A night out in February…
Joseph Butler, author of ‘Hearthstone‘ published by Two Rivers Press, is a featured poet at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café: National Poetry Competition readings on Weds Feb 6th at 7.30pm.
A night out in February…
Joseph Butler, author of ‘Hearthstone‘ published by Two Rivers Press, is a featured poet at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café: National Poetry Competition readings on Weds Feb 6th at 7.30pm.
“Leigh’s poems are brief…; the questions they consider, on the other hand, are expansive. Many of them read as meditations on how to exist in the world, and how we might accept the chance happenings of life.”
Suzannah V. Evans
Poetry in Brief, TLS
December 11, 2018
Point of Honour: Selected Poems of Maria Teresa Horta by
Lesley Saunders (poet)
Maria Teresa Horta (poet)
Two Rivers Press is featured in ‘meet the member‘ on the IPG (Independent Publishers Guild) website. Have a read and learn what challenges Reading’s own publisher faces!
Enjoy the relaxed atmosphere with festive drinks, nibbles, book signings, games demos, live music, gift wrapping and a special Christmas discount.
SIGNINGS with
Masterchef winner 2017 Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, Khazana
Local authors & historians Peter Durrant and John Painter, Reading Abbey and the Abbey Quarter
DRINKS
Courtesy of BrewDog in Castle Street, with copies of their book, BrewDog: Craft Beer for the People
LIVE MUSIC
With Reading Chamber Choir Tamesis
LIVE GAMES DEMONSTRATIONS
GIFT WRAPPING
Raising money for local homelessness charity Launchpad
CHRISTMAS OFFER
Double stamps on all purchases made in store between 6-9pm with a Waterstones Plus Card
For details please ask a bookseller or visit waterstones.com
The Whiteknights Studio Trail has run for 18 years. Most of the member artists live, or used to live in the Whiteknights area of Reading. WST occasionally goes to town – so that all residents of Reading (Berkshire, UK) can come and see their work.
Thursday 29 November
Friday 30 November
Saturday 1 December
There will be a suitably Christmassy themed exhibition in the Holy Brook Gallery on the second floor of Reading Central Library. It is free for all to visit during Library opening hours(10am-5pm).
Maybe 2018 will be the year you get all your Christmas cards and perhaps a present or two, sorted out in time!
Congratulations to Gill Learner, winner of Hampshire County Council’s ‘100 words for 100 years’ competition.
The competition was inspired by the Imperial War Museum’s Centena project, which commissioned 100 writers to write 100 words about the First World War. Entries could be a poem, letter or short story of exactly 100 words in length.
Time Out
No-one knows which hospital but family history
had it on the Isle of Wight. A shaded-glass back door,
rotting wooden steps, five of them, all nip-waisted crispness.
One’s my aunt, Adelaide Marie, always known as ‘Bob’.
Scarcely seventeen, inside the starched half-halo
of her cap, she grins.
Home and belovéd piano
left behind in Chandler’s Ford, she joined the VADs.
Ever the tomboy, she must have struggled to keep
that floor-length apron clean, those stiff cuffs white.
I imagine her singing softly as she scrubbed bedpans
in the sluice, mopped between beds, smiled comfort.
But she never spoke of it.
The 100 Words for 100 Years booklet which features all the winners’ and runners’ up entries. A limited number of printed copies will be available at Hampshire libraries. The highly commended entries will be featured on our library website.
Announcing our new series featuring distinguished botanical artists, their work and their
inspiration. Intentionally both beautiful and useful, these handy-sized paperbacks
are designed to be taken anywhere, referred to, collected and gazed at.
Each book brings out the personality of its individual artist, showcases their
work and shares why they love what they do, explains their choice of subjects,
the distinct techniques they have developed, and their failures as well as
their successes.
Botanical Artistry by Julia Trickey
Inside My Sketchbook by Dianne Sutherland
The Whole Story by Christina Hart-Davies
A Botanical Artist’s Miscellanea by Susan Christopher-Coulson
The series is edited by Julia Trickey, an internationally-acclaimed botanical artist
and tutor. She has been awarded four RHS gold medals and exhibited all over
the world.
Published by Two Rivers Press, publishers of A Coming of Age by Ros Franklin,
A Wild Plant Year by Christina Hart-Davies, and Plant Portraits by Julia Trickey.
Orders
www.tworiverspress.com • orders@tworiverspress.com • 0118 987 1452
In collaboration with the Dunsden Owen Association, Two Rivers Press invites you to join in A Wilfred Owen Day
Where: All Saints Church, Dunsden, Berkshire
When: Sat 10 November, 2.30-5pm (At 3.30pm there will be a talk on Owen’s work and its influences from Jane Potter).
Cost: All welcome: Free entry
There will also be poetry readings, music and afternoon tea as well as opportunities to meet some of the artists. Pennies on My Eyes, a new collection of Wilfred Owen poems will be available to buy and there is also a self- guided walk around the village (with trail leaflet or smartphone app) that could be undertaken in the morning, and a chance to see the graves of Owen’s parents and sister in the churchyard.
Dr Jane Potter is Reader in Arts at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing at Oxford Brookes University. Her publications include Boys in Khaki, Girls in Print: Women’s Literary Responses to the Great War, 1914-1918 (Oxford University Press, 2005), Wilfred Owen: An Illustrated Life (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2014), and, with Carol Acton, Working in a World of Hurt: Trauma and Resilience in the Narratives of Medical Personnel in War Zones (Manchester University Press, 2015). With Jon Stallworthy, she edited Three Poets of the First World War: Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg, and Wilfred Owen (Penguin, 2011), and is currently editing a new edition of Wilfred Owen’s selected letters for Oxford University Press.
When: 6-8 pm Thursday 15 November 2018
Where: MERL The Museum of English Rural Life
What: A Talk by Dr Jane Potter (Oxford Brookes)
Followed by readings from
PENNIES ON MY EYES
Poems by Wilfred Owen
The latest addition to the Two Rivers Press classic poems series, Pennies on my Eyes is a centennial collection of Wilfred Owen’s poetry illustrated by Reading-based artists. The town made its contribution to Owen’s becoming a poet through the encouragement he received from Professor Edith Morley at the University of Reading while based in the nearby village of Dunsden. Each inspired by a work in this memorial volume, the artists offer their unique responses for this celebratory gathering of Owen’s most famous war poems, published on 4 November 2018, the 100th anniversary of the poet’s death on the Western Front at the Sambre-Oise Canal just one week before the Armistice.
ADMISSION FREE
Further information: p.robinson@reading.ac.uk
Congratulations to Duncan Mackay; his years of active participation in the conservation of our natural heritage is at the core of his successful run for Council of the National Trust.
You may be familiar with one of the many books Duncan has written but if you want to know a little more about him, here is his election statement.
I am a believer in the vision that Octavia Hill, Canon Rawnsley and Robert Hunter created and I have the energy to want to make it live in the landscapes of today, especially in the urban and urban fringe ‘Green Belt’ roots of the Trust’s founders.
My father taught me to read maps, examine vernacular buildings and identify birds, plants and animals. Every autumn we would pick bilberries at Brimham Rocks to make pies and climb Roseberry Topping to lose the calories gained. I now recognise this was a precious gift of learning that few children experience. The opportunity to allow children to explore nature on their doorstep seems to be an essential stage of growing up that needs greater encouragement. As a teenager, I was lucky to have classmates like Alan Hinkes, who later climbed every 8,000 metre peak in the world, to explore Yorkshire with.
I studied geology and geography at Newcastle University.I am curious about everything. I see beauty in small things and the potentiality for any place to be better and filled with nature. I am the author of six non-fiction books and particularly proud of my latest, Whispers of Better Things, a detailed study of Octavia Hill’s remarkable family and how they helped co-create the idea for the National Trust. I won the Henry Ford European Conservation Award for Heritage in 1996 and an Unlimited Millennium Award to explore the longest straight line in Britain on a folding bicycle in 2001. I am on the Canal and River Trust’s Environmental Advisory Panel and planning to help it create ‘Low Speed 2’, England’s first inter-city route for canoeing, cycling and walking between Birmingham and London on the route of the Grand Union Canal. I am a past Commodore of Henley Sailing Club.
As Deputy Secretary of the Commons, Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation Society I acquired knowledge of the Trust’s founders and carried their spirit into twentieth century conservation. During 1987-90 with the Countryside Commission, I dedicated the Thames Path, reorganised the Ridgeway and funded land acquisitions for Hughenden.
At Berkshire County Council I managed forestry, archaeology, listed buildings, landscape, PROW, environmental awards and ecology teams and helped transfer the Ankerwycke Estate.
In the Babtie Group I was seconded as Director of the Countryside Agency’s South East region. I worked with the Trust’s managers and lobbied Ministers with Fiona Reynolds to create Scotney Castle’s land bridge. Since 2007 I have had a number of policy roles with Natural England and now lead on Urban and peri-urban environments working to action the government’s 25 year plan for the environment and its opportunities for Green Belt enhancements as ‘breathing spaces’.
I have been a member of the National Trust for several decades (except where potential perceived conflict of interest existed) and I have volunteered at Attingham Park.
The Trust’s founders have inspired me throughout my conservation career. I love the open space freedom that Trust land offers and I want to create the opportunity to give something back as a voluntary non-executive.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Saturday 27 October 2018 at 2.30pm. Doors open at 2pm.
St James’s RC Church, Forbury Road, RG1 3HW.
The AGM will be followed by an illustrated talk on
MAGIC, MEDICINE AND MIRACLES IN THE MEDIEVAL ABBEY
by Professor Anne Lawrence-Mathers FRHS, FSA, SFHEA
Professor of Medieval History, University of Reading
Life in a great medieval abbey, such as Reading, involved frequent encounters with the supernatural. The miracles performed by the Hand of St James mention not only stones with healing powers, but also a terrifying encounter with a walking corpse. Works on medicine frequently refer to plants with the power to repel terrifying creatures and even demons, while bestiaries explain how birds and animals can be used to predict coming events. This lecture will explore the special relationship between monks and the supernatural, using examples from Reading and other English abbeys.
Anne Lawrence-Mathers is the Head of the History Department at the University of Reading, and has published on subjects including: monastic manuscripts from northern England; the figure of Merlin in medieval chronicles; and the role of magic in medieval society. Most recently she has been researching on medieval weather forecasters.
ALL WELCOME – ENTRY IS FREE
St James’s Church is a short walk from Reading Station and most central bus
stops. Car park at Queens Road.
Join our sewing volunteers to find out more about embroidery, and learn how to embroider images from the Bayeux Tapestry. Watch our volunteers or buy a kit to have a go yourself! Find out more here.
For whom: Ages 5+, Families
When: drop in between 10.30am and 12pm
Cost: Free to observe, buy a small kit to try out (£2 per kit)
Where: Reading Museum & Town Hall, Town Hall, Blagrave Street, Reading, RG1 1QH
Click here for more about Reading’s Bayeux Tapestry and the Bayeux Gallery.
Buy Reading’s Bayeux Tapestry here.
Join us for the launch of Jean Watkins new collection Precarious Lives.
Poets John Froy, Sue Leigh and Kate Behrens will read from their new collections Sandpaper & Seahorses, Chosen Hill and Penumbra respectively. And to fill out the afternoon of poetry, Peter Robinson, the Two Rivers Press poetry editor, will read from the two other 2018 collections: Handling by Jack Thacker and Nominy-Dominy Lesley Saunders.
Click on the covers to see more about each respective collection and to purchase your copies.
When: 12pm – 2pm, Sunday, 18 November 2018
Where: Library of Great Expectations, 33 London St, Reading RG1 4PS
Please join us for a Wilfred Owen Day at All Saints Church, Dunsden, on Sat 10 November, 2.30-5pm in collaboration with the Dunsden Owen Association.
At 3.30pm there will be a talk on Owen’s work and its influences from Jane Potter, poetry readings, music and afternoon tea as well as opportunities to meet some of the artists. The book will be available to buy and there is also a self- guided walk around the village (with trail leaflet or smartphone app) that could be undertaken in the morning, and a chance to see the graves of Owen’s parents and sister in the churchyard.
All welcome: Free entry
5th OCTOBER 2018. 7.30 PM
Poets Robin Thomas, John Froy, Elizabeth Crowdy, Kate Pursglove, Kate Behrens, Ian Florance reading poetry in a warm, welcoming atmosphere.
HOT GOSSIP COFFEE HOUSE, 7 FRIDAY STREET,
HENLEY-ON–THAMES
Tickets £3.00 on the door. Ring Ian Florance on
07966 509390 for more information.
There’s another chance to contribute to the new Reading ‘tapestry’ on Monday 1st October at Jelly – part of Older People’s Day Oct 1st : Unit 53, Broad Street Mall, Reading RG1 7QE.
This is your chance to see some of the original paintings from Christina Hart-Davies’, The Greenwood Tree, in an exhibition called ‘Treesome: 3 artists celebrating trees‘ at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens from:
28th September – 7 October, open daily from 10am – 5pm.
Entry to the exhibition is free.
As part of this 2nd festival celebrating Reading’s river heritage, we are working with Reading Tree Wardens and Geoff Sawers (the artist for our award winning Shady Side of Town) on two guided walks, ‘From Town to Boundary‘, taking place at 10.30am and 2pm on Saturday 15th September, starting at Caversham pedestrian bridge.
Explore Reading’s history, famous people, industries, trees and nature with local historians and Two Rivers Press poets.
The events are free but we are keeping numbers to 40 max and the afternoon event is nearly booked up. To book your place (best to aim for the morning one), please email Anna at rtwn2011@gmail.com. She will send you confirmation of your place which you will need to produce on arrival at the start.
Waterstones, Broad Street is hosting a double bill celebrating Reading’s heritage in the form of the Bayeux Tapestry replica and the Abbey. With talks from John Painter (author of ‘Reading Abbey and the Abbey Quarter) and Ben Bishop (Reading Museum guide), and opportunities to ask questions and buy books, you are sure to leave knowing more about your town than when you arrived!
Join us for at Waterstones, 89 Broad St, Reading RG1 2AP, UK for the launch of two books about Reading’s cultural heritage.
Time: 7.30pm Friday 14th Sept. The event is free but booking is required. Call: 0118 9581270 or email reading@waterstones.com.
ooOoo
In collaboration with RG Spaces (where you can find information about parking and accessibility) we’ve an exhibition about Edith Morley, England’s first female professor, in the old Senior Common Room of the University, ‘Acacias’.
Visit the listed building; have a go at some lawn games; learn about this extraordinary woman: suffragist, pioneering academic and supporter of refugees; and stroll through the cloisters to the café.
Opening times are 12-6pm Sat & Sun 8&9, 15&16 Sept.
Reading Waterstones occupies the old ‘Broad Street Chapel’, a building with a fascinating history. Join Geoff Sawers to take a short half hour tour of the building. The event is free but booking is necessary as places are limited to 10 per tour. Tickets can be obtained in the bookshop or via phone or email
Call: 0118 9581270 or email reading@waterstones.com.
Tours are at 12pm and 2pm on Saturday 8th September.
See Becci perform ‘Kraken: A Story Backwards’, drawn from the book, at the Reading Fringe.
Price: £8 / £6
Age suitability: 10+
Tagline: Here, there be monsters…
Run time: 25 mins
Dates and venue information, and tickets, here.
Reading Fringe 2018 24th July to 29th July.
Folllow Becci Louise on Twitter @BecciFearnley
The University of Reading’s Department of English Literature, the Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre, and the International Poetry Studies Institute, University of Canberra, invite you to:
Contemporary Lyric
Absent Presences, the Secret & the Unsayable
A participatory symposium for practitioners and interested parties
When: Tuesday 26 June 2018, 9:30 am-5 pm (registration from 9.00-30) including a poetry reading
Venue: The Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire
The event is free but places are limited. To confirm attendance, please e-mail: p.robinson@reading.ac.uk
Programme:
9–9.30am: Registration and coffee
9.30–11: Present absences & absent presences (chair: Steven Matthews; panelists Conor Carville, Paul Hetherington, Lesley Saunders)
In his ‘Preface to Lyrical Ballads’ Wordsworth suggested that poets were particularly susceptible to the presence of things absent, which might then entail their capacity for creative detachment and absence from present circumstances too. In this session we will explore such paradoxes at the heart of lyric poetry’s powers and predicaments.
11–12.30: Keeping a secret by saying you’ve got one (chair: Niall Munro; panelists Paul Munden, Jack Thacker, Jen Webb)
Speculating about Shakespeare’s tactics in trying to make Hamlet work on stage, William Empson suggested that the thing was for the main character to keep a secret by saying he’s got one. Is this not exactly what modern and contemporary lyric poets have done to invite a sustained and returning attention to their work?
12.30-1: Lunch
1–2.30: Ambiguous, ambivalent, and open utterance (chair: Conor Carville; panelists: Susie Campbell, Kate Coles, Sarah Hesketh)
Though the last century of Anglophone poetry in all its varieties has, for the most part, not had to survive under the kinds of oppressive regime that would require a political verse written in code, it has nevertheless tended to be oblique in utterance and cryptically significant. In this session we will look at the how and why of such seemingly ubiquitous strategies, and at reasons for counter-trends to write ‘in clear’.
2.30–4: Showing the Unsayable (chair: Steven Matthews; panelists: Cassandra Atherton, Isabel Galleymore, Natalie Pollard)
‘Show don’t tell’, as they say in creative writing classes, but does that mean we should show what we would otherwise be able to tell, but think it’s a better poetic strategy not to do so, or are we to show, or try to show, what we can’t otherwise put into words? Such a question goes to the heart of issues concerning poetry’s contribution to a language and its cultures.
4-5: Refreshment and Poetry Reading
Claire Dyer hosts with readings from visiting poets
The contributors include:
Cassandra Atherton (writer, academic and critic, IPSI)
Conor Carville (poet and academic, University of Reading)
Susie Campbell
Kate Coles
Claire Dyer (poet and novelist, convenor of the Poets’ Café, Reading)
Isabel Galleymore (poet and academic, University of Birmingham)
Sarah Hesketh
Paul Hetherington (poet, editor and Head of the International Poetry Studies Institute (IPSI) at the University of Canberra)
Steven Matthews (poet and academic, University of Reading)
Paul Munden (Director of NAWE, the National Association of Writers in Education and poet, IPSI
Niall Munro (Director, Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre)
Natalie Pollard (literary critic and academic, University of Exeter)
Lesley Saunders (poet and classicist)
Jack Thacker (poet and research student, University of Bristol)
Jen Webb (poet, Distinguished Professor and Director, Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra and IPSI)
Looking for something to do in July?
Open For Art, Reading – A Festival of Art, Monday 2 July – Sunday 8 July.
We, Two Rivers Press, are involved in the Artline Market on Broad Street on Sunday 8th July, and in the embroidery workshop at Nisby’s on Fri 6th July.
You can download a map of the events and venues here: Open for Art 2018 Map
This fifth year of Open for Art is particularly special. Jelly is 25 years old, and as in previous years, curates this event. Join us on walks and talks. Participate in events and workshops. Be sure to book ahead where necessary. We really look forward to welcoming you. The Open for Art Festival is curated by Jelly
Find out more here.
In celebration of a new book on Reading’s famous Bayeux Tapestry, Kate Powell will be creating an embroidered panel, starting at Open for Art.
Join in and add to this contemporary reworking. FREE but pre-booking essential here.
The panel will grow over the year, culminating in December. This is a partnership of Jelly, Two Rivers Press and Reading Museum.
Visual arts street market showcasing the work of 50 artists local to the Reading area. All of the works will be for sale, and you can buy direct from the artists. Presented by Reading Business Improvement District in partnership with Open for Art.
For more information on artists taking part, visit http://jelly.org.uk/2018/06/artline-2018/
Join us to celebrate the launch of a new collection by poet and farmer’s son, Jack Thacker. This exciting volume has been produced in partnership MERL, the Museum of English Rural Life. The words within are inspired directly by Jack’s personal experiences and by collections that he encountered during the course of his time as poet-in-residence here at The MERL.
The evening will feature readings by Jack and by other local poets. There will also be a chance to delve behind the scenes to encounter a pop-up display of objects that formed inspiration behind some of this poetry.
When: Weds 25th July, 5.30-7.30pm
Where: Museum of English Rural Life in Reading
Cost: Free but booking is essential. Please email Barbara at tworiverspress@gmail.com or phone her on 0118 987 1452.
Program:
Welcome – Kate Arnold Forster, Director of MERL
Readings from ‘Handling’ by Jack Thacker
Short interlude
An introduction to Two Rivers Press Poetry – Peter Robinson, TRP Poetry Editor
Readings from Kate Behrens, Claire Dyer, Adrian Blamires and Ian House
Refreshments will be served and the objects that inspired the poets will be on display with opportunities to talk to the Curator about them.
And of course, Jack’s book will be available for sale and signing, as will Kate’s, Claire’s and Ian’s.
The Two Rivers poet Adrian Blamires will be reading at the Sandham Memorial Chapel in Burghclere (near Newbury) this Saturday. He joins the painter Robert Fitzmaurice to consider the themes of Fitzmaurice’s exhibition SOLDIER, currently on display at the venue. The reading will take place in the chapel itself which houses Stanley Spencer’s extraordinary cycle of paintings based on his experiences as a First World War medical orderly.
As well as reading some of his own poems, Adrian will read from the Two Rivers Press anthologies Stanley Spencer Poems and The Arts of Peace.
DATE & TIME: Saturday 16th June, 3pm to 5pm
LOCATION: The Chapel, Sandham Memorial Chapel, Harts Lane, Burghclere, Hampshire, RG20 9JT
ENTRY: Free entry for arrival between 3.00 – 3.30pm
The event starts at 3pm. Guests will have the opportunity to view Robert Fitzmaurice’s exhibition and the Stanley Spencer paintings before the reading and talk starts at 3.30pm. Afterwards there will be a chance to talk informally with the artists, to return to the exhibition and to explore other displays at this inspiring National Trust venue.
Further information at https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sandham-memorial-chapel
To purchase these collections, click on the covers or the above title links above.
Explore poetry in translation. Make a trip into beautiful Oxford in early June and join in all the free events of Oxford Translation Day.
Two Rivers Press poet, Jane Draycott will be reading from Storms Under the Skin in a *Modern Poetry in Translation *event at Oxford Translation Day on June 9th, 3:30 pm.
Tickets are free, but registration is required. Register here.
On June 8th and 9th, St Anne’s College will be running Oxford Translation Day, a celebration of literary translation consisting of workshops and talks throughout both days at St Anne’s and around the city, culminating in the award of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
Oxford Translation Day is a joint venture of the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize and Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (the research centre housed in St Anne’s and the Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities), in partnership with Modern Poetry in Translation.
All events are free and open to anyone, but registration is required. For a full list of events and to register for them follow the links on the Oxford Translation Day here.
As part of the Whiteknights Studio Trail, Two Rivers Press poet, John Froy, is doing a reading from his most recent collection Sandpaper & Seahorses.
When: Sunday, 10 June at 2.30pm
Where: Two Rivers Press, 24 New Road RG1 5JD (venue 15 on the map)
Cost: Free. All are welcome!
36 individual artists, a Fine Art degree show and 22 venues make up this year’s Whiteknights Studio Trail. Now in its 18 year this is where to see some wonderful glass, hand-made furniture, jewellery, photography, ceramics, printing, painting and drawing and so much more.
As usual, all venues will be open between 11am and 6pm on two consecutive days, Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 June.
Download a map-brochure of the event here.
“Octopus Medicine is not a traditional poetry collection; it is three verse-stories about the octopus, interpolated by illustrations, facts, figures and instructions to the reader. It is doing something new. And it is doing it remarkably well.”
So begins Aoife Lyall’s review of Becci Louise’s innovative “collection”. Read the whole review here.
Buy your copy of Octopus Medicine here.
See Becci perform ‘Kraken: A Story Backwards’, drawn from the book, at the Reading Fringe. Get your tickets here. (Reading Fringe 2018 24th to 29th July).
Duncan Mackay, author of Whisper of Better Things: Green Belts to National Trust – How the Hill family changed our world, will address those attending a special event commemorating Octavia Hill and her charitable good deeds on 2 June 2018. “The event is hosted by Bankside Open Spaces Trust, together with the Army Cadet Force and Octavia Hill Society,” says Duncan. “It will be a full day, with a special service at at Southwark Cathedral, followed by another small ceremony at the Red Cross Gardens. There will be an Army Cadet Flag Parade, planting an Octavia Hill rose and serving some light refreshments of tea and cake. It is an honor to be asked to participate.”
Get a copy of Duncan’s book about the Hill family, here.
Highwire Act presents “Lolita Paints Her Toenails Three Women on Gender; Its Complexity, Perplexity and its Poetry”
Thursday, 26 July 2018 at 7:30 – 8:30pm
Comedy Cave – Broad Street Mall
Tickets £8; Concessions £7 (purchase tickets here)
Claire Dyer, Lesley Saunders and Susan Uttig in conversation on themes and issues that preoccupy them. And preoccupied they are!
Reading Fringe Festival
24-28 July 2018
www.readingfringefestival.co.uk
If you missed Sue’s reading on 3 May, 2018, this is your chance to catch her and Paul Deaton! Join us for a poetry reading on Monday 21 May, 2018 at 6pm at:
Pembroke College
(The Mary Hyde Eccles Room)
St Aldates
Oxford OX1 1DW
For directions see map here.
Get your copy of Chosen Hill here.
Explore other poetry offerings from Two Rivers Press here.
The Greenwood Trees: History, Folklore and Virtues of Britain’s Trees by
Christina Hart-Davies (author, artist)
You are invited to a poetry reading! Sue Leigh will be reading from her new collection Chosen Hill. Join us, Thursday 3 May, 2018 from 6.30pm-8pm at
Jaffe and Neale
1 Middle Row
Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire OX7 5NH
See a map here.
Get your copy of Chosen Hill here.
Explore other poetry offerings from Two Rivers Press here.
It all started with Martin Andrews, when he invited me [Lesley Saunders] a few years ago to contribute a poem to his fascinating book Fox Talbot & the Reading Establishment (Two Rivers Press, 2014). I chose to write about a photograph taken in 1844 by Henry Fox Talbot that appears in the book – it’s a portrait of a man in a pose of sleep:
‘In those very early days of photography when subjects had to stay still for so long, a conveniently sleeping subject was perfect for a sharp print.’
The man in question was Nicolaas Henneman who – as Martin’s book recounts – was initially Fox Talbot’s valet and later became his photographic assistant; subsequently, with Fox Talbot’s help, Henneman set up his own photographic establishment in Reading.
As it happens I was already interested in early photographic experiments – we live in Herschel Street in Slough, named for the Herschel family, including John Herschel who first developed the process of cyanotype or blue-print. I love the delicacy and tonal subtlety of those early prints or ‘photograms’ done on salted paper to make what Fox Talbot called ‘photogenic drawings’. I find their inherent instability and transience very moving. And there’s a stillness in them, too – stilled lives, as it were… The image of ‘Nicolaas Henneman Asleep’ embodies all these qualities.
Then, last year, I was contacted by Piet Gooijer, who – with his colleagues in Heemskerk – was putting together an exhibition to commemorate the life and work of Henneman, who was born and raised in the town. They invited me to come and read my poem at the opening of the exhibition on Saturday 21 April! It seemed such a delightful thing to do, so Malcolm and I made the trip by Eurostar to Amsterdam. and then on to Heemskerk, where we were most warmly greeted by everyone.
One of the exhibition panels
A newspaper cutting (in Dutch), (24 April 2018) – ‘kippenvel’ means ‘goose-bumps’ (in a good way)!
Henneman did not have any direct descendants, but the extended family was a large one, and many of his present relatives attended – including his great-great-nephew, Jan Jacob Henneman, now in his tenth decade. The exhibition, and accompanying catalogue, have been meticulously researched and beautifully presented in the grand foyer of the town hall – including, in one of the glass cabinets, a copy of Martin’s book. There were lively speeches to a sizeable audience, and afterwards plentiful wine and a general sense of something very worthwhile having been accomplished.
a photo of Piet Gooijers and Lesley Saunders on the ‘Nicolaas Henneman Path’ in Heemskerk
Piet and his three colleagues, who have formed the Genootschap ‘t Hofland to celebrate local history and culture, have recently succeeded in having a small lane in the town named for Nicolaas Henneman – it’s the path Henneman used to walk between his home and school and the church. When we strolled along it, the spring blossom was still bright.
Lesley Saunders, 24 April 2018
We were thrilled to learn that Becci Louise, whose Octopus Medicine was published by Two Rivers Press last year, made the shortlist for the page poetry category of the 2018 Out-Spoken Poetry Prize with her poem “Her Father’s Roses”. There were over 500 entries, so this is a fantastic achievement!
Becci Louise writes:
My shortlisted poem, ‘Her Father’s Roses’, is about my grandmother who, when still a young woman and unmarried, was followed home after a dance one night, by a drunk man who, when he failed to catch up with her, tore up the roses in the front garden in his frustration. Although my Nan laughs about this incident now, and finds it particularly funny that her father blamed next door’s cat and threw a bucket of water over the poor creature, I wanted to write about an incident that women of every generation, including my own, can relate to, and which is only just becoming something that is spoken about and shared with the men in our lives, who often have little idea of what it means to walk through the world as woman and to face these kind of threats in everyday life. My poem, along with all the other exceptional pieces, can be found here.
Buy your copy of Octopus Medicine here.
Explore other poetry offerings from Two Rivers Press here.
Storms Under the Skin by Henri Michaux and translated by Jane Draycott is book of the week on Culturethèque’s blog! They write:
Not sure yet? Read this beautiful extract translated by wonderful Jane Draycott: it was difficult to choose…
“Dragon”
[…]
It was because things were going so badly.
September ’38, a Tuesday. All things compelled me
To take this strangest of forms for the sake of my life.
In this way I took up the fight for myself
while Europe still hesitated: I set forth as a dragon
against the forces of evil, against the panoply
of endless paralysis in the face of events, against
the ocean-voice of mediocrity who sudden, vast
significance has once more dizzyingly been unmasked.
Buy a copy of the book her.
We are delighted that a project we were involved in, Lilies for Oscar Wilde, has been nominated in the ‘partnership of the year’ category for one of the Reading Cultural Awards 2018. The more nominations we collect, the more chance we have of being shortlisted and there is a short form to fill out here (http://readingplaceofculture.org/awards/) if you feel inclined. As well as the intrinsic value in over 70 different artists from all over Reading working together on a single project, a sale of the lilies raised £1,189 for local homeless charity, LaunchPad.
Get a copy of Oscar Wilde’s Ballad of Reading Gaol or some other Two Rivers Press book about Reading here.
Interest in the Belgian-born poet, Henri Michaux, seems to be at a high this spring. There are several new translations of Michaux’s works available.
Poet and artist Henri Michaux (1899-1984) was one of the most original and influential figures of twentieth century French poetry, hailed by Allen Ginsberg as ‘master’ and ‘genius’ and by Borges as ‘without equal in the literature of our time’. In his vividly strange narratives Michaux creates a dream-like, mercurial world of wry invention unlike any other, idiosyncratic, resistant and philosophical. Often dramatic and incantatory in his poetics, he was also an extremely private person, shunning publicity, writing as he put it for all those ‘suffering from their imaginations.’
In Storms under the Skin Jane Draycott translates poems and prose-poems from Michaux’s volumes 1927-54, including extracts from his best-loved creations Plume and the haunting realm of Les Emanglons, alongside poems written on the eve of war in Europe and during the Occupation.
If you are interested in a more academic work and the complete translation of Michaux’s Plume you might try A Certain Plume by Henri Michaux and translated by Richard Sieburth, due out in May, 2018.
Two Rivers Press poet, Lesley Saunders in involved in an interesting project with Philip Gross in which they co-wrote the poems by responding to each other’s writing, a bit like a game of tennis, or badminton, or chess!
Lesley and Philip were on BBC Radio 3’s “The Verb” on 23 February 2018. If you missed programme, you can be listened to via to the podcast (with extra poems!) here. The segment with these poets starts at 31 minutes in.
The poets Philip Gross and Lesley Saunders started an email exchange that eventually became the poetic dialogue ‘A Part of the Main’. They tell Ian how note-taking, particularly over email, informed the collaborative writing process and helped them to the finished product, a poem where often they aren’t sure who wrote what line. A Part Of The Main’ will be published later this year.
A Coming of Age: Celebrating 18 Years of Botanical Painting by The Eden Project Florilegium Society by
Ros Franklin (author)
Join acclaimed poets and teachers Adrian Blamires and Lesley Saunders to explore the lasting influence of Oscar Wilde, playwright, story-teller and victim of prejudice. Be inspired by contemporary artists’ responses to aspects of his life and work, take part in some semi-structured exercises to develop your own thoughts and ideas, and read some of Wilde’s poetry, stories and essays before composing one of your own. Bring something to write on and with. (for Adults 16+).
Where: Reading Museum
When: 10.30am – 3.30pm, Saturday, January 20 2018
Fee: £25
For further information and to book email elaine.blake@reading.gov.uk
For more information the The Critic as Artist events, visit here.
Join us for a special evening with Steven Matthews and Fiona Sampson, where they will be discussing their latest publications, and exploring poetry, place in history and the natural world.
When: Tuesday, 28 November 2017
Where: Blackwell’s Bookshop Oxford, 48-51 Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BQ
Steven Matthews will be reading from his collection ‘On Magnetism‘, featuring poems about loss and remembrance, about the relation of the Renaissance and the Classical worlds to our own, about locales within lives. These are poems about sounding the world, and about measuring our responses to it through its various musics. Steven will also be discussing his prose book reflecting upon Wordsworth, ‘Ceaseless Music’.
Fiona Sampson will be reading from ‘The Catch’, a collection that transforms the sensory world into an astonishingly new and vivid poetry. Here, dream and myth, creatures real and imagined, and the sights and sounds of ‘distance and of home’ all coalesce in a sustained meditation on time and belonging. Fiona will also be exploring her prose work ‘Limestone Country’, a love letter to landscape and geology.
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From PBS Bulletin Autumn 2017:
Jane Draycott’s beautiful translations of “Pearl” are well known to us. Here, in “Storms Under the Skin,” she exercises a precision of touch that brings Michaux to life as a substantial presence that hovers brilliantly before us, offering its version of the way things work. Michaux is too important a poet to be kept waiting outside. This generous selection brings him into the house of major European poets – George Szirtes
To purchase a copy of “Storms Under the Skin” click here.
The Poetry Book Society Autumn Bulletin for 2017 features writing from Autumn Choice poet Pascale Petit regarding Mama Amazonica, as well as pieces from Recommended poets Tara Bergin, Douglas Dunn, Frank Ormsby and Michael Symmons Roberts. These are accompanied by comments from the selectors and numerous extracts from their works. The selectors also provide pieces on the Recommended Translation Storms Under the Skin by Henri Michaux, the Special Commendation Selected Poems by Thom Gunn, and the Pamphlet Choice Mr Universe by Rich Goodson. Seventeen short reviews of poetry books for summerreading complete the publication, along with a catalogue of works available for purchase by members at a discounted price.
To buy your copy click here.
There is a gorgeous review of Octopus Medicine by Aoife Lyall in The Interpreter’s House, issue 66. She writesØ:
“Octopus medicine is not a traditional poetry collection; it is three verse-stories about the octopus, interpolated by illustrations, facts, figures and instructions to the reader. It is doing something new. And it is doing it remarkably well….
…These verse-stories may be read alone but they also need to be read aloud, animated, orchestrated, painted, performed, and recorded. They are enthralling, dynamic and utterly captivating.”
Get yourself a copy of both the review and Becci Louise’s Octopus Medicine: the story of an octopus who dreams of stars, a self-important fisherman who gets what’s coming to him, and a misunderstood monster. Octopus Medicine is an invitation to adventure for misfits, outsiders, the lonely. These three verse stories call us down into an octopus world where days are dark, everything’s out to eat you, and nothing’s what it seems. Written for young and old alike, this is a collection for reading at bedtime, acting out on playgrounds, for sharing with grandparents. In its mysterious way, the octopus has much to teach us all.
Two Rivers Press author, Duncan Mackay, says “Tonight I am at Durham Cathedral with Professor Christian Liddy of Durham University to present a paper called New Commons for new times: whispers of better things. This will be followed by a public debate chaired by BBC North East’s political editor. I am weaving much of the history in Whispers into the speech and offering a plug for the book. The debate is focussed on the 800th anniversary of the 1217 Charta de Foresta the companion to Magna Carta.
If you are in the area drop in to Durham Cathedral.
Come join us! We are launching, Octopus Medicine, the story of an Octopus who dreams of stars, a self-important fisherman who gets what’s coming to him, and a misunderstood monster!
Where: The Castle Tap, 120 Castle St, Reading RG1 7RJ
When: Thursday, 26 October 2017; 3-6pm
Drop in any time during the launch. There will be refreshments, origami, readings and a chance to chat to Becci Louise.
Children 9+ and over are very, very welcome
Buy your copy of Octopus Medicine.
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“Oh, I have such a treat for you! This stunning poem is from Claire Dyer’s deliciously multidimensional collection, Interference Effects…”. So begins Louisa Campbell’s post Signpost Sixteen, “What Lies Within,” Claire Dyer (Oct 19, 2017).
Louisa then goes on to say the loveliest things….
“A bit of insider info. for you, too: Claire Dyer’s the sort of person who shares her chips with you, makes sure you have a seat in a crowded room and introduces you to everybody. She also has wonderful hair with happy curls. Call me a weirdo, but I think generosity of nature and sparkle of smile beneath happy hair are the sort of things that leak into a person’s writing. Do buy the collection!
I had the pleasure of meeting Claire at the South Downs Poetry Festival, where she facilitated a workshop on first and last lines. I’ve just dug out my notes from her workshop and I’ve written:
“First – shocked lulled find something of yourself
Last – surprise, but also make you want to read it again”
Let’s have a look at the poem and see if Claire’s followed her own advice (!). Here it is, reproduced with her kind permission:
What Lies Within
Like when you’re outside and the lights are on
inside churches and whatever faith there is
is fidgeting under the transept window
and you’re back with Nan, slipping fifty pence
into the collection box, fanning
the gilt-edged pages of your hymn book;
or when café chairs are stacked
and striped by sunlight behind the railings
of Pizza Express before it opens
and moorhens are splitting the blue water
of a river nearby and a waiter lights up
his first cigarette of the day;
or when there’s a row of shaving mirrors
at the barber’s, each tilted to an angle
a few degrees different from its neighbour
so there’s always another view of the sky,
another view of a woman smiling at something
the someone she’s walking with said;
or when, stepping from a taxi, you see
the fizz-torn dazzle of a streetlamp
in the buttery yellow of a pavement after rain
and girls’ heels chatter as umbrellas
are folded away and a maraschino cherry
gets dropped into a cocktail glass;
or when you dip your hand into a pond
at Kew and the koi flick and
tremble and whittle your fingers
with their cheese-grater teeth and you stare
and stare into the back of their eyes
looking for what lies within.
(See? I said it was a treat, didn’t I?)
The first line is clever, starting with “Like when” as if you’re in the middle of a conversation with the poet – it draws you in. The last line is stunning, suggesting the dimension of the soul and – yes – it makes you want to go back and read the poem again. When you do, you see the soul is in the city, as well as in the carp, and how cool is that?”
Some photos taken at the launch of the Lilies for Oscar Wilde display.
Many thanks to Haslams for hosting the launch, to Malmaison for wonderful food and Cllr Sarah Hacker. And of course, a rousing applause to all the artists who made flowers and to Marc Allridge from Cherubs for the amazing staging.
You can follow on FB and twitter: LiliesforOscarWilde
Here is a link to the LiliesforOscarWilde blog. http://liliesforoscarwilde.blogspot.co.uk/
Reading Museum in collaboration with Jelly, Reading Guild of Artists (RGA), Two Rivers Press, Whiteknight’s Trail, and many independent artists and ‘makers’ celebrate the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde by commemorating his birthday on Monday 16 October.
Local Reading artists and ‘makers’ joined forces to create some stunning lilies – using a range of materials, from ceramics to fabric, paper and plastic, found objects and recycled ones, to create a unique ‘bouquet’, designed and staged by award winning florist Marc Allridge.
The flowers will be debuting at Haslams, Friar Street, Reading on Monday 16 October.
For a peek at some of the lilies click here.
This is a memoir by the first female professor in the UK, Edith Morley, Professor of English Language at the University of Reading. It’s an essential read for anyone exploring the history of women’s higher education in Britain, and for those keen on reliving the struggles of women to make headway in a profession that really wasn’t sure they ought to be there….
Rescued from the archives by Barbara Morris, this memoir was rejected by the first publisher Morley sent it to, in 1944 — probably because of the wartime restrictions on paper, ostensibly because Allen and Unwin told her that ‘those who don’t remember these things will have read of them often enough in novels of the period’. How fascinating to find that in the 1940s fiction was considered to be an adequate repository for women’s history. The memoir found its way to the university archive with the rest of Morley’s papers. Although she had clearly gone over the manuscript once or twice, annotating and clarifying here and there, she doesn’t seem to have made any other attempts to publish it. She died in 1964. The main building for the Humanities subjects at the university is now named after her.
So begins Kate MacDonald’s review of Edith Morley Before and After: Reminiscences of a Working Life. Read the complete review here. Buy your copy of the book here.
Four paintings by Two Rivers Press author / illustrator Christina Hart-Davies (including two illustrations from A Wild Plant Year) will be included in a major exhibition of botanical art in London.
Changing Seasons, the annual open exhibition of the prestigious Society of Botanical Artists, runs at Central Hall Westminster 13 – 21 October 2017.
If you are in the area and enjoy superb botanical artwork in a variety of styles and media, it is well worth a visit!
Two Rivers Press poet, Jean Watkins, is profiled in South 56 October 2017. 16 of her poems, a mini-collection, appear: Before, Severing, Rackham, Ribston Pippin, Wasps, Honeysuckle Sides, The Dragon Lands, Marvel, Making Space for Water*, Our Dream, Ghostly, Boatbuilder, Turning, Visiting Londinium, Scrimshaw, Meeting Her Eyes, Brute.
To get your copy of South 56, contact http://www.southpoetry.org/ or purchase Jean’s collection Scrimshaw, here.
SOUTH
is an independent poetry magazine, published twice yearly, which is run by a small team who give their time for the pleasure that gives them. It does not have or seek financial
support from any organisation or institution other than by the sale of subscriptions. It is grateful for the support of those who generously take out Foundation Membership or pay ordinary subscriptions. Further income is derived from the sale of individual copies of the magazine, especially at its half yearly readings.
Subscriptions
Foundation members
One year (two issues) £20.00
Two years (four issues) £36.00
Ordinary subscribers
One year (two issues) £12.00
Two years (four issues) £22.00
Single copies
Current issue, by hand £6.00
Current issue, by post £7.0o
© Anna Iwaschkin
Geoff Sawers’ riverside walks at the weekend, Sept 17-18, 2017, were hugely well attended. Very well done indeed! A little bird suggested the numbers were about 20 walkers on Saturday and about 50 on Sunday.
Two Rivers press is delighted to have been involved with this activity and with the inaugural Reading on Thames festival.
Picture Palace to Penny Plunge: Reading’s Cinemas will launch with a short film and refreshments at the
Where: Minghella Studios, University of Reading, Whiteknights, RG6 6BT.
When: Weds 27th Sept, 7.45 – 9.30pm
The event is free but please email tworiverspress@gmail.com to book as spaces are limited.
Celebrate the launch of David Cliffe’s new book with a short talk by the author and an opportunity to watch archive footage taken in and around Reading in the early part of the 20th century. Excerpts include an advertising film about Huntley and Palmers biscuits, a film about a Second World War youth camp at Sonning Common, footage of a royal visit to Reading in the 1950s, a documentary about children’s health services about the same time, and pictures of Reading trams and trolleybuses and the widening of Station Hill in the 1930s. Also, possibly, an excerpt from The Thirty-nine steps which is said to have been filmed in Reading’s ‘Palace’ theatre.
Twenty different cinemas have graced Reading’s streets over the years, many long forgotten and some of the earliest very short-lived. In his book, David Cliffe tells the story of the era of the single-screen cinema in Reading, from the traveling shows at the turn of the 20th century, its heyday with the Vaudeville Electric Theatre in the 20s, through to today’s multiscreen entertainment ‘villages’.
David’s knowledge of the social history of Reading is extensive and there will be a chance to chat to the author afterwards, purchase books and have them signed.
David will also be signing his book and available to talk about it alongside a small exhibition of photographs at the Heritage Open Day events at Waterstones, Broad Street, Reading on Saturday 9th September at 12-1pm.
Picture Palace to Penny Plunge is published by Two Rivers Press in collaboration with the History of Reading Society.
How does poet Susan Utting feel about the most recent review of her collection, Half the Human Race? “Thrilled,” says Susan. Ruth Sharman’s marvellous and comprehensive review for The High Window can be read at Reviews for Autumn 2017.
“There is a quiet feminism at work here, celebrating that female characteristic of ‘managing small things’, the ability to make do, to ‘thrive on other people’s leftovers’, to be so much more than the product of men’s imaginings, ‘sweethearts, dolls… posable, blow-up generous… nice arse, a lovely pair’, as ‘Half the Human Race’ concludes, with an abruptness that emphasises how much more there is to be said: ‘…Say we’re all / of this and none of it and more, and this / is nothing like the end of it. Say’”
“Susan Utting’s new collection includes some forty new poems plus a selection from her three earlier books. There is so much here to enjoy…a collection whose generosity – eighty poems in total – is matched by the breadth and richness of the poet’s vision and by the sheer exuberance of her language.”
Becci Louise will be reading on Thames Festival as part of the #RiverCity conversations: Sat 16 Sept for a talk on ‘Murky Depths’ at 12.30 and a workshop 2-3pm. For more information click here.
Becci Louise, is a poet, performer and educator, and will captivate audiences both young and old with her verse-stories of an octopus who dreams of stars (and gets caught by a fisherman!) and you may even get to meet her tiny parrot, Maya. Let the magic of the watery worlds she conjures draw out the latent poet in you.
Octopus Medicine is poetry for the un-poetical. Deliberately subverting the typical view of poetry, it sweeps its way into strange and dreamlike narratives, calling upon the Octopus as a creature that represents loneliness, isolation, difference and the power of dreaming. These three narrative verses, all anchored around the central figure of the octopus, weave worlds designed to be shared by the young and old alike. This is poetry to heal the rift in society that means so many of our young and our old suffer from depression, from anxiety and from other mental health issues. Just like the ancient medicine animals of the old tribes, this is a book of prayers, incantations, totems and talismans.
Becci Louise, poet, performer and educator, will captivate audiences both young and old with her verse-stories of an octopus who dreams of stars (and gets caught by a fisherman!) and you may even get to meet her tiny parrot, Maya. Let the magic of the watery worlds she conjures draw out the latent poet in you.
Meet the author at the first of two free family friendly workshops:
Where: Waterstones, Children’s section
When: Saturday, 9th September, 2 – 3pm, as part of Heritage Open Days,
Becci Louise new book, Octopus Medicine is poetry for the un-poetical. Deliberately subverting the typical view of poetry, it sweeps its way into strange and dreamlike narratives, calling upon the Octopus as a creature that represents loneliness, isolation, difference and the power of dreaming. These three narrative verses, all anchored around the central figure of the octopus, weave worlds designed to be shared by the young and old alike. This is poetry to heal the rift in society that means so many of our young and our old suffer from depression, from anxiety and from other mental health issues. Just like the ancient medicine animals of the old tribes, this is a book of prayers, incantations, totems and talismans.
If you miss the Waterstones workshop on September 9th, Becci Louise will be reading on Thames Festival as part of the #RiverCity conversations: Sat 16 Sept for a talk on ‘Murky Depths’ at 12.30 and a workshop 2-3pm. For more information click here.
Twenty different cinemas have graced Reading’s streets over the years, many long forgotten and some of the earliest very short-lived. In his book, David Cliffe tells the story of the era of the single-screen cinema in Reading, from the traveling shows at the turn of the 20th century, its heyday with the Vaudeville Electric Theatre in the 20s, through to today’s multiscreen entertainment ‘villages’.
David Cliffe will be signing his book, Picture Palace to Penny Plunge: Reading Cinemas and be available to talk about it alongside a small exhibition of photographs
Where: Heritage Open Day events at Waterstones, Broad Street, Reading.
When: Saturday 9th September at 12-1pm.
Picture Palace to Penny Plunge is published by Two Rivers Press in collaboration with the History of Reading Society.
If you don’t make it to Waterstones on Saturday, Picture Palace to Penny Plunge: Reading’s Cinema will be launched officially with a short film and refreshments at
Where: Minghella Studios, University of Reading, Whiteknights, RG6 6BT
When: Weds 27th Sept at 7.45-9.30pm.
The event is free but please email tworiverspress@gmail.com to book as spaces are limited.
Celebrate the launch of David Cliffe’s new book with a short talk by the author and an opportunity to watch archive footage taken in and around Reading in the early part of the 20th century. Excerpts include an advertising film about Huntley and Palmers biscuits, a film about a Second World War youth camp at Sonning Common, footage of a royal visit to Reading in the 1950s, a documentary about children’s health services about the same time, and pictures of Reading trams and trolleybuses and the widening of Station Hill in the 1930s. Also, possibly, an excerpt from The Thirty-nine steps which is said to have been filmed in Reading’s ‘Palace’ theatre.
David’s knowledge of the social history of Reading is extensive and there will be a chance to chat to the author afterwards, purchase books and have them signed.
Meet on the river terrace of Crowne Plaza Hotel by Caversham Bridge. Saturday 16 September 11AM and Sunday 17 September 2PM. Free. Just turn up.
Join one of two guided walks along a majestic stretch of the Thames to learn more about Reading’s waterways flora and fauna, history and heritage. Geoff Sawers is an artist and poet inspired by his love of nature. Adrian Lawson has spent the last 30 years walking and cycling around Reading’s open spaces observing the wildlife that lives here, and he wrote about this for more than 20 years in the local paper.
Join them to discover more about the wonders of Reading’s natural landscape in a two hour circular walking tour of the Thames in central Reading.
If you can’t make the walks, buy the books and discover Reading at your leisure!
Follow the Thames from its meeting with the Kennet at Horseshoe Bridge up to Kings Meadow and reflect on the vivid imagery in Ian House’s poem ‘Masterstroke’ reproduced in individual phrases along the riverside in Sally Castle’s evocative hand-lettering. Fit the phrases into the context of the whole poem using the postcard guide to help and see the river in a whole new light.
The walk starts at Horseshoe Bridge where the Thames meets the Kennet, just east of Tesco. You walk at your own pace, whenever you like between Saturday 9 September – Sunday 17 September. It is completely FREE.
Download the River Writing postcard or pick up a copy from Reading Museum (closed Sun/Mon).
For more information about the River Festival visit the Reading-on-Thames Festival site.
Artist Geoff Sawers is exhibiting his tree paintings from The Shady Side of Town: Reading’s Trees at CUP (the independent coffee shop next to St Mary’s Butts) during August. The perfect accompaniment to a good cuppa!
If you can’t get to town for a coffee, buy a copy of The Shady Side of Town.
The paintings are the illustrations
Plantlife, the wild plant conservation charity have reproduced two illustrations from A Wild Plant Year by Christina Hart-Davies as tea towels! Check them out in Plantlife’s online shop.
To buy a copy of A Wild Plant Year: The History, Folklore and Uses of Britain’s Flora click here.
A Wild Plant Year, is a lavishly illustrated, small-format, picture-led book covering 150-200 common wild flowers and plants, with text giving botanical information, history and folklore, medicinal or culinary uses.
The book is arranged in a through-the-year format, waymarked by festivals such as Easter, Mothering Sunday, Summer Solstice, Bonfire Night, etc. It follows a rough calendar, illustrating flowers and plants associated with each season and festival. The book has been designed spread by spread and the text is already drafted. The paintings are almost all completed, most of them made directly from life.
It is a sort of commonplace book, an ideal gift; something to dip into when relaxing, rather than a field guide.book on the cultural, social, folkloric and medicinal history of British wild plants. The perfect gift for any nature-lovers, nostalgia-buffs, folklorists and botanical-art-lovers as well as gardeners – though, in fact, hardly any garden plants are included; it’s all wild plants!
Whispers of Better Things: Green Belts to National Trust – How the Hill family changed our world by
Duncan Mackay (author)
This weekend, Fri 30th June to Sunday 2nd July, Reading is Open for Art!
Our very own Geoff Sawers is exhibiting the paintings and drawings from The Shady Side of Town at 142 Castle Hill. (Opening event will be on Friday 30th, 12-1pm).
This fourth year of Open for Art celebrates design, the arts and creativity, from marking the 100 years since the birth of iconic British Designer, Lucienne Day to exhibiting the work of Reading’s emerging designers, artists, performers and makers of all ages. Come and join us whilst we lead you on walks, hear artists talks and poems, explore Reading’s hidden waterways, take part in Open Air art classes, create floral headdresses inspired by Frida Kahlo, follow the heritage paths and revel in performances. For more information on the events of the weekend, click here.
Two Rivers Press poet, Susan Utting, is interviewed by Juliet England, about deafness and poetry. Read the interview here. Two of Susan’s poems “Report to the Department of Audiology” and “Lip-reading the Poets”, appear with the interview. Both also appear in Susan’s most recent collection, Half the Human Race: New and Selected Poems.
–
What a pleasure to read Matthew Farrell’s rather glorious review of The Shady Side of the Town. He writes:
The Shady Side of Town: Reading’s Trees by Adrian Lawson and Geoff Sawers is a quirky and inclusive guide to some of our finest and most interesting local specimens and is packed with fond facts and bold art…
Each tree in the book has been carefully chosen for its variety, diversity and uniqueness. It’s expressed in Adrian Lawson’s knowledgeable, loving prose accompanied by original, stark, imaginative painting from accomplished artist Geoff Sawers. They are a class double act…
This lovely compact volume is meant to make you get out there. So when in vacant or in pensive mood you can stuff it in your hoodie pocket and go and see for yourselves. There are well over thirty trees to visit: including such exotic sounding specimens as wild service, black poplar, cedar of Lebanon, Bhutan pine plus our lovely sweet chestnuts, oaks and other natives…
…the very reasonable £8.99 under-a-tennerness. Two pints worth of glorious local and profound knowledge throwing light into our cerebral and spiritual darkness is well worth it in my view.
If you love trees and live in the Reading area you really should get your own copy!
Read the review it its entirety at the wonderful The Whitley Pump.
The Heaven that Runs Through Everything
Here’s to the small everyday miracles –
Mrs Baggett with her knitting and pearls,
the lovely daughters of Jerusalem
in their gardens of lilies, laburnum,
gospels and gossip at the regatta,
Sarah Tubb and her heavenly visitor,
courting and baptism along the Thames,
a dustman leaping into his wife’s arms.
Here’s to tulip, rock rose, gypsophila
flowering together, to vases of prayer,
Saint Francis in slippers and dressing gown
up on the roof with hens to catch the sun,
chores doing themselves down in the kitchen
at a wedding where water’s turned to wine,
everything married to everything else –
yearning to show itself as happiness,
as Love. Neighbours who rejoice with tin cans
and cabbage leaves, the ripe summer commons,
skies which open over bulrush, goose-run,
the fresh light making everything new-born,
shot through with flame, each shrub a burning bush
by the tow path. All detail the flourish
of nature to show itself exactly –
not ‘bird’ but swan, cockerel, grebe, quail, turkey.
Blessings on Ricket’s Farm, Rowborough, Pound Field,
the very word ‘Eden’ changed, now this world
is all we need to know of paradise.
Consider the gardens at Cookham Rise
where Adam’s walking backwards to a tree
laden with unpicked apples – the first day
and the last become one, as if heaven was
wanting to reveal its eternal Yes –
earthly desire become beatitude,
everything known to be equally god.
Suffering a page to be folded over,
tenderness up sleeves in the tents of war,
balm poured from seraphs in the guise of men.
Nothing that is not transfiguration –
the dying girl next door raised up, restored
to life, then the quickening of a horde
of spirits, hungry for what death waylaid –
the lost embrace, words not said, love not made.
Here’s to grief unlearnt, grateful breath redrawn,
the rapture of rolling away the stone.
And let’s not forget the man most at home
in sunlight, newly arrived in Cookham,
who walks with disciples up Cockmarsh Hill,
everyone in the crowd a plump angel.
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) was undoubtedly one of the most admired and influential English painters of the twentieth century. Cookham was a major influence on both his life and painting and his reference to the place as ‘a village in Heaven’ is reflected in his famous series of paintings of Biblical scenes featuring local people.
The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition invited poets to find inspiration for their own art in the work of this remarkable man. “The Heaven that Runs Through Everything” is the winner of The Don and Jill Cawthorne Prize of The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition. A selection from the entries to the competition is published in Stanley Spencer Poems An Anthology.
Congratulations, Rosie
Zacharias and Elizabeth
An English offering. There in the top
reach of the home meadow, near where it shades
into the scrub as sleep folds into sleep,
he burns the scraps of lamb as one might burn
raked leaves – drawn down and sheepish while he feeds
the pale flesh to the flame. And his wife runs
to him, the rumour of new life in her
like talk of a new war passing from lip
to lip. “In these days he has shown his favour,
and taken away my disgrace” he thinks
picturing heaven’s crisp ledgers. Men chop
wood, mend the hedges, build up the banks
set for the blessing of the October rain
that drops like a libation on the land.
Wind parts his wife’s white hair and sends a skein
of thin smoke skirling skywards, and the small
girl sees all this, sees it and understands
that signs and wonders happen over the wall.
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) was undoubtedly one of the most admired and influential English painters of the twentieth century. Cookham was a major influence on both his life and painting and his reference to the place as ‘a village in Heaven’ is reflected in his famous series of paintings of Biblical scenes featuring local people.
The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition invited poets to find inspiration for their own art in the work of this remarkable man. “Zacharias and Elizabeth” is the winner of The Stationers’ Company Award of The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition. A selection from the entries to the competition is published in Stanley Spencer Poems An Anthology.
Congratulations, Ross!
Christ Carrying the Cross
—a painting by Stanley Spencer, 1920
And we saw someone passing below,
we who jammed the sash of each high window
like twins sprouted from a common waist.
And it was the quiet work below
we noticed first, something no one called
suffering, though it seemed what we’d been called
to bear. We watched ladders, crooked hands, heard
talk proceed as always, saw through old
remarkable eyes. Why, then, be startled
to find ourselves wingèd, some changed world
in the making along ivy and brick?
Someone pulled that slow cross to a hill.
Sir Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) was undoubtedly one of the most admired and influential English painters of the twentieth century. Cookham was a major influence on both his life and painting and his reference to the place as ‘a village in Heaven’ is reflected in his famous series of paintings of Biblical scenes featuring local people.
The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition invited poets to find inspiration for their own art in the work of this remarkable man. “Christ Carrying the Cross” is the winner of The Maidenhead Advertiser Award of The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition. A selection from the entries to the competition is published in Stanley Spencer Poems An Anthology.
Congratulations, Richard!
Judges announce winner and runners up of The 2017 Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition:
The Don and Jill Cawthorne Prize, cash prize of £2,500:
Rosie Jackson – “The Heaven That Runs Through Everything”
The Stationers’ Company Award, cash prize of £500:
Ross Cogan – “Zacharias and Elizabeth”
The Maidenhead Advertiser Award, cash prize of £500:
Richard Robbins – “Christ Carrying the Cross”
Congratulations to all the winners!
To celebrate the awards for the Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition, 3 large pop-up display stands, each displaying one of the three prize winning poems are now on display in Holy Trinity Church, Cookham and provide an interesting perspective from which to read the poems. Everyone is more than welcome to drop in and read them.
“Stanley Spencer Poems. An Anthology” contains not only the three prize winners, but 75 other poems which highlight the amazing quality of the over 200 poems submitted to the judges. Order your copy here.
Two Rivers Press poets are a talented bunch. They are not just poets! Some are novelists, as well!
Claire Dyer’s new novel, The Last Day, has just been signed up by The Dome Press.
According to The Bookseller:
The blurb for The Last Day reads: “Since the end of her marriage, Vita has regained her happiness and remained civilised friends with her husband, Boyd. So much so that it seems natural – almost – for him to move back into their marital home as he goes through financial difficulties, even though he brings with him Honey, his beautiful and much younger new love. Vita is fine about it, she really is. But Honey isn’t just blonde hair and long, graceful limbs – she loves Boyd with a passion and is hiding secrets of her own.
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Rebecca Lloyd, publisher at The Dome Press, said: “The Last Day has the tenderness of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel mixed with the edginess and unexpectedness of The Girl on a Train. It is touching and unnerving, with richly drawn characters and many-layered relationships that take you by surprise right till the end. I was hooked immediately. Claire is a huge talent.”
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Dyer’s previous novels, The Moment and The Perfect Affair and her short story, “Falling for Gatsby” were published by Quercus. Her poetry collections, Interference Effects and Eleven Rooms, are published by Two Rivers Press.
Doherty said: “I am absolutely delighted that The Last Day will be published by The Dome Press in 2018. The novel, focusing on the meaning of love in all its different ramifications and written with acute sensitivity, should attract a large audience.”
The Last Day will be published by The Dome Press in 2018. Put it on your to read list!
We’ve been nominated for one of the Reading Cultural Awards!
TRP has been nominated in the ‘Made in Reading’ category and ‘Walking Words’ – well done Sally and Adam – has been nominated in that and the Arts & Business partnership category
The Award winners will be announced on 29 June at the Reading Cultural Awards ceremony.
The list of nominations by category as well as more information on the Awards can be found at http://readingplaceofculture.org/awards/
The following poems have been chosen by the judges to form the final shortlist from which the three prize winning poems will be selected.
Poem: Poet:
Zacharias and Elizabeth Ross Cogan
Strawberry Moon Brian Docherty
The Heaven That Runs Through Everything Rosie Jackson
Bedridden Paul Jeffcutt
The Resurrection, Cookham Tony Lucas
The Swans Speak to Stanley Spencer Dorothy McCarthy
Christ Carrying the Cross Richard Robbins
Capture/Captured Pnina Shinebourne
First Pnina Shinebourne
Disciples Jean Watkins
Hilda, Unity and Dolls Jean Watkins
The poems are listed in the alphabetical order of the poets and not in any ranking order.
The winners of the three prizes will be announced at a special Awards Ceremony at the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, on Friday 19 May.
You are invited to:
LOOSE MUSE – London’s Premiere Women’s Writers Night
Wednesday, May 10th (and every second Wednesday of the month)
Upstairs @ The Sun Pub, 21 Drury Lane (on the corner of Betterton Street), London WC2B 5RH
8.00 p.m. – doors open from 7.30 p.m.
£6.00/£5.00 concessions
Featuring:
Susan Utting
Susan Utting has had poetry published in The Times, TLS, The Independent, Forward Book of Poetry, The Poetry Review and Poems on the Underground. Her fourth poetry collection Half the Human Race: New & Selected Poems was published by Two Rivers Press in March. “Susan’s poetryexplores the social & biological struggles of being a woman, returning again and again to the thrills of being alive.” (Carrie Etter). She makes a welcome return to Loose Muse.
Jane Ulysses Grell is a poet and storyteller from the Caribbean island of Dominica, now living and working in London. A former teacher, Jane now works in a broad range of arts and community venues enthralling children and adults of all ages with her brand of poetry and storytelling in the African-Caribbean oral tradition. She has worked with BBC School Radio, published a Junior History and two books of poetry for children, and has recently published books of poems Praise Songs and White River Blues.
Lesley Saunders’ poem ‘Hazy, Massed, Dappled’ has been selected as the overall winner of the Candlestick Press/Cloud Appreciation Society (CAS) competition. It was picked by judge Katharine Towers, Candlestick Press Assistant Editor and CAS Poet in Residence, from over 600 poems submitted from all over the world.
The poem will be published in Candlestick’s forthcoming pamphlet Ten Poems about Clouds which is due for publication in July 2017 and will be featured on the Candlestick and CAS websites.
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Tune in!
TRP author, Duncan Mackay will be a guest for 45 minutes between 3 – 3.45 p.m. on the Bill Buckley Show on BBC Radio Berkshire, Monday, 8 May 2017!
Duncan will entertain with stories he has collected for his most recent book, Reading: The Place of the People of the Red One and share tales of Reading and Berkshire he has collected during the writing of his other books, Bizarre Berkshire and Eat Wild.
Buy your copy now!
Saturday 20th May 2017, 3pm at 14 Kidmore Road, Caversham
Garden Reading by Caversham Poets, including Jean Watkins, Susan Utting, Robin Thomas, Victoria Pugh. Open Mic.
Sunday 21st May 2017, 3 pm at 63 St Peter’s Avenue, Caversham – in the garden.
Poetry Open Mic – hosted by Robin Thomas
All are welcome to come and to read their own or anyone else’s poem(s),
in any language (we’ve had Dutch, Chinese and Japanese in the past) or just to listen.
On May 1st, which is bank holiday Monday this year, we are launching a little (170x125mm) book by Adrian Lawson and Geoff Sawers on the trees of Reading: The Shady Side of Town: Reading’s Trees.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of Reading Tree Wardens and Nature Nurture, we will launch it at a special family-oriented tree festival in Caversham Court Gardens. There will be children’s activities run by Nature Nurture, tours of the gardens run by FCCG, bird song tours run by Adrian, wood turning and other crafts people and, of course, a gazebo full of our books. Please come join us.