Lampjuly2012

InterviewsLouise ParkerNick ReesAngus StirlingJulia CopusGeoffrey & Catherine Bass

July-Sep 2012

Shining a light on literature, art, music and performance in Taunton & West Somerset

Taunton Literary FestivalProgrammeCalendar of EventsSomerset Art WorksBinham Grange Art ExhibitionImportance of Being EarnestQuartz FestivalIllumina Short Story

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Contents

05 Introduction by Jeremy Harvey06 Louis Parker: Jazz Singer10 The Fourth Binham Grange Summer Art Exhibition14 The Importance of Being Earnest17 Taunton Literary Festival Programme27 Calendar of Events32 Somerset Art Works33 A Potters Life: Nick Rees & John Leach34 Artists Angus & Kitty Stirling36 Quartz Festival38 Julia Copus: Poet40 Early Blackdowns Music42 Illumina at Hestercombe Gardens44 Short Story: Anthony Howcroft

The views expressed in Lamp are not necessarily those of the editorial team. Copyright, unless otherwise stated, is that of the magazine or the individual authors. We do not accept liability for the content or accuracy of the magazine including that of the advertisers.

We have been delighted by the positive response the first issue of the LAMP magazine has received and welcome you to the second issue for August/September, increased from 40 to 48 pages. It includes the full programme of the second Taunton Literary Festival, which takes place between 22-30 Sep-tember.

Lionel Ward

Editor: Lionel WardCopy Editor: Jo WardAdvertising: Clair BennettEvents Compiler: Julie Munckton

All enquiries:[email protected]� ��7742c/o Brendon Books,Bath Place, Taunton

Co-educational day & boarding: ages 13–18 > telephone: 01823 328204

[email protected] > www.kings-taunton.co.uk

Saturday 6th October—10 am arrivalPlease call us to reserve your place.

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O P E N D A YO P E N D A Y

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Dear Reader

Taunton is a good place in which to live. Three reasons, among many, are the excellent service at Brendon Books, the Literary Festival, and the support LAMP is giving to the arts.

Lionel Ward acquired his bookshop in February, 1989. He ran our first Literary Festival in 2011. By then he saw the need for a magazine to cover the arts in depth, available to anyone. He knew there were lots of good things happening in and around Taunton but that the coverage of them was ‘severely lacking’. To test his hunch he looked at costs, conducted some interviews, realised he had good material, and received encouraging feedback. And so LAMP was published this May.

Since when he has been amazed by the ‘positive comments’ he has received, indeed overwhelmed by them. He sees his bookshop, the festival and the magazine as linked in a natural way, each helping the others. His success has motivated him to bring out further copies of LAMP, his huge initial input having proved very rewarding.

LAMP will continue if he receives enough advertising support. Secondly, he needs you and me to call in and pick up a batch of this edition to distribute among our friends, neigh-bours and organisations in order that the magazine may be distibuted as widely as pos-sible.

Thank you, Lionel, and many congratulations. I look forward to reading this new number.

Jeremy HarveyChairman of the Somerset Art Gallery Trust (SAGT)

Growing up in a mu-sical family and be-ing named after Louis Armstrong all helped to shape talented sing-er Louise Parker’s fu-ture jazz career. She is looking forward to her forthcoming perform-ance at Ilminster Arts Centre in August.

Having a father in the army meant the young Louise was constantly on the move, growing up mostly in Germany, but also different parts of the UK, and even a stint in the Far East. ‘So I don’t have any roots anywhere’, she says, quickly add-ing, ‘my roots are now firmly in Devon.’ It was during a cycling holiday to Devon and Cornwall that she fell in love with the West Country, finding the beau-ty of the region and the friendly people particularly appealing. She had been living in London for two years, where she had been training in Hackney to be a midwife. She describes how returning from holiday to London was ‘a shock to the system’ and decided it was time for a change. In 1988 she moved to Plymouth, taking up a post at Freedom Fields Hos-pital-and hasn’t looked back since!

Both Louise’s parents were music lov-ers, with an extensive and wide ranging collection of records. While her mother enjoyed listening to folk, calypso and opera, it was her father in particular who was an avid jazz fan, playing records by artists from Louis Armstrong and Bix Beiderbecke through to [John] Col-trane and [Charlie] Parker. ‘As a child he would sit me down and we would listen to music together’ Louise fondly recalls. ‘He was always keen to point out virtuoso solos, inventive arrangements or beautiful melodies. His sense of rap-ture and enthusiasm was infectious and I learned how music can transport you - make you laugh and cry, and all other emotions in between.’ Her mother grew up in Jamaica and as a child sang in the choir at her local Bap-tist church. ‘She used to sing at home all the time’, remembers Louise, ‘and has an absolutely beautiful soprano voice, but was always too shy to sing in pub-lic.’ Her father on the other hand would sometimes sit in to sing with jazz bands, including Kenny Ball’s Jazz Men (sing-ing Dr Jazz).

As a teenager Louise discovered Bil-lie Holiday, and subsequently became completely obsessed with her and mu-sic in general, but unlike her idol never thought to do it herself until she reached her late thirties. Over the past decade her own vocal talents have earned her a great reputation in the jazz world, and she has enjoyed performing with (among many others) the likes of BBC Jazz Award winners Alan Barnes and Craig Milverton, as well as the late great Humphrey Lyttel-ton who regarded Louise as his favourite singer and described her as “a splendid new voice on the block” with a sound that “swings like fury”. Indeed, Louise Parker became a regular performer on Humph’s Best of Jazz - the BBC Radio 2 show he presented from 1968 until shortly before his death in 2008, and recorded with him on his last CD Cor-nucopia �. Her debut album, Don’t Explain was recorded live in 2004 and gives a won-derful insight into her abilities, doing justice to covers such as the Newley/Bricusse-penned Feeling Good- a song

Feeling Good:Louise Parker

Louise Parker in performance

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first performed by Cy Grant, but which Nina Simone made her own on her 196� album I Put a Spell on You, plus Gersh-win’s classic Summertime, and other jazz standards such as You Go To My Head, Afro Blue, and a nod to Billie Holiday in the album’s title track Don’t Explain. A powerful live performer, Louise has become a big hit on the festival circuit, wowing audiences at Glastonbury, Port

Eliot and the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival with her skilful interpreta-tions of various musical styles, incorpo-rating swing, blues and gospel classics in her repertoire. She has a warm, bluesy gospel sound to her voice that captures the passion and spirit of some of the great jazz divas, not least her early inspi-ration Billie Holiday, ‘I’ve been asked to do some numbers from my tribute to Bil-

lie Holiday’ she says when asked what the audience can expect from her forth-coming show at Ilminster Arts Centre, ‘but I will be doing some other stuff as well...I mostly do jazz and blues stand-ards, with one or two reggae influenced tunes and a couple of gospel numbers.’ She will be joined on the night by The Craig Milverton Trio, with whom Louise has just recorded a live album. ‘We’ve

been playing together for five or six years now...we know how each other op-erates but there are still surprises!’ Craig Milverton also played piano on her sec-ond album No More Strangers which was highly praised by Humphrey Lyttel-ton on his Best of Jazz radio show, and who described Craig as “someone who’s given Louise much encouragement, and should feel well rewarded by this hugely

impressive self-produced album.” Louise says she is looking forward to play Ilminster Arts Centre once again, having received a warm and enthusiastic reception when she last played there 2 years ago. No doubt the venue is pleased to welcome her back, as with a number of new projects lined up, Louise is most certainly in demand. ‘At the moment I am summoning up the courage to learn some Nina Simone material’ explains Louise of her being booked to do a tribute concert at Corn-wall’s Calstock Chapel in March next year. She has also recently joined an African-influenced band, with original music written by the band leader Pete Scott, which she describes as being ‘very up-tempo and good to dance to’, and is considering starting up a funk band, add-ing ‘I am also the lead soloist in a local gospel choir - phew! - now I know why I’m never in!’ There are a number of musicians she would like to work with given the chance, among them Christian McBride, Monty Alexander, Gareth Williams, Dave Green, Joe Sample, Buena Vista Social Club and Herbie Hancock. ‘Be patient. Learn your skill by do-ing as many gigs as you can get in the book’ is her advice to upcoming young performers just starting their careers in music, ‘listen to music as much as you can. The audience might not listen to you. Don’t worry about it, one day they will. A lot of the time, being a musician is not glamorous - it’s hard work. Most importantly, keep going and never lose the joy’.

By Sara Loveridge

Hear Louise perform on Friday 3rd August

Ilminster Arts Centre at The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. At 8pm. Tickets: £12. Pre-Show Supper £9.50 (at 7pm). Box Office: 01460 54973. Website:

www.themeetinghouse.org.uk.

Louise Parker with Humphrey Lyttelton

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need ot read music.We are part of the ‘natural Voice Network’ and we occasionally perform to raise funds for water aid. We sing at ‘Dunster by Candlelight’ and we’ve performed at various events in Taunton, in Bridgwater Arts Centre, and we join other community choirs from the whole region each year for The Big Sing’in Bristol. however, there is no pressue on members to

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The Binham Grange Summer Art Exhibi-tion is now firmly es-tablished as part of the August calendar. Mela-nie Deegan looks back at its origins and de-velopment and looks forward to this years exhibition.

During a casual conversation at a West Somerset business development meeting in March 2009 the seeds for what would become Gallery 4 Art were sown. Jim Munnion (painter and printmaker), Melanie Deegan (sculptor) and a number of others interested in art were discuss-ing the lack of suitable venues for group art exhibitions in the area. One of the group who had recently dined at Bin-ham Grange suggested approaching the venue with a view to using their barn to hold an exhibition. A meeting was soon arranged and Marie Thomas of Binham Grange was keen to give the idea a go. Binham Grange is a unique Jacobean

house of great antiquity with an award-winning restaurant surrounded by formal and informal gardens. Mentioned in the 1�th century in association with Cleeve Abbey it is surrounded by �00 acres of beautiful Countryside. The first exhibition was booked for two weeks in August 2009. Working on a tight time frame and even tighter budget Jim and Melanie then sourced suitable artists to join the group. The prospect of turning a listed cob built barn into a gal-lery space raised some interesting chal-lenges. The need to avoid any damage to the walls resulted in a slightly Heath Robinson hanging system attached to the rafters giving the artists some headaches handing work where the walls diverged from vertical, a frequent occurrence. For budgetary reasons Ikea products featured strongly in the lighting system and plinths were created from bales of straw. With hard work and improvisation the exhibition opened on Saturday 1�th August featuring paintings and prints by Jim Munnion, Jan Tricker and Bea Ham-mond, sculpture by Melanie Deegan, jewellery by Penny Price, ceramic work by Lucy Brown, photographs by Andrew Hobbs and life size portraits by Bill Ley-

shon. The whole event was such a suc-cess that it was booked again for the fol-lowing year. Gallery 4 Art emerged as a title for the group when the need to develop a web-site for promoting future events required a suitable domain name. Inspired by the positive feedback from the first exhibi-tion Jim and Melanie spent some time defining the approach that the group should take. Binham Grange had demon-strated the mutual benefits for everyone involved by working with a location that already had a visitor base and reputation for good food while providing space for an exhibition that would bring many new visitors to the venue. In the prevailing economic climate creating a model that would benefit everyone involved was seen as a key factor for the development of the group. Making art accessible was also important and by using spaces that are a not conventional art gallery it was hoped to encourage people to visit the exhibition as much because they were interested in the venue as in the art. Developing this approach the next ex-hibition was held in February 2010 at Kilver Court in Shepton Mallet followed by another successful summer exhibition

The Fourth Binham Grange Summer Art Exhibition

Historic Binham Grange, mentioned in the 1�th century in association with Cleeve Abbey

The Seahorse in the Garden

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THE LYNDA COTTON GALLERY

ANGUS STIRLING KITTY STIRLING

46 Swain Street, Watchet.

The Lynda Cotton Gallery46 Swain Street,

Watchet.TA23 0AG.

Open daily 10:00am - 5:30pm.

www.thelyndacottongallery.co.uk(01984) 631814

Monday 10th - Sunday 22nd September

An exhibition of work by Father & Daughter.

‘COMMON GROUND’

at Binham Grange in August 2010. Each exhibition has added more to the identity and infrastructure for the group building on the collection of display panels, lighting systems, sig-nage and catalogues for events. The membership has also grown and well over thirty artists have now exhibited with Gallery 4 Art. Another chance conversation result-ed in the winter exhibition for 2011 being held at Blackmore Farm near Cannington, a 1�th Century manor with great hall and chapel. The pros-pect of sitting beside large log fires in February made the venue particu-larly attractive for the artists. Again an interesting challenge as a gallery space with suits of armour and imple-ments of destruction to work around. The farm shop café provided food for visitors who were often queued out of the door. Blackmore has now become a regular winter venue for the group and the exhibition for February 201� is already booked. This year will be the fourth summer at Binham Grange. The exhibition will run for three weeks from 11th August until the 2nd September and is open every day from 10.�0am to �pm. There is plenty of parking and entry to the exhibition is free of charge. Artists work will be displayed the in the barns and gardens surrounding the house. The Grange Restaurant will be serving coffee, lunches and afternoon tea each day in the formal dinning room and on the garden terrace. Providing a vibrant and varied exhi-bition is important and artistic styles within the group vary considerably. The delicate, subtle, architectural

drawings of Rebecca Birtwhistle con-trast with the dramatic, vibrant ab-stract paintings of Diane Burnell. Ce-ramic artists Lucy Brown and Renee Kilburn have very different styles. Renee’s work is detailed, tactile and oozing with colour while Lucy cre-ates delicate, almost ghost-like lamps or quirky jugs and bowls. Photogra-pher Andrew Hobbs produces ob-servant, often black and white stud-ies of local landscapes and people. Nic Wingate’s photography is often a very different high-speed sports shots in vivid colours, Nic also provides much of the printed signage for the group and a photographic record of exhibitions. Other regular exhibitors include Tracey Hatton whose draw-ings and paintings have a strong link to the local landscape. Alison Jacobs detailed images of animals with their plain coloured backgrounds sit well in

the barns around Binham Grange. Jenny Barron, Leo Davey, Sara Dud-man, Louise Waugh and Penny Elfick have also participated in previous ex-hibitions. The outdoor sculpture col-lection has featured work by Fiona Campbell, Tom Wood, Jay Davey, Sam Jeffs, Anthony Rogers, Kate Semple, and Chris Webb. Later in the year Gallery 4 Art will be participating in the Hilliers Au-tumn Festival, Romsey, Hampshire, a new venture for the group to explore opportunities outside the local area. The group have also been recently approached by Children’s Hospice South West about the possibility of participating the Art for Life event in Devon during September. Longer term Gallery 4 Art intend to explore other opportunities further afield and to investigate the possibilities for pop-up exhibitions.

Binham Grange Summer Art Exhibition11 August - 2 September 201210.30am to 5pm every day

Binham Grange, Old Cleeve, nr Minehead, Somerset TA24 6HX

Some of the artists exhibiting in the 2009 Binham Grange Summer Exhibition

The Fire

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A Trivial Comedy for Serious PeopleThe Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

The importance of Being Ernest was first performed on Valentine’s Day 1895 at St James’s Thea-tre, London, when Wilde was at the pinnacle of his success. It followed the success of Lady Wind-ermer’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and An Ideal Husband (also 1895).

It also marked the beginning of his downfall. Wilde sued The Marquess of Queensberry for comments he had made about him as a result of his relationship with his son. Though Wilde withdrew from the libel action, the activities of the defence in delving into his private life led to him being arrested, charged and convicted of gross indecency, resulting in his imprisonment. The negative publicity also meant that the play had a much shorter run than it would otherwise have had (though there were 83 perfomances). However, it remains his most popular play and has been successfully translated into several languages.

Antecedents

Both Oscar Wilde’s father and mother were writers. His father Sir William, was a noted ear and eye surgeon at a hospital in Dublin who also wrote books on biography, medicine, archaelogy and folklore. His mother, Jane, also wrote poetry under the name of ‘Speranza’ (hope in Italian) for the nationalist Young Irelanders and was the author of a critically aclaimed translation of The First Temptation by M. Schwab. They were not the most conventional of couples. It was not widely known that Sir William had three illegitimate children before his marriage to Jane, though this did not seem to be resented by her. The eldest of the children, named Henry Wilson, was born in 18�8 and employed by Sir William in his hospital. The two girls, Emily and Mary (born in 1847 and 1849), and were adopted by his brother. They died in a bizarre accident when their crinolene dresses went up in flames while they were admiring them in front of an open fire. In later life, following the receipt of his knighthood, he was embroiled in controversy and a trial, foreshadowing his son’s trial some �0 years later. A patient of his, Mary Travers, claimed she had been seduced by him two years earlier. She circulated a pamplet parodying the Wilde’s and her supposed seduction under the influence of choloroform. When Lady Wilde complained to Mary Traver’s father, Mary brought a libel case against Lady Wilde. Sir William refused to take the stand. Mary Travers won the case but was only awarded a farthing in damages. Lady Wilde had to pay £2,000 in legal costs.

Lady Wilde, ‘Speranza’

Sir William Wilde Scene from the original production at St James’s Theatre London between Algernon (Allan Aynesworth) & Jack (George Alexander)

1�

selves on a sound footing by attracting a big enough audience, he believes, does re-quire investment in marketing in addition to energy and commitment for, ‘Only so much can be achieved by word of mouth.’ It was, therefore, with great relief as well as surprise that they were granted an arts council award six years ago. For the first time they were able to employ a Theatre Manager and a Communication Manager. Since then, Bill feels that their company has gone from strength to strength. They are now in the middle of their latest production, The Importance of Being Ear-nest, which comes to Taunton’s Vivary Park at the end of August. Though they have had their share of problems with the awful June weather they only had to cancel one per-formance on their tour - when they found the field in which they were due to perform was under two feet of water. The audiences and actors have soldiered on through the rain or sometimes they have been offered alternative indoor venues. They performed

for a whole week at the exposed Minack Theatre. However, despite the occasional weather problems they achieved near sell out audiences for all the performances. Now that the weather seems to be taking a kinder direction they look forward to an-other well attended performance in Vivary Park - for surely one of the funniest plays in the English language - perhaps in the dry or even in glorious sunshine.

Set in the year 1912, with the Titanic sinking, mass production just beginning on the Morris Oxford and the Turkey Trot causing outrage across the dance floors of polite society, this tale of the strange con-tents of a handbag found at Victoria station has been subtly adapted to extract every drip of humour and contemporary relevance in this open air production by the Miracle Theatre which takes place in Vivary Park, Taunton.Finding there was very little theatre to speak of in Cornwall in the late seventies, Bill Scott got together a group of like-minded actors (Bill had studied drama at Birmingham University) and formed The Cornish Miracle Theatre. They put on their first production in the summer of 1979, The Beginning of the World or Origo Mundi, the first part of the Ordinalia or Cornish Mira-cle Plays. They adapted the play and gave it their own interpretation and were pleased with the response from the audience. It was intended as a one-off performance but they soon began to establish themselves with regular outdoor performances, putting on other classic plays, though usually adapted, for example, to suit a small cast of ac-tors. They also began to perform original works, many of them written by Bill (and in which, in the early days, he acted). They toured English Heritage sights producing humorous interpretations of events in his-tory (such as the Spanish Armada) accom-panying medieval jousting tournaments and battles reenacted by The Sealed Knott. Looking back at their productions over �0

or more years, they have produced a breath-tak-ing variety of repertoire and brought high qual-ity theatre to outdoor venues across Cornwall and the South West. In addition to Miracle Plays, adaptions of Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Gogol and other classics and tongue-in-cheek histories, their productions have iincluded Georgian-style panto-mimes, a Victorian music hall show about Dr Liv-ingstone, a medieval farce (The Scapegoat), pieces of science fiction (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Time Machine and Cat’s Cradle) as well as the modern masterpieces of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs.

Finding sufficient funding, as ever in the world of the theatre, has sometimes been a challenge. In the early days they were grateful for what they could get. Recently, Bill donated some of their old material to a performing arts archive and dis-covered a letter from bygone years from a local garage agreeing to sponsor them for £2� and an-other from their local council - also offering £2� funding. He remembers these as ‘red letter days.’ Being able to develop the theatre and put them-

See The Importance of Being Earnest at Vivary Park, Taunton

Friday 31 August - Saturday 1 September2pm 7.30pm

Tickets from The Brewhouse Theatre: Full £12 60+ £12 Conc. £8

Box Office: 01823 283244 www.thebrewhouse.net

The Full Cast

Miracle at St Mawes

Creative Writing for BeginnersThe Victoria Rooms, Fore Street, Milverton,TA4 1JUA new course begins Thurs 20th Sept (1-3pm)

This warm & supportive class provides the opportunity for both new & experienced writers to get pen to paper & amass lots of fresh writing material, from which fiction or autobiography-based projects may be developed. Briony uses simple techniques designed to open the writer up to a world of tantalising images, ideas, memories, sensations & associations. Via a variety of forms, from lists to letters, poetry to prose, monologue to dialogue, travel writing to dream writing, students will explore the nature of their own voices & learn how to use them with confidence & flare. A 10 week course costs £120. For more info & bookings email [email protected] or go to www.brionygoffin.co.uk Briony Goffin teaches Creative Writing at Cardiff University, alongside facilitating courses & workshops in the community. She has published widely on the art of teaching creative writing & supporting the student writer to fulfil their creative potential. In May 2012 she was awarded ‘Inspirational Tutor of the Year’ by NIACE in Wales.

Wood Street Community Choir

All welcome!Wednesdays 7.30-9.15pm

Northtown School, central TauntonLeader: Catherine Mowat

• All kinds of songs – bop to pop, groove to gospel, float to folk, plus lots more!

• Songs in luscious harmony, unaccompanied

• Friendly and welcoming• Teaching mainly by ear • Term starts September 26th

£5 /session or £45 for the 10 week term

For further information:01458 250655 or [email protected]

www.singfromtheheart.wordpress.com

17

Taunton Literary Festival22-�0 September 2012

Over the following pages you will find the full programme for the second Taunton Literary Festival organised by Brendon Books of Bath Place, Taunton There are more than 40 events spread over 9 days over a wide range of subject areas. We would particularly like to thank the participation of the following schools, colleges and local institutions who have provided the venues:

The Castle Hotel, Hestercombe Gardens, Taunton School, Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, Queen’s College, King’s College, Richard Huish College, The Brewhouse Theatre and Somerset County Museum.

Many of the tickets for the daytime events at the schools are at a special student rate and we hope that students form schools other

than the participating venues may be able to take advantage of this.

We would also like to thank the Somerset Council and the Creative Industries Development Fund, Taunton Deane Borough Council and all businesses, local institutions and volunteers that give their support over the coming months. It would be marvellous if the festival could become an established part of the calendar and part of a vibrant cultural and artistic sector for the Taunton area.

Each of the events typically lasts an hour with a talk and or/reading, questions followed by a signing. Directions and maps to the venues are available at the literary festival website at www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net where tickets may also be ordered. Tickets are also available by personal visit, phone or by emailing Brendon Books except for the Brewhouse Theatre events or for the literary dining events at The Castle Hotel (see details on following pages).

Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742 [email protected] the 2012 Festival

Saturday 22: The Castle Hotel Sunday 23: Hestercombe GardensMonday 24 Taunton SchoolTuesday 25: Taccchi-Morris Arts CentreWednesday 26: Queen’s CollegeThursday 27: King’s CollegeFriday 28: Richard Huish CollegeSaturday 29: The Brewhouse TheatreSunday 30: Somerset Museum

Wood Street Community Choir

All welcome!Wednesdays 7.30-9.15pm

Northtown School, central TauntonLeader: Catherine Mowat

• All kinds of songs – bop to pop, groove to gospel, float to folk, plus lots more!

• Songs in luscious harmony, unaccompanied

• Friendly and welcoming• Teaching mainly by ear • Term starts September 26th

£5 /session or £45 for the 10 week term

For further information:01458 250655 or [email protected]

www.singfromtheheart.wordpress.com

From Bulgaria to Berkeley, Indonesia to Australia, Roger Carrick has travelled the world as an English diplomat. He was shadowed by the secret police in Sofia, witnessed the 1968 riots in Paris, befriended Shirley Temple at Stanford University and negotiated the withdrawal of British troops from Singapore. In between he rose to the heights of

ambassador to Indonesia and High Commissioner to Australia. All in a day’s work for a distinguished diplomat. Diplomatic Anecdotage is a reflection on the ups and downs of diplomatic life. A fascinating insider’s view to diplomatic life - full of humour, wisdom and good sense about how to navigate our way through a dangerous world. Chris Patten. A diplomat’s life isn’t boring, at least Roger Carrick’s wasn’t. Amusing, informative and fun. Lord Carrington.

11.00am Sir Roger Carrick: Diplomatic Anecdotage; Around the World in 40 YearsThere will be an opportunity at this event to have lunch at The Castle Hotel in the company of the author after the talk and signing. Talk followed by a 3 course lunch. Price £39.00 For this option please contact the Castle Hotel for tickets. 01823 272671 or www.the-castle-hotel.comTickets for the talk only may be purchased from Brendon Books, price £6.50

Day 1, Saturday 22nd SeptemberThe Castle Hotel, Castle Green,Taunton TA1 1NF

Taunton Literary Festival 22-�0 September

4.00pm Alexander Waugh. Alexander will be talking about his father, Auberon, with particular reference to a recent collection of his works, Kiss Me Chudleigh: The World According to Auberon Waugh which will be available at the talk.There will be an opportunity at this event to have tea in the company of the author after the talk and signing. Price £20.00. For this option please contact the Castle Hotel for tickets. 01823 272671 or www.the-castle-hotel.com. Tickets for the talk only may be purchased from Brendon Books, price £6.50Auberon Waugh has been compared to Jonathan Swift. He was an outrageous satirist who slaughtered whole herds of sacred cows and turned peoples heartfelt convictions on their heads. The best of his writing, collected in Kiss Me

Chudleigh, is as timeless as Gulliver’s Travels and has much power to outrage as the day it was written. Auberon Waugh was a master of the art of going too far, but above all, he was very funny. Kiss Me, Chudleigh is a collection of Waugh’s best writing and is also a compact biography.

6.30pm Felix Francis: BloodlineThere will be an opportunity at this event to have dinner in the company of the author after the talk and signing. Talk followed by a 3 course dinner. Price £49.00. For this option please contact the Castle Hotel, 01823 272671 or www.the-castle-hotel.com. Tickets for the talk only may be pur-chased from Brendon Books, price £6.50From Felix Francis, bestselling author of Gamble and co-author (with Dick Francis) of Even Money and Crossfire, comes Bloodline the latest Dick Francis novel. Set in the cut-throat world of horse racing, Bloodline is a thriller packed full of suspense, mystery and intrigue. When Mark Shillingford commentates on a race in which his twin sister Clare, an accomplished and successful jockey, comes in third, he can’t help but be suspicious. As a professional race-caller,

he knows she should have won. Did she lose on purpose? Was the race fixed? Why on earth would she do something so out of character? That night, Mark confronts Clare with his suspicions, but she storms off after an explosive argument. It’s the last time Mark sees her alive. Hours later, Clare jumps to her death from the balcony of a London hotel ...or so it seems. Devastated by her death, and almost overcome with guilt, Mark goes in search of answers. Felix also has some interesting stories about his father.

See below for ticket options

Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: [email protected]

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Taunton Literary Festival22-�0 September

Day 2, Sunday 23rd SeptemberHestercombe Gardens, Cheddon Fitzpaine, Taunton TA2 8LG

11.30am Rosemary Penfold: Posy of Wild Flowers Tickets: £6.50Rosemary Penfold’s A Field Full of Butterflies was an evocative memoir of her life growing up in the fields of the Eng-lish countryside. A moving testament to a forgotten world and a rapidly disappearing and often misunderstood people, Rosemary won the hearts of the nation with her story. In this, her second book, Rosemary returns to the idyllic country-side to continue her compelling story. Written in the same elegant narrative that has made Rosemary a much loved and admired storyteller, she paints a vivid and touching portrait of a way of life that no longer exists.

2.30pm An interview with Stephen MossTickets: £6.50Stephen Moss is one of Britain’s leading nature writers, broadcasters and wildlife television producers. His pro-grammes include Springwatch, Autumnwatch and The Nature of Britain. He has worked with David Attenborough, Bill Oddie, Alan Titchmarsh, Chris Packham, Kate Humble, Simon King, Charlie Dimmock and Michaela Strachan. He is the author of the ‘Birdwatch’ column in the Guardian and has written numerous books. His special areas of knowledge include birds and climate change; the social history of wildlife-watching; getting children back in touch with nature; and UK environmental issues.

4.00pm Duff Hart-Davis: Man of WarTickets: £6.50The incredible life story of Captain Alan Hillgarth from the Sunday Times bestselling writer Duff Hart-Davis. Hillgarth was just 1� years old when he found himself aboard the HMS Bacchante as the First World War broke out. Within months he’d fought at Gallipoli, bayoneted an attacking Turkish soldier, and been shot in the head and leg. After the war, Hillgarth became an author of thrillers, a gold-hunter in South America, a diplomat and a spy-master. As British Consul in Majorca during the Spanish Civil War, from 19�6 to 19�9, he saved countless lives acting as mediator between the two sides. From 1940 to 1943 he was Britain’s most important intelligence officer in Spain, a key player in the successful Allied subterfuge Operation Mincemeat. Later he became Chief of Intelligence for the Eastern Fleet, in Ceylon, and a key advisor to Church-ill, during and after the war.

6.00pm Graham Harvey: Quest For Real Food Tickets: £6.50After a spell at university where he read agriculture Graham Harvey took a job as a reporter on Farmers Weekly. That’s when he started seeing the traditional mixed farm come under attack. In its place he believes we now have animal factories and prairie-style wheat, guzzling oil and constantly buffeted by global commodity markets. For the past 14 years he has been the Archer’s agricultural story editor, a sort of farm minister for Ambridge. But now he thinks it is time to get back to the real world. Modern high-input agriculture, he believes, is wrecking our health, our rural communities and our planet. In his view there’s only one answer; Britains forgotten treasure, family mixed farms. Real farms producing real food.

7.30pm Miriam Darlington: Otter CountryTickets: 6.50Over the course of a year, Miriam Darlington travelled around Britain in search of wild otters; from her home in Devon to the wilds of Scotland; to Cumbria, Wales, Northumberland, Cornwall, Somerset and the River Lea; to her childhood home near the Ouse, the source of her watery obsession. Otter Country follows Darlington’s search through different landscapes, seasons, weather and light, as she tracks one of Britain’s most elusive animals. Written in mesmerising, magical prose, Otter Country establishes Darlington as a prominent voice in the new generation of British nature writers.


or Hestercombe Gardens: 01823 413923 www.hestercombe.com


Day 3, Monday 24th SeptemberTaunton School, Staplegrove Rd, Taunton TA2 6AD

2.00pm Chris Ewan: Safe HouseTickets: £6.50 Schools:£2.50Chris Ewan’s most recent novel is Safe House (published by Faber & Faber), a stand-alone thriller set on the Isle of Man. He is the award-winning author of four previous novels. In 2011, he was voted one of America’s favourite British authors by a Huffington Post poll. Born in Taunton in 1976, Chris attended Bishop Henderson Primary School, The Castle School and Richard Huish College before graduating from the University of Nottingham. He now lives on the Isle of Man with his wife Jo, where he writes full-time.

4.30pm Ally Kennen: Bullet BoysTickets: £2.50This is an electrifyingly dark teen thriller from the author of Beast and Quarry. Alex, Levi and Max follow the young soldiers from the local army camp on the moor. But harmless rivalry develops into something far more incendiary. When the boys discover a cache of buried weapons near the training grounds, deadly forces are brought into play. Ally reached no. 41 in the UK charts in 2001 with a song she wrote and sang and subsequently toured round the world. She lives in Somerset with her husband, her daughter and two sons, four chickens and a curmudgeonly cat.

6.00pm John Darwin: Unfinished EmpireTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50John Darwin won the Wolfson History Prize for his book After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires. In Unfinished Empire he examines the enormous influence of the British Empire. It has shaped the world in countless ways: repopulating continents, carving out modern nations, imposing its own language, technology and values. For perhaps two centuries its existence, expansion and final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events.

7.30pm Gervase Phinn: Trouble at the Little Village SchoolTickets: £6.50Elisabeth Devine certainly rocked the boat when she arrived in Barton-in-the-Dale to take over as the head-teacher of the little primary school. Now it’s January, and after winning over the wary locals, she can finally settle in to her new role. Or so she thinks . . . For the school is hit by a brand-new bombshell: it’s to be merged with its arch rival, and Elisabeth has to fight for the new headship with Urebank’s ruthless and calculating headmaster. She has her work cut out for her. But add in some gossip and a helping of scandal, not to mention various newcomers bringing good things and bad to Barton, and that’s not the only trouble that’s brewing in the village.


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Day 4, Tuesday 25th SeptemberTacchi-Morris Arts Centre, School Rd, Monkton Heathfield, Taunton TA2 8PD

12.00 Ginny Baily, author of Africa Junction will talk on the subject of ‘The im-possibility of getting to Timbuktu’ - how Africa, Mali in particular, inspired ‘Af-rica Junction’Tickets: £6.50 Schools £2.50Adele is in a mess. On her own with her young son, struggling to cope with her job as a teacher, and stuck in a disas-trous affair - her life is unravelling. Her memories of idyllic years as a child in Senegal are fading, but she’s haunted by a vision of her childhood friend, Ellena. Africa is in her head. Ellena’s childhood in exile from brutal conflict in Liberia was far removed from the vibrant Senegal Adele remembers, and a careless, heartless act by Adele destroyed the girls’ friendship and jeopardised Ellena’s fragile family. Adele must return to Africa to try and make amends and

2.30pm Beth Webb: Star Dancer SeriesTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50It is 58 AD. As the Romans tighten their grip on Britain, so the tribes’ resistance increases. But lust for power knows no loyalty. A demon promises failed King Admidios untold wealth and glory in exchange for the soul of Tegen, the young ‘Star Dancer’ druid in training - Britain’s only hope. Unaware of this dark bargain, Tegen sets off to find Mona, the elusive Isle of the Druids, where she hopes to learn the magic that will defend her homeland. On the way, she meets Owein, another young druid who is not what he seems and knows far more than he is willing to tell - even to Tegen. Owein offers to take her to a Grand Council of druids and war leaders, where, he assures her, she will find a guide. But Admidios is also waiting there, poised with all his demonic powers. Then a murder by magic brings the British alliance tottering on the brink of disaster, and a black raven of ill-omen flies in the face of all Tegen holds dear. Her only hope is to dare to walk through the flames of Sacred Fire.

6.00pm Open Mic Session organised by John Stuart of the Fire River Po-ets. A kaleidoscope of poetry in an open mic session for local poets.Tickets: £5.00 Students: £2.00The organisers do not know who will take part but we do know that many excellent poets live and work in and around Taunton so this should be a fascinating whirlwind of different styles and subjects. Poets who would like to take part in the open mic should book themselves their five minute slot in advance through John Stuart ([email protected] or 01823 352486).

8.00pm James Forrester (Ian Mortimer)Title of Talk: The Senses of Elizabethan England: an exploration of the audio and visual senses in Elizabethan EnglandBased on the historical fiction books of James Forrester.Latest book: The Final Sacrament.Tickets: £8.00James Forrester is the fiction-writing persona (the middle names) of the historian, Dr Ian J. F. Mortimer. As Ian Mor-timer he has pioneered a number of new literary forms in history, from writing guidebooks for those ‘visiting’ the past (The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England) to a day-by-day account of a king over a particular year (1415: Henry V’s Year of Glory).

Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: [email protected] Tacchi Morris Arts Centre 01823 414141 www.tacchi-morrris.com


Day 5, Wednesday 26th SeptemberQueen’s College, Trull Road, Taunton TA1 4QS

2.00pm Patricia Ferguson: The Midwife’s DaughterTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50The new novel from Orange Prize listed author Patricia Ferguson. Violet, the Holy Terror, has delivered many of the town children - and often their children - in her capacity as handywoman. But Violet’s calling is dying out as, with medicine’s advances, the good old ways are no longer good enough. Grace, Violet’s adopted daughter, is a symbol of change herself. In the place where she has grown up and everyone knows her, she is accepted, though most of the locals never before saw a girl with skin that colour. For Violet and Grace the coming war will bring more upheaval into their lives: can they endure it, or will they, like so many, be swept aside by history’s tide?

11.00am Keith Gibbs: The Resourceful Physics TeacherTickets: £2.50The aim of the talk is to show some fun and informative experiments that demonstrate some of the ideas in Phys-ics. There will be between twenty and thirty experiments from spinning coat hangers and jellies to singing rods! The experiments are not only enjoyable but also all demonstrate an important piece of Physics. They form the basis of a collection of over seven hundred which appears in a new book The New Resourceful Physics Teacher. This teaching resource comprises 400 demonstration experiments and ideas for pupils in physics. The author, Keith Gibbs has drawn on �0 years experience of teaching physics to assemble these ideas.

4.30pm Helen Dunmore: StormsweptTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50Morveren lives with her parents and twin sister Jenna on an island off the coast of Cornwall. As Morv-eren and Jenna’s relationship shifts and changes, like driftwood on the tide, Morveren finds a beautiful teenage boy in a rock pool after a storm. Going to his rescue, she is shocked to see that he is not human but a Merboy. With Jenna refusing to face the truth, Morveren finds herself alone at the worst possible time. Because when the worlds of Air and Mer meet, the consequences can be terrible! Helen Dunmore has won awards for her fiction (the Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize and the Orange Prize) and also for her poetry (she has won the Cardiff International Poetry Prize, been shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and had her books named as Poetry Book Society Choice and Recommendations). Dunmore is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).

6.00pm Christopher Clark: SleepwalkersTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50In The Sleepwalkers acclaimed historian and author of Iron Kingdom, Christopher Clark, examines the causes of the First World War. The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. An act of terrorism of stag-gering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule and it created a power-ful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, killed millions of men and destroyed a civilization. What made a seemingly prosperous and complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination? In The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark retells the story of the outbreak of the First World War and its causes.

7.30pm Pam Ayres: The Necessary AptitudePrice: £8.00Pam Ayres comes to the Taunton Literary Festival to talk about her autobiography, The Necessary Apti-tude, which is now published in paperback. It was the UK’s best selling female autobiography when it was first published in hardback last year. The Necessary Aptitude tells the story of Pam’s 1950s childhood, as the youngest of a family of six, growing up in the Vale of the White Horse in Berkshire. In her autobiog-raphy Pam describes her journey from a modest start to becoming a bestselling author and successful solo theatre performer.


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Day 6, Thursday 27th SeptemberKings’s College, South Rd, Taunton TA1 3LA


2.00pm Karen Maitland: Falcons of Ice and FireTickets: £6.50 Schools:£2.50Karen Maitland, the author of the hugely popular ‘Company of Liars’, has written a powerful historical thriller which takes you right back to the darkest corners of the 16th century. Intelligently written and meticulously researched, ‘The Falcons of Fire and Ice’; is a real treat for all fans of CJ Sansom and Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ ,’A tour de force: dark and woven with the supernatural’ Daily Mail. Step back in time with Karen Maitland’s “Dark Tales” and discover a world full of imagination in “The Falcons of Fire and Ice” - “A thrilling horrible vision of the Dark Ages”. (“Metro”). Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before finally settling in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln.

6.00pm Nicci French: Tuesday’s GoneTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50Nicci French is in fact the pesuedonym of the English husband-and-wife team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French. They are the bestselling authors of What to do When Someone Dies and Losing You. Nicci French returns with the second book in the gripping new series that began with Top Ten Bestseller Blue Monday. Fans of Peter James, Roy Grace and Peter Robinson DCI Banks series will love central character psychotherapist Frieda Klein, who is consulted on a grisly and seemingly unsolvable crime.

7.30pm Paddy Ashdown: A Brilliant Little Operation: The Cockleshell HeroesTickets: £6.50The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour - by the man who himself served in the Special Boat Squadron. In 1942, before El Alamein turned the tide of war, the German merchant fleet was re-supplying its war machine with impunity. So Operation Frankton, a daring and secret raid, was launched by Mountbatten’s Combined Operations and led by the enigmatic ‘Blondie’ Hasler - to paddle ‘Cockleshell’ canoes right into Bordeaux harbour and sink the ships at anchor. It was a desperately hazardous mission from the start - dropped by submarine to canoe some hundred miles up the Gironde into the heart of Vichy France, surviving ter-rifying tidal races, only to face the biggest challenge of all: escaping across the Pyrenees.

4.30pm Peter Benson: Isabel’s SkinTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50David Morris lives the quiet life of a book-valuer for a London auction house, travelling every day by bus to his office in the Strand. When he is asked to make a trip to rural Somerset to value the library of the recently deceased Lord Buff-Orpington, the sense of trepidation he feels as he heads into the country is confirmed the moment he reaches his destination, the dark and impoverished village of Ashbrittle. These feelings turn to dread when he meets the enigmatic Professor Richard Hunt and catches a glimpse of a screaming woman he keeps prisoner in his house.

11.00am Doctor John Godrich:The Mountains of Moab: The Diary of Victor Go-drichTickets: £2.50Memoirs of a young soldier who joined the Territorial Army in 190�, aged 18, and was shipped to Egypt with his horse after the outbreak of the First World War. He was posted to Shiva Bay, Gallipolli. This is the story of the close-knit life of a country cavalry regiment. The diary of Victor Godrich, published by his son, Dr John Godrich



1.15pm Tim Kevan: Law & PeaceTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50Chronicling the hilarious and sometimes almost unbelievable absurdities of the modern bar, and peopled by a cast of unforgettable characters, Law and Peace is a funny, fast-paced Machiavellian romp through the legal world. Tim Kevan is a barrister and writer. His first novel Law and Disorder (Bloomsbury) (originally called Baby Barista and the Art of War) was described by broadcaster Jeremy Vine as ‘a wonderful, racing read - well-drawn, smartly plotted and laugh out loud’; and by The Times as ‘a cross between The Talented Mr Ripley, Rumpole and Bridget Jones’s Diary’. It is based on the BabyBarista Blog which he writes for The Guardian.

11.15am Katie Ward: Girl ReadingTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50Seven portraits. Seven artists. Seven girls and women. A young orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro in medieval Sienna, and an artist’s servant girl in 17th-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. A young woman reading in a Shoreditch bar catches the eye of a young man who takes her picture, and a Victorian medium holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the exposure.Each chapter of this richly textured debut takes us into a perfectly imagined tale of how each portrait came to be, and as the connections accumulate, the narrative leads us into the present and beyond; an inspired celebration of women reading and the artists who have caught them in the act.

4.30pm Sophia Kingshill: Fabled CoastTickets: £6.50 Schools:£2.50Pirates and smugglers, ghost ships and sea-serpents, fishermen’s prayers and sailors’ rituals - the coastline of the Brit-ish Isles plays host to an astonishingly rich variety of local legends, customs and superstitions. In The Fabled Coast, renowned folklorists Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood gather together the most enthralling tales and traditions, tracing their origins and examining the facts behind the legends. The result is an endlessly fascinating, often surprising journey through our island history.

6.00pm Helen Harvey: Dog at the End of the WorldTickets: £2.50In a collection meandering from mermaids to garden sheds, from ghosts to PE teachers you’ll find a to-do list by God, a public health warning for books, and (possibly) the longest excuse for not replying to an email you’ll ever read. Helen Harvey’s first poetry collection blurs the everyday with the absurd, speaks in voices from every corner of space, time, fantasy and reality, and riddles you never will guess. She has been published in numerous journals and antholo-gies: most recently her flash fic;Rob meets Pterodactyl; was included in the collection Under the Stairs (Divertir, 2011), and her poem;’Mermaids in the Thames’; featured in Polluto.

7.30pm Jerry Brotton: A History of the World in Twelve MapsTickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50Jerry Brotton is the presenter of the acclaimed BBC4 series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession. Here he tells the story of our world through maps. Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world, and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, world maps are unavoidably ideological and subjec-tive, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton examines the significance of 12 maps - from the mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite derived imagery of today.

Day 7, Friday 28th SeptemberRichard Huish College, South Rd, Taunton TA1 1XP



Day 8, Saturday 29th SeptemberThe Brewhouse Theatre, Coal Orchard, Taunton TA1 1JL

2.30pm Jane Robinson: A Force to be Reckoned WithTickets: £10.00 Ticket and Book(RRP £9.99): £16.00Everyone knows three things about the Women’s Institute: that they spent the war making jam; the sensational Cal-endar Girls were from the WI; and, more recently, that slow-handclapping of Tony Blair. 21�,000 women in the UK belong to the WI. Their membership crosses class and has recently begun to recruit huge numbers of young women. It was founded in 191�, not by worthy ladies in tweeds but by the feistiest women in the country, including suffragettes, academics and social crusaders who discovered the heady power of sisterhood, changing women’s lives and their world in the process. Certainly its members made jam and sang ‘Jerusalem’, but they did, and do, much more besides.

4.30pm Victoria Eveleigh: A Stallion Called MidnightTickets: £4.00Jenny secretly befriends ‘Midnight’, a wild horse on the island of Lundy. Midnight won’t let anyone tame him. Anyone, that is, except Jenny - but that’s their secret. A perfect story for pony-lovers based on the real legend of ‘Midnight’ the Lundy Stallion. Jenny has to leave him on their island home and go away to school. Rumours are spreading that Midnight is dangerous. How can Jenny keep Midnight safe and free if she’s not there to protect him?

6.00pm Gavin Esler: Lessons From the Top; How Leaders Succeed Through the Power of StoriesTickets: £12.00 Ticket and Book (RRP £12.99): £20.00Great leaders have always understood the great power of stories. Through the stories they tell, the most successful leaders educate, persuade and bring about change, but we rarely have the background knowledge to explore how they do so. In this hugely insightful guide to getting to the top, leading journalist Gavin Esler presents first hand knowledge of the secrets of those who achieve power based on over thirty years experience interviewing world fa-mous figures from Bill Clinton to Angelina Jolie. Gavin Esler is an award winning television and radio broadcaster, novelist and journalist. He is the author of five novels and a non-fiction book about the United States, The United States of Anger.

8.00pm Kate Mosse: The Languedoc TriologyTickets: £12.00The second novel in Kate’s Languedoc Trilogy, Sepulchre, was an international and UK number 1 bestseller. Citadel, the final novel in the series, will be published this Autumn. Her short stories have appeared in a range of collections including Midsummer Nights (Quercus) and The Book Lovers’ Appreciation Society (Orion). A guest presenter for A Good Read for BBC Radio 4, Kate is also a regular guest on BBC Breakfast and The Review Show.Mosse is the Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, set up in 1996 to celebrate outstanding fiction by women throughout the world. A regular judge of writing, literary and art awards at national and local level - including the Asham Award, the Aventis Award, Orange Futures, the Harper’s Bazaar / Short Story Competition - she is a well known campaigner for literacy and one of the authors leading the campaign against library closures in the UK. In 2011, she was named by the Guardian and by the Bookseller as one of the top 50 most influential people in UK publishing.

Please note, tickets for the events on this page only should be ordered direct from:The Brewhouse Theatre, Coal Orchard, Taunton TA1 1JL

Box Office: 01823 283244 www.thebrewhouse.net


Day 9, Sunday 30th SeptemberMuseum of Somerset, Castle Green, Taunton TA1 4AB

11.30am Emylia Hall: The Book of SummersTickets: £6.50Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel. Inside is a letter informing her that her long-estranged mother has died, and a scrap-book Beth has never seen before compiled by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers Beth spent in rural Hungary. It was a time when she trod the tightrope between separated parents and two very different countries; her bewitching but imperfect Hungarian mother and her gentle, reticent English father; the dazzling house of a Hun-garian artist and an empty-feeling cottage in deepest Devon. And it was a time that came to the most brutal of ends the year Beth turned sixteen. Since then, Beth hasn’t allowed herself to think about those years of her childhood. But the arrival of The Book of Summers brings the past tumbling back into the present; as vivid, painful and vital as ever.

2.00pm Ben Kane: Spartacus:RebellionTickets: £6.50The mighty slave army, led by Spartacus, has carried all before it, scattering the legions of Rome. Three praetors, two consuls and one proconsul have been defeated. Spartacus seems invincible as he marches towards the Alps and freedom. But storm clouds are massing on the horizon. Crixus the Gaul defects, taking all his men with him. Crassus, the richest man in Rome, begins to raise a formidable army, tasked specifically with the defeat of Spartacus. And within the slave army itself, there are murmurings of dissent and rebellion. Spartacus, on the brink of glory, must make a crucial decision - to go forward over the Alps to freedom, or back to face the might of Rome and try to break its stranglehold on power forever.

6.00pm Jean Burnett: The Bad Miss BennettTickets: £6.50Mr Wickham turned out to be a disappointing husband in many ways, the most notable being his early demise on the battlefields of Waterloo. And so Lydia Wickham, nee Bennet, still not twenty and ever-full of an enterprising spirit, must make her fortune independently. A lesser woman, without Lydia’s natural ability to flirt outrageously on the dancefloor and cheat seamlessly at the card table, would swoon in the wake of a dashing highwayman, a corrupt banker and even an amorous Royal or two. But on the hunt for a marriage that will make her rich, there’s nothing that Lydia won’t turn her hand to ...Taking in London, Paris and Brighton, Who Needs Mr Darcy?

3.30pm David Priestland: Merchant, Soldier, SageTickets: £6.50We live in an age ruled by merchants. Competition, flexibility and profit are still the common currency, even at a time when Western countries have been driven off a cliff by these very values. But will it always be this way? Merchant, Soldier, Sage is a remarkable book that proposes a radical new approach to how we see our world, and who runs it, in the vein of Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. David Priestland argues for the predominance in any society of one of three broad value systems - that of the merchant (commercial and competitive); the soldier (aristocratic and militaristic); and the sage (bureaucratic and creative).

7.30pm James Long: The Lives She Left BehindTickets: £6.50In a Somerset village, a teenage boy confronts a teacher with a story he should know nothing about. The boy’s impossible knowledge uncovers memories Michael Martin has done his utmost to forget - and soon propels him into danger. As Martin confronts his past once more, three girls arrive in the village of Pen Selwood, one of them drawn by an ancient instinct to find a man called Ferney. Her actions reignite a love story, an instinct that cannot be broken, irrespective of the hurt and danger it brings to those around them..

Tickets for talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742 www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net email: [email protected]

or Museum of Somerset, Castle Green Taunton TA1 4AB 01823 255088

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1st Music Vida Guitar Quartet Dillington House 8.00

2nd Music English Guitar Quartet Dillington House 8.00Talk Toni Davey talkes about her art The Barn, Obridge Hosue 7.�0

�rd Photography Cyanotype Photography Workshop Bishop’s Hull House 10.00Music There on the Mountain: Folk Music From East Europe St John’s Church (Taunt) 10.00Music Louise Parker & The Craig Milverton Trio (Jazz) Ilminster Arts Centre 8.00

4th Photography Photography Workshop with George Reekie St Michael’s Church (Galm) 2.00�th Music George Formby with Sam Shepherd Friends of Wellington Park 2.�06th Talks Helen Keenan: Dipped Toes & Lasting Passions (Somerset Quilters) Taunton Catholic Centre 7.1�8-18th Musical Sweet Charity MATA Summer Show Regal Theatre 7.�010th Art ‘Loosen Up’ Workshop with artist Gwyn Ardyth Bishop’s Hull House 9.�0am12th Music Yorkie - Wide Variety of Popular Music Friends Wellington Park 2.�0 Music Taunton Sunday Band Concert Vivary Park Bandstand �.0014th Talk Insect Photography - John Bebbington Brendon Books 7.0017th Drama Much Ado About Nothing - Folksy Theatre Walled Gardens Cannington 8.0018th Writing Creative Writing with Robin Brumby St Michael’s Church (Galm) 2.00

Music Wellington Acoustic Music Club Wellington Arts Centre 8.0019th Drama Much Ado About Nothing - Folksy Theatre Hestercombe Gardens tbc

Music Sapphire Easy Listening Music Friends Wellington Park 2.�0 Music Stoke Sub Hamdon Band Vivary Park Bandstand �.00

Music Much Ado About Nothing - Folksy Theatre Hestercombe tbcMusic Dillington House Jazz Week Concert Dillington Hosue 8.00

20 Music Tailgate Ramble & Swing Dillington House 8.0022-2�th Drama His Dark Materials Part 1 - Brewhouse Young Company Brewhouse 2.�0/724-26th Music Honk Musical - Pezazz Performing Arts Regal, Minehead 6.�024th Music Gadjo Guitars - Jazz Ilmintser Arts Centre 8.00

August Events

Date Event Details Venue Time

Events in date order. Contact details for most of the venues are given at the end of event listings. Please note, we do not take any responsibility for errors or omissions. Please check with venue for timings and programme details.

1st Talk Importance of Being Earnest - Miracle Theatre Brewhouse (Vivary Park) 2/7.�0Music Ego sum qui sum - Blackdowns Early Music North Curry Parish Church 6.�0Music Tir Na Gog Contemporary Folk Music Wellington Arts Centre 7.�0

2 Music Ego sum wui sum - Blackdowns Early Music Culmstock Parish Church 6.�0Music Taunton Burtle Silver Band Vivary Park �.00

6 Poetry Fire River Poets Brewhouse Studio 8.007 Music Viola Oboe Recital - Ex pupils of Wells Cathedral St John’s Church, Taunton 12.�0

Music Twelth Day Folk Music Bridgwater Arts Centre 8.00 Comedy Jethro Regal Theatre, Minehead 7.�0 Music Julian Stringle & Jim Hart & Craig Milverton Trio Ilminster Arts Centre 8.00

Music Gilmore Roberts Contemporary Folk Music Wellington Arts Centre 7.�07-16 Lighshow Hestercombe Gardens Illumina- Lighting up the garden Hestercombe Gardens 8.008 Music Live ‘N’ Up @ Brew Crew Brewhouse Studio 8.00

Music Oak Manor Golf Club Summer Ball Oake Manor 8.0012 Drama Celebration of Tom Lehrer Bridgwater Arts Centre 8.001� Drama Adolf - Pip Utton Tacchi-Morris 7.�0 Music The Upbeat Beatles Brewhouse Theatre 7.4�14 Music Wessex Baroque Ilminster Arts Centre 8.0019 Music Melvyn Tan: International Piano Concert Series Brewhouse Theatre 7.4�

19-22 Drama Monkey Bars - Chris Goode and Company Brewhouse Studio 8.0021 Dance Taunton Tango! Tango! Brewhouse Theatre 7.4�

22 Talk Sir Roger Carrick: Diplomatic Anecdotage (Lit. Festival) Castle Hotel 11.00 Talk Alexander Waugh: Kiss Me Chudleigh ( Lit. Festival) Castle Hotel 4.00 Talk Felix Francis: Bloodline (Lit. Festival) Castle Hotel 6.�0

Music Hoorah! Amici accompanied by Ron Prentice Jazz Trio Kingston St Mary Church 7.�0Music Carry on Singing - Chris Dean’s Syd Lawrence Orchestra Brewhouse Theatre 7.4�Music The Alberni String Quartet Dillngton House 8.00

2� Talk Rosemary Penfold: Posy of Wild Flowers ( Lit. Festival) Hestercombe Gardens 11.�0

Talk Stephen Moss Interview (Lit. Festival) Hestercombe Gardens 2.�0

Talk Duff Hart Davis: Man of War (Lit. Festival) Hestercombe Gardens 4.00Talk Graham Harvey: Quest for Real Food (Lit. Festival) Hestercombe Gardens 6.00

Talk Miriam Darlington: Otter Country (Lit. Festival) Hestercombe Gardens 7.�024 Talk Chris Ewan: Safe House (Lit. Festival) Taunton School 2.00

Talk Ally Kennen: Bullet Boys (Lit. Festival) Taunton School 4.�0Talk John Darwin: Unfinished Empire (Lit. Festival) Taunton School 6.00

Talk Gervase Phinn: Village School (Lit. Festival) Taunton School 7.�0

September Events

Date Event Details Venue Time


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2� Talk Ginny Bailey: Africa Junction (Lit. Festival) Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre 12.00

Talk Beth Webb: Star Dancer (Lit. Festival) Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre 2.�0 Talk Open Mic Session (Lit. Festival) tacchi-Morris Arts Centre 6.00 Talk James Forrester: Senses of Elizabethan England (Lit. Festival) Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre 8.00

26 Talk Keith Gibbs: Talk & Experiments (Lit. Festival) Queen’s College 11.00 Talk Patricia Ferguson: Midwife’s Daughter (Lit. Festival) Queen’s College 2.00

Talk Helen Dunmore: Stormswept (Lit. Festival) Queen’s College 4.�0 Talk Christopher Clarke: Sleepwalkers (Lit. Festival) Queen’s College 6.00 Talk Pam Ayres: The Necessary Aptitide Dillington House 8.00

Music Spiers & Boden folk and roots music Brewhouse Theatre 7.4�27 Talk Doctor John Godrich: Mountains of Moab (Lit. Festival) King’s College 11.00 Talk Karen Maitland: Falcons of Ice & Fire (Lit. Festival) King’s College 2.00 Talk Peter Benson: Isabel’s Skin (Lit. Festival) King’s College 4.�0 Talk Nicci French: Tuesday’s Gone (Lit. Festival) King’s College 6.00 Talk Paddy Ashdown: Brilliant Little Operation (Lit. Festival) King’s College 7.�0 Drama Fever Pitch Brewhouse Theatre 7.4� 28 Talk Katie Ward: Girl Reading Richard Huish 11.1� Talk Tim Kevan: Law & Peace Richard Huish 1.1� Talk Sophia Kingshill: Fabled Coast Richard Huish 4.�0 Talk Helen Harvey: Dog at End of the World (Lit. Festival) Richard Huish 6.00 Talk Jerry Brotton: History of the World in 12 Maps (Lit. Festival) Richard Huish 7.�0 Music Riamba London salsa band Ilminster Arts Centre 8.00 29 Talk Jane Robinson: A Force ot be Reckoned With (Lit. Festival) Brewhouse Theatre 2.�0 Talk Victoria Eveleigh: A Stallion Called Midnight (Lit. Festival) Brewhouse Theatre 4.00 Talk Gavin Esler: Lessons From the Top (Lit. Festival) Brewhouse Theatre 6.00 Talk Kate Mosse: The Languedoc Triology (Lit. Festival) Brewhosue Theatre 8.00

Music Taunton Sinfonietta: Ebony & Ivory Temple Methodist Church 7.�0 �0 Talk Emylia Hall: The Book of Summers (Lit. Festival) Somerset Museum 11.�0

Talk Ben Kane: Spartacus: Rebellion Somerset of Museum 2.00 Talk David Priestland: Merchant, Soldier, Sage (Lit. Festival) Somerset of Museum �.�0 Talk Jean Burnett: The Bad Miss Bennett Somerset of Museum 6.00 Talk James Long: The Lives She Left Behind (Lit. Festival) Somerset of Museum 7.�0

TimeVenueEvent DetailsDate


September Events

Contact List

Contacts List Barn, Obridge House. Contact: Jeremy Harvey. 0182� 276421Barrington Court Barrington Ilminster, Somerset TA19 0NQ 01460 242614 Brendon Books Bath Place Taunton TA1 4ER 0182� ��7742 [email protected] Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre Coal Orchard Taunton TA1 1JL 0182� 274608 [email protected] Bridgwater Arts Centre 11-13 Castle Street Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 3DD 01278 422 700 The Castle Hotel Castle Green Taunton TA1 1NF 0182� 272671Church St Peter & St Paul Moor Lane North Curry Ta� 6JZ 0182� 4902��The David Hall, Roundwell St SOuth Petherton. TA13 5AA 01460 240340 [email protected] Dillington House Estate Office, Whitelackington, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9DT 01460 258648 [email protected] Enmore Inn Enmore Rd Durleigh, BRIDGWATER, Bridgwater, Somerset TA5 2AW01278 422 052 Halseway Manor Crowcombe Taunton, Somerset TA4 4BD 01984 618274 Hestercombe Gardens Hestercombe Taunton TA2 8LG 0182� 41� 92�Hobbyhorse Ballroom Esplanade Minehead, Somerset TA24 �QP 0164� 702274 Ilminster Arts Centre East Street ILMINSTER TA19 0AN 01460 ��78� Oake Manor Golf Club,Oake Taunton TA4 1BA 0182� 461992 Parish Church St John Wellington 72 High Street Wellington(01823) 662248 Porlock Village Hall Toll Road (New Rd), Porlock TA24 8QD 01643 862717Queen’s Conference Centre Trull Road Taunton Ta1 4QS 0182� 272��9 [email protected] Regal Theatre 10-16 The Avenue Minehead TA24 �AY 0164� 7064�0 [email protected] Huish College 2 Kings Close Taunton, Somerset TA1 �XP 0182� �20800Silver Street Centre Silver Street Wiveliscombe, Taunton, Somerset TA4 2PA 01984 62�107 St Mary Magdalene Church Church Square Taunton TA1 1SA 0182� 272441St Mary’s Church Bridgwater St Mary Street Bridgwater TA6 �EQ 01278 4224�7 [email protected] St Mary’s Church Stogumber [email protected] St John’s Church Park Street Taunton TA1 4DG [email protected] Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre School Road Taunton TA2 8PD 01823 41 41 41 [email protected] Taunton RFC Hyde Park, Hyde Lane, Bathpool, Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8BU 0182� ��6�6� Temple Methodist Church Upper High Street Taunton TA1 3PY (01823) 275765Warehouse Theatre Brewery Lane, Ilminster, TA19 9AD Tel 01460 57049 Wellesley Theatre �0-�2 Mantle Street Wellington TA21 8AU 0182� 666668 Wellington Arts Centre, Eight Acre Lane, Wellington, TA21 8PS 014�8 2�06��Wellsprings Leisure Centre Cheddon Road Taunton TA2 7QP 0182� 271271

Art Exhibitions7 July-11August. Brewhouse Theatre Gallery. Take the M4 East The the M� South.11 July-10 August. Brewhouse Theatre Cafe Bar. Somerset Society of Arts. Annual Exhibition 2012.23 July-18 August. Ilminster Arts Centre. Double Vision: Barbara Whiteley, Felicity Brichien-Columbia20 August-1September. Ilminster Arts Centre. Changing Perspectives: Jill Preston, Jo Hamilton & Wendy Hermelin20 August-9 September. Hestercombe Lutyens Gallery Exhibition. Allie Giles: Pen & ink drawings.11 August-2 September. Bingham Grange Summer Art Exhibition.

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Piano LessonsExperienced Teacher

Home VisitsExams or Pleasure

Harry Sherman01823 338842

Amongst the highlights at this year’s Somerset Art Weeks 2012 are beautiful garden ceramics, wood sculpture and bowls from sustainable lo-cal sources, a silent auction for a Goldsmith’s graduate’s paintings, site-specific weaving and light installations, colourful limited edition etchings, and dreamy watercolours inspired by the Somerset landscape. These, and over �00 other inspirational, diverse artworks will be on display in houses, barns, halls, studios and streets during Somerset Art Weeks 2012, September 1� – �0. Purchase or commission unique artworks, craft, jewellery and ceram-ics, or just enjoy Somerset’s art and culture. Many artists have international reputations, all have a story to tell, and positively encour-age conversation about their work. Most stu-dios are family friendly and some also cater for people with disabilities. To complement the Somerset spirit of artistic adventure, Somerset Art Works are also stag-ing several events and exhibitions. SAW has commissioned Chantelle Henocq from Fire & Ice to work with graduate photographer Se-bastian King and Somerset based writer Dav-id Davis to produce images and words around the theme ‘Artists and their creative space’. The commission will be exhibited at the Cafe Gallery at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton during the Art Weeks. The Brewhouse Thea-tre will also be transformed into temporary artists’ studios to host resident exchange art-ists from Stroud and an emerging artist from Somerset. Showcasing SAW’s curatorial programme, Maximum Exposure, will be a 1� metre in-flatable sculpture to celebrate Yeovil’s glove making history (bouncing welcome!) and a film documenting the moving art happening from Illuminos where projections and illumi-nations highlighted pill boxes of the old Taun-

ton Stop Line- �00 military bunkers built dur-ing WWII to stop a potential German advance from the West. Visitors can see the unique film at Illminster Warehouse Theatre. Artistic interpretations of the Great Crane Project - the re-introduction of the majestic crane back to the Somerset Levels - will be on show at the Somerset Craft Centre, including hundreds of origami cranes created by com-munity groups, as well as sculpture, jewellery and painting.

Somerset Art Weeks is organised by Som-erset Art Works (SAW Ltd,) a not-for-profit organisation which promotes the visual arts and creates opportunities for visual artists and makers in Somerset by advocacy, pro-motion and development.

Somerset Arts works takes place between 15-30 Sep-tember and makes up the majority of the visual arts programme in the area in Somerset in September with over 350 artists at around 221 studios, barns streets and other venues across Somerset plus an exhibition programme.

Further InformationA comprehensive full colour guides available from libraries and Tour-ist Information Centres throughout Somerset as well as a number of other pick-up points or by send-ing A5 SAE for £1.20 to SAW Ltd, Town Hall, Bow St, Langport TA10 9QR. Alternatively see online venue map and list of participants at the following website addresses: www.somersetartworks.org.uk/venue/map and www.somersetartworks.org.uk/SAW12_participant.

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Nick Rees, master potter, celebrates 40 years at Muchelney PotteryAnyone who’s ever tried throwing a pot by hand on a wheel will know how incredibly difficult it is to control that spinning lump of wet clay. Imagine then the challenge of hand-throwing fifty or a hundred pots, one after an-other, all to the same design. But Master Potter Nick Rees, right-hand man at John Leach’s famous Muchelney Pottery, near Langport, Somerset has achieved that. And much more. As well as taking a major role in producing Muchelney Pottery’s renowned catalogue range of handmade kitchenware for the past forty years, Nick has been closely in-volved with the pottery shop and the business bookkeeping; managing the crucial and gruel-ling two-day firing of the pottery kiln, and ex-plaining the workings of the pottery to visitors from all over the world.John Leach is quick to acknowledge that the continuing success of Muchelney Pottery owes much to Nick’s deft hand, critical eye and potting skills. “He’s amazing. I feel we’re more like partners than employer and employ-ee,” says John. “The shapes of Muchelney pots may be my designs, but Nick is fantastic at interpreting them. And, it may seem a small thing, but he is an absolute master at getting lids to fit! He could make, say, fifty garlic pots with lids – and the lids would all be inter-changeable. Incredible.”The pots that Nick makes range from mugs and bowls to jugs and plates. “Goodness knows how many I’ve made over the years – it must be tens of thousands,” he estimates.Looking back over his forty-year career Nick, a highly intelligent but unassuming man, sums it up: “I’ve been so privileged to work with John at Muchelney. I love the pot designs and my nature is such that I positively enjoy the precision and the discipline needed to achieve and maintain the level of craftsmanship hand-made pottery demands.”The physical toll of the work is demanding, he admits. Mixing the heavy clay; carry-ing boards of unfired pots from workshop to kilnshed; incredibly hot, back-breaking hours feeding wood into the kiln. But the rigours have always been immensely rewarding, not only in the satisfaction of mastering the re-quired potting skills but in the excitement of discovery at each kiln opening and in the

ultimate contentment of using one’s hands to produce desirable, useful objects. Even in his spare time, Nick continues to make pots, but to his own personal designs. Pots which, although founded on his years of experience in the Leach tradition, are notice-ably different from the sturdy, classic shapes of his “day job”. Nick’s decorative pots have an elegance and a subtle refinement in outline and their surfaces are accentuated by carving and fluting and experiments with slips and glazes. “Making my own designs has been about find-ing a voice and making a spiritual statement”, he explains.Most of his designs are fired in the Muchelney kiln which gives them the unique, organic sig-nature of wood-firing. But two years ago Nick began experimenting with an electric kiln and this has led him to new exploration into the possibilities of oxidised firing, “a process that allows no hiding places.” Since his first one-man exhibition at a pres-tigious gallery in Ringwood in 1990, Nick has established a laudable reputation for his distinctive personal work in stoneware and porcelain. More exhibitions have followed and his pots are now for sale in a selection of leading galleries throughout the country. They are also in the Leach Pottery at St Ives and in the gallery at Muchelney Pottery.It is here that an exhibition is planned for Sep-tember to celebrate Nick’s achievements over 40 years, with the launch of his latest collec-tion of individual, signed pots.Nick’s career could have been very different. Somerset-born in 1949, he initially trained as

a teacher in creative design at Loughborough College of Education and spent two years teaching woodwork in a Coventry compre-hensive school before deciding to change di-rection and train to be a potter.But Nick’s teaching abilities have proved very useful at Muchelney. During public kiln open-ing events at the pottery, he is always on hand to answer visitors’ questions about the making process. “And he has been so good at running a practised eye over the work of students and apprentices who have trained with us over the years,” adds John.Nick remembers his own 1972 initial “trial pe-riod” at Muchelney very clearly. John Leach set him the task of making 1�0 coffee mugs. After inspecting the finished work, John threw out 148 of the mugs and passed just two as saleable. “I didn’t think he’d keep any of them” was Nick’s reaction. It was this reaction which helped to convince John that Nick had the right kind of tempera-ment to become a potter and that they would work well together. “I really admired his pa-tience – and I still do,” says John.John’s confidence was fulfilled. With the aid of a government grant Nick successfully com-pleted his five-year apprenticeship. Then, at John’s suggestion, he left Muchelney tempo-rarily to experience work in Brian and Julia Newman’s nearby Aller Pottery. Three months later he returned and the rest, as they say, is history.In 1998 Nick was elected a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association and in 200� was elected a Full Member of the Devon Guild of Crafts-men.

A Potters Life

Painting is the latest of several careers in Angus Stirling’s life. In September he will hold a joint exhibi-tion with his daugh-ter, Kitty.

After he left university Angus worked as a trainee at Christie’s auctioneers before becom-ing a merchant banker at Lazar Brothers for 10 years. It stood him in good stead for the rest of his life. ‘It gave me invaluable business experience,’He explains. ‘I could not have done any of things that I did afterwards with-out it.’ But art was never far away from his vision. After Hazard’s he spent a brief spell as the ad-ministrative director of the Paul Mellon Foun-dation who published literature on British art. Following that he became deputy director of the Arts Council where he remained for ‘nine very happy years.’ He then joined the Nation-al Trust where he became director general and where he was to stay for 17 years. Angus was clear before his retirement that he would devote himself to art and has done so since then. He has a studio at his Somerset home at the foot of the Quantocks. It is not his exclusive interest (he retains some non-execu-tive posts in London and enjoys walking and photography among other pastimes), but it is art that continues to inspire him - and he does not like to be too long away from his studio. He may have inherited a talent for painting from his mother. She trained as an artist in her twenties and was a talented figurative painter, mainly of landscapes. She brought him up to look at pictures from the age of � or 4. From the age of � or 6 he received painting tuition. His great-grandfather (on his mother’s side), was also a fine painter; a traveller and explorer who painted watercolours wherever he went. Both his mother and father collected painting. His father, who was a banker, preferred old masters while his mother collected twentieth century art. After retiring, Angus sought out Robin Child who had been recommended to him as an art tutor. He has high praise for Child. ‘He taught with great insight other artists work” He gave him the intellectual stimulus to understand what he was doing though Angus believes that at some stage you have to launch out on your

own as, ‘Otherwise your painting can become too derivative.’ Child also gave him a thorough grounding in the technical side of producing art which he believes he has improved on over the years. Before painting in oils, for example, he takes a great deal of trouble to prepare his palette, setting up the warms and cools before decid-ing whether the general tone of the painting is to be light or dark, believing that if you set up your palette carefully in this way you are less likely to paint a bad picture. Angus’s training also embraced fundamental principles governing the organisation of the picture space. ‘It is a question of instinctive awareness of where the golden section and the square of the rectangle lie on the canvas, in order to make the composition secure and interesting. It is not always easy, but it is one of the keys that unlocks a good picture. When painting the human figure Angus will usually sketch onto the canvas first though he is less likely to when he is painting a landscape or abstract painting. He often takes a small pocket sketchbook and does a series of draw-ings, say a landscape or a building, especially if travelling. These will usually be figurative drawings. He will then take them back to the studio and explore what the drawings make him feel and reinterpret them in the form of a painting.What emerges is often very different from the drawing. In fact, sometimes there is no obvi-ous relationship between the drawing and the painting. Sometimes the paintings that result are abstract and sometimes they are not. He is often approached by people who do not think they like an abstract painting. They will make such comments as what does it mean or what is it supposed to represent. His answer is to suggest the adoption of the same approach that you would when you go to a music concert

when you do not ask that question. For him colour matters almost more than anything else – he loves the effect produced by their juxtaposition. Angus also attempts to explore the form of the painting through the colour as well as through the composition. He particularly likes the American Expressionists, ‘because of their use of colour and the exciting way they handle paint – in a free and expres-sive manner.’ ‘I have no interest in reproducing accurately what I see,’ he adds, ‘which does not mean that I do not admire those who do’ He is influenced by the relationship of mu-sic to painting. ‘It does not mean that I listen to a piece of music try to turn that music di-rectly into a painting,’ he explains ‘but if I am listening to a piece of music, say by Berlioz whose music is particularly colourful I may draw something from the rhythm and counter-point and the tonal values – which also apply to painting.’ Poetry can also sometimes be an influence on his painting, particularly the poetry of A.E. Houseman, Yeats and John Clare. He sold three pictures inspired by John Clare in an open stu-dio event for Somerset Arts Week a few years ago. Angus goes on to describe how he is search-ing for a kind of meaning when he paints a picture especially ones which features nature. He is interested in the spiritual value that you can try to convey – albeit elusive and difficult to find. ‘I’m not trying to make an image, but rather to search for and discover an assemble of mass, line, colour and texture that will blend into a painting that conveys what I am trying to say. If it then also speaks to the viewer, you have gone some way to succeed.’ In order to give an example of this he turns to his painter hero, Cezanne, citing the numerous landscapes that Cezanne painted of St Victoire. ‘I think there were few artists of the twenti-

Evocation of the garden of Ninfa

Angus Stirling in his studio

Colour Matters

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eth century that were not influenced in some way by Cezanne,’ he continues. ‘I think he was the art-ist that understood the wholeness of nature. He was truly original. He created a new way of looking and interpreting landscape, figures and still life, integrat-ing all elements of the picture and in his later years foreshadowing the cubism developed by Braque and Picasso.’ Angus has three children, all of whom have been capable painters, but it is Kitty, his youngest daugh-ter who has always wanted to be an artist since she was a young child and is now a professional artist and tutor. Angus and Kitty frequently work together and share the experience of both the creative act of painting and looking at art of all kinds. He believes she has helped him appreciate how to use space in a painting and admires her paintings. They shared an exhibition at Cork Street Gallery in London in November 2010. The exhibition was a tremendous success. They sold �7 pictures in a week between them in approximately equal numbers. Other gal-leries have since taken an interest in both their works and now they are to repeat the joint approach

KITTY STIRLING

Kitty Stirling says of her father, ‘ I have my father to thank for being an artist. When I was young, despite his dedicated career in the Arts, he always enjoyed painting when the time al-lowed and my mother and he would do a lot of sketching on holiday. In 1976, aged 10, my fa-ther and I went to see a Turner exhibition at Tate Britain which had a big effect in my thinking about painting. The exhibition as I remember, juxtaposed Turner with Rembrandt, two great masters. Struck by the magnificent light emanating from these paintings, I was also taken in by the window they created to another world, a coherent vision of nature. My father lifted me up to the paintings so I could see them closely and in an instance I entered the world of paint. That day I discovered that light was equal to white. In recent years, my father has become an artist in his own right and I visit him in his studio from time to time to look at what he’s been doing. I’m struck by his boldness in colour and his painterly expression. I enjoy his passion and feel immensely proud of him. ‘

Kitty studied Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and Byam Shaw School of Art and her work has been regularly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 1990. Much of her life has

been spent in the Quantock Hills of Somerset. Between 1999 and 2007 she divided her time between England and Greece, where she taught and painted. Most recently represented by Caroline Wiseman Modern and Contemporary, her work is in private collection and has been selected for the Lyn Painter Stainers Prize (2010) and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2012). Since 2009, Kitty Stirling has roamed freely inside the private allotments of Child’s Hill, drawing a community of outsiders (in Greek idiotikes) whose personal stories led each one there; nurturing plants as a means to nurturing themselves, returning there because there embodies the place in which they feel most at home. For the artist such inanimate traces of human life offer an opportunity for contemplation, as if the last personon earth has just departed. There is something unexpectedly poignant about these personal spaces, and to study them is an act of gentle voyeurism to which the viewers are an intimate party.

Exhibition by Angus Stirling and Kitty Stirling at the Lynda Cotton Gallery 46-47 Swain Street, Watchet TA23 OAG 01984 631814

SEPTEMBER 10 - 22 SEPTEMBER. OPEN MONDAY TO SUNDAY 10.00AM - 5.30PM

Early Morning, Quantock Hills oil on canvas

Plot 42 North Birdcage 1

Kitty and Angus

John Marston, the Quartz Festival Director looks forward to the 2012 programme.

In the seven years since the inaugural Quartz arts festival began in 200� this annual exhibition of paintings and sculpture by some of the South West’s most renowned artists has become a key event in the region’s artistic life. The evening performance events have attracted audiences from all over region; headlining acts such as Seth Lakeman, the late and great Humphrey Lyttelton, Sandy Toksvig and many others have been boosting and refreshing the town’s cultural profile for the last seven years. Leading exponents of classical music, jazz, folk rock, and theatre groups, comics and poets have played to audiences in the Queen’s Hall, and chil-dren from across the county’s schools have been visiting the festival’s art and enjoying the performance events. The aim of the festival both in terms of per-formance and the art work has always been to provide Taunton with a mix of the popular and the provocative. The

festival organisers have aimed to create an intense ten day festival of art and acts with strong flavour and an eclectic appeal. This year the tradition looks to continue, both in terms of the high profile artists exhibiting, some for the first time, and for the diversity of the performances in the evenings. Events from the small scale intimate theatre of Chris Larner, whose Edinburgh Festi-val’s award winning and bitter-sweet exploration of assisted suicide will sit alongside the well established acts of Lesley Garrett and Elkie Brooks. In the midst of this the festival we will also welcome the poet comic John Hegley, known as the ‘people’s laureate’, and the idiosyncratic cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, whose extraordinary life story is worth hearing. The range of

appeal looks to be absorbing and should create a buzz around Taunton as next Autumn begins to take hold. Lesley Garrett, whose early career included engagements with Glyndebourne and the English National opera, and who is now established as one of the country’s

John Hegley

Quartz Visual Arts Festival 2012

Lesley Garrett

Louise Baker

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most popular sopranos, will be com-ing to the festival for the first time. Elkie Brooks, recently described by the guardian as ‘still one of Britain’s

best voices’, returns to the festival after seven years with her six piece band and a new album.. This year the festival has widened the remit of the exhibition to include not only painting and sculpture but also the Applied Arts; Furniture, Ceramics, Jewellery, Textiles and Photography. About 40 Artists will be showing this year, some new to the venue: Matthew Ensor, Maggie King, Paul Anderson, Sara Dudman and some regular Ex-hibitors George Hider, Melanie Deegan and Claire Western. There will be on show a series of short accessible Artists Films on a closed loop in the café and the hope is to have an Andy Goldswor-thy style Sculpture taking shape as the festival progresses in the Gardens at Queen’s. A series of fringe perform-ances, as members of the public look around the art work, will also takeplace. These are to take place at 4.1� pm on each day of the festival. It’s certainly worth looking out for the clowning and visually stunning street performers Le Navet Bete, who tour internationally at 6th October 2012. For tickets: www.quartzfestival.org.uk and will be performing on Friday 28th of September. There is to be a programme of informal Artists talks in the Exhibi-

tion Hall from 2-�pm on most days, creating accessibility and added enjoy-ment to the experience. The festival will welcome visitors new to the festival and of course those re-visiting. The gallery is open between 11.00 am and �.00 pm. Visitors can enjoy the art at their own leisure and find good quality coffee and cakes in the adjacent café. The evening events are best booked online. Some shows are likely to be sold out so it might be wise to book early.

Artists on Display from Wed 26 Sep - Sat 6 Oct 2012

Maggie King, Nicky Clarke, Susan Deakin, Sam Photic, Waiyuk Kennedy, Michael Tarr, Pauline Zelinkski, Sarah Thompson-Engels, Caroline Mcmillan Davey, Judy Willoughby, Le Navet Bete, Mathew Ensor, Ursula Leach, Chris Webb, Claire Schmidt-Norris, Claire Western, Heather Hughes and Jenni Dutton.

Event Line-up Date Event Time Thur 27 Sep 2012 Lesley Garrett 7.30pm Mon 01 Oct 2012 Harrison Richards 7.30pm Tue 02 Oct 2012 Henry Blofield 7.30pm Wed 03 Oct 2012 John Hegley 2.00pm Thu 04 Oct Elkie Brooks 7.30pm Fri 05 Oct 2012 Chris Larner 7.30pm

Queen’s College, Trull Road, Taunton TA1 4QS Enquiries: 01823 340805 or email [email protected]

Lucy Hinds

Sara Dudman

Julia Copus has won a string of poetry awards and is one of the nations foremost poets. Her ea-gerly awaited new vol-ume, The World’s Two Smallest Humans, has aleady received fulsome praise and is proving a poetry best-seller.

Her love of writing began in primary school when she wrote long stories for the school paper, The Baddesley Bundle. Though she did write some poetry at school and in her early years at University, her serious en-gagement with poetry came later. ‘Most writers feel that there is a defini-tive moment; for me it was reading Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar,’ she recalls This particular book is not poetry but a semi-autobiographical novel concerning a descent into mental illness. However, that was the hook that led her to Plath’s poetry. Though she enjoyed The Bell Jar, she found the poetry more affecting, powerful and vigorous. The poem, Daddy, moved her so much that she could not read it with-out crying. Moreover, Julia felt that she had found a way into this magical world and was capable of producing serious po-etry herself. She was twenty-two when she began writing poetry in earnest. She saw an advert for the Swanage Arts festival, put a group of poems together and won first prize. It was confirmation of her own tal-ent. ‘You need these boosts for reassurance and confirmation,’ she explains. She now felt justified in continuing to write poetry. Julia had accepted a place to train as a teacher at Honiton College, Cambridge. However, just before she was due to take up her post she won a prestigious Eric Gre-gory Award, given each year to the best four or five aspiring poets under 30. Previ-ous winners of the award read like a roll-call of the best of modern poets so its im-

portance cannot be underestimated. Julia remembers the irony of the situation when she collected the award. While clutching a cheque for £6,000 she missed the last train home and did not have any money for a hotel, so she ended up spending the night on a parked train. ‘It is the most un-comfortable night I have ever spent,’ she says with feeling. In the longer term, she now had a dilemma: should she take up her teaching post or pursue a career as a poet? She discussed the situation with the teacher-training college and between them they achieved the perfect compromise. Ju-lia would try and make her way as a poet while they would keep the teaching post open for her. ‘As far as I know,’ she says wryly, ‘it is still open.’ Shortly after making that decision, she was one of ten winners of another com-petition judged by Neil Astley, the founder of prestigious poetry publishers Bloodaxe Books. At the prize-giving ceremony, she was required to read one of her poems, but was so nervous that Neil Astley read it for her. Afterwards she says, ‘I did something you should never do: I gave him some of my poems that I had in my bag.’ He did, however, read them on the train on the way home, and afterwards sent her an encour-aging letter and praised her in particular for a poem about her father, written in a new form (in which the second half of the poem is an exact mirror of the first). He indicated that if she could come up with a further 1� poems of this quality he would

be interested in publishing her. When she finally received her first contract, she was so excited she ripped her thumb on the staples of the jiffy bag in which he’d also enclosed some Bloodaxe books as a gift. She still has the letter – decorated with the stain from her blood. After that, she started writing furiously. ‘Slowly, but furiously,’ she qualifies. She published a booklet and then a first col-lection with Bloodaxe came out, The Shuttered Eye. It had good reviews and received a Poetry Book Society Recom-mendation (awarded each quarter to the best four new releases). There was a long gap before her next volume of poetry. For Julia, the process of producing a volume of poetry is all encom-passing. After the book is finished there are the readings and the marketing of the book. She feels that she requires a mental space between beginning another volume. The Shuttered Eye included a number of myths and fairy tales. In Defence of Adul-tery, when it came, was more metaphysical and science based. In one of the poems, she compares the process of falling in love with water seeping into a sponge by capil-lary action: We don’t fall in love: it rises through us. She has, in fact, attracted the tag of a metaphysical poet because of the way that she expresses emotions in such a tangible and physical way. In Defence of Adultery confirmed her place as one of the most accomplished modern poets. There have also been a couple of radio

Julia Copus reading to a packed audience at Brendon Books

The World’s Two Smallest Humans

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plays. For one of them she won the Alfred Bradley Award. Writing a radio drama was completely different to writing poetry and in some ways a simpler and more straight-forward experience as she was able to fol-low a distinct narrative thread. She explains that prizes are an unavoid-able part of the poetry world. ‘If I have a rejection I get over it quickly,’ she says. ‘I don’t have a huge ego and usu-ally think that they are probably right. I think it is quite a female way of looking at things. I think perhaps boys are brought up differently. If they get rejected and do not win a prize at school it seems to me they very often challenge the thinking behind that decision.’ Surprisingly, perhaps, Julia did not like studying poetry at school. She did not like the way that it was represented as something that you have to have a special knowledge to understand, and she particu-larly dislikes poems that have so many al-lusions that you have to have an encyclo-pedia next to you while reading them. ‘I think you are asking people to work too hard,’ she explains. ‘The reason for writ-ing anything is to communicate. A poem draws lots of attention to itself. It is like a painting hanging on the wall that says I am really important. It should make you think, provide depth and intensity and make life a little more magical.’ Julia is grateful for what poetry has given her, and gives particular credit to the Royal Literary Fund who gave her a generous grant when she originally moved down to Somerset to a tumbledown cottage. ‘Poetry has pretty much shaped my adult life,’ she says. Her eagerly awaited new poetry collec-tion, The World’s Two Smallest Humans, has just been published, and that event has happily coincided with her marriage to Andrew, who teaches English at a local secondary school. She has been published by Faber, the Rolls-Royce of poetry pub-lishers, for the first time. She admits the process of being published is ‘a bit nerve racking,’ as she awaits reviews and how her new book fares in a pool of competi-tions. But she is also looking forward to the next stage of the process as the book makes its way into the world and takes on a life of its own. If the rapturous reaction of the packed audience is anything to go by, at the recent regional launch of her new volume at Brendon Books, she need have nothing to fear about her new progeny.

Bibliography2012 The World’s Two Smallest Humans2009 Brilliant Writing Tips for Students, Palgrave Macmillan 2003 In Defence of Adultery, Bloodaxe 1995 The Shuttered Eye, Bloodaxe 1994 Walking in the Shadows, Smith/Doorstop

Awards2010 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Single Poem), ‘An Easy Passage’ 2005 Arts Council Writers’ Award 2002 National Poetry Competition, First Prize - ‘Breaking the Rule’ 2002 BBC/Gulbenkian Writers Award 2002 BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, Eenie Meenie Macka Racka, Best New Radio Playwright 2001 Arts Council Writers’ Award 1997 Forward Poetry Prize (Best First Collection), The Shuttered Eye 1995 Hawthornden Fellowship 1994 Eric Gregory Award

A Soft-edged Reed of light

That was the house where you asked me to remainon the eve of my planned departure. Do you remember?The house remembers it – the deal tablewith the late September sun stretched on its back.As long as you like, you said, and the chairs, the clock,the diamond leaded lights in the pine-clad alcoveof that 1960s breakfast-room were our witnesses.I had only meant to stay for a weekbut you reached out a hand, the soft white cuff of your shirtopen at the wrist, and out in the yard,the walls of the house considered themselvesin the murk of the lily-pond, and it was done.

Done. Whatever gods had bent to us then to whisper,Here is your remedy – take it – here, your future,either they lied or we misheard.How changed we are now, how superiorafter the end of it – the unborn children,the mornings that came with a soft-edged reed of lightover and over, the empty rooms we woke to.And yet if that same dark-haired boywere to lean towards me now, with one shy handbathed in September sun, as if to say,All things are possible – then why not this?I’d take it still, praying it might be so.

Julia Copus

Signed copies available from Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER01823 337742email: [email protected]

What started as a one-off weekend workshop in 2004, bringing together experienced singers with a specialist music director to work on a programme of renaissance music, has become a regular feature in the lives of Catherine and Geoffrey Bass.

Since that first workshop they have organized and hosted around 20 residential weekends culminating in highly acclaimed concerts in and around the Blackdown Hills, offering programmes of infrequently performed early music to modern audiences. ‘We perform more or less anything writ-ten before 1720. After that music started to

become very much more complex, compos-ers began to write works that were designed for very large forces of players and singers, and instruments were changing, becoming larger and noisier to fill the acoustic of the massive opera houses and concert halls that were springing up all over Europe,’ Geoffrey explains. ‘Blackdowns Early Music Projects specialises in music that was principally designed for performance in churches and more intimate chamber acoustics, so the con-certs frequently include a cappella vocal mu-sic, or works supported by just a small group of continuos players, a chamber organ and

perhaps a violone and viola da gamba.’ On occasion there have been some extravagant departures from this pattern, for example when Catherine’s birthday present to Geof-frey was a period orchestra to accompany a Blackdowns Early Music performance of the F min Requiem by Heinrich Biber and the vespers of 1640 by Monteverdi. Both Catherine and Geoffrey developed an early interest in music. Catherine has been singing in choirs of one sort or another since she was seven and cannot remember a time when she has not been involved with sing-ing, either as a choral society member, in a chamber ensemble or indeed as a soloist. Ge-offrey’s musical experience was sparked in his home town of Winchester; he learned the tuba at school in Marlborough College, where he was a member of an accomplished brass quintet with Crispian Steele-Perkins as first trumpet (now an internationally renowned natural early trumpet player). Geoffrey went on to gain a place playing the tuba in the Brit-ish National Youth Orchestra. Geoffrey and Catherine met in Reading where they were both worked, Geoffrey in the print finishing industry and Catherine as a research microbiologist. In their leisure time they were involved in music administration and performance, Geoffrey as chairman of the local Symphony Orchestra while Cath-erine was secretary of a large choral society. Reading was an ideal location as it was not too far away to attract young talented music graduates from London or Oxford who took posts with provincial societies to expand their musical experience and repertoire. One such (Oxford) graduate was Andrew Parrott who became musical director of the Reading Symphony Orchestra, while at the same time

Catherine & Geoffrey Bass

Blackdowns Early Music Project

JanJoost van Elburg conducts Blackdown Early Music Singers

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founding The Taverner Choir, Consort and Players who led the way in modern interpre-tation of early music. It was through this as-sociation with Andrew Parrott that Geoffrey developed a deep interest in the genre which has stayed with him ever since. Geoffrey’s job took the family to the USA, Ohio, for three years in the late 80’s and while they were there Catherine joined the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, ‘A massive beast, 180 strong, which was called on to perform 5 or 6 programmes, four or five times each, during the concert season with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus. It was a fantastic experience to sing the major “mod-ern” choral classics with such a well disci-plined choir and world renowned orchestra.’ she recalls. At the same time she studied singing at the Cleveland Institute where the repertoire was much more oriented to earlier music. When they returned to the UK and to a house near Wellington in Somerset they were amazed at the breadth of opportunity there was on offer in the area to continue their interest in music - in fact they found that there was almost too much choice and after a period of being involved in a ‘bit of everything’ they realised that they needed to focus on their real interest in small chamber choir repertoire and, in particular, in early music. They concentrated their effort from 199� in the formation of Taunton Camerata, now Collegium Singers, from which Cath-erine has just stepped down as Chair after eighteen years. Catherine and Geoffrey have regularly at-tended residential early music weeks and weekends all over this country and Europe, pursuing their interest in early music, and have developed a wide network of friends and colleagues among singers and directors as a result. When they moved to Culmstock, just over the Somerset border with Devon in the Blackdown Hills, they found them-selves wanting to try running something similar. Hence their first weekend in 2004 which has become a regular activity two or three times a year. The Principle Director of Blackdowns Early Music projects is Jan-Joost van Elburg, a long standing associate of the Basses, although other directors have also taken weekends from time to time, in-cluding Peter Leech of Collegium Singers and Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini. The number of singers varies from between a dozen or so (as in the forthcoming produc-tion in September) to 30 or more. Many of the musicians and singers keep coming back for more. ‘The buzz of being together with a bunch of people who have a common pur-pose in getting together, as well as greeting new friends is hugely satisfying for every-one, culminating in a great performance at

the end of a long weekend of rehearsing and socialising is clearly a good formula,’ Cath-erine says, ‘rather like coming on holiday to perform music’. An international revival of interest in early music has taken place over the last �0 years or so, and even within this period there have been great changes in performance style together with a more ready acceptance of the use of period instruments. This cre-ates a very different sound world from the one that many people associate with ‘clas-sical’ music. The ‘correct’ singing voice for early music has also gone through a number of changes ‘ Twenty to thirty years ago, a very straight style without any ‘operatic’ vibrato was the accepted norm for singers of early music,’ says Catherine.’ However, in recent years performers have added a warmth and breadth to the voice which was formerly disapproved of in the genre. Cath-erine believes that the way to a faithful in-terpretation is to perform it. ‘After a while you begin to ‘wear’ the music at which point you can begin to feel what the composer in-

tended the audience to hear and an authentic voice emerges.’ For Geoffrey the motivation is learning about the evolution of music and the con-nections between composers from all over Europe. Catherine ventures on Geoffrey’s behalf: ‘He carries in his head a mind map of who knew who and where, how they met, who taught whom and so on.’ The forthcoming concert at the beginning of September is Ego sum qui sum (I am who I am) in which twelve singers from the UK and Holland take part in a repertoire of sacred and secular Renaissance music by Franco-Flemish composers. Next year there is a major project planned for the autumn when Blackdowns Early Music projects will promote a modern UK premiere of a major 17th century work to be performed in Exeter Cathedral. Geoffrey de-scribes it as a ‘missing link’ in the evolution of music - ‘when people think of classical music they often think in terms of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Handel but there is so much more than that.’

This September, the gardens at Hester-combe are taking on an entirely dif-ferent guise, which promises to take the beauties of the gardens into a bold, and sensitive new direction.

Visitors will be able to experience Hes-tercombe at night with large tracts of the gardens and surrounding landscape being transformed by a web of unique, artistic,

light focused installations. ‘Illumina’ as it is being called, is building on the success of a one-off nocturnal event held last year which attracted so many peo-ple that The Hestercombe Gardens Trust are developing and expanding it this year to run over two long weekends (September 7th, 8th and 9th and September 14th, 1�th and 16th). The installations will be created by world renowned, Bristol based artist, Ulf Peder-sen, famed for his work with Power Plant, a ground breaking event involving � artists who have set up light and sound based in-terventions in various botanical gardens, including Durham and Edinburgh as well as staging sell out exhibitions at Arts Festi-vals in Sydney, Hong Kong and Hobart. Ulf will be going solo for Hestercombe’s ‘Illumina,’ it’s the ideal place for him to showcase his talents combining hi and low-fi technologies to highlight the poetic po-tential of this world renowned garden. Key amongst Ulf’s armoury of skills is the use

of digital and slide projection utilised to give, in many instances, an entirely dif-ferent interpretation to every day outdoor objects. Much of his work is fun as well as being memorably arresting. He har-nesses photographic lenticular technology to combine photographic sequences into animated works, for example, creating the sensation of walking in a forest under a canopy of trees. It’s clever stuff! Amongst the treats in store at Hestercombe will be a giant projection across the lake, ethereal smoke projections in the Orangery, an animated neon sculpture in the Grade One listed garden and projections on the imposing Hestercombe House. Pedersen is looking forward to the metamorphosis about to take place at Hestercombe:: “It’s a terrific opportunity for me to show-case my work in such a stunning landscape. Its diversity from wild woodland to formal gardens make this an interesting, yet excit-ing space to illuminate. It’s a privilege for me to be following in the footsteps of Jekyll

Shining a Light on Hestercombe Gardens

Hestercombe House illuminated

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& Lutyen’s, trying to visualize how they per-ceived this landscape when designing these gardens, yet transforming them into a space they perhaps never envisaged. I also want to highlight the compositions that Copplestone Warre Bampfylde based his vision on for the woodland landscape in the late 1700’s; emphasising the framed views from different aspects or viewpoints within the gardens. It has been an interesting task adapting many of the pieces to suit this environment along with the creation of site-specific, new work” Creating a show, like Illumina, on such a large scale will be no small feat, it will in-volve miles of cabling and low level LED lighting to link the route between features and an immense amount of creativity on Ulf’s part: “Much of my work plays on the subtlety of light - the challenge in this vast space is ensuring there is sufficient light to allow visi-tors to navigate the space, whilst allowing one’s eyes to adjust to the darkness, some-thing which is quite rare in our light-polluted world. Do not expect a ‘Son et Lumiére’ ex-travaganza; a more subdued approach is at play.” Ulf has an impressive independent track record, in his local West Country His perma-nent Public Art works have attracted much at-tention for their site individuality; for exam-ple, ‘Fibonacci’s Den’ a see-through spiral, sheltered, seat-come-sculpture in Stroud lit with a myriad of tiny lights giving it a cloud like feeling inside; and in a Cheltenham park , ‘Shifty’ combines steel and photographic imagery taking seating to new levels. Ulf’s illuminated works have been staged at the Cotswold Water Park, near Cirencester and Dyrham Park National Trust, near Bath, where, with ghostly pyrotechnic effects he,

along with other artists conjured up an appa-rition of the water gardens at Dyrham as they were in the 1700’s. Still in progress is one of his most ambitious projects yet based in the new theatre at Bris-tol Cathedral Choir School: ‘On my first visit to the new site, it became apparent that due to the new theatre’s ori-entation on the North facade of an existing building, there would be no direct natural sunlight into the building. I’m working with 2 aero-space engineers to develop a heliostat

which will track the sun and, via a series of strategically placed mirrors, will reflect a beam of sunlight through a glass skylight, down 3 floors and into the core of a spiral staircase. The light will be reflected and re-fracted around the internal space through a receptor and students will be able to monitor the heliostat using a camera controlled from computers in the class rooms. The apparatus will be entirely solar-powered, thus, living and breathing with the sun.’

Deep in the gardens, as dusk falls, spinning glittering, flashing, haunting sounds and lights, sparkling, dancing flowerbeds - "Hyjacking your intellect as well as your senses...stuff of your most bizarre dreamy dreams".

A collection of intriguing artworks by Ulf Pedersen inspired by the natural environment displayed throughout Hestercombe after dark.

Oxford Smoke

I want to carve a heart but my father’s knife feels guilty in my hands. I breathe in deeply but this high in the tree there’s no air, only a green smell that can make you dizzy. I gaze across the canopy. The dis-tance shifts in the summer heat as though it’s not real. It doesn’t matter how high you climb, the horizon is never clear. I turn to the bark I’ve chosen as my page. Hearts are not easy. They need to be carved like two bass clefs with both sides matching. Mrs Luxton says cutting a tree makes it bleed. I don’t think I love any-one enough to hurt a tree, although often I wish I did. A movement disturbs the meadow. I swivel my head to see bobbing hair: two boys who must be tourists – grockles we call them. I sit very still and wish I hadn’t worn my yellow dress. They jump the stile and run up the path crushed through the barley. At the crest, the taller boy turns and looks in my direction. He’s bare-chested with his shirt tied casually around his waist. He’s a long way off and I don’t think he saw me. They enter the copse that we call the island because it’s cast adrift amongst the crops. The boys are heading for the cave like all the grockles do. I scramble down the tree as quickly as I can.The best way to get to the other side fast is to reach the edge of the woods and run between the old trees that lean on the moss-covered walls. I duck under bram-bles and skip over rabbit holes and the abandoned badger sett that’s crumbled the wall. My feet know the exact rhythm of steps and jumps on this secret path so that it feels like I’m dancing. My favourite thing is that you stay hidden the whole time. When you’re ready you can cut deeper into the woods or rush into the sunshine flooding the field. Following the moss-wall I leap down a drop where you have to hopscotch the rocks to avoid the mud that shelters here all summer. I reach the sweet-chestnut roots and squeeze through the shord, where there’s a gap in both the hedge and wall. The back of the copse lies in front of me, a floating-island in the long-grass of the meadow. The crops are away to my right and even today, with no wind, the field sways gently and creaks like an old ship, as the barley cracks in the heat.The grockles will already be on the winding path to the cave, unless the Rose brothers have ambushed them. Ian, Derek and Alan Rose. My mum says they’re all doughnose and I should keep away.

I run through the meadow. Too much speed and the grass snatches your ankles until you fall over. I feel it whip my legs as my dress swishes behind me. The sun drips heat like treacle toffee, until everything is stuck together. I’m glad to finally slip beneath a camouflage of leaves and roll under the cool yew hedge. A branch grazes my arm and it stings. I don’t make a sound.I listen. Even the oodwail has stopped tapping. They must have reached the cave already. I’ll need to be fast if I want to scare them. The cave is our place. Not for grockles with their crisp packets and wee. I leap from the earth bank to catch the branch and swing. You have to time this right or you fall into the gorse. I land softly on the sandy earth and shift into the ferns. ‘Sshh! What was that?’‘It was the MONSTER!’ The taller boy laughs. It sounds so good he shouts it again. ‘MONSTER!’The smaller boy has blond curls and a T-Rex T-shirt. ‘Cut it out,’ he says.They haven’t brought a torch and they’re nervous. Even Bare-chest is reluctant to go further, but the younger boy expects it of him. I creep up the rocks at the side. They’re not easy to climb. I crawl on my tummy and peep through the crack, careful not to block the light.They should be talking in nervous squeaky voices by now and shouting Hello to hear the echo. Instead they’re poking something with the stick. I can’t see what it is. As they turn to come out of the cave I jump down in front of the entrance to startle them. Bare-chest has brown skin, not the usual pink, red or white. He pulls one hand behind his back and I can see his eyes are wide-open and alert. T-Rex-shirt moves back a half-step behind his friend. ‘What you got?’ I demand.‘What’s it to you?’‘This is my cave,’ I say and move forwards.‘Then these must be your eggs.’From behind his back Bare-chest brings out his hand and gently opens his fist, hoping to get a reaction from me. I don’t flinch. He holds two delicate pale-green eggs. One is cracked and inside I can see a slit-eye and scales. I want it, even more than the bike that I nagged Dad about all summer. I want the brown-skinned boy to give it me.‘Vipers,’ the small kid says.‘May be something else.’ Bare-chest looks annoyed, like the other kid is talking down their dark-cave-find, in a forest where every rock is covered with witches’ lichen.‘They’re mine,’ I say.The young kid seems scared but Bare-chest is looking at me carefully. Derek Rose does that sometimes and I hate it. I don’t mind it so much with this one.‘Finders keepers,’ he says. ‘Although we might sell one.’‘I ain’t got any money,’ I tell him. ‘There is one thing you could do.’ His eyes are alive and he smiles. I like him and I want the egg. A green pine cone lands with a sudden phwump beside me. This time I jump as much as T-Rex. Bare-chest grins. ‘The price of this egg is one kiss,’ he says.I can see T-Rex is mad and he’s going to say some-thing. Before they can discuss it any more I nod yes. ‘Only one,’ I say firmly.

Summer has disintegrated. This year it only took a week. It wasn’t the rain or the disappearance of the fi-nal grockles or even the fire-dance of leaves. Autumn

strode in like a mean giant with the northwest wind and stole all the smiles. Proper job. Even the tractor man was distracted and silent as though he was lost. Those of a worse temper were to be avoided. The Rose brothers were cruel and dan-gerous enough in summer. I ran across them in the lower orchard, in a fall mood.‘Hey, look who it is. Your bint.’ That’s Ian, the middle brother. He looks at Derek who’s chopping at something with his knife. Derek is my age and the youngest of the three. Derek starts most of the trouble. He always carries a knife as big as my father’s and rumour says he used it once for real. I turn to run back the way I’ve come.Alan steps out from behind a tree. The eldest. He doesn’t say much but he’s the really nasty one. He finishes whatever trouble Derek starts. He’s blocking my route. The Rose brothers are hard as a dog’s head, thicker than blood, chaotic, callous, sick, vake, wild. That’s what people say. The Rose brothers are to be avoided, that’s what I think.‘You’re just in time.’ Ian says.‘What for?’ I ask.‘The Game.’ The Game is a giant version of hide and seek with practically no boundaries. One team hunts and the other keeps moving. There’s no time lim-it, no specific goal, simply an endless pursuit. I think of my excuses but don’t offer them up. You need four to play. The sides are chosen without anything being said since teams pair forever, like swans. I’m with Ian, the middle brother. At least I don’t have to spend any time with Alan or Derek and his knife.‘Just the woods,’ Ian states the notional limits.‘Plus the island and the meadows,’ I say.Alan nods and that’s settled.A coin is tossed and Ian calls tails for our team and wins. ‘We’ll hide first,’ he says.Alan starts counting slowly and quietly. Every-thing he does carries a threat. We have one hun-dred seconds to make our escape. Ian streaks away and all I can do is try to stay with him. He’s the quickest runner on the estate and two years older than me. We have to get far enough away that the others can’t see us. Without turning I know that Derek will be cheating, secretly watching which way we go.It doesn’t take long for my lungs to start burning. Then my legs shake like jelly and my stomach hurts. There’s something terrifying about being caught, even though it’s a game.We run across a field of tattered sheep and into the woods on the other side. ‘Here,’ Ian says but I can’t see him. I look around and see the two brothers already tracing our path across the field. ‘Where?’ I say in a hushed tone.Ian’s face pops out below a hedge and he holds back a branch. I slip into the ditch with him. He holds his finger to his mouth and makes a shush sound. We shuffle a little further along and crouch low. The ditch under the hedge forms a corridor, almost a room. The hawthorn is so thick you can’t see in or out. I can hear the loud thump of my heart and the calls of Alan and Derek. They’re combing the area, looking for any sign. Using their voices as weapons of intimidation they try

Short StoryGinny Bailey will be joing the Taunton Literary Festival to talk about her prize-winning book Africa Junction. She is also co-editor along with Sally Flint the of the Exeter based Riptide Journal, a bi- annual anthol-ogy of new short story fiction. The following short story is The Grass Ocean and Beyond by Anthony Howcroft and is from the latest volume.

4�

to flush us from shelter. They’re coming closer.‘You’re slow.’ Alan’s voice, reprimanding his brother.‘They must be close.’ I hear the thwack as Derek hurls his knife into the ground in frustration, perhaps only ten yards away. ‘They’re probably miles away by now.’ Alan again.Ian smiles at me and I want to laugh. I’ve stopped breathing in case they can hear. Now my stomach hurts from holding in the laughter. It’s funny at first and then painful. Ian laughs silently too and we share the agony. ‘I know something about her.’ Derek is trying to get some respect back from his big brother. I try and think what he might know, what he might say. My mind leaps to the cave and the summer. My guilt has been neatly folded and pushed deep in a drawer like my father’s stolen knife. I suddenly recall the pine cone and see it hit the ground next to me. The stalk was cut clean through. Squirrels gnaw, knives cut. The voices fade as they move past us. I strain to catch what Derek says next. I hear the rumble of his newly-broken voice but can’t make out the words.We give them five minutes and then crawl out. Ian leads us down the path. We talk quietly. Ian’s not so bad when he’s not with the others. Perhaps they’re all better on their own. We stare out over the field. The island and its cave of secrets are a short distance ahead of us and up the hill. It’s only a few hundred yards and the crop is high but we would still be exposed if we crossed it.‘We’ll have to use the path or we’ll leave a track.’ Ian says.I watch the waves moving across the surface of the field, gently breaking on the distant hedgerow. The path curves to the gate on one side of the peak where the tree line starts. It kinks three quarters of the way up and has two sharp switchbacks. I want to stay here and shelter under another hedge. Ian reads my mind.‘Once we’re on the island, we can see them ap-proach and move off in the opposite direction. It makes us safe. The only risk is being seen as we cross the field, but they’ll still be searching by Woodward’s pond. Let’s go.’I follow him and we move quickly along the path. We’re about halfway up when they appear suddenly at the top of the hill, vaulting over the gate. They must have doubled back earlier. Derek moves off to one side of the path and Alan takes the other. They’re walking slowly, cutting a trail through the faded barley. They have the advan-tage of the high ground. They’ll be able to plum-met down on us like falcons. We can never get past them running uphill. Ian says we need to split up as we sprint back to the woods and hope they only follow one of us.‘Go!’ Ian shouts. We hurtle down the path. Ian peels off to one side and heads for the stile in the far corner. I focus on the woods and once across the boundary I turn and rush along the edge. I swerve under bram-bles laden with green and red blackberries then dance over the rabbit holes towards the shord. I hear Derek shouting and he sounds close. I’ve read enough fairy tales to know you should never look back. Finally the moss-wall tumbles over the slope’s edge and I reach the familiar sweet-chestnut roots

and throw myself through the gap. I count ten strides into the field and make three leaps sideways then fall to the ground. This is my secret place. The deep trac-tor rut through the meadow creates a dip where I can lie and be completely hidden. Even someone on the path or running below the ridge would miss me. I wait, counting heartbeats.Less than ten fast beats and Derek appears at the wall. He steps into the shord and peers out towards the island. He stays forever, like a sailor seeking a ship on the horizon. He’s thinking. I’ve never seen him do that before. Derek never stops cutting, twitching, throwing and stabbing. I don’t want to know what he’s thinking about. His face twists. He runs his tongue over his fat lips and all the time he stares towards the horizon. Just when I think I’ll never breathe again he vanishes. I lie there without moving for several minutes. Then I roll onto my back and watch the clouds, fierce and dark as war-ships they gather and move inland. I use my summer memories to keep me warm.When it gets too cold and the light starts failing I head home. Our lit houses huddle together in a small clearing. Coming out of the trees I find the Rose brothers. Ian leans against the walnut tree. Derek sits idle on the swing and his elder brother props up the timber support.‘Well done. Where were you hiding?’ asks Ian. I smile but say nothing. ‘They got me,’ he says.‘You cheated,’ Alan states and jabs his finger at me.I know better than to argue with him. I shrug and wait for their judgement. I’m hoping my Mum will call me for dinner first. They take a long time to de-cide what will happen next and they do it without speaking. I don’t know which one will deliver the verdict. They stand motionless apart from Derek pushing forwards and back on the swing, like they’re communicating telepathically. Derek carves some-thing in his kiffy way but it’s too dark to see what. He speaks first.‘There is one thing you could do,’ he says and smiles at this borrowed phrase. I bite my tongue. The oth-ers glance at him, not quite sure they’ve understood. ‘You could show us your snake egg.’ He carries on carving but I know he’s smirking.I walk over to my house with all three hot like breath on my shoulder. I pull it out from under the shed, wrapped in a plastic bag. I give Derek the egg.‘You can keep it,’ I say.‘What’s the price?’ Derek asks.‘It’s free.’‘That’s a shame,’ he says.

Winter comes early. The ground turns to rock. The pond gleams a thin and tempting invitation to play. I’m not fooled so easily anymore. I walk to the edge of the woods. The island has been unreachable for weeks, marooned by a sea of mud, earth toppling over in sodden crests. I decide to visit the cave. I have gloves where my fingertips poke out. I wrig-gle my fingers and begin to cross the frozen earth to the island. It’s slippery and parts give way, col-lapsing beneath my feet like weak breakers on the board-sands. I’m really cold by the time I get there. It’s silent and the air seems to fix sounds as though they were needled in place by icicles. The trees are stripped bare apart from the evergreens by the cave. The ground crunches underfoot. I stare into the cave then sense someone watching me.‘Look who it is,’ Derek says.

I’m cornered with the cave behind me. I look for his brothers, but for once he’s alone. ‘You look pretty,’ he says.I start to move sideways but Derek steps across. He’s ulking. ‘You like snakes, don’t you?’ He says in a voice like his eldest brother, quiet and full of intent.‘Yes,’ I answer.‘I’m going to show you one.’ He points over my shoulder to the gawping mouth of the cave. ‘In there.’ For each pace forward he takes, I make one back. As I move into the cave, the outside world retreats into a ring of white frost with Derek silhouetted. For once, he has something other than a knife in his hand. Its red-head pokes out of his trousers and he points it at me, moving his hand slowly like he was stroking a pet. ‘Hiss,’ he murmurs, and the sound echoes inside the cave.I wasn’t going to come to the island today. I was going to climb a tree and carve a heart. That’s why I have my father’s knife. I stand still as Derek moves towards me. The knife no longer feels guilty.‘Let me see it,’ I say.I guess the heart will have to wait.The blade catches a spark of pale light. Derek crumples and I run past him. I still don’t know if trees bleed, but snakes do. My legs propel me out of the copse with my breath bil-lowing like clouds of sea fog. I veer away from home, and know I’m on a different course now. I steer away from the island towards the grass oceans beyond.

Anthony Howcroft is a technology entrepre-neur and writer. He was co-founder of a Cali-fornian software company sold to Microsoft, and now runs InkTears – a website champion-ing the cause of the short story. His stories have appeared in many magazines, anthologies, and been broadcast on BBC Radio.

The above and other stories can be found in volume 7 of Riptide which is available from Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER0182� ��7742 [email protected]

Books are a particular passion of mine. The house is overrun with them. If I had to pick a novel, it would be Graham Swift’s Waterland or (nearer to home) Peter Benson’s The Lev-els; or, for poetry, something by Ted Hughes or Gerard Manley Hopkins. But mostly I read non-fiction, especially ‘nature writing’ – re-cent favourites have included The Running Sky (Tim Dee), Findings (Kathleen Jamie) and The Snow Geese (William Fiennes). Any of these could have topped my list, were it not for A Land, by Jacquetta Hawkes. As a student this book changed my life. It defies neat categorisations: when it first appeared in 19�1 booksellers didn’t know where to put it on their shelves. Part geology, part archaeol-ogy, it is a magnificent marriage of science

and art, a breathtaking tour de force, pitch perfect, passionate and with a spell-binding turn of phrase. Essentially, A Land tells the story of Britain from its geological begin-nings to the present day; the image evoked is a profound one “... in which past and present, nature, man and art appear all in one piece... a land as much affected by the creations of its

poets and painters as by changes of climate and vegetation.” Republished last month in the Collins ‘Nature Library’ series, today’s readers will rightly struggle with certain as-pects of its post-War patriotism, and some of the science, too, is clearly outdated – it was written, for instance, before the ‘discovery’ of plate tectonics – but, for all that, it remains for me an awe-inspiring book. I am a great fan of wildlife artists like Robert Gillmor, John Busby, Kim Atkinson and Car-rie Akroyd; and then there’s John Piper’s glo-

rious paintings of buildings and landscapes, Henry Moore’s sculptures (and sheep draw-ings), Andy Goldsworthy’s ‘constructions’ and Mike Dodd’s and John Leach’s pots. But top spot for ‘art’ goes to David Measures and a little oil painting – a field sketch, really – of small tortoiseshell butterflies and common blues in a summer meadow. I did botanical surveys in this same patch of grassland in the late 1980s, and his painting captures perfect-ly my own experience of the place. It hangs on our kitchen wall, where it never fails to brighten even the dullest of days.Classical music, for me, is like wine: I enjoy it greatly, but I’m no connoisseur. My musi-cal favourites are ‘pop’ rather than classical: Rumours (Fleetwood Mac), Songs from the Wood (Jethro Tull), Reggatta de Blanc (The

Police), I am the Walrus (Beatles) and pretty much anything by The Kinks. Each recalls an especially significant moment, place or person in my life; choosing between them is, frankly, impossible – so I won’t. As for ‘performance’, three films vie for pole position, one French (Amelie) and two Irish (Waking Ned and Once). If pressed, it would have to be Waking Ned: an affectionate, gen-tle and humorous film with a cracking story-line. It is quintessentially Irish, except for the fact that (like so many Irish films these days) it was actually shot on the Isle of Man.

My Favourite...We asked Simon Leach, a botanist working for Natural England and based in Taunton, to tell us about his favourite books and pieces of art, music and drama.

A Land, Jaquetta HawkesRepublished by Harpercollins

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullPhoto: Stratocus

Waking Ned

David Measures from Simon’s kitchen

47

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The Old Rectory, Rectory Rd, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton TA2 6SE For Sale: £500,000

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Nestling at the bottom of an iron age fort in a small enclave of houses on the edge of the village, The Old Rectory is ideally situated just 3 miles from the town centre comprising reception hall, drawing room, sitting room, study, snug, kitchen/breakfast room, utility, boiler room, 6 bedrooms (4 of which are ensuite) and a family bathroom. Originally dating back to the 16th century, it was extensively added to in Victorian times and includes many character features which the owners have sought to retain. The grounds extend to about an acre with south-facing bricked courtyard and extensive lawns and a double garage. The village has its own shop and post office and a new doctor’s surgery and further shops are currently under construction.

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