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 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.

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.

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.

© 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.

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.

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.

Under the chairmanship of Professor Peter Robinson, the judges of the “Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition” have announced the list of 76 poems, from the over 200 entries, which they have selected as being of a sufficiently high standard to merit publication in the special poetry anthology which will be published during the Festival in May of this year. This list will now form the basis for the creation of a final shortlist and, subsequently, for the selection of the three final prize winners of the overall competition. The top prize will be the “Cookham Festival Stanley Spencer Poetry Competition Don and Jill Cawthorne Prize”, with a cash value of £2,500. The two runners’ up awards, the Stationers’ Company Award and the Maidenhead Advertiser Award, each carry a cash prize of £500.

The list of the 76 successful poems can be found on the Cookham Festival website at www.cookhamfestival.org.uk as of February 16, 2017.

Professor Robinson commented to the Advertiser: “I know that it has taken longer than we expected to release the titles of the 76 poems selected for the anthology. The standard of the entries was extremely high and coming to a fair and correct decision proved far from easy. I realise that a few weeks seems an age when you are waiting for the result, but the anthology will last for ever and we had to be certain that our choice was fair to both the entrants and the competition itself.”

Members of the public will have a chance to hear some of the selected poems being read during this year’s Cookham Festival, at a special poetry event to be held at Cookham Dean Village Hall on Friday 12 May. The anthology will also be launched at this event, with copies being available for sale. At the same time, the final shortlist will be announced, with the three prize winners being revealed at a special awards evening at the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham on Friday 19 May.