Literature at Debenham Arts Festival
Recordings of three of the literary events at the festival are available. You can hear Ann and Anthony Thwaite, Benedict Gummer and Bernadine Evaristo.
Debenham Arts Festival brought Hilary Mantel to read from Wolf Hall before she won the Booker Prize. Other writers who talked at the 2009 festival have had successes too. Read more about them.
Anthony Thwaite will be celebrating publication of his new volume, Late Poems, at Debenham Parish Church on June 19. He will be reading some of the poems published to mark his 80th birthday which falls during the festival.
Of his Collected Poems (published by Enitharmon in 2007) the Times reviewer said: "This is spectacular poetry. It deserves to be read: good readers deserve to read it."
Anthony Thwaite has recently competed editing a volume of Larkin's letters to his companion Monica Jones which will be published in September.
After writing five major literary biographies, Ann Thwaite has turned to her own family history in Passageways. She will be talking about telling the story of her own ancestry at Debenham Parish Church on Saturday, June 19 at 7.30pm, when she is appearing alongside her husband, the poet Anthony Thwaite.Her eight grandparents settled in New Zealand in the middle of the 19th century. She was born in London but went to New Zealand during the second World War, returning to England to complete her education.
It tells the story of Britain in the 14th century immediately before, during and after this catastrophe. It charts the spread of the plague from its inception in Europe and the moment it strikes the south coast of England, to its devastating march northwards through the British Isles, and provides a full and original account of the aftermath of the pandemic.
Roma Tearne was an artist who turned into a writer. Her novels, published by Harper Collins, are Mosquito, which was shortlisted for a Costa award; Brixton Beach, chosen for Amanda Ross's TV Book Club in February this year; and her Suffolk novel, The Swimmer, out on May 3.
Below is an edited extract from Roma Tearne's website where there is more about her writing and painting.
"Roma Tearne is a Sri Lankan born artist living and working in Britain. She arrived with her parents in this country at the age of ten. She trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly twenty years her work as a painter, installation artist, and filmmaker has dealt with the traces of history and memory within public and private spaces.
This is David Bedford biography from his website. There is lots more there about him and his books at his website.
I was born in the south-west of England, in 1969, and spent the first two or three years of my life living (with my mum and brother) in a caravan. My main memory from this time was wandering off by myself and being terrified by - well, the story goes that I came home crying ‘monster! monster!’. The monster turned out to be a very large tortoise that had escaped and was also wandering off by itself.
Bernadine Evaristo whose new book, Hello Mum, has been chosen by the librarian at Debenham as a community read will be coming to the festival to talk about it.
She will be at the Parish Church on Friday, June 19, at 7.30pm.
Hello Mum is about Jerome, a 14-year-old boy who gets into trouble. In the book, which looks at knife crime, he is humanised, not demonised. It can be borrowed from Debenham Resource Centre and other libraries. It is published by Penguin Books at £1.99.
Bernadine Evaristo is a British writer, born in Woolwich, south east London to an English mother and Nigerian father.
In addition to Hello Mum she has written Lara (Bloodaxe 2009), Blonde Roots (Penguin 2008), Soul Tourists (Penguin 2005), The Emperor’s Babe (Penguin 2001) and the first version of Lara (ARP 1997).
In this video Author Kate Mosse talks about engaging younger readers and the Spinebreakers, the Orange Prize's shdow youth panel on why they chose Blonde Roots as their winner in 2009.
Sheila Hardy discovered her love of writing about history after moving to Suffolk in 1977 and has written a series of titles including her life of Lady Nelson, the little known or understood wife of the victor of Trafalgar. She will be talking about this biography at the festival.
Sadly, Piper Terrett can't come to the arts festival, after all. She planned to talk about her role as the Energy Saving Trust's Green Voice of the UK, and her book The Frugal Life: How to Spend Less and Live More.
She says, "Can you forgive me, Debenham? Unfortunately, I’ve had to pull out of my appearance at the Arts Festival due to my commitments with the Billericay Greening Campaign. Our campaign to get residents to cut waste and energy use is gearing up and – how typical - the date for our summer fun day has switched and now clashes with the festival. I’m helping to organise it, so I have to be there. All good things seem to be happening on the same weekends this summer, by all accounts.
It’s a shame I can’t be in two places at once and very annoying, as I was really looking forward to meeting you all. But there it is. I wish you great success with the festival and will do my utmost to make amends by attending next year! "
You can hear more from Piper on her blog, The Frugal Life. It has gained an international following as she shares the challenges of living a green existence at her home in Billericay., Essex
James Coghill has had poems commended two years running in the Poetry Society's competition for young poet of the year. He lives in Coddenham and is now a student at Cambridge.
His poem Car Crash Geography is included in Acumen literary journal's 25th anniversary anthology.
Sarah Bower has published two historical novels and is also a prize-winning short story writer. Her first novel, The Needle in the Blood, was described by Eve's Alexandria as 'mind-bogglingly good' and 'the best medieval historical I've ever come across'.
Predictive by Anthony Thwaite
PredictiveI wanted Home but what I found was Good.
The system tricked me: I misunderstood.
The trees could not be seen for the dark wood.
The whole thing fitted snugly in my palm
And tried to pass its messages with calm
From palm to wrist and onward up the arm.
But something blocked intention. Whatever choice
Was left, unravelled: an uncertain voice
Spoke in oracular ambiguities.
So I am left with some dull metronome,
Counting mechanically. Again I come
To this, marked Good, when all I want is Home.
Anthony Thwaite will be reading from his work
in the Parish Church on Saturday June 19, at 7.30pm
Picturing
Debenham
photo exhibition
at the Leisure Centre
until July 8