Reading at Bristol Poetry Festival

Some photos of reading at Bristol Poetry Festival last Saturday night, alongside the very talented Helen Ivory and Martin Figura.   Photos by Dru Marland.  

 

My offspring under a three-line whip

Preparing to read a tribute to Seamus Heaney

Martin reading Heaney's 'Holly'

Hilda Sheehan receiving the South West Poetry Award for Contribution to Poetry Development

Helen Ivory with Poetry Can Director, Colin Brown

Martin Figura's show 'Whistle'

Arnolfini, Saturday 5th October, 7.30pm

I was the sort of 16-year-old who wouldn't have been seen dead without a collection of poetry or a novel sticking out of my coat pocket, and for me then, the Arnolfini was the epitome of cool.  I'm going to be reading in the auditorium there on Saturday night in the company of Helen Ivory and Martin Figura, and both me and my over-excited inner teenager would love to see some friendly faces there.  So do come along if you're free and the spirit moves you.

Bristol Poetry Festival Is Nigh!

Over the last week, as well as my day job at the school for deaf children and working with my autistic son (which involved driving him to Norwich and back on the weekend), and rehearsing for three imminent poetry readings, I've been delivering brochures for the forthcoming Bristol Poetry Festival.  And I have to say that though it's been really tiring and at times wet - not just rain, I slipped and fell into one of the gutters in Wells High Street! - I feel heartened by how many shopkeepers  were pleased to accept them (although I suppose they might have thrown them in the bin once my back was turned) and how many independent cafes seem to be keeping afloat despite the relentless onslaught of Costa Coffee. Not so the independent bookshop, sadly, but that's another blog.  

So, in five days, I scattered brochures over north, south and central Bristol, Thornbury, Clevedon, Weston-Super-Mare, Wells, Frome, Keynsham, Bath, Bradford on Avon, Corsham,  and probably some other places I've forgotten.  And I took some photos along the way.  Here's a few of them.     

Bristol Museum

Bristol City Centre 

M Shed and Prince Street Bridge from the Mud Dock Café

Milsom Street, Bath

Union Passage, Bath

St Bartholomew's, Corsham

The Cellar, Clevedon - now a bistro, it used to be a chemists - at least I hope that's why these drawers are there ... 

Clevedon Pier

The Royal Oak, which belonged to my ancestors and was where my grandparents honeymooned.  They married on 11th November 1918 and my grandfather had an extra day's leave from the army because of the Armistice.  












Bristol Poetry Festival runs from 28th September to 6th October.  Participants this autumn include Louis De Bernières, Prunella Scales, Sir Andrew Motion, Martin Figura, Helen Ivory, Rachael Boast, David Briggs, The IsamBards, and me.  And if I didn't reach you with a papery brochure, here's a virtual one.  

Martin Figura: Whistle

There seem to be lots of poetry events on in Bristol and the surrounding area at present, and last night it was off to the Rondo theatre in Bath to see Martin Figura perform his show, Whistle.

Whistle is a collection of poems principally about Martin's childhood and the event which shaped the rest of his life for ever, the murder of his mother by his father when he was 9 years old.  If that sounds very challenging, well, it is, and while reading the sequence last week, I actually gasped, not so much at the murder (horrible as it is, you know as soon as you peruse the back cover that's what you're going to be reading about) but at the behaviour of his murdered mother's sister and her husband, who abandon their bereaved nieces and nephew and emigrate to Canada without explanation or farewell.

You might think this would make for a grim evening, but not a bit of it.  Accompanying the reading is a series of images and photographs which evoke British childhood in the 60s as well as providing a more personal context for some of the poems.  In addition, Martin links each poem with narratives that are warm and often amusing. I fell in love with Mrs Piggott, the matriarch next door who steps into the breach when the siblings find themselves dumped in children's homes and who apparently used to watch telly with a hen on her lap.

If you are in Liverpool on 29th March, Canterbury on 25th April or Exeter on 14th July, go and see the show.  If you think you don't like poetry, make doubly sure you go because odds are, you'll change your mind.