Talks
The events below were part of the 2009 Festival, but you will get a sense of what to look forward to in the 2010 Ledbury Poetry Festival.
Want to know about ornithology, John Clare, Ancient Egyptian poetry, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Thomas Traherne or the origins of old nursery rhymes? Then Ledbury Poetry Festival is the place for you.
Saturday 4 July 2009
10. Desert Island Poems: Joan Bakewell and Francine Stock
The Festival plays tribute to Radio 4’s fabulous show and our castaway is Joan Bakewell, who will talk about the poems that have inspired her, entranced her and travelled with her through her life, with Francine Stock. Joan Bakewell has presented Late Night Line-up, Newsnight and Heart of the Matter. Her autobiography is called The Centre of the Bed and she has just published her first novel All the Nice Girls. Francine Stock presented Newsnight, Front Row and now presents The Film Programme. She has published two novels, A Foreign Country and Man-Made Fibre.
Extras:
The Society of Bookbinders Book binders
The Society of Bookbinders presents the traditional craft of bookbinding. Find out about the Society’s role in the preservation and conservation of the printed and written word. While many members are practising bookbinders, both professional and amateur, membership is open to anyone who is interested in the structure of books and the skills needed to preserve them.
A chance to meet, share ideas and deepen our appreciation of the Festival’s poets.
Sunday 5 July 2009
15. John Clare
This event will illuminate a particular time in the life of the great nature poet, John Clare. Both Iain Sinclair and Adam Foulds have written very different books inspired by the time around his incarceration in High Beach Asylum in Epping Forest. In 1841 John Clare fled Epping Forest and walked eighty miles to his home in Helpston, near Peterborough. In Edge of the Orison Iain Sinclair follows in his footsteps. In The Quickening Maze set in 1840, Adam Foulds brilliantly imagines the closed world of High Beech and its various inmates.
How to Get Published or Not With Bloodaxe Books Editor Neil Astley
Founder and Editor of Bloodaxe Books, Britain’s premier poetry publisher, Neil Astley will talk about poetry publishing and bookselling, offering useful insights for people hoping to get published or not
Monday 6 July 2009
23. Exploring Poetry: Ornithology with Joy Roderick
Today’s workshop will consider a selection of poems from Paul Muldoon’s Anthology: The Faber Book of Beasts. We shall begin with ornithology! Photocopies of all poems to be studied will be provided. This is intended to be a light-hearted session. No prior knowledge of poems, poetic techniques (or ornithology!) is expected.
Please book early for all the Exploring Poetry sessions to avoid disappointment.
Tuesday 7 July 2009
29. Exploring Poetry Sound Sense with Richard Willmott
Sound Sense: This workshop will focus on some of the ways in which sound and sense combine to intensify the reader’s experience, looking both at traditional poems and at recent work by poets such as Alice Oswald and Ruth Padel.
32. Edward FitzGerald and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
This delightful and amusing talk by Professor Tony Briggs will encourage is to take “a gentle, shruggingly Epicurean approach to life, death, the recession and parlimentary allowance scams” (Libby Purves). When the FitzGerald’s Rubayiat was first published it found readers among Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Edward Burne Jones and John Ruskin. With a sumptuous new bicentennial edition, this will be an enjoyable evening dedicated to wine, merrymaking and song.
Wednesday 8 July 2009
33. Exploring Poetry: Entomology with Joy Roderick
Today’s workshop will be based on a different selection of poems from Paul Muldoon’s Anthology: The Faber Book of Beasts. We shall move from ornithology to entomology! Photocopies of the poems to be studied will be provided. This is intended as a fun session. No prior knowledge of poems, poetic techniques (or entomology!) is expected.
34. Architecture Walk with Duncan James
A walk led by Duncan James, an expert on timber framed buildings. James has surveyed Ledbury’s timber buildings and gives an insight into the ‘Ledbury style’ pointing out the particular characteristics of the town’s ancient buildings and including buildings that are connected to local, Ledbury poets. Please wear good supportive footwear and be prepared for a two hour walk.
Please book early to avoid disappointment. Sponsored by Tinsmiths
36. Thomas Traherne: The Lost Manuscripts
At the turn of the twenty-first century six lost works of the seventeenth-century Herefordshire poet Thomas Traherne were found in London and Washington DC. Long hailed as a poet of innocence, nature and childhood, a new Traherne now emerges full of passion and politics, an advocate of desire and of human freedom. Denise Inge will talk about these major manuscript discoveries and how they are transforming our understanding of this important and fascinating writer. Denise Inge is an Honorary Fellow in Early Modern Research at the University of Worcester and a leading authority on Thomas Traherne.
Sponsored by The Dymock Poets
Thursday 9 July 2009
39. Exploring Poetry: Zoology with Joy Roderick
Today’s workshop will be based on a further selection of poems from Paul Muldoon’s Anthology: The Faber Book of Beasts. We shall widen our scope to cover zoology in general! Photocopies of poems to be studied will be provided. This is a light-hearted session. No prior knowledge of poems, poetic techniques (or zoology!) is expected.
Extras:
Festival Reading group
A chance to meet, share ideas and deepen our appreciation of the Festival’s poets.
Saturday 11 July 2009
50. Child-lore past and present
Find out where children’s rhymes come from and what they mean in this lively and engaging event. Bring along any rhymes you remember from your childhood or that you hear your children or grandchildren singing and chanting. Steve Roud is working on a book called Lore of the Playground, based partly on historical research and partly on a national survey of children’s lore, past and present. Previous publications include The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, the Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, The English Year (customs and traditions) and London Lore. He also compiles the Folk Song Index, which is a database of traditional song of the English-speaking world.
Sunday 12 July 2009
“The days that make us happy make us wise.”
Join Peter Carter, the Chairman of The John Masefield Society, for one of his favourite walks, from Eastnor Church to Ledbury past Dead Woman’s Thorn. There will be some uphill stretches but none of it taxing. Frequent stops for readings. Wear boots or stout shoes and bring well-behaved dogs on leads.
Sponsored by The John Masefield Society
61. Ancient Egyptian Poetry: The Tale of Sinuhe:
Talk and Live Reading
An ancient tradition is reborn after millennia of silence in this performance of the fascinating Tale of Sinuhe (composed c.1875 BC), which is acclaimed as the supreme masterpiece of Ancient Egyptian Poetry. This two part event will also include an introductory talk by Richard Parkinson, Assistant Keeper in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum. Parkinson is the Curator of the new Nebamun Gallery, which opened to ecstatic reviews in January 2009. He believes that ancient Egyptian poetry should be recognised as part of world literature and recent research emphasises the status of such works as imaginative poetry for performance. Actors Gary Pillai and Shobu Kapoor will bring this poem to life.
Gary Pillai has just finished in Wuthering Heights at the Lyric, Hammersmith, and last year was in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre. Recent films include Far North and The Passion (for TV). Shobu Kapoor has appeared in innumerable TV series from Eastenders to Casualty, Dr Who and Shameless. Films include Bend It like Beckham and Banglatown Banquet.
Talk 2009 highlights...
Steve Roud is working on a book called Lore of the Playground, based partly on historical research and partly on a national survey of children’s lore, past and present. Come and hear about his research and bring along any rhymes you would like to find out about.
Richard Parkinson Curated the new Nebamun Gallery in the British Museum, which opened to ecstatic reviews in January. He will introduce this fascinating event on Ancient Egyptian poetry and then we will hear two actors perform The Tale of Sinuhe, bringing to life an ancient poem that still resonates today.
In How Not to Be Afraid of the Dark, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell will explore how poets through history have responded to questions of astronomy and its ever progressing series of theories and discoveries.