It was the second Woodstock Poetry festival in Oxfordshire this weekend. This is an up and coming festival and I didn’t know about it last year. So with the assistance of Cassandra the satnav I and a friend set off on Saturday to hear Alice Oswald recite Memorial in the entirely appropriate setting of the…
His last letter
On 31st October 1918 Wilfred Owen was safe behind the lines and writing home to his mother about the place in which he and his men were staying. “Dearest Mother, I will call the place from which I’m now writing “The Smoky Cellar of the Forester’s House”. I write on the first sheet of the…
Private David Jones, the 15th (1st London Welsh) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers
THIS WRITING IS FOR MY FRIENDSIN MIND OF ALL COMMON AND HIDDENMEN …AND TO THE ENEMY FRONT-FIGHTERS WHO SHARED OURPAINS AGAINST WHOM WE FOUNDOURSELVES BY MISADVENTURE As well as reading Wilfred Owen’s poetry over the summer I’ve been engaged with ‘In Parenthesis’ By David Jones for the last year. His monumental work which towers over…
Let me tell you a story…
One of the lovely things that has happened since Convoy was published is that people keep bringing me stories about their own family history, often from the second world war but not always. There was the friend, whose grandmother had walked with Gandhi. But mostly they are stories from the war; and recently they have…
Sergeant William John Lazell, Royal Artillery– 26 October 1920 – 28th February 1980
Thus far with these biographical sketches I’ve introduced you to my taid, my mother, a couple of RAF pilots and the captain of a merchant ship so now it is the turn of the army. Whilst doing the research for Convoy I was fortunate enough to make contact with Paul Lazell who owns a splendid…
Round-up
It feels as if I’ve been neglecting this blog, mostly in favour of writing, but a report on Convoy’s progress is well over-due. In his blog this morning Mark Doty describes his newest book, Deep Lane, thus – The book has the force of selfhood. So it is with Convoy which does seem to be…
A summer with Wilfred Owen
I am due to go back to the Somme this autumn with a group of writers, the tip being organised by Vanessa Gebbie and led by our guide Jeremy Banning. So I am spending the summer engaging with Wilfred Owen’s poetry. A poet whose work I have not studied since I was at school as…
Convoy – the tour continues
With thanks to Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn and Rebecca Gethin who have been asking me thoughtful and thought-provoking questions about how the book came together and featuring Convoy on their blogs. Lindsay’s blog Rebecca Gethin Featured-writers
Convoy – the tour
After the launch on Monday there appears to be no stopping Convoy now. It has taken itself off on a global tour with stops at the following blogs so far; Ruth Downie Judi Moore’s Is Death Really Necessary Vanessa Gebbie If you would like it to pay a visit to your blog then do get…
Margaret Ann ‘Greta’ Davies, née Honeybill – 20th May 1933 – 5th April 1991
Today it’s the launch of Convoy in London on board HQS Wellington but I’m also remembering my Mum who would have been eighty. She grew up during the second world war and a number of the poems in the book are in her voice. She always encouraged me to write even at times when she…