Debenham Arts Festival

Our arts festival in June seems a long time ago but the plaudits are still coming in, says Lesley Grant-Adamson, the Debenham writer who organised the literary events.

Kay Macelhinney of the Suffolk Book League had just emailed her to say,  “The SBL was proud to be able to sponsor part of the excellent literary programme of the Debenham Arts Festival.  We'd like to congratulate the hard-working team of volunteers who managed to put together such a range of inspirational events. 'If anyone who attended them would like to go to something similar, then do have a look at our website www.sbl.org.uk.”

This is the report that Lesley wrote for the SBL newsletter that Kay edits:

"Don’t ever say we’re not ambitious in Debenham!  Last year we brought literary events to the village for the first time, and turned a weekend music festival into an arts festival.  This year we ran a ten day arts festival,  starting with two days of literary events.

"Weren’t we going just a bit too far?  After all, we are only a dot of 2,000 on a road from Ipswich to Eye.   True, but our first year’s literary events had been widely praised:  Hilary Mantel, reading Wolf Hall in the parish church ahead of her Booker win,  and a range of writers to appeal to all sorts of readers.   Soon after we started planning for 2010, we received the best accolade of all when Suffolk Book League offered to sponsor one of our  writers.  “How about Anthony Thwaite?“  I said,  Anthony being the only writer I had actually recruited by then.

"It was a happy choice.  Anthony, 80 in the week he read for us from his ‘Late Poems’,  shared the evening with his biographer wife Ann,  an exceptionally interesting evening with reminisces of their literary lives together,  as well as reading and enjoying a lively discussion with their audience.   Ann Thwaite read from ‘Passageways’,  a history of her own family, rather than another biography.   You haven’t entirely missed hearing them because the event was recorded for the arts festival archive and you can go to Listen Again on this website.

"The Thwaites live now in a mill house near Tasburgh in Norfolk, but their story  encompassed Anthony’s years as a literary editor (the first to publish Larkin’s most famous poem ‘This be the Verse’,  and Jenny Joseph’s ‘Warning’  about growing old and wearing purple) and his current work as Larkin’s literary executor.  He has two books out this year: Late Poems (published as a chapbook by Enitharmon) and ‘Philip Larkin’s Letters to Monica’,  to be published in October by Faber & Faber.

"Bernardine Evaristo drew our biggest audience, of more than 60, when she read from ‘Hallo Mum’, her novella about knife crime among young men in London, where she lives.  The book had been chosen for the libraries’ Community Read, so it was one of those rare occasions when the author knows that almost everyone there has read the book.   Bernardine is also on our Listen Again.

"Enthusiastic support for the festival from Melanie Wood, the librarian at Debenham,  made a crucial difference to the festival and the literary events in particular.  She spread the word to old and young,  ensured the writers’ books were available on her shelves in the weeks ahead, alerted reading groups and other organisations in the area,  and ran a programme of events at the library for young readers. And , if they were too young to read, they could listen to a storyteller, Shirley Bignell.

"Sheila Hardy, from Ipswich, talked at the Literary Lunch in the Angel pub about ‘Arsenic in the Dumplings: a case study of historic Suffolk poisonings’.  We already knew that one of her cases involved Debenham and she told us how.  What wasn’t anticipated, though, was that someone who had bought a ticket for the lunch was a descendent of one of Sheila’s poisoners and keen to share her own view of the affair.

"Mysteriously, Sarah Bower’s writing workshop was poorly attended.  Sarah, from Wortham, was very popular last year and returning by request of would-be writers. Those who  did turn up, to learn about the ‘Secrets of Writing Historical Fiction’,  found it rewarding. Indeed one remarked that she  ‘enjoyed it all hugely and felt privileged that the writing workshop was a boutique session!’

"When we asked the primary school whether they would like David Bedford, a children’s writer from Norfolk, to talk to the school for an hour during the festival, they were so keen that they extended his visit to two separate sessions, for older and younger children.   All this took place in the school, unlike last year when the children paraded as a Caribbean carnival  up the High Street and Gracechurch Street  to the Leisure Centre  -  photographed on the way by the East Anglian Daily Times.

"Roma Tearne,  who came to talk about her new novel ‘The Swimmer’, set near Orford where she once lived, found herself discussing the way the same ideas are explored in her novels and her paintings.

"Benedict Gummer, author of  ‘The Scourging Angel’, a study of England around the time of the Black Death,  had evolved into Ben Gummer, MP for Ipswich,  since agreeing to come to the festival.  A local author,  his family home is at Winston.  Ben’s talk was as impressive as his book,  for his scholarship and his interesting theory about the spread of the disease.   People also admired his skill at delivering it without a note, any props except his own book to quote from. Hear Ben on our Listen Again.

"The chance for a new writer to read poems before an audience is a precious thing, and in our New Poets session that is what we offered.   Two them  -  James Coghill and Polly Cox  - had won an invitation to read at the festival: it was the prize in the Crows Hall Country Fair Poetry Competition in May.

"The competition had been judged by Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales,  proving what wonderful things you can do with email.   Gillian and Carol Ann Duffy, the English Poet Laureate, have created a remarkable website full of information about poetry, with special areas for readers, writers and teachers.  www.sheerpoetry.co.uk.

"Among our other New Poets this year was Leila Anani,  very well known in the village because she works in the Co-op.   Away from the day job, she is a talented writer who is beginning to publish  -  on the radio, online  -    but hadn’t had the opportunity to read to an audience before.

"The Debenham Arts Festival has two aims: to encourage local talent, and to bring the best of the arts to the village.  I think we managed it again with this year’s literary events.   At the end of our two days we were awash with compliments on the programme,  summed up by the repeated remark, ”You have given me so much to think about.”   Well, that was the idea.

"After our two rainy days of writers,  the festival moved on (to the annual street fair,  drama, the church art show,  a film about a lone sailor from Woodbridge struggling in the Tasman sea) culminating in a sunny weekend of music, music, music.   And then it really was all over.

"Our thanks to SBL for sponsoring us, and to Mid Suffolk District Council for a grant to help with the cost of the literary events. "

The 2010 Debenham Arts Festival concluded on Sunday, June 27,  in gloriously sunny weather for the successful Music Day.  It rounded off  the festival's 10 day wide-ranging programme that provided such variety that there was surely something for everyone:  books, cinema, music, drama and even an urban workshop including graffitti.

There is still a chance, though, to catch up on some of the things you might have missed.  Half My Life Ago, local history audio installation, will be posted here soon. Meanwhile go to Listen Again on this website and hear Anthony Thwaite reading his poetry, and some of the other festival writers too.