Reading at the Merlin Theatre in Frome

I was lucky enough to be invited to read in Frome last week. The person doing the inviting was writer and local impresario, Crysse Morrison, and the venue was the lovely Merlin Theatre, which I'd been to several times but never as a performer. 

Even better, the theme of the evening was the nature and landscape, which, during this time of acute awareness of its fragility, is an issue that should be exercising all poets right now.

Also reading was Rose Flint, who was launching her selected poems, Mapping the Borders ... 

... Dawn Gorman, who was launching her new pamphlet, Instead, Let Us Say ... 

... Crysse Morrison herself, who was covering for a sick Rosie Jackson, and read a poem by the late Frome poet and activist, Linda Perry ... 

... and Liv Torc, who wasn't reading at all, but performing poems that included her most popular work, The Human Emergency.

Plus Frome-based photographer Julian Hight, launching his book, Britain's Ancient Forest Legacy and Lore, which will top my Christmas list this year and hopefully inform many future tree-visits. 

All photos taken by David Goodman.