MIREHOUSE - WORDS BY THE WATER

Saturday 13/03/2010. Today's two events are off-site so to speak, being located in the country-house splendour that is Mirehouse as opposed to the Theatre by the Lake. Since last Monday's event - Jacob Polley/Matt Hilton/Amy Bloom, I have attended one other lecture in the Theatre featuring the writers (and birders) Tim Dee and Horatio Clare on the subject of "Observing Birds". Horatio Clare's book "A Single Swallow" is really a travelogue as he followed migrating swallows from Africa to his own home ground in South Wales. He was a strangely compelling speaker and had wonderful tales of his minimalist existance as he raced from one country to the next learning not only about the swallows but of life and human organisation as well, for instance he drew attention to the absurdity of national borders, but you have to be careful where you talk like that. Tim Dee's book "The Running Sky" tracked man's emotional, intellectual and social responses to birds and trys to discover why we are so fascinated by them. This was a very good show, but I bought no books.

To get to Mirehouse, the home of the Spedding family I had a four mile walk along the Carlisle road, timing it a bit neat given the trouble I had in finding the right building - poor signing Mirehouse! but I just made it and got one of the last available seats. John Burnside was here to talk us through the judging process and award the prizes, £350. for the winner and £100. worth of books for the nine runners up, good prizes for regional competition. The theme for this year's annural Mirehouse Poetry Competition was "The Bliss of Solitude" and the winning entry was from a local (though the 250 or so entries came from all over the country) poet called Jennifer Copley with her poem called "Now You're Gone" - The text of this poem can be seen on my Flickr page for Words by the Water. About half of the ten finalist were present and they read their poems witht the others being read by John Burnside all this made for a pleasant morning of poetry in a lovley setting, coffee and biscuits helped the thing along nicely. All attendees got a print out of each of the ten winning entries and I managed to get four of mine signed by their respective authors, I'll see if I can scan them in to my PC.

Before the poetry competition and John Burnside we listened to John Spedding reading from a collection of witty pieces which have been edited into a new publication called An Uncommonplace Book - The Wit of Nineteenth Century Mirehouse. Mirehouse famous throughout it's 350 years in unbroken ownership of the Spedding family has many connections with Thomas Carlyle, Tennyson and the Lake Poets and the sheer quality of the material linked to Mirehouse is stunning I could easily imagine it making a terrific TV programme (if it has not already been done). I bought a copy (£4.00) and had Mr. Spedding sign it, I have to say though that he was a poor reader and rather failed to get the best out of this treasure trove. But you can't argue with the man who owns the place.

In the evening my wife and I went to the Theatre by the Lake for our final event of the Literature Festival, to listen to the sharp-witted Jeremy Hardy which was very good indeed. We saw Jeremy, here, I think it was two years ago, and he was every bit as funny as then, though I think he swears a bit more than he did then. A good, if ireverant end to our Festival 2010. On Sunday we packed up and drove home to Ingleby Barwick.

JACOB POLLEY - WORDS BY THE WATER

Monday 08/03/2010. My motivation for this event is centered on Jacob Polley (the picture shows me with Jacob as he signed my copy of "The Brink"). Popularily described as an "up-and-coming young Cumbrian poet" he appeals to my interest in current Cumbrian writers and given the area's poetic precedents you have to admire anyone who makes an effort! With two collections of poetry published "The Brink" & "Little Gods" Jacob has now turned his hand to fiction and has recently had his first novel called "Talk of the Town" published. It's a tale of teenage life, angst and a bit of a who-done it? set in Carlisle. I have copies of these books and was keen to see him in the flesh, this being one of the attractions that litfests offer readers. I have to say though that he was a bit of a disappointment, the lecture was essentially about novels and writing styles so his poetry played no part in the proceedings, which was a shame as I'm sure that is his strength. He spoke vaguely, and sadly did not come over well, and I got the impression he would feel more comfortable with a reading group in a small-town library, sorry Jacob but your poor showing as a live performer, does not detract from your value as a poet. Jacob, like his fellow Cumbrian author, Sarah Hall is a product of the "creative writing" scene, when this came up in discussion he made a rather telling point is stating that if a young violinist showed great talent with a violin they wouldn't be left to get on with it themselves, a good teacher would be considered essential, true enough, provided you don't look to closely. We also heard from a bright and sassy American author called Amy Bloom - who was new to me, unlike Jacob Polley, she was a great speaker but her reading from her latest novel seemed very dull kitchen-sink stuff to me; I found myself thinking why had she bothered writing it and who would be intersted enough to pay to read it, not me for sure Mam, where is the Brit interest in hearing about "racoons invading the kithen ", or of "semesters"? Next came the interval and the opportunity to mull over a disappointing first half and that this event was turning out to be a bit of a duffer. Back to our seats and we were introduced to Matt Hilton, a Scot now living in the Carlisle area who has emerged as a new sort of Jack Higgins novelist of the fast moving - death and destruction on every page, no matter how fast you turn them school. I was considering not going back in for this session but was delighted that I did as Matt was hugely honest, modest, engaging and entertaining to boot, and he kept the audience enthralled by his personal story and how he goes about writing. His success has come after 20 years of effort and he is clearly enjoying every minute of it, so his performance not only saved the event from a medicore tag but was tremedously good fun too, just another of the good things that can happen at litfests. Well done Matt, I will buy one of your books someday! Promise.

PENELOPE LIVELY-WORDS BY THE WATER

Sunday 07/03/2010. A beautiful Sunday afternoon walked down to The Theatre by the Lake to hear Penelope Lively talking about "Reading Writing and Letters Home" a sort of my life in books discussion of her approach to writing. Unfortunately Penelope is badly afflicted by back problems and her stature looks very fragile all the more impressive then when she spoke with a clear confident and distinctive voice. She covered a lot of the things that a new writer never anticipates as he/she sets out to complete a work, the travel, correspondence and a host of incidents including friendships made (and the advantages of writing in the English language). I "discovered" her as a result picking up her novel "Making It Up" from the recycled books desk at last year's festival. Making It Up follows a storyline exploring what might have happened had an alternative turn been taken at pivital moments of decision in her life, an interesting model which I thought of immediately at Melvyn Bragg's talk yesterday when he metioned his notion of writing a novel about a man who "goes off in three different directions and then unites at the end" It would allow for good fictive possibilities, so I must keep my eye on Melvyn to see if he gets round to it. A most enjoyable event and nice to know that I now know Penelope Lively, so been there done that and enjoyed it too.

MELVYN BRAGG-WORDS BY THE WATER

Saturday 06/03/2010. Lord Bragg is the president of the festival and is one of the keynote speakers today. I attended his lecture but Joy did not. His subject was "Wigton and In Our Time" which is sufficiently wide in scope to offer lots of interesting commentary and so it proved. Melvyn is and was among friends, all us oldies who have been listening to him for years - In Our Time is required radio for me on Thursday mornings and (wonderfully) available as a podcast to allow me to catch up when the original broadcast is missed. Because of his Cumbria connections I have been picking up his books - sorry Melvyn, but mainly at charity shops and I see that his titles on my shelves are:

The Maid of Buttermere
Speak For England
The Soldiers Return
Crossing the Lines
A Son of War
Crystal Rooms
A Time to Dance
Land of the Lakes

All have been read with the exception of The Land of the Lakes. The following information has been copied over from my BritLit photo entry for Melvyn's lecture.
Melvyn Bragg is the President of the Festival and always makes an appreciated contribution, he is after all Cumbria's favourite son and man of letters who can look back over a long history of writing and broadcasting. Today I attended his lecture on "Wigton and In our Time" and of course it was a sell out and a great treat to listen him as he flattered his audience shamelessley. And how we lapped it up. I I have about six or seven of his titles and I keep thinking I should bring them over and get them signed, but I always forget.

Melvyn Bragg, now Lord Bragg of Wigton, was born in Wigton in 1939, and studied modern history at Wadham College, Oxford. He entered the media world through a BBC traineeship in 1961, taking over the editorship of BBC2's first arts programme, New Release, three years later. He is best known as the presenter of arts programs on television, especially 'The South Bank Show', in which he has made a sustained effort to present literature to a wide public in a popular and informal manner.

Over nearly four decades of pioneering broadcasting Melvyn Bragg has edited, produced and presented a wealth of award-winning documentaries and programmes across the cultural spectrum. He is a prodigious author, publishing the first of more than a dozen books, For Want of a Nail in 1965. He has also written a play, two musicals and several screenplays.

He is President of the National Campaign for the Arts and was made a Life Peer in 1998. He is Chancellor of the University of Leeds.

For futher biography see: www.visitcumbria.com/mbragg.htm

KESWICK VISIT

Friday 05/03/2010. Burnside Park has been open for owners since the beginning of the month and we have delayed our first visit of 2010 to coincide with the annual Words by the Water Literature Festival held in the splendid premises of The Theatre by the Lake on Derwentwater, Keswick. Our first events are not until tomorrow, Saturday so we have no pressure in getting settled into the lodge and getting the heating up to scratch and the new TV back in a proper behaviour mode, which fortunately turned out not to a difficulty.

Last November's floods have not yet been completely overcome, all of the retail outlets are open for business and indeed the approaches to the town all state Keswick is "open for business" I get a feeling that the retailers and bed and breakfast operators in Keswick are so used to a life of effortless and easy pickings that a sense of near panic breaks out at any prospect that streams of income may be interrupted and as soon as that happens (foot and mouth etc.) they immediately set up a charity to help themselves out! Perhaps I'm being a bit mean-spirited to the good folks of Keswick. I was in Keswick and Cockermouth during the week before the floods and Cockermouth is by far the worst affected most of the main street retailers are still closed and drying out, now that does seem a case where concerns are justified. In my picture it can be seen that the retaining wall that protects High Hill, Keswick from the river Greta is being strenghthened, it seems hard to believe that the river came over the wall and flooded the houses opposite, but it did. Interestingly a report has been published from the consulting engineers on this project (or at least someone with an interest in it) that when the work is completed it can not yet be guaranteed that the defences will hold. Given the undpredicatability of the weather that is probably a wise warning if of no comfort to the householders in the line of fire as it were.

EYE EYE!

Tuesday 02/03/2010. When I last visited my optician about a month ago I was a little disturbed to learn that the pressure in, or on the lens of my eyeballs was well above the desired level. It was about 25% up on normal and this apparently puts me at risk of glaucoma! In consequence I have been referred to an eye-consultant to have it checked out. Today I have my appointment at the Darlington Memorial Hospital for these tests and an examination. Under our National Health Service "choose and book" scheme. Darlington Memorial is the hospital with the shortest waiting list, in my area, of approximately 15 days, which I guess is pretty good for something, serious enough, but hardly life threatening. By comparison choosing either James Cooke Hospital in Middlesbrough or the Stockton on Tees General Hospital would have involved waiting in excess of 70 days, so a bit of a no-brainer there.

I arrived over an hour early for my appointment but was seen straight-away, to top marks (to us both) for that. The waiting room had about eight or ten "waiters" all my age or older, respectably dressed folks with paid-off mortgates who appear unusually interested in toilet provisions and make groaning noises as they lever themselves out of their chairs when called. I was in and out of consulting rooms for nearly two hours in all and had five different, consutations, examinations, tests eye-photos etc., from members of staff so no complaints about the attention received. With the exception of the photographer the senior staff were Asian in origin sporting varying degrees of familiarity with the English language. The waiting areas and consulting rooms were clean but dowdy with a background noise consisting of a stream of musical low-volume laughter-cum-chatter from the nurses and staff who easily matched the patients in number. Had they lacked the benefit of uniforms they would still be easily identifyable as their monopoly of coffee cups clearly indicates superior status. The outcome of the tests is quite good, my pressures are still high they are not so high as to require intervention or treatment, so my consultatnt will, to coin a phrase, "keep an eye" on me. The treatment being to "come back in six months" for a further follow-up examination. As he set about dictating his notes I enquired whether I could do anything to combat the risk, his answer, nothing more than a peremptory negative. So I took my leave groaning quietly as I levered myself out of my chair and made my way to the toilet.

I took a few pictures of the hospital but have managed to lose them (pratt) so to illustrate the day's activity my picture is of a poster in the eye clinic. I suppose in six months time I will have another chance to get a picture of the hospital building. (Eyes willing)!

ONCE A SLEUTH ALWAYS A SLEUTH

Monday 1st. March 2010. I take lots of digital photographs and upload them to my Flickr account and page under my Sir John Betjman inspired name of "summonedbyfells" (for safety they are backed up on my external hard drive though, alas that does not capture the text descriptions which I write for the pictures). In Flickr I am a member of several groups and am an "administrator" for the BritLit group and the sole working admin for the ScotLit group, that will be my little online baby for the flickr community. Obviously Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he of Ediburgh fame is a prime target for these groups and as I am keen on associated references, anything from street names to places of residence associated with our authors I keep my eyes open for the occasionla off-beat photo-ref that could be inluded and as can be seen from my pic, there is a new "Sherlock Holmes" movie doing the rounds and this advertising billboard was phtotgraphed in Stockton-on-Tees.