Talks

We present a fabulous cocktail of talks on a range of subjects, from poetry and maths to Chaucer and Eric Gill. Getting Known, an event held in partnership with the Poetry Society, with explore among other things whether you can still make it after you hit the age of thirty. Plus we take both a poetical and scientific look at the northern lights.

Saturday 5 July 2010
5. Bookbinding

The Society of Bookbinders presents the traditional craft of bookbinding. Anyone who is interested in the structure of books and the skills needed to preserve them can find out about the Society’s role in the preservation and conservation of the printed and written word.

Sunday 4 July 2010
15. John Masefield Walk

“Next to these dear delights, I knew And loved, my daily western view” The John Masefield Society will today be launching its new ‘Town Trail’ map and guide. John Masefield often used Ledbury locations in his writings and the Town Trail will include literary references and all the places familiar to him in his youth. So please join Peter Carter, the Chairman of the Society, for a town walk, with a bit of country thrown in: Masefield’s “daily western view” to the River Leadon. This will be a gentle walk with frequent stops for readings. Sensible footwear will be needed along the Leadon and, as ever, well behaved dogs on leads will be welcome.

16. Getting Known

Prizewinning poets Neil Rollinson and Ian Pindar speculate on the
nature of success and what it takes to earn it. What steps do poets take to promote their poetry? Should the work be left to make its own way or can poets intervene in their careers and shape them? This lively discussion considers the role of prizes, publishing, reviews and online communities in building poet’s careers; and tells some dastardly literary tales of luck, liaisons and vaulting ambition. Ian Pindar is a winner of this year’s National Poetry Competition – the same accolade won by Neil Rollinson in 1997. They will read poems that have marked turning points in their careers. Event chaired by Judith Palmer, Director of the Poetry Society.

17. Christopher Reid on Ted Hughes

Ted Hughes described letter writing as “excellent training for
conversation with the world.” In his Letters of Ted Hughes, Christopher Reid’s “succinct annotation allows the full, unique personality to blaze out unimpeded, and the result is magnificent” (John Carey, Sunday Times). There are letters to his family, including his two children, Frieda and Nicholas, as children and adults. Letters to great friends, including literary personalities such as Seamus Heaney, and love letters. His subject matter ranges from shamanism, the environment, the role of education and the importance of Shakespeare. Christopher Reid will appear in conversation with poet Roz Goddard.

19. Billy Collins in conversation with Judith Palmer

Following on from what is bound to be a sell-out reading, Billy Collins appears in conversation with the Director of the Poetry Society, Judith Palmer. They will discuss ‘horoscopes for the dead’ and other fascinating and pertinent topics. In case you are wondering they will certainly not discuss the future of poetry.

Monday 5 July 2010
25. Exploring Poetry: Keats with Richard Wilmott

This session will provide an opportunity before tonight’s showing
of Bright Star to discuss some of the poems that appear in the film,
together with some of the other great poetry from Keats’s final
productive year.

27. Neil Astley Editor of Bloodaxe Books presents: How to get published or not.

Bloodaxe Editor and Festival publisher in residence Neil Astley
has published hundreds of poets but has also had to reject thousands of others and so can offer an informed, insider’s view of poetry publishing and bookselling. He will talk through the whys and wherefores of getting poetry published in books and magazines, offer a general reality check and answer individual questions.

28. Sarah Wood on William Langland and Piers Plowman

Piers Plowman is one of the most popular English works of the late middle ages and inspired a tradition of poems of social and religious satire. Sarah Wood will draw on recent research on Piers Plowman to discuss the evidence for the life of the poem's elusive author, William Langland, and his connections to the Malvern area. She will show how with his impassioned critique of contemporary institutions, William Langland is a poet for our own times as well as of his own. Sarah Wood is a lecturer in English at University College London and previously studied at Oxford University.

29. Knotwork with Jeanette McCulloch and Graham Hartill

The churches of Herefordshire and the Marches are a repository of
astonishing and important medieval art. From the Picasso-esque carnival that are the Kilpeck carvings, to the luminous imagery of the Kempley wall paintings, the area is adorned with important works that still inspire awe and contemplation. Artist Jeanette McCulloch and poet Graham Hartill have spent a year visiting these sites together and invite you to join them in the contemplation and appreciation of this extraordinary bequest.

Tuesday 6 July 2010
31. Exploring Poetry 2 Religious Imagery with Joy Roderick

Today’s poetry analysis workshop will explore ways in which poets use religious imagery. The session will include discussion of poems by Donne, Herbert, Blake, Hopkins, Plath and Duffy. Photocopies will
be provided. No prior knowledge is expected.

32. Geoffrey Chaucer and Eric Gill

In collaboration with William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones illustrated The Kelmscott Chaucer (1896) – regarded as one of the finest books ever printed in Britain. Only 32 years later Eric Gill started on his engravings for The Canterbury Tales, published by Robert Gibbings at The Golden Cockerel Press. Glenn Storhaug (of Five Seasons Press) argues that Gill’s response to Chaucer is far more spirited and observant than Burne-Jones’s. He shows Gill’s working drawings and block-proofs as well as final Cockerel and Kelmscott
pages, accompanied by lively readings in Middle English. It all adds up to an exuberant celebration of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Wednesday 7 July 2010
37. Orchard Days - Guided Poetry Walk

Take a walk around Dragon Orchard, a small traditional fruit farm that
has been tended by the same family for over 80 years, in the company of poet Charles Bennett and owner Norman Stanier. About Orchard Days, Poems from Dragon Orchard Sir Ian McKellen writes, “The verses and photos (by Richard Crompton) show that Dragon Orchard is a magical place, whatever the weather or season.” Charles Bennett’s latest collection with Enitharmon Press is
How to Make a Woman Out of Water.

38. Exploring Poetry 3 Natural World with Joy Roderick

Today’s poetry analysis workshop will explore ways in which poets use imagery from the natural world. The session will include discussion of poems by Hardy, O’Hara, Larkin, Hughes and Heaney and photocopies will be provided. No prior knowledge is expected.

39. Lyndall Gordon on Emily Dickinson

Lives Like Loaded Guns is the first new biography of Emily Dickinson
to be published in the UK since 1974 and offers a bold new interpretation of one of the greatest poets of all time. Drawing on previously untapped papers, Lyndall Gordon chooses to tell the story of Emily Dickinson’s legacy and genius through the lens of the family feud that continued over three generations, into our time. Lyndall Gordon is the prize-winning author of six biographies including T.S Eliot: An Imperfect Life; Virginia Woolf: A Writer’s Life; and Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft.

40. Charles Nicholl on Shakespeare

Charles Nicholl is a biographer and travel-writer whose books include The Reckoning, about the murder of Christopher Marlowe; The Fruit Palace, about Colombia; and the acclaimed biography Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the Mind. His latest book, The Lodger, was described by Jonathan Bate as ‘the most absorbing work of Shakespearean biography I have ever read’. He is currently writing a book about Dr Johnson’s Jamaican valet, Francis Barber.

Thursday 8 July 2010
39. Exploring Poetry 4 : Science with Richard Wilmott

This is an opportunity to consider the interplay of science and poetry, looking at examples ranging from Lucretius to Erasmus Darwin and Shelley, and from Sir Humphry Davy (no mean poet!) to Hugh MacDiarmid and Mario Petrucci.

Friday 9 July 2010

52. Michael Morpurgo

Awarded an OBE in 2006, Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain’s best
loved writers for children. He has written over 100 books including
War Horse, Alone on a Wide Wide Sea, The Butterfly Lion, Kensuke’s
Kingdom, The Wreck of the Zanzibar and Born to Run and won many
prizes. His book, The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, spent an astonishing 20 weeks in the bestseller charts. War Horse has since
been turned into a smash hit play running for two sold out seasons at The National and now at the New London Theatre. His latest book is Kaspar Prince of Cats. Come and hear Michael Morpurgo read his favourite poems and talk about the part that poems and stories have played in life.

53. Will Stone on Nick Drake

Although he failed to find a wide audience for his work when he was alive, and he died when he was 26, Nick Drake now ranks among the most influential singer-songwriters of the last fifty years. The often sparse, melancholy beauty of his three albums, Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter and Pink Moon are ageless and will no doubt be rediscovered anew by successive generations. Poet Will Stone will discuss Nick Drake’s genius and corresponding malaise.

Saturday 10July 2010
56. Nine Arches Press Editor's talk

Meet the founders of Nine Arches press, Matt Nunn and Jane
Commane and hear three Nine Arches poets throughout the day.
Based in the Midlands with a national outlook, Nine Arches has so far published ten pamphlets and books from both up-and-coming and more established poets, plus the magazine Under the Radar.

Sunday 11 July 2010

70. Offas Press Editor's talk

Meet the founder of Offa's Press, Simon Fletcher and hear three offa's Press poets throughout the day. Off's Press is a new and exciting regional press dedicated to promoting poetry that's good on the page and on the stage. Books and CDs will be on sale.

73. Professor Marcus du Sautoy on Poetry and Maths

Marcus du Sautoy is Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science (having taken over from Richard Dawkins), Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of New College and has been named one of the UK's leading scientists by The Independent on Sunday. He is the author of the best-selling popular mathematics book, The Music of the Primes and his new book is Finding Moonshine: a mathematician's journey through symmetry. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2006 entitled THE NUM8ER MY5TERIES and he is currently writing and presenting a series for the BBC called The Story of Maths. This is the first time he has explored the links between poetry and maths, in what is bound to be a fascinating event.

77. Desert Island Poems: Michael Buerk and Francine Stock

Michael Buerk says, "I still think being a foreign correspondent is the best job there is, because of the sense of witnessing history," (The Times). During his long and distinguished career he spent 20 years as a foreign correspondent and reported from more than 50 countires. He has also presented the BBC Nine O'Clock News, and non-news programmes such as The Moral Maze and The Choice. His autobiography is called The Road Taken. He will reflect on his desert island poems with Francine Stock, who presented Newsnight, Front Row, and now presents The Film Programme. She has published two novels, A Foreign Country and Man-Made Fibre.