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Links to Other Programme Pages The Festival takes to the Streets 2007 Festival Workshops Information The 2007 Festival At a Glance
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The 2007 festival is now over.
The 2008 festival takes place between the 4th and 13th July
2008. Friday 29th June 01 James Fenton on The New Faber Book of Love Poems The Community Hall 5.30pm - 6.30pm £8 An evening of love poetry as James Fenton reads from and talks about The New Faber Book of Love Poems, which he edited. One of the great poets of our time, James Fenton is truly a renaissance man: political journalist, drama critic, book reviewer, war correspondent, foreign correspondent and columnist. Come and hear the classics and favourites, alongside blues lyrics, American folk poetry, Elizabethan lyrics and Broadway songs. A charismatic performer, James Fenton will entrance you with some of the most engaging and emotive lyric poems ever written. 02 Simon Armitage on Gawain The Community Hall 7.15pm - 8.15pm £8 Six hundred years after the first edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a second northern poet, Simon Armitage, sets out on the same journey, telling the story of this dramatic and mysterious quest. Best-selling poet and novelist, Simon Armitage will also read from his T S Eliot shortlisted Tyrannosaurus Rex versus the Corduroy Kid, "his wittiest most alertly combative and impassioned collection to date". If you are interested in this, how about trying this : Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as told by Bernard O'Donoghue on Sunday 1st July. Sponsored by Simon and Margaret Payton 03 Murray Lachlan Young's Cautionary Tales for Adults Market Theatre 8.30pm - 10.30pm £6 Bar available Poet, satirist, raconteur Murray Lachlan Young rocketed to fame in 1997 after signing a million pound deal with EMI records. A decade later he is back, older and possibly wiser, wowing audiences with his improvisational prowess on Saturday Live for Radio 4. Murray Lachlan Young is a brilliantly unique performer who combines the predatory humour of the Victorian cautionary tale and the pointed whimsy of Noel Coward with a B-movie sensibility. Sponsored by Orme Dykes & Yates Saturday 30th June  Back to Top04 Murray Lachlan Young's Modern Cautionary Tales for Children Market Theatre 10.30am - 11.30am £3 (Family event, 5 - 10 year olds) A mixture of poetry, comedy, storytelling and a touch of panto make for a raucous, silly, scary, funny, poignant, educational hour of merriment and mayhem. This show is seriously interactive. If you don't mind seeing your children dancing to James Brown, discussing disco-dancing ponies and hearing fun, thought-provoking and cool poems, come along to this show! 05 Rebel Poets: The Chartists Burgage Hall 10.30am – 11.30am £6 Dr Michael Sanders of the University of Manchester will talk about the Chartist and working class poets published in a Victorian rebel newspaper called the Northern Star. With a peak circulation of 50,000 and a readership of around one million, this is poetry making a major cultural impact. He will explore the circumstances and life stories attaching to the poems and illuminate the part that poetry played in the fight for democracy. Reminders of the Chartist movement’s local impact are the bungalows at Staunton, which were intended as an opportunity for people to escape the squalor of Victorian cities. Sponsored by David and Ann Tombs 06 Raw Edge Small Press Tent Outside Burgage Hall 11.00am – 4.00pm Free Gather information about the world of small press publishers and find examples of the innovative pamphlets and chapbooks on display. Dave Reeves – a one-man poetry resource centre and the Editor of Raw Edge – can tell you about the wide range of live literature venues across the West Midlands and advise you about publishing your own work. Also on Saturday 7th July, 11.00am - 4.00pm 07 Paula Meehan and Tony Curtis Burgage Hall 12.15pm - 1.15pm £8 Paula Meehan and Tony Curtis launch the Irish weekend. Paula Meehan is an award-winning poet with seven collections to her name, she has written plays, worked with inner-city communities and conducted workshops in prisons. Tony Curtis was born in Dublin in 1955. A winner of the Irish National Poetry Prize, he is the author of six collections, most recently The Well in the Rain: New & Selected Poems – “lyrical, graceful and thoughtful”. Sponsored by Poetry Ireland 08 Tom Paulin on Louis MacNeice Burgage Hall 2.00pm – 3.00pm £8 To mark MacNeice’s centenary, celebrated poet, critic and former Late Review panelist, Tom Paulin will talk about MacNeice and discuss his impact on Irish poetry, including Paulin’s own writing. Louis MacNeice was a contemporary of Auden and Spender. He is best known for verse in which he examines social concerns and the complexities and contradictions of human existence. Tom Paulin’s enthusiasm for this subject is infectious, so this is sure to be an entertaining and interesting talk. Sponsored by Christopher Lyons 09 Pat Boran and Paddy Bushe Burgage Hall 3.45pm – 4.45pm £8 Pat Boran is Editor/Publisher of the Dedalus Press and Programme Director of the Dublin Writers Festival. A winner of the Patrick Kavanagh Award, he has published four collections of poetry, short fiction for children and non-fiction. Paddy Bushe writes in both English and Irish and is the author of seven poetry collections, including The Nitpicking of Cranes (2004) and Gile na Gile (2005). Holder of the Michael Hartnett Award (2006) and Director of the Strokestown Poetry Festival from 2004-2006. Sponsored by Culture Ireland 10 Greg Delanty and Iggy McGovern Burgage Hall 5.30pm – 6.30pm £8 Greg Delanty is no stranger to Ledbury – he was last here to great acclaim in 2000. The author of seven collections, Carcanet published his Collected Poems in 2006. Iggy McGovern is an Associate Professor of Physics at Trinity College. His collection, The King of Suburbia is “witty, playful but emotionally charged”. He is well known as a performance poet and poetry slam champion. Sponsored by Allyson McDermott 11 Poetry Slam Market Theatre 6.30pm – 9.00pm £5 - Note time change from printed programme Leading UK ‘slampresarios’ Marcus Moore and Sara-Jane Arbury host proceedings as fifteen diverse versifiers vie for the slam champ accolade. Random judges mark the quality of the writing, quality of performance and warmth of applaudience. More tense than Tennyson, keener than Keats, huger than Hughes and, yes, poetry in Motion! To find out just what are Words Worth – or to enter the slam (first come, first served) – contact Marcus on 01285 640470 or via info@spiel.wanadoo.co.uk Sponsored by Becket Bulmer Charitable Trust 12 The Festival Takes to the Streets Click here for full details Sunday 1st July Back to Top13 Literary Landmarks Coach Tour Meet at Market House 9.30am – 12.00pm £6 inc coach Sit back and enjoy this introduction to the area’s literary connections with Peter Arscott, a blue badge guide, who will take you through the countryside that inspired Frost, Masefield, Auden, Barrett Browning, Langland and Edward Thomas. 14 Opening of I See What I Hear exhibition Market House Café 10.30am Free This exhibition of primary school children’s paintings reveals how poetry can inspire beautiful and fascinating works of art. This exhibition is a result of the Festival’s commitment to its Poets in Schools programme. I See What I Hear will be on show throughout the Festival. Sponsored by The Framing Company 15 Bernard O'Donoghue and Theo Dorgan Burgage Hall 12.15pm – 1.15pm £8 Bernard O’Donoghue, a very fine poet and reader, won the Whitbread Prize for the second of his five collections. His most recent work, a verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, has received glowing reviews. Theo Dorgan is a poet, broadcaster, translator, editor and documentary scriptwriter; his Jason and The Argonauts, to music by Howard Goodall, was commissioned by and premiered in the Royal Albert Hall in 2004. Sponsored by Magma Poetry Magazine & Culture Ireland 16 The Gaelic Note: Poetry and Music Burgage Hall 2.00pm – 3.00pm £6 Join Theo Dorgan and others for a celebration of Gaelic- poems, translations and music. The line-up will include Paddy Bushe and Ciaran Carson, for a feast of writing and music-making in the great tradition of Irish Gaelic, a language made for poetry and song. 17 Jilly Cooper's Desert Island Poems Community Hall 2.00pm – 3.00pm £8 The best-selling media superstar and author of The Man Who Made Husbands Jealous, Rivals, Riders, Polo, romance novels like Octavia and most recently, Wicked!, appears at Lebury to chat about her favourite poems. Readers of Wicked! will know that it is dotted with poems by poets like Robert Frost and Matthew Arnold. This event is bound to throw up some surprises and lots to interest, amuse and inspire. Sponsored by The Friends of The Ledbury Poetry Festival 18 Micheal O'Siadhail and Nigel McLoughlin Burgage Hall 3.45pm – 4.45pm £8 Micheal O’Siadhail is the author of 11 poetry collections, most recently Globe. Deeply rooted in Ireland, he is at home in the European and American traditions and exemplifies the breadth of modern Irish poetry. Nigel McLoughlin is Course Leader for Creative Writing and Creative and Critical Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. His books include Songs for No Voices and Blood. Nigel has kindly stepped in to replace Medbh McGuckian. 19 Ciaran Carson and Sinead Morrissey Burgage Hall 5.30pm – 6.30pm £8 An unmissable event with two outstanding writers from Belfast. Ciaran Carson has won the Irish Times Literature Prize, the T S Eliot Prize and the Forward Prize for Breaking News in 2003. Sinead Morrissey is the youngest ever recipient of the Patrick Kavanagh Award; short-listed for the T S Eliot and a winner of the Michael Hartnett Award in 2005 for her latest, the excellent The State of the Prisons. Sponsored by PN Review 20 Beckett's Outbursts Market Theatre 8.00pm – 9.30pm £10 Performed by the hugely successful and original Godot Company, The Outbursts combines extracts from the novels, poetry and non-dramatic works of Samuel Beckett. Memories of Beckett’s Irish childhood mingle with stories that make us laugh even when we feel we shouldn’t. The creator of this show is literary legend John Calder, Samuel Beckett’s publisher and personal friend for over 40 years, who will appear alongside two other members of the Godot Company. Monday 2nd July Back to Top
21 Out Loud Community Hall 1.30pm - 3.00pm Free Grand finale of the Festival’s Poets in Schools programme, showcasing and celebrating the fabulous poetry created by local children. The pupils perform the poems they have written and some of the poets that inspired them and worked with them may also take to the stage. The poets are James Carter, Roshan Doug, Philip Wells, Roz Goddard, Julie Boden and Matt Black. Sponsored by Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Charitable Trust, Old Possum, Baron Davenport, The Woo Foundation & Jonathan Brooks 22 Theo Dorgan on Poetry and Prayer Burgage Hall 6.30pm – 7.30pm £6 Come and listen to Theo Dorgan read from and talk about his exciting new publication A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which he has edited. It is a collection of spiritual texts, drawn from both inside and outside the limits of the world’s religious traditions. In an age marked at once by religious violence and the falling away of orthodox religious observance in the west, here is a book that recognises and demonstrates the universality of prayer. Sponsored by Helen Burston 23 The Ledbury Scribes Black Pepper Carvery 8.00pm – 10.00pm Free Ledbury’s poets read their work in this enjoyable session, open to all. 24 A Brief and Poetical History of England Market Theatre 8.00pm – 10.00pm £10 Why was Ethelred unready? How long was Hereward awake? Who did Wellington boot? When did Hadrian invent PIN numbers? Where did Beatrix potter? What made William conker? If you too are fascinated by such mysteries, book now to find enlightenment to these and many other historical connundra from Peter ‘bard boy’ Wyton’s irradiating verses and John ‘vocal velvet’ Burns’ scintillating sketches – all polished to a dazzling shine by the stardust of Ledbury’s own Lucy Chalkley. Sponsored by John Goodwin Tuesday 3rd July Back to Top25 Mad, Bad and Dangerously Haddock Market Theatre 4.30pm - 5.30pm Free An imaginative and funny performance by Ledbury Youth Theatre of wild and wacky poems by the children’s author Andrew Fusek Peters, who will appear at the Festival on Saturday 7th July at 2.30pm. This is entertainment that will make you laugh, smile, reflect and wonder. 26 Bye-Child Market Theatre 6.30pm – 8.00pm £6 Bernard MacLaverty, the celebrated author of Cal, Lamb and the Booker Prize short-listed Grace Notes will show his short film Bye-Child, inspired by the Seamus Heaney poem. Described as “lyrical, harsh, poetic…a scary little jewel of a film” and on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour as “disturbing and beautiful”. How does a short story writer and novelist turn a poem into a film? An entertaining and illuminating talker, Bernard MacLaverty will also introduce his latest collection of short stories, Matters of Life and Death. Sponsored by The Tourism Company 27 Film Double Bill Market Theatre 8.30pm – 10.30pm £6 Night Mail - 1936. Director: Basil Wright. 25 minutes. Rated U. The product of collaborative authorship that included Britten’s music score and Auden’s rhyming verse. It is an account of the operation of the Royal Mail train delivery service, a documentary short film now regarded as a classic, blending poetry with social realism. The Dead – 1987. Director: John Huston. 83 mins. Rated PG. Huston’s adaptation of Joyce’s short story from Dubliners is his valediction, an elegiac last hurrah. Set in 1904, on the day of Epiphany, a house filled with guests from all over Ireland gather for an evening of dancing, poetry and piano recitals. The entire cast is admirable. Wednesday 4th July Back to Top28 Elizabeth Barrett Browning at Hope End Hope End, Nr. Ledbury 2.00pm – 4.00pm £5 Take a tour of Hope End Garden where Elizabeth Barrett Browning spent her childhood and then enjoy afternoon tea, as you listen to a talk and a reading of some of her poems. 29 Wordsworth and Coleridge: The Friendship Burgage Hall 6.30pm – 7.30pm £6 One of the most famous friendships of all time, it produced dazzling results in the form of the Lyrical Ballads, poems Wordsworth and Coleridge wrote and published together. But perhaps such a perfect friendship was always doomed. Adam Sisman will give an illustrated talk on his fascinating new biography, giving insights into the rich yet neglected topic of friendship and tantalising glimpses of the creative process. 30 Homend Poets Icebytes 6.30pm – 8.30pm Free Local poets read their work at this informal and enjoyable musical and poetry event. Come and join in, all contributions welcome. Homend Poets also present Poems Al Fresco, Saturday 30th June, Wednesday 4th July and Thursday 5th July, lunchtimes at Fox Yard. 31 Ledbury Lyricists Prince of Wales 8.00pm – 11.00pm Free Local group of folk musicians and poets, come and join in or just listen and enjoy. 32 Poetry Quiz Burgage Hall 8.30pm – 10.00pm £7 each Four to a table - Bar Available Test your knowledge of poetry, no matter how scant and come along for an informal challenge that includes a light supper and plenty of laughs. You might even win something! Run by Peter and Viv Arscott Thursday 5th July Back to Top33 Lessons in Love: Byron's Don Juan Market Theatre 6.30 – 8.00pm £10 Ian Frost as Lord Byron – and 14 other remarkable characters– tells the ‘true’ story of young Don Juan: from country to country and from bed to bed! Based on Byron’s letters, journals and selections of his poems, this is a delightful show that brings Don Juan to life, with Byron adding his own ironic comments. Ian Frost‘s one man shows, written by Bill Studdiford, have toured the world, including London, New York and Edinburgh. Sponsored by The English Speaking Union (Worcestershire Branch) 34 Open Mike - Hosted by Brenda Read-Brown Burgage Hall 8.30pm – 10.00pm £5 (free to workshop and poetry café participants)Bar available. An opportunity to share your poems with a supportive and friendly audience or to hear the performance poetry stars of tomorrow. Brenda Read-Brown has won many slams and has self-published three volumes of poetry – Where Edges Meet, Tightrope and Edgeways. Some of her poems have been set to music by Matthew Read, who will perform throughout the evening creating the best possible atmosphere for a brilliant night. Sign up to perform when you arrive. Everyone will be limited to two poems or four minutes maximum. Open Mike performance workshop 5.30 – 7.30pm see Workshops page for details. Friday 6th July Back to Top35 Sara-Jane Arbury: Poetry Live and Presented Burgage Hall 11.00am – 12.00pm £6 (Free for Friends of Ledbury Poetry Festival) Herefordshire’s first ever poet in residence Sara-Jane Arbury will premiere her new poem about life in the county. Twice winner of the Ledbury Poetry Competition, Christopher James reads poems from his collection, The Invention of Butterfly. Winning an Eric Gregory Award marks the start of many a glittering poetic career. Past winners include Paul Muldoon, Jackie Kay, Michael Longley and Carol Ann Duffy. Hear the latest crop of gifted young Gregory Award winning poets. Sponsored by The Rotary Club of Ledbury 36 Poetry Review Burgage Hall 12.45pm – 1.45pm £6 (free for Poetry Society Members) Poetry Review Editor, Fiona Sampson, hosts this event welcoming leading writers who will feature in the Summer issue of this prestigious magazine: National Poetry Competition and former Ledbury Poetry Competition winner, Mike Barlow; Forward Prize winner David Harsent, author of A Bird’s Idea of Flight and Legion; Fiona Sampson’s new book, Common Prayer is published in June. Sponsored by The Poetry Society 37 Charles Bennett and Alicia Stubbersfield Burgage Hall 2.30pm – 3.30pm £6 Former Director of the Festival from 2001 until last year, Charles Bennett returns with his poet hat on and a new book, How to Make a Woman Out of Water. Alicia Stubbersfield’s third collection, Joking Apart, is full of poems about real life, “its untidy pains and delights and uncertainties”. 38 William Blake: Man Without a Mask Market Theatre 4.15pm – 5.15pm £10 Ruth Rosen has an international reputation for highly individualised literary performances of great power and beauty. Here she presents an inspiring and moving journey through the mind of the visionary genius William Blake. Ruth Rosen draws from Blake’s poems, letters and prose writings to provide a sensitive and dynamic insight into Blake as artist, poet and visionary. Sponsored by Friends of the Dymock Poets 39 W H Auden Centenary The Ronald Duncan Talk Burgage Hall 6.00pm – 7.00pm £6 Author of ‘Stop All The Clocks’, W H Auden is one of the nation’s most popular poets. American expert and novelist Katherine Bucknell is the editor of Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928 by W H Auden, Diaries Volume One, 1939-1960 and Lost Years: A Memoir 1945-1951 both by Christopher Isherwood, and is co-editor of Auden Studies. Katherine Bucknell will look at the literary personality and preoccupations of a major poet. Sponsored by The Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation 40 Elgar 150th Anniversary Concert The Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels7.30pm – 9.00 £8 Music and verse by Elgar and his contemporaries, including the regional premiere of “So many true princesses who have gone”, with words by John Masefield set to music by Sir Edward Elgar. Featuring The Britten Singers, conducted by Pamela White. Sponsored by Elgar in Hereford & The John Masefield Society 41 Jerry Hall and Peter Florence John Masefield High School 7.30pm – 8.30pm £8 Jerry Hall is famous for being a glamourous, sexy and sassy supermodel, ex Mrs Jagger and Broadway actress, playing Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. What is less well known is her fascination for reading and writing poetry. A Ledbury exclusive, she will appear in conversation with Peter Florence, actor and Director of the Hay Festival, to talk about their ‘desert island’ poems. Sponsored by The Feathers Hotel 42 Rachel Pantechnicon Burgage Hall 8.30pm – 10.00pm £6 Come along for an evening of stand-up comedy and performance poetry. Cat-fixated poetry diva Rachel Pantechnicon treads the fine line between funny ha-ha and funny peculiar with aplomb. The best-dressed woman in poetry will be joined by her ukulele-strumming best friend Liz Bentley in what promises to be a night of poetic-integrity-meets-cabaret-strangeness. Saturday 7th July Back to Top43 The John Masefield Walk Meet at the top of Church Lane, in the Scallenge 9.30am – 12 noon £6 Join Peter Carter, the Chairman of The John Masefield Society, for a walk through the streets and lanes of Ledbury. This will be an easy walk with frequent stops for readings. Wear sensible footwear and bring well-behaved dogs. Sponsored by the John Masefield Society 44 P J Kavanagh and Josephine Dickinson Burgage Hall 11.00am – 12 noon £8 The great man of letters, P J Kavanagh, writes of his poems: “Beyond decoration, humble, in plain rhyme,/ As clear as I could, and as truthful.” This is a rare chance to hear this distinguished poet and author of the classic memoir The Perfect Stranger. Josephine Dickinson was 41 when she met and married a sheep farmer in his late eighties. Set in the wild, remote landscape of Cumbria, the poems in Silence Fell tell a unique love story through a modern shepherd’s calendar. 45 Talking Novels and Poems Burgage Hall 12.45pm – 1.45pm £8 Orange prize winner and celebrated author of The Siege and House of Orphans Helen Dunmore is also “a poet whose words can be savoured on the tongue”. Now this major novelist has a new collection of poems, Glad of These Times. Adam Thorpe is the highly acclaimed author of Ulverton, a new novel Between Each Breath and a new collection of poems, Birds with a Broken Wing. They will talk about how writing novels and writing poetry combine and interweave. 46 Three Lebanese Poets Burgage Hall 2.30pm – 3.30pm £8 Three Lebanese poets travel to Ledbury for this exclusive event. Two of the poets have never read in the UK before and one is newly translated into English. Abdo Wazen is a major poet and cultural editor of the international daily Al-Hayat. Bassam Hajjar is one of the best poets of his generation and this is his first English performance. Zeinab Assaf is a new, young and very talented modern poet and this will be her first UK appearance. If one literary event could shed light on modern Lebanon, this may well be that occasion. In partnership with Banipal. Sponsored by Banipal, Decibel, Literature Across Frontiers, Xanadu & the British Council for Arts 47 Andrew Fusek Peters Children's Event Market Theatre 2.30pm – 3.30pm £3 (Family event, 6 – 11 year olds) Mad, Bad and Dangerously Haddock author, Andrew Fusek Peters is Britain’s tallest poet {6’8”!}. He has performed all over the place and written over 50 books. He also plays a didgeridoo and does a mean bit of juggling. Andrew will perform from his fun new collections - Spies Unlimited and Ghosts Unlimited. 48 Lifelines with Brenda Read-Brown Harling Court 2.00pm - 4.00pm Free A relaxed and friendly celebration of poems written and read by those who have taken part in the Life Lines project at Harling Court (and beyond) during the past year. 49 Poetry and Protest Burgage Hall 4.15pm – 5.15pm £8 The most important thing about Liu Hongbin is not that four of his poems were posted around Tiananmen Square in 1989 but that “he is a poet of prime and original force” and this is amply demonstrated in his new collection A Day Within Days. Liu Hongbin will appear with his translator, Peter Porter, winner of the Whitbread Poetry Prize and one of the most distinguished poets at work in Britain today. 50 AL Kennedy Presents... Burgage Hall 5.30pm – 6.30pm £6 From weddings to funerals, poetry unexpectedly finds its way into our daily lives. In this exciting, one-off event, the cutting-edge novelist A L Kennedy reads a selection of her favourite poems by a variety of authors and talks about the part they have played in her life and how they have influenced her writing. A L Kennedy is the award winning author of On Bullfighting and Original Bliss and moonlights as a stand-up comedian. She will also read and talk about her new novel Day. 51 Returning Home An evening of Russian music and poetry by Jelena Hellens 8.00pm – 10.00pm £20 including light supper and a glass of wine. Jelena Jangfeldt-Jakubovitch is a huge star in Russia and Sweden and she and her pianist are travelling to Ledbury especially for this unique event. She will be singing songs by poets like Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Osip Mandelstam, Guillaume Apollinaire and Boris Pasternak, set to beautiful and stylish music. Following the performance, food will be served in Hellens and afterwards you are free to explore its lovely grounds. Sponsored by The Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Charitable Trust and Hellens Manor 52 A F Harrold and Elvis McGonagall Burgage Hall 8.30pm – 9.30pm £6 “One witty eccentric who drinks tea and one shouty Scottish anarchist who drinks.” Following in the footsteps of such double acts as Crosby and Hope, this funny and raucous duo, variously described as “subversive”, “surreally good” and“ ludicrous” arrive at Ledbury. Boredom, desperation and the fear of putting on a bright orange apron and working in B&Q have now driven these bitter and twisted entertainers into the twilight world of stand-up comedy and performance poetry. Sponsored by Butler & Sweatman Sunday 8th July Back to Top53 Auden Walk 9.30am Coach departs from Market House Return by 12.30pm £8 inc coach, tea and biscuits Following in the footsteps of W H Auden, who taught at The Downs School in Colwall in the 1930s, keen walker Linda Hart will lead and along the way there will be breaks for poetry readings and a stop at The Kettle Sings. There will be a surprise at the end, before the coach brings walkers back to Ledbury. No dogs please. This event is in memory of Mrs J Simpson 54 Write to Life, with Hubert Moore Burgage Hall 11:00am–12:15pm £6 The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture does just that, and their Write to Life project helps refugees, torture survivors and asylum seekers find voices they never had or that were deeply suppressed. Three writers read from their work accomplished through the project, a life-affirming experience. Introduced and followed by a poetry reading by Write to Life tutor and mentor Hubert Moore, whose sixth collection, The Hearing Room, was published in 2006. “Moore’s speaker is one who may have seen it all, but is still intrigued, even fascinated by what he sees." Sponsored by the Medical Foundation for the care of victims of torture 55 Daljit Nagra and George Szirtes Burgage Hall 12.45pm – 1.45pm £8 Daljit Nagra burst onto the poetry scene this year with the funny and poignant poems in his debut collection Look We Have Coming to Dover! The poems mix English, Punjabi and Punjabi-accented English and he performs them with poise and exuberance. George Szirtes was born in Budapest and came to England as a refugee. He is a mature and accomplished T S Eliot prize-winning poet and translator, who peppers his readings with wry and illuminating comments on the characters and situations that inspire his poems. 56 Where Wild Things Play Family Activity (ages 5 – 12 years) Meet in front of Ledbury Church (end of Church Lane) 2.00pm - 4.00pm Free Let’s weave some wild words as we wend our way to Conygree Woods. We’ll all be poets today! Exploring nature using all our senses to create poetrees, webs of words, rhymes, riddles and treemendous verse led by Jo Polack, Where Wild Things Play Officer for the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust. Paths to woods are not suitable for buggies –best for longer legs or little ones in backpacks. 57 Russian music and poetry by Jelena Burgage Hall 2.30pm – 3.30pm £6 A second chance to hear Jelena Jangfeldt-Jakubovitch, who also performs at Hellens on Saturday 7 July. Jelena is a huge star in Russia and Sweden and she and her pianist have been flown here especially for this event. She will be singing songs by poets like Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Osip Mandelstam, Guillaume Apollinaire and Boris Pasternak, set to beautiful and stylish music. Sponsored by The Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Charitable Trust and Hellens Manor 58 John Haynes and Tim Liardet Burgage Hall 4.15pm – 5.15pm £8 "John Haynes caused a media sensation when he snatched the Costa poetry award from Seamus Heaney with Letter to Patience, set in a small mud-walled bar in northern Nigeria, at a time of political unrest. “Full of wit, learning and humanity, this is wide writing that ought to be widely known." T S Eliot Prize nominated, >The Blood Choir grew out of the year Tim Liardet spent teaching in a young offenders’ prison. This is a rare and powerful account of prison life “bestowing the inmates’ lives with a sort of grace”. 59 Lars-Ante Kuhmunen: songs from the frontline of climate change Community Hall 6.00pm – 7.00pm £8 This is an unprecedented chance to hear the traditional song of the Sami performed by Lars Ánte Kuhmunen who is travelling from the Arctic Circle for this unique event. The yoik was not originally meant as entertainment. It was for the singer to come close to his thoughts, a way of remembering, almost a prayer, and earlier was part of the ceremonies of the Shaman. Though it was forbidden in Scandinavia for many years, the yoik flourishes again and is being redeveloped by new generations. With his album Birassis, Lars-Ánte Kuhmunen fuses the modern and the traditional and the result is exciting and deeply moving. Sponsored by The Pennington-Mellor-Munthe Charitable Trust 60 Ballads of the Book - James Yorkston, King Creosote, Emma Pollock. Hosted by A L Kennedy Community Hall 7.30 – 9.30pm £10 Bringing the Festival to a fabulous climax, this ambitious project arrives from Scotland where it was originally conceived by pop musician Roddy Woomble of Idlewild. Ballads of the Book brings together leading writers and musicians to create music of lyrical depth, intensity and originality. For one night only a chance to hear the celebrated folk musician James Yorkston, King Creosote, founder of the legendary Fence Collective and ex-Delgados singer-songwriter Emma Pollock performing songs by Bill Duncan, Laura Hird and Louise Welsh among others. Back to Top |
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