offer of coffee? It’s Peter, your neighbour.
Can I come now?’
A brief pause. Sticky sweat trickles. ‘Okay.’
He asks: ‘Do you have fags?’ Continue reading →

Tags: , , , ,

Jenny Uglow on pre-Victorian pioneer Sarah Losh, Marlborough Festival of Literature

27 Sep
Jenny Uglow
Portrait of Sarah Losh, hanging in St Mary’s Church

In a little corner in Cumbria, a nineteenth century church stands testament to the vision of one of the UK’s first woman architects, Sarah Losh.

With virtually none of the usual Christian iconography, it is instead decorated with much older symbols of fertility and is inspired by the burgeoning pre-Victorian interest in geology and palaeontology.

The story of Sarah Losh, The Pinecone, is not only of an incredible women who became an architect about two hundred years before feminism, but also of family, history and giving others a chance. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Of chickens and beards. Writers Workshop at Swindon Festival of Literature

20 May
Chicken going about her business at Lower Shaw Farm ©Calyx Pictures

Chicken going about her business at Lower Shaw Farm ©Calyx Pictures

Aims of a lit fest:

  1. Meet writers
  2. Hear about writing
  3. Think about what’s been written about
  4. Do your own writing
  5. Work out what to do with your own writing so others can
  6. Go back to number 1.

I’d done numbers one to three (a lot) and written (a lot) about the experience. Now it was time to come up with my own composition. Which was, as it turns out, something to do with chickens and beards. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

To be or not to be? Do it. Do it! Think Slam at Swindon Festival of Literature

20 May

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

So I decided the night before the Think Slam that I was going to do it. Do it. Do it.

That needed to be said several times as the only time I previously entered the Think Slam, I came last. But that’s me. Utterly nail it or completely miss the point. I am not an inbetweeny kind of woman.

So on Thursday I finally had three solid ideas in my head for the three times three minute pieces, and checked on the off chance that there was a place left in the competition. There was. Okay, I now had one chronicler piece to write up that day. Check. Two for Friday. Check. And three think slam talks to hone for Friday evening. Oh gawd. I really don’t like life to be simple.

And to really make it interesting, I woke up on Friday to a nasty headache.

At 1pm, after chronicler Pete shoved some painkillers down my throat, I began to write. I spent three hours on the first talk and an hour on the next two. I work quite well under pressure, fortunately. The chronicler pieces would have to wait.

After Sandrine Berges’s interesting talk on unsung hero Mary Wollstonecraft, it was time for the Think Slam to commence. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Festival Finale

19 May

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With a touch of sadness, songs, guitars, words and bicycles that lit up, the Swindon Festival of Literature 2014 came to a typically unique close.

Guitarist Richard Durrant opened proceedings with works by Paraguayan composer Agustin Barrios, his intricate plucking courtesy of a local nail bar. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , ,

How to get a book on the best seller lists – Carole Blake at Swindon Festival of Literature

18 May
Carole Blake ©Calyx Pictures
Carole Blake ©Calyx Pictures

Do your research, says legendary literary agent, Carole Blake.

Carole’s event at Swindon Arts Centre on Thursday night wasn’t appropriate advice for all writers – poets, people happily writing for fun, journalists, non-fiction, niche – but this gem universally rings true, whether you’re writing a CV or pitching your precious first book to an agent.

And it’s easier than ever. Check out most agent’s website and they’ll give you a step-by-step guide of what they do and don’t represent, in which format to submit your work, etc. And, of course, you need a cracking book that they like and think they can sell. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

An overlooked hero – Wollstonecraft in Swindon Festival of Literature

18 May

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As with many notable historic women, Mary Wollstonecraft is an overlooked hero.

Sandrine Berges, a French professor flown from her home in Turkey for the Swindon Festival of Literature, has a mission to raise Wollstonecraft’s profile.

Wollstonecraft was a British writer and philosopher who wrote what is probably the first feminist tract.

“Wollstonecraft would have been shocked at how slowly things have moved for women today,” said Sandrine, arguing that Wollstonecraft’s values have still not been fully realised.

The eighteenth century writer and philosopher lived a pretty racy life for a women in that age. She did not deliberately set out to provoke society – she came from a respectable family abeit with issues – she simply wanted the freedom to live the life she wanted to lead. She had two lovers, fell pregnant, fell in love with another man and fell pregnant again. She married the father of her second child but lived apart from him so they could both maintain their independence. They shared childcare of the first child. Sadly for her and for early feminism, she died days after the birth of her second child. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , , , ,

A night at the museum – Swindon Festival of Literature

18 May

Salvador at museum

 

What could be better?

A night at the museum, a smile and a new book!

Salvador our official Night Time at Museums Correspondent says ‘Jump, the stories that made me jump, I jumped, everybody jumped at the scream, jumped, I did, I jumped.

The stories that made me jump were the best. Continue reading →

Tags: , , , , ,

Tracey Thorn rescued me from a lifetime of listening to Gene Loves Jezebel – Swindon Festival of Literature

17 May
Tracey Thorn talks stage fright
Tracey Thorn with a fan who’d brought an original Everything But the Girl Poster to sign

It was 1982, I’d bought a black coat, black boots, PVC trousers, cheap blue hair gel and a Bauhaus single, then Tracey Thorn released ‘A Distant Shore’ and saved me from now hanging around town in my late-forties looking very hot in a black PVC trench coat with every conceivable part of my face pierced or tattooed.

Instead I wear red trousers, thanks Tracey.

Thorn had released a mini album of simplicity that soon allowed her the plough her trade alongside Aztec Camera, The Go-Betweens and Orange Juice. Continue reading →

Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →