Category Archives: Creative Writing
Extract from Mary Mitford’s Sketches of English Life and Character
This extract is from the sketch,“Hannah Bint”, included in Some Sketches of English Life and Character, by Mary R Mitford.
Mary Mitford (1787-1855) was a successful author and dramatist whose work is now, unfortunately, little known. She specialised in writing about English rural life.
More on Mary R Mitford – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Russell_Mitford
Image: “A Village by the Sea”, by Stanhope Forbes (one of the Newlyn School); as included in the above book.
Extract from classic WW2 literature – Dogfight over England
Ted Hughes: an unusual approach by Bill Drummond.
Four Victorian Thinkers In Three Minutes, Microlecture
The latest upload to my English Readings channel on YouTube:
“Analogy” – a poem by Brian Higgins, read by Michael Blackburn
Brian Higgins (1930 – 1965) is now forgotten as a poet but published three collections of poetry during his lifetime. This poem, “Analogy” comes from his second, Notes While Travelling (Longmans, London, 1964).
His first collection, The Only Need, was published by Abeland-Schuman (New York – London – Toronto) in 1960, and the final one (posthumously), The Northern Fiddler, by Methuen (London) in 1966. His death was ascribed to a ”rare heart condition”.
More on Higgins available on Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Higgins_(poet)
The portrait of Higgins is by Patrick Swift and is used courtesy of Wikipedia.
“Nostalgia” (aka “The Iron Music”) by Ford Madox Ford, read by Michael Blackburn
Ford Madox Ford, 1873 – 1939.
Best known as the author of such novels as The Good Soldier and No More Parades, Ford was also an accomplished modernist poet. He enlisted with the Welch Regiment in 1915 at the age of 41, served at the front and was wounded. “Nostalgia” (with the alternative title, “The Iron Music”) is one of a number of poems that take their rise from his experiences of the Great War.
Image of Ford c/o The Ford Madox Ford Society (http://www.fordmadoxfordsociety.org).
The text is taken from Ford Madox Ford: Selected Poems, edited with an introduction by Max Saunders, published by Carcanet Press, 2003.
My interview with the Royal Literary Fund.
‘After a while most of us find we’re doing the same stuff; I tried new things.’
Listen to my interview with poet Geoff Hattersley for the Royal Literary Fund, in which I talk about my life as a poet, publisher and editor.
Poetry Events at Lincoln, Oct – Dec 2017
And a regular poetry reading group:
Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde at LPAC, 23 Nov 2017
This adaptation should be worth checking out (Nov 23):
Doctor Henry Jekyll is a good man and close to a neurological discovery that will chance the face of medical science. However, his methods are less than ethical, and when a colleague threatens to expose his work, he’s forced ti experiment on himself, whereupon he encounters a new friend, the brutal Edward Hyde. A thrilling adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s dark psychological fantasy adapted for the stage by Nick Lane, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde immerses you in the myth and mystery of 19th century London’s fog-bound streets where love, betrayal and murder lurk at every chilling twist and turn. Gripping. Stylist and thought-provoking, this is unmissable theatre. Go on…treat your dark side! Tickets: £12.50 Full // £10.50 Concessions // £5 LIVE PASS (Students & Under 26s) Ages: 11+
Link – http://bit.ly/2ys4rgh