Friday 31 August 2018

Previews of things to come



On September 6th the Wye Valley Writers will be launching their new anthology at the Chepstow Library and Hub, but we had a preview of its very varied contents on "The Writer's Room" on NHSound yesterday. Four of the group's members came along to talk about their writing, about the support a group can offer, about the stories behind their work. If you didn't catch the programme, do try to get to the launch evening (7pm with light refreshments and an open mic opportunity) - it'll be well worth going.

Karel Dewey and Angela Platt

Zina Pearce-Tomenius

























This is the first year for many that I haven't been involved with the Gloucestershire Writers Network competition; my congratulations to the recently announced winners and runners-up, who will of course be reading at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in a few weeks time. I'm delighted to be reading at another event on the Festival, in the Holst Museum on Saturday October 6th, celebrating the composer's Planet Suite. I'm in very august company - with poets including Adam Horowitz, David Clarke and Anna Saunders - so I'm looking forward to it enormously. Tickets for the festival are on sale now. As always, there's a fantastic programme covering all aspects of literature - if only I had unlimited time and money, I know where I'd be spending ten days in October ...


Tuesday 21 August 2018

Buses and bookshops

In interesting morning at NHSound last Thursday; Karenne Griffin, a writer from Pontypool, was my guest on "The Writer's Room", talking about her travel books "Bus Pass Holiday - A Short Circuit" and "Bus Pass Holiday # 2 - The Long And The Short Of It". In the peak of the holiday season it was a timely reminder that you don't have to go to far-flung places to see a different world, to meet new people, to widen your horizons. And those of us of a certain age and stage are lucky enough to be able to travel cost-free around our beautiful country! How fortunate we are. Karenne is also the author of two novels - "Beyond The Island" and "Return To The Island" - do check them out; some good holiday reading there.

I spent Sunday afternoon at Octavos Bookshop in Cardiff, relaxing in their great cafe and wine bar and listening to the Bristol poet Elizabeth Parker. The monthly readings and open mics there are well worth getting to - they're free, really welcoming and have some excellent visiting poets. Rhian Edwards will be there in November - something to really look forward to.  If you've not heard her before you can get a flavour of her work listening to her reading on YouTube; she has to be one of my favourite contemporary poets.

Saturday 11 August 2018

Shw'mae Caerdydd!


A great couple of days at the Eisteddfod in Cardiff. I've been learning Welsh (the language of my grandmothers and their forebears) for a year or so, though I'm not a natural linguist and progress has been slow. But the Eisteddfod was a great opportunity to listen and to practice, to enjoy and to play with the language; there was great encouragement for learners and being in such a vibrant, inclusive community has certainly spurred me on.

I spent hours - and a fair amount of cash - in the book tents. I was delighted to find several novels for beginners, proper adult ones; much though I enjoyed reading Fireman Sam and Spot the Dog to my children, I'd rather not have to read them in Welsh for myself now! And Thursday evening saw a tremendous concert with Pendevig - the whole evening in Welsh, no concessions for learners there, but with the music of that band no concessions are necessary!

Even the ice cream cones bore Y Draig Goch
(the Red Dragon)!

Tuesday 7 August 2018

In Flanders Field

I've just come back from a fascinating four day trip to Belgium looking at the role of non-combatants (medical and nursing personnel and chaplains) in the First World War. I could certainly have done with the temperature being ten degrees cooler for standing in unshaded cemeteries and the exposed ploughed fields that had once held casualty clearing stations, but I certainly wouldn't have missed the opportunity to go to research the topic. A great deal to think about now and to follow up on for a project on which I'm just embarking.




Whilst I was away I was lent an original copy of the training manual used by the Royal Army Medical Corps at the time of the Great War. I was amazed at the breadth of subject matter covered - in fact, it didn't look that different from the syllabus I covered in my initial nurse training fifty years later! I was saddened to think though how Article 1 of the Geneva Convention - that "ambulances and military hospitals shall be acknowledged to be neutral and as such shall be protected and respected by belligerents so long as any sick or wounded may be therein" - was so blatantly disregarded by both sides (as indeed it is all too often in conflicts to this day). I visited the graves of many medical and nursing personnel killed on duty by shellfire or in air raids. A hundred years on, all of their stories still merit telling; how much we could learn if only we would listen.


On the grave of John McCrae, Canadian surgeon
and "In Flanders Field" poet 




Wednesday 1 August 2018

Human vs. machine

Having heard an item on Radio 4 this morning about computer generated poetry (and the apparent difficulty some people have distinguishing between that and the "real thing") I thought I'd try out one of the generating websites. If you have five minutes to spare and want to feel a whole load better about your own work, do try one out. I entered random words on my chosen topic as requested (I'd been looking at the picture below so chose "fields") and the resulting sonnet was hilariously awful ... It certainly gave me a good laugh to start my day!