A Worthwhile Weekend

A weekend trip up to North East Wales to walk in the Clwydian Hills provided interest on several fronts. Firstly, the area well deserves its designation as one of Outstanding Natural Beauty - from Moel Fanau on Saturday afternoon the views extended to Snowdonia in the west, the Irish Sea to the north and across to Liverpool and Chester to the east. Apparently it is sometimes possible to spot Blackpool Tower but I can't say I picked that out this time!

Our couple of days also enabled me to fulfill two long held ambitions - to visit Gladstone's Library in Hawarden and to meet the poet Wendy Cope. Founded by the prime minister William Gladstone, the library is residential and home to courses and study days on topics as varied as creative writing, film and theology, Latin in a week. Architecturally the building is fascinating, the grounds are lovely and the facilities excellent. A bistro looks out across the lawns and provides really great food.

A guest lounge, relaxing and inspiring ...

The brochure for Gladstone's Library states that "Our aim is that everyone will leave having encountered something new or unexpected". Wendy Cope's workshop ensured that for me. I have been an admirer of her poetry for many years. She is currently the Writer in Residence at the library and sixteen of us had a hugely enjoyable few hours with her looking at poetic form. Usually I come away from workshops with lots of ideas but little writing actually achieved; on Sunday I came away with concrete first drafts of two poems that I shall certainly pursue further.   

Wendy Cope

Poems and prose

Very exciting - copies of my poetry pamphlet, "Bones of an Older Landscape", have just arrived from the printers; I'm really pleased with them. They are very nicely produced and make all the effort that went into the poems feel worthwhile!

But over the past week it has been prose rather than poetry which has occupied most of my writing time. I spent a fascinating day in Newport reference library, following up on the additional research I'd identified as necessary for the next section of the family history write-up. So much material of interest there - it was a real effort to discipline myself to stick solely to the matter in hand! And then it was on to the completion of two short stories which had been a long time in gestation - a relief to get them both safely delivered and launched into the world.

Summer Away Day

Yesterday Catchword, my writing group, enjoyed an "away day" in Stroud, with a morning visit to the museum in Stratford Park, a delicious lunch at the home of one of our members and an afternoon of writing activities in her beautiful Cotswold garden.

No hint of the future ...

The museum is small but has fascinating exhibits - some definite inspiration for writing there! In the "schoolroom" gallery I was interested to find Laurie Lee's school reports; he was from Slad, of course, just two miles up the road, and attended the boys school in Stroud in the mid to late 1920s. The report at the end of his first term, Christmas 1925, would not have led to expectations of his later literary genius, stating "English - position in class 28th - disappointing"! His periods of absence and illness are documented and the difficulty he experienced in music tuition with his very poor family unable to afford a bow; a couple of years later, however, his progress and achievement are rewarded with the comment "Violin - his playing is a pleasure to himself and listeners".

Something for everyone ...

It's hard to believe that it's twelve months since I wrote about last year's Ledbury Festival - how the time whips past. But Saturday saw me back in the small Herefordshire town that is now synonymous with poetry and it proved a great day. I had gone primarily to hear the actress Juliet Stevenson reading Emily Dickinson's poetry, interspersed with Mark Fisher's narration of the poet's life story, and for Simon Armitage's session on "Walking Away", the prose and poetry account of his walk along the South West Coastal Path. But so much else was going on, much of it free to attend, and all of it thoroughly enjoyable.

The doctor will see you now ...

On the corner of High Street and Church Lane sat a retired ambulance from which the "Emergency Poet" Derborah Alma dispensed poems and wisdom. Her display was stocked with "medication" for most "ailments" you could think of and everyone was invited to try a therapy. The agony of decision - should I take an antidote to the strenuous life? A pill for unrequited love? Should I try "poetry viagra"? In the end I concluded that I needed something for reassurance and, in the large blue capsule I had to "take" I found inscribed the following message:

"You're alive. That means you have infinite potential.

You can do anything, make anything, dream anything.

If you change the world, the world will change"
Neil Gaiman

Now, who lives in this one?

Over a picnic lunch in the Walled Garden next to the church I noticed a lot of small children excitedly running around looking under plants, behind trees and benches - all part of the Fairy Door Trail. I hadn't known that a troupe of poetry fairies had set up home in enchanted dwellings with lines of poetry on their doors! The race was on the piece their poem together - or to write a magical poem for uploading on the Festival website. Great excitement all round.

It had been a very busy week and the day was just what I needed to relax. Unfortunately I shalln't be able to make any more of the events on the Festival - but do check out their programme (www.poetry-festival.co.uk) if you can be in the area over the next week. Workshops on "How to Get Your Poetry Published", presentation of the National Poetry Competition prize, sessions on Yeates, poetry and belief, Philip Larkin, Desert Island Poems, local groups giving readings - there really is something to suit all tastes. And the surroundings are delightful - especially if this lovely weather holds, and, if not, there's no shortage of pubs, tea shops and cafes!