More coronatime reading

Tags

18th century, Alaska, Corona virus, Cotswolds, Czechia, Lake District, London, South Wales, Sussex, Zatopek

So, corona virus restrictions are being reimposed.  Less socialising, less going out of the house, maybe worse to come.  But the upside of all that is, you can top up your lockdown reading …   Your Books To Be Read pile might have shrunk in the past six months, but why not add to it now?  Why not choose something new, maybe something you wouldn’t normally touch?

Taking some books at, er, random – you can enjoy historical fiction, thrillers, comedy, romance, novels exploring relationships and the human heart; revel in the settings of London (in the 18^th century and today), modern Czechia, Sussex, the Lake District, Alaska, South Wales, Devon and the Cotswolds.

Or you can read biography and moving memoir; and if you are a manager and your staff are all working from home, why not take advantage of their absence and bone up on management thinking?  And if you’re a parent or doting grandparent, get a lovely book for the little one.

Last, but not least, there’s poetry.  What better way to cope with today’s vicissitudes than settling down with some great poetry ‘the best words in the best order’, as I think someone said.

Happy reading!

 

 

 

Should a writer spend time doing nothing? Byron did

Tags

Allegra Biron, Byron, churchyards, doing nothing, Harrow School, John Peachey Esq, St Mary's church Harrow, Windsor

If you’re a writer, budding or established, do you spend enough time doing nothing, do you take time to stop and stare? Do you ever just sit or lie there, and look at the view?

No less a giant than Byron did just that. On this tomb in the churchyard of St Mary’s church in Harrow-on-the-Hill. It was presumably in better repair then, and without the railings subsequently put on because of the very fame he had brought it. Its occupant was “John Peachey Esq, of the island of St Christopher’s”, who has thus gained prolonged and unintended fame because of his grave’s location and the identity of its famous lounger.

According to a picture in the guide to the church, Byron lay on it propped up on his elbows. This looks uncomfortable, but it seems he lay there for hours, looking at the view, for when addressing the elm that was then above the grave he wrote,

“Thou drooping Elm! Beneath whose boughs I lay,
And frequent mused the twilight hours away …”

A plaque at the spot says, “In school he was known for his witty epigrams and satires, but it was here, surrounded by reminders of mortality, that he invoked a more melancholy and reflective muse.”

He was a pupil at Harrow School at the time (from 1801 to 1805), so either he just played hooky when he should have been inside doing his homework, or noble scholars like him didn’t have homework to bother with. The plaque says that he came here “to escape the restraints of school life”. The guide to the church does say that “he was rather an erratic student” at Harrow, and that he “was a ringleader in a lot to blow up George Butler who the boys did not want as Head Master”, so perhaps the teachers were quite happy to let him lie for hours in the churchyard …

His poem “Lines Written Beneath An Elm In The Churchyard Of Harrow” can be found at http://www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/lord_byron%20/poems/5989. The first verse is reproduced on the stone at the front of the tomb, put there in 1905 by the son of one of his school friends.

The elm he addressed went long ago but here are its successors. In 1822 Byron was planning where to bury his 5-year-old daughter Allegra, and he wrote:

“There is a spot in [St Mary’s] churchyard, near the footpath, on the brow of the hill looking towards Windsor, and a tomb under a large tree (bearing the name of Peachie, or Peachey), where I used to sit for hours and hours when a boy. This was my favourite spot …” He wanted Allegra to be buried in the church, with a stone memorial bearing his own composition, but his reputation was so bad that the Rector and churchwardens refused his request and buried her in an unmarked grave. Today there’s a memorial to her near the south porch. (An account of this little girl’s sad life can be found at https://darkestlondon.com/tag/harrow-on-the-hill/.  Warning: Byron does not come out of this well.)  Here’s the view towards Windsor:

So, o writers ye, you are allowed to take time off just to gaze and muse. You don’t have to always be checking your e-mails or honing your synopsis. But where do you do this? In a churchyard like Byron? In your local park (will there one day be a plaque on a bench saying “This was Lavinia’s favourite spot”?)? On a country ramble?     Do tell …

 

 

 

 

The Tonbridge Poetry Trail

Tags

Poetry reading, Tonbridge

This is the month of the Tonbridge Poetry Trail. Poems of several local poets are displayed in the windows of many local shops, from Optimum IT Solutions at the north end of the town to Sulston’s Kitchen in the south (see https://roundelpoetrytonbridge.wordpress.com/events/ for more names). 24 shops, 24 poets, 24 poems …  Maps are available in most outlets. It’s all sponsored by the Tonbridge Festival.

There’s a reading on Tuesday, 30 October at 7-00 pm at the Tonbridge Basil’s (30 High Street). Should be good! (You’re asked to post on Facebook if you want to attend – https://www.facebook.com/events/570207576752852/ .)

 

Train delays can have their compensations

Tags

Ancient Greece, Arachne, Athena, Bereavement, Chaos, Chislehurst, commuters, Europa, Matt Chamberlain, Stephen Fry, Train travel, Zeus

My train journey home on Tuesday evening was muchly delayed – long enough to qualify for a refund!  “Signalling problems in the Chislehurst area …”  But no worry: I had a seat, and some good reading material.  Two good reading materials in fact.  I settled down to a happy session.

I remember the green gaze is the latest poetry collection by Matt Chamberlain (for previous ones see the posts https://ninevoices.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/collaboration-one-mans-trash/ and https://ninevoices.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/lowering-awareness/ on this blog).    In his Foreword Matt Chamberlain talks about seeing things in colours.  He writes, “The preceding year has been difficult, with bereavements and faltering friendships …  But green says ‘calm tolerant, easy’, and when buffeted between red heat and deep blue cold, I sought its neutrality.   I longed for the return of nature.  I remembered the green gaze.”

‘A Father’s Day’ will echo with anyone who’s lost a loved one, thinking of the everyday actions that won’t be done again.  ‘Commuters’ suggests ways of passing a train journey, eg “Rain makes patterns and I imagine introducing people to their own reflections, me their gentle intermediary.”  ‘Counting’ describes the sheer abundance of nature: “Frank swept away twelve tons of leaves last night but morning said ‘I’ll raise you’; now the scarlet carpet is measured in fathoms.” ‘An Old Soldier’ recalls one’s youth in a way that will resonate; we won’t have in our own memory bank an Action Man stuck for years on a telephone line, but we’ll have the equivalent.

And many more, as they used to say on the sleeves of compilation LPs.  (Talk about going down Memory Lane!)

The other was Mythos, Stephen Fry’s retelling of many of the Greek myths.  As you would expect from him, it’s so readable, a fresh take on familiar stories.  And many of them that weren’t familiar to me.  Told with affection and a modern feel.  In the very first chapter, for example, describing Chaos and the creation of the universe, he explains how your trousers began as chaotic atoms, became your trousers, will become landfill, and in time will return to cold Chaos once the Sun expands and destroys the earth.   When telling the story of how Europa, changed by Zeus into a cow, swims across the Bosphorus, he delights in pointing out that ‘Bosphorus’ and ‘Oxford’ mean exactly the same thing.  Time and again we see the Greek origin of our words or our ideas.

His imagined conversations on Olympus entertain, as does his recognition that he is repeatedly introducing us to perfectly beautiful young people, who may well (but not always) come to sticky ends once their beauty attracts an Olympian.   Adonis, Ganymede, Narcissus, Echo, Psyche, Semele – they’re all here.

Sometimes he gives us interesting variants on what we’re used to.  Athena, for example, changes Arachne into a spider not because she presumptuously took her on in a spinning competition, but as a reward for being a great artist, the poor girl having just hanged herself in mortification a few moments before.

Eventually the signalling difficulties in the Chislehurst area were resolved.  But I hadn’t minded.

 

Competitions to Enter in September

 

I’ve always been fascinated by doorways, wondering what or who lies through them. Old ones can really get my imagination seething… So why not hunt one down that fires YOUR imagination? Write a story. Open a door for your reader…

Val Wood Prize for Creative Writing 2018. To celebrate 100 years since women won the right to vote this year’s competition is entitled: Women’s Writes. Open to all genders over 16 years of age, entries should be in the form of a short story, with entrants free to write about whatever they wish, but each story must feature a strong female protaganist. The winner will receive £100 and their entry will be published on their website and shared via various social media outlets. The runner-up will receive £50 and there will be two commendations of £25. Max. word count is 1,500 and the deadline 15 September. Details: http://www.valeriewood.co.uk

 

 

 

Do you live in London? London Short Story Prize. Win a first prize of £1,000 in the annual competition from London writer development agency Spread the Word, which is designed to publish the best new stories coming from the capital. They are looking for unpublished stories up to 5,000 words and the winner will not only receive £1,000, but also have a meeting with an agent. Two runners-up will each receive £250 and a meeting with an editor. Highly commended entries will be published in the London Short Story Anthology 2018. Entry is £8 per story. Deadline 17 September. Details http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk

Mere Literary Festival Write in the Week timed Flash Fiction Competition. On a theme to be announced in 14 September, deadline 22 September. Prizes: £60, £30, £15. Entry fee £2, with £1 for each subsequent. Details: info@merelitfest.co.uk

Hammond House International Literary Prizes 2018, run by the University Centre, Grimsby, are open for entries on the theme: ‘precious‘. The 2018 Short Story Competition is for fiction between 2,00 and 5,000 words. The first prize is £500 and there are second and third prizes of £100 and £50. The top 25 entries will be published. The entry fee is £10. The 2018 Screenplay Competition is for ten-minute screenplays. The winner will receive £25 and their screenplay will be professionally produced and submitted to the Aesthetica film festival. Entry fee £10. The 2018 Poetry Prize is for a single poem, with prizes of £100, £50 and £25. Entry fee is £10 for each poem. Deadline is: 31 September. Details: http://www.hammondhousepublishing.com

Erewash Writers’ Open Short Story, for short stories up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £100, £70, £30. Entry fee: £3, £5 for two, £2.50 thereafter. Deadline 27 September. Details: erewashwriterscomps@hotmail.co.uk

The Imison Award for original radio plays by writers new to radio. Prizes: £2,000. Entry fee: £30. Deadline 29 September. Details: http://www.societyofauthors.org/imison-award

Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize 2018 for stories up to 6,000 words. Prizes: £1,000, or a year’s editorial support. Entry fee: £10. Deadline 28 September. Details: info@galleybeggar.co.uk

Bedford International Writing Competition for stories up to 3,000 words, and poems up to 40 lines, on any theme. Prizes: £300, £150, £100 in each category. Entry fee: £6, £12 for three. Deadline 30 September. Details: http://www.bedfordwritingcompetition.co.uk

Manchester Fiction Prize for short stories up to 2,500 words. Prizes: £10,000. Entry fee: £17.50 Deadline 14 September. (PLEASE NOTE: ON CHECKING THIS TODAY, I FIND THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM 29 SEPTEMBER!)  Details http://www.manchesterwritingcompetition.co.uk/fiction

Caterpillar Story for Children Prize. Short stories up to 2,000 words for children aged 7-11. Prizes: 500 Euros, plus a two-week stay at The Moth retreat; 300 Euros; 200 Euros. Entry fee: 12 Euros. Closing date 30 September. Details: enquiries@thecaterpillarmagazine.com

Chorley & District Writers’ Circle Annual Short Story Competition, for stories on the theme of natural justice. Prizes: £100, £50, £30. Entry fee: £5. Deadline 30 September. Details: http://www.chorleywriters.org.uk

Grindstone Literary Services Novel Prize for an opening chapter, maximum 3,000 words. Entry fee £20. Prizes: £1,000; £100; publication. Discount on Curtis Brown online writing course. Deadline 28 September. Details http://www.grindstoneliterary.com/competitions.

The 2019 International Beverly Prize for Literature is for an original, unpublished manuscript of fiction, non-fiction, drama, memoir or criticism. The winner will receive £500 and publication with Eyewear Publishing. The entry fee is £20 and the closing date 15 September. Website: https://store.eyewearpublishing.com/

My apologies for being a bit late with this list – blame editing fever. As always, I rely on you double-checking any competitions you’re interested in, since terms and conditions, or entry dates, can change at the last minute. See my note above, on the Manchester Fiction Prize. 

All that remains is for me to urge you to give something a try. And to remember Samuel Beckett’s famous words:

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

 

 

Collaboration – one man’s trash

Tags

Matt Chamberlain, Medway, Paint The Town Festival, Photography, Spreken, Vicar's Picnic, Wordsmithery

Writing may be a solitary occupation, but two Medway poets have just shown how collaboration can pay off.

Matt Chamberlain and Spreken came up with the idea of interpreting the other’s images. They each took photos of ordinary things, which the other then wrote about. The one stipulation was that the resulting poem contain something positive (for they had seen too much sadness in their work).

The result is one man’s trash, a collection of 14 poems. A kitchen sink full of not-yet-done washing-up; a house sprayed with racist graffiti; a sign in a car park telling you where to pay; a pair of muddy walking boots: these unpromising pictures inspire some imaginative work. My favourite is ‘Underneath’, the speculation of whatever lives under a bridge (a troll, as there’s something trip-trapping across the bridge – memories of Billy Goat Gruff?) as to who is walking over it and what their lives contain (or don’t). Another that specially appeals is ‘Grey infusion’, the thoughts of a pigeon splashing in a puddle.

The foreword explains that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Or hope. Or mirth.”

Spreken has had some of her work on the tube in the Poets on the Underground series, and she co-headlined Paint it Black, a poetry event focusing on mental health, part of Medway’s Paint The Town festival this spring (https://www.paintthetownfestival.co.uk/). Matt Chamberlain has published three collections of poems and performs at open mic nights, festivals etc, most recently at this month’s Vicar’s Picnic festival at Yalding in Kent (see http://vicarspicnic.co.uk/), where he was Festival Laureate.  (I wrote about one of his collections last year (at https://ninevoices.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/lowering-awareness/).)

The collection is published by Wordsmithery (based in Chatham). For an interview with the two authors, speaking on how they write their poetry and how they collaborate, see https://www.wordsmithery.info/one-mans-trash .

So if writer’s block strikes, or you feel your writing needs new inspiration, or is getting you down, try some collaboration like this.

ISBN 978-0-9926853-6-2 RRP £8 (+ £2 P&P from Wordsmithery)

‘Lowering Awareness’

Tags

David Bowie, Fragments of Love, Matt Chamberlain, Show and tell

I admire poets’ imagery, and their ability to convey such meaning or feeling in a few words (not my own forte, so I’ve not attempted to write any since school). That’s why I liked Jane Dobson’s Fragments of Love collection so much (see https://ninevoices.wordpress.com/2016/11/24/a-poem-that-was-published-in-the-times/ below).

And that’s why I like Lowering Awareness, new from Matt Chamberlain.   It’s an interesting mix: some moving, some comic, some so descriptive.   Comic ones include ‘Give Me A Bell’, ‘Show And Tell, What The Hell?’ (which should be read by every reception class teacher!) ‘Porridge’ and ‘Toblerone’.  Then there’s the atmospheric and sad – ‘Stained Beauty’ (about Saddleworth Moor) moved me a lot. Loss – ‘Absence’ and ‘Far Away’ are two examples. Lancashire and Kent – both are evoked. Tribute is paid to David Bowie.

Read and reread, it’s worth it.

ISBN 978-1511655118 RRP £5