Debenham Arts Festival

Benedict Gummer, the historian, who is due to talk about his first book at the festival seems to have taken the advice David Cameron gave to Annunziata Rees-Mogg. As the Conservative candidate for Ipswich he has chosen to be called Ben Gummer.

Google "Benedict Gummer" and you get a first page with nothing but items about the author of the The Scourging Angel. "Ben Gummer" finds the politician. Annunziata Rees-Mogg was famously advised by Cameron to call herself by the more voter friendly Nancy Mogg. Naturally, he says it was a joke.

Benedict/Ben is very local to Debenham: his father lives in the next parish. There was a nice review of The Scourging Angel in the Daily Telegraph which concluded:

Since Gummer is the Conservative candidate for Ipswich, his first book may also be his last. But given that his Labour opponent enjoys a 12 per cent majority, perhaps there are grounds for hope that his literary career is not yet over. The Scourging Angel is an elegant and self-assured debut from such a young man, and Suffolk’s gain would surely be history’s loss.

I have read and enjoyed it and would like to hear him talk about the book. Fingers crossed that whatever the outcome of the election, he will be here in June.

What have we done! The festival is over and everyone is telling us how much they enjoyed it and asking what we are going to do next year. It is great that so many enjoyed the events but we are going to take some time for rest and recovery before even considering whether there will be a next year.

For me, the moment when I realised it was all worthwhile was when 200 children from the primary school in their Caribbean carnival procession arrived at the community centre to hear Natalie Williams to read her stories. 

The excitement on the faces when they arrived, when they listened and asked the difficult questions only children ask was a great reward. And the they had the chance to try on real carnival headdresses and play a few notes on a steel pan.

It was a great four days. Now for some rest.

 

 

So this is it.

The festival is due to start in a little less than 30 minutes and with a bit of luck and some good weather, it should be a major success.

Well done to everybody involved and good luck 

 

Manny wrote a little while ago about Terence Blacker, the writer, who is appearing at the Festival as a musician in Something Happened.

Well, another musician, Gary O'Connor who plays guitar and sings with Long Bone Trio is also an artist and writer. Hearing about the books side of the Festival he volunteered to take part in that.

We are very pleased that Gary, who is an artist, writer and musician will be talking about his novella The Field on Saturday afternoon. He will be appearing with two local poets, James Coghill and Peter Warren at the Red Lion at 3pm on Saturday

Enterprise Inns have assured us that they will have new people in the Angel immediately and that all events arranged there can go ahead. This is good news for the festival although I am still sad that Thea and Paul who had so quickly made themselves a part of the community will not be with us for the festival.

It is sad that their hopes of establishing a successful business have foundered in negotiations with the pub company. All the signs were good -- the food and drink too -- and we hoped they wold be with us for a long time. So did they. 

But it is a relief that we do not now expect to have to find new venues. We were thinking we would have to have a Literary Picnic which would certainly have been another innovation for the Debenham Arts Festival.

 

Well here it is. This is the crisis we hoped wouldn't come about - but we always knew it would.

For those of you who don't know, the Angel Inn is about to close

Now this is a sad loss to the village as over the last few months, Paul, Thea and all the team have turned the place from a drab and dreary drinking den into a lively, vibrant centre to meet, to drink and to eat. Just what the village needs.

It seems now though that the big boys that own the premises have stepped in with their usual disregard for the communities that earn them their money and made it unworkable as a business.

Whatever the reason for their leaving, all we can do is wish them the very best of luck for the future.

But oh, what a hole it leaves in the festival plans.

Literary lunch and other events, the family ceilidh, music on Saturday night, art exhibitions, they all now need a new home.

The Angel was definitely a key part of the programme so we're going to have to get our heads together and sort out some alternatives.

So just when we thought we had it all in the bag.....

C'est la vie....

A website is always a work in progress. There is something more definite about anything that is printed – it makes it everything seem so much more real. It is going to happen.

 So I was very pleased to get the final version of the programme from Simon Abbott the graphic designer whose studio is next door to my home/office. He has put a huge amount of voluntary work into the logo, posters and the programm.

Yet there will be additions and, inevitably, changes which will be put on the website. So please sign up for our newsletters and keep on coming back to the site for the latest. We are also adding more and more informantion about the people taking part, including videos and audio tracks.

Paul MacInnes has been asking, on the Guardian Music blog, for  readers suggestions of towns immortalised in songs — borough ballads, district ditties and urban anthems.
It set me wondering whether there are any Debenham songs. Any suggestions would be well received as would be new compositions.

We've been very fortunate to add the acoustic duo Something Happened to our lineup for the Sunday music event but whilst reading the Telegraph I came accross an article by Terence Blacker.

Now my brain isn't the fastest at the best of times and I was trying to figure out where I'd heard that name before.... Then I saw the email address and realised this is the same  chap who is booked to play the festival.

Well I reckon the literary line up this year is far too good already so it's great to have pinched him for the musicians .... Next year tho'.......

Terence became a full-time writer in 1983 and has written children's books and mysteries for adults. His first children's book If I Could Work was published in 1987 and his first adult novel, FIXX, won critical acclaim and was described by The Guardian as a "tour de force". He is an active member of English PEN, and is also an East Anglian Writers member.

He writes a weekly column for The Independent newspaper and writes the "Endpaper" for The Author. For many years, he wrote the "Harvey Porlock" column in The Sunday Times, as well as a column about the book business for Publishing News.

He also plays great guitar.....

 

 

Today there was a sense that all the planning that Manny, Kate, Mike, Claire and others are doing is coming together. More content was added to the site and the picture of a really exciting four days in July is emerging. 

A young film maker is to show some short films – more about that soon. Sheila Hardy, a writer from Ipswich is to talk about her book on Nelson's wife. And we hope to have news of poets soon.

On the music side we will have more on the exciting line-up very soon.