Two events at the Rye Festival, reviewed by Gillian Southgate

The Martin Wimbush talk on Betjeman and Larkin took place in the Community Hall last Sunday, 25^th September. He punctuated his dramatic deliveries with readings from Bennett’s book:

Six Poets: Hardy to Larkin, quoting verbatim from Bennett’s linking pieces. It was well done, but reinforced my feeling about performance poetry. I agree with Andrew Motion that the poem and the reader make a private compact, and that a poem will always be understood individually, rather than collectively. That said, I could hear well Larkin’s debt to Hardy, and whilst I know Betjeman was a fine chronicler of his times, I liked the Larkin poetry so much more.  But that’s a personal view.  The audience seemed very pleased, and Martin Wimbush was completely professional in his delivery, and word-perfect.

Joan Bakewell, on Wednesday 27^th, talked about ageing and the up, rather than the downside, of it.  She was enormously engaging, funny, and made sure that what she said would be well received by most of the people attending. Things that got better as one aged were the availability of music, relationships with grandchildren and an awful lot more.  Things she lamented were the dying art of handwriting, the fact of small children being the total focus of family life, rather than the family unit itself, and the increasing if slow loss of hearing and eyesight. She drew in the audience very quickly, and there were a number of questions including one about her status in the BBC, which she responded to seriously and informatively. Everyone enjoyed her talk, and there was a rush to buy her book, being sold at the front by Lizzie from the Rye bookshop, and signed by Joan herself.