This amazing piece of work really did put the Spring into Swindon Spring Festival. With powerful dance moves and great music, The Rising delved into the Fijian Culture.
The group made it clear it was a tribal piece by the way they moved, the sounds they made and the music. The dance moves gave the feeling of a war like battle playing out, a whole story made without a single syllable of English. The story consisted of fights, love and a feeling of a community. Continue reading
Why do so many of us believe in angels?
In this post-truth age, I wasn’t all that surprised when I read that a third of people in the UK believe in angels, and that one in ten say they’ve experienced ‘the presence of angels’.
The findings, so far as I can tell, come from a YouGov poll conducted in March 2016 – just a few months before the referendum that delivered us Brexit.
It was published at a time when the then-justice secretary Michael Gove was trying to persuade us that “people in this country have had enough of experts” – those analytical and methodical enemies of the people. It was feelings, not facts, that mattered.
So yes, angels, why not?
Continue reading
Jo Middleton is much like her writing: instantly likeable, witty and fun. A former marketing employee, Jo quit and followed her dream of becoming a freelance journalist. With little to no experience, she noted down editors’ names from magazines and asked them what they would like her to write.
Her first writing break came writing for South West Holiday Parks and shortly after she started a blog to increase her portfolio. As a single mother of two, she embraced the adage write what you know and wrote on the subject of parenting. And so Slummy Mummy was born.
Talking about her writing journey, Jo acknowledges apologetically that for many it is not easy, but ten years on from her choosing to start a blog it is understandable why she has been successful.
Jo’s writing is honest, on receiving her first free product of hand cream to review she wrote, “keeps my hands soft and moisturised, but smells like cabbages and old peoples homes.” Continue reading
When Laura Mucha, author of Love Factually, The science of Who, How and Why We Love, was asked why she wrote a book about love, she answered: “because I just didn’t understand love.” And in honesty, who does?
Raised from a young age in an all-woman household (by her mother and grandmother), Laura was not privy to relationships and took to quizzing those around her to help develop her understanding. As an adult, after a cardiac arrest which caused her to face her own mortality, she chose to return to the question of love and write a book about it.
Love, according to Laura comes in different forms: lust, romantic love and companionship. And partners, too, can be secure, avoidant or anxious in relationships – a state which is heavily influenced by our upbringing. Continue reading
Isabella Tree’s event, on her book Wilding, was all set for a cosy evening at Lower Shaw Farm’s ‘centre’, with forty or so people, cups of tea and talk of restoring a bit of balance back to the countryside.
However, the allocated tickets sold out. More were made available, and they sold too. There was no choice but shift the venue to the cowshed, with seating for a hundred. Still the tickets sold… benches were added, and more chairs dragged from all corners. By the time the talk was about to start, the cowshed was packed tighter than a, well, than a cowshed. An intensively farmed cowshed. And that’s where Isabella Tree comes in.
When it comes to running, it seems most of us fall into two camps; running to escape thoughts and feelings or running towards a goal.
Omer Homer, a training Para Olympian hopeful, firmly falls into both. He runs to win but acknowledges that running has made him a different person. Omer started running in 2017, his target to win the Swindon Half Marathon – an ambitious goal given Omer had never run before, had no former training and has severe injuries from an encounter with an exploding landmine. However, Omer completed the Swindon Half Marathon in just 1hr 22min 49 sec and ranked in the top 1% of runners.
The sweet melody of the bagpipes started the show,
a great way to begin the Dawn Chorus,
the 26th in a row.
The Farmyard Circus, with hoops, bats and prong
ignited by a fiery wick,
I never knew the wonders that could be made,
from a flaming stick.
Darine Flanagan, Matt Holland, Sara Jane Arbury, Casey Jane, Rahman Khatibi, Tony Hiller, Swindon mayor Junab Ali Image courtesy of Fernando Bagué
More than 175 years of Swindon’s rich cultural heritage has inspired a new festival of arts and culture, which was launched in the town today (Thursday) before a crowd of enthusiastic supporters.
The Swindon Spring Festival is an extension of the popular Festival of Literature, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.
Twelve months ago, festival director Matt Holland told us of his desire to expand the lit fest into “an all-encompassing combined arts festival.” Continue reading
… for another year. Last night was a fun fiesta as Domestic Cherry, the festival’s annual magazine, launched with a final flurry and many contributors took to the mic. I give you photos of some of them, please forgive any omissions, and I wasn’t making notes I’m afraid, just enjoying the atmosphere. If you weren’t able to make it to the Festival this year I hope you’ve got a flavour of it, and maybe we’ll see you next time.
PS If you’ve enjoyed my posts, you might enjoy my own poetry blog over here. If you visit, thank you and please say hello! – Robin Houghton
Sunday afternoon started with Jane Commane introducing readings from the Primers 3 poets. Primers is an annual scheme run by Nine Arches Press in conjunction with the Poetry School, in which three poets are selected to be mentored over several months, culminating with an anthology. Each year Jane is joined by a guest judge, in the case of Primers 3 it was Hannah Lowe. Jane explained they were looking for fresh poetry talent with big potential, but also voices that sat well with one another. This reading was the last of the Primers 3 group of poets, with the announcement about this year’s new intake (Primers 4) coming very soon.
Romalyn Ante
The first reader was Romalyn Ante who has already won some major prizes including the Manchester Poetry Prize 2017 and the Poetry London Clore Prize in 2018. Originally from the Philippines, Romalyn came to the UK when she was 16 and now works as a nurse. Her poems spoke movingly of what it means to move to another country – what we take with us and what we leave behind, what happens to family who remain, dealing with the loneliness and frustration of navigating a different culture and other issues.
Here Romalyn reads ‘Antiemetic for Homesickness’:
Aviva Dautch
Aviva Dautch opened by explaining that her poems in the anthology came from the experience of her mother’s chronic hoarding, and that she was grateful to have found the Primers scheme as it wasn’t an age-barred opportunity. Aviva gave a lively and intense reading.
Here she reads ‘The House’:
Sarala Estruch
The final Primers poet to read was Sarala Estruch, whose poems explored the issues faced by her parents as migrants, the bitter reality that they faced in 1970s London, cross-cultural relationships and her own lived experience, “knowing love carries more weight than the human tongue…”
Here’s Sarala reading ‘England: A Love Story, or The English Dream’:
Jane Commane was then joined by Claire Dyer for the final reading sets of the Festival.
Claire Dyer
Claire is one of those talented multi-talented authors who writes not only fine poetry but very successful novels. She read for us a number of poems from her collection Interference Effects (Two Rivers Press, 2016) opening with the lovely ‘Aubade’, a poem for her husband.
Here she reads ‘Talking to a Dead Horse’:
Jane Commane
Jane Commane had a busy day – in the morning she led an intense workshop on editing. She’s clearly someone who prepares thoroughly but also radiates experience. In her roles as editor and publisher I imagine her to be a very safe pair of hands. But she’s also a fine poet. Jane read from her new collection Assembly Lines (Bloodaxe), including ‘Unweather’, an intense sequence/response to Brexit, full of fire (and ire). I think one or two of us wanted to clap at the end but no-one dared disturb the awed atmosphere.
Here is Jane introducing and reading ‘The Shop Floor Gospel’:
Festival Chronicle 