Our next speaker, Dan Richards Friday 17 February

Dan Richards was born in Wales in 1982 and grew up in Bristol and Bath.

His first book, Holloway, was co-authored with Robert Macfarlane & illustrated by Radiohead artist and collaborator Stanley Donwood. Self-published in 2012 as a limited run of 277 books, Holloway was issued in a general edition by Faber in 2013.
The book explored the sunken paths and 'hollow ways' of South Dorset's sandstone, chalk and flint, a landscape of shadows, spectres and great strangeness.

Moving in the spaces between social history, psychogeography and travel writing, Holloway has been described as a gem and a haunting work of art.

'A perfect miniature prose poem of a book, beautifully printed and published.' (William Dalrymple — Observer Books of the Year)

'Glorious ... endearingly open-hearted.' (Barnaby Rogerson — Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year)

Dan's second book, The Beechwood Airship Interviews, was about art and creative process and takes a journey into the methodologies and workplaces of some of Britain’s most unique artists, including Dame Judi Dench, Bill Drummond, Jenny Saville, David Nash, Manic Street Preachers, Vaughan Oliver, Jane Bown, and Stewart Lee. It was published by The Friday Project/HarperCollins in July 2015.

'A wonderful jigsaw puzzle of a book’ (Kirsty Gunn, Observer)

‘A kind of miraculous manual, a brilliant answer to the simplest and most mysterious question art inspires: how do they do that?’ (Horatio Clare)

‘Burnishing, edifying and relentlessly inspiring. A complex meditation on creativity as opposed to mere technique, full of wonderful, wildly grand statements from people who make excellent things.’ (Emma Jane Unsworth)

Climbing Days, his third book, was published by Faber in June 2016, and saw him set out on the trail of his great-great-aunt, Dorothy Pilley, a prominent and pioneering mountaineer of the early twentieth century. For years, Dorothy and her husband, I. A. Richards, had remained mysterious to Dan, but the chance discovery of Dorothy's 1935 memoir marked the beginning of a journey. Following in the pair's footholds, he travelled and climbed across Europe, using Dorothy's book as a guide. Having learnt the ropes in Wales and Scotland, he scrambled in the Lake District and topped summits in Spain and Switzerland, ending with an ascent of the severe serrate pinnacle of Ivor and Dorothy's climbing lives, the mighty Dent Blanche in the high Alps of Valais.

'Climbing Days is a special book, not quite like anything I have ever read before, and a law unto itself.
It's a wayward, funny, warm, wandering, open, inspiring journey back into the lives of two remarkable people, and out into the remarkable landscapes they explored. Climbing Days belongs in part to a rich comic tradition of mountain-writing which includes Bowman's 'The Ascent of Rum Doodle' and Eric Newby's 'A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.'' (Robert Macfarlane)

‘A delightful portrait of an extraordinary woman. Dan Richards’ prose is a joy to read, and despite my lifelong aversion to heights, swept me happily along in the pioneering footsteps of the fascinating Dorothy Pilley’ (Nigel Slater)

'Climbing Days is the most enormous fun... Richards has something of Jerome K Jerome about him. It’s a miracle he lived to tell this tale and Climbing Days is a wonderful achievement. I will be intrigued to see where he takes us next.' (Katharine Norbury, Observer)

'[A] totally engaging and satisfying book on every level – as biography, memoir, travelogue and erudite meditation on the restlessness and indomitableness of the human spirit.' (Andy Childs, Caught By The River)

'[A]n affectionate portrait... For non-climbers, the attractions of mountaineering might seem inexplicable, but Richards conveys much of the thrill and sense of achievement. The resulting book is an entertaining and absorbing account of past and present relationships forged amid extreme physical endeavour.' (The Sunday Times)

'Sublime' (Alex Preston, Observer)

'[A] rich and illuminating portrait of a remarkable woman.' (The Scotsman)

'With its roots in the psychogeographical writing about landscape, this fascinating account of the life of the early twentieth-century pioneering mountaineer Dorothy Pilley eschews objectivity in favour of dramatizing the relationship between writer and subject, melding personal reflection and the process of historical investigation.' (TLS)

Climbing Days was shortlisted for the Wanderlust Adventure Travel Book of the Year at The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2016.

Dan is currently at work on his fourth book, Outpost, an exploration

If the question at the heart of Climbing Days was 'why climb mountains?' Outpost will seek to answer the question of what draws people to wilderness? What can the spartan expedient architecture of such places tell us about the human condition? What compels us to go to the ends of the earth, and what future do such places have? 

He plans to visit the bothies in Rannoch Moor and the Cairngorms; the tjalda and sæluhús (Houses of Joy) in the Icelandic interior; Festival au désert in Mali, the fire lookout cabin in Washington State where Jack Kerouac wrote and kept his eyes peeled for forest fires in 1956; a shed on Ny-Ålesund in Oscar II Land, Spitsbergen, Svalbard where my father stayed during an Arctic expedition in 1982; the lighthouse of Cape Brett, New Zealand; desert habitations in New Mexico and the space-pods in Utah of the mooted Mars mission; brutalist tree-houses in Switzerland; finishing at Stromness, former whaling station on South Georgia and destination of Ernest Shackleton's extraordinary journey to raise help and rescue for the stranded crew of the Endurance in 1916.

Outpost will be published by Canongate in Spring 2019.

 

 

Literary Society and Book Group January 2017

Thanks to Alan McKinna for this:

What an exciting week at the start of 2017 for the society! As a result of the generosity of Mr & Mrs Voice, we had the privilege of an interview with their Pett Level week-end neighbour, Matt Charman, a young and very successful screen-writer who came to significant public notice as the writer of the very successful 2015 film “Bridge of Spies” directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks & Mark Rylance, with its BAFTA and Oscar nominations and awards in 2016. Matt had asked if he could be interviewed (rather than just giving a straight talk): Gill Southgate was prepared for that but not for the acute chest infection which overcame her two days earlier. Bill Doherty stepped up to the post and enthusiastically led Matt and the audience into the history of the film. Whilst researching ‘The Unfinished Life’ (of J.F.Kennedy) Matt came across a footnote in a book of that title which reported that a US lawyer, James Donaldson, had travelled to Cuba to negotiate with Castro the release of 1,500 US marines captured at their invasion of ‘The Bay of Pigs’. Following this up

 led to his discovery that earlier, Mr Donaldson had travelled to East Berlin to effect the spy-swap of Gary Powers (a captured US U2 pilot) with Rudolf Abel (a Russian spy who Donovan had earlier defended in the US Courts). Matt was sure that all this must have been documented in a movie by someone else ..... but, NO it had not. He then wrote a 15 minute ‘pitch’ of the Spy Exchange story to offer to film producers in Los Angeles. His agent fixed him up with seven or eight daily meetings in a week – which provoked little interest to start but on the last day he met the producers of “DreamWorld” who said they wanted it and they would show it to Spielberg. Matt flew home with his head spinning a bit after this quick encounter of a great number of film executives! First came a message on his phone that “Steven Spielberg had called expressing great interest and wanting to talk” – this was just before Christmas and after he had returned Spielberg’s call he flew back to LA to meet him. “I like it and I want Tom Hanks to play Donaldson: how long will it take you to write it? I have other possible projects but I would like to do this next – can you write it by the end of January? We’ll have to show it to the Coen brothers because they are used to working with Tom BUT IT’S YOUR STORY”. Matt tells us that he wrote his 15 minute pitch into a script in 5 weeks !!  Then he told us some of the excitements of his complete involvement in making of the film, getting to know the Coens, the actors – especially Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance in rehearsals and then sitting beside Spielberg at the filming. 

 

Of course he had known Mark Rylance on the London stage. After studying English at U.C. London, he had written a play for a competition for new Playwrights which, out of seventy entries, he won the prize and the play was staged at the Soho theatre. That led him to a meeting with Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre where for three years he became ‘Playwright-in-Residence’; the three plays he wrote were staged; these and the complete experience with actors, plays AND audiences was invaluable for learning his craft (in all a ten-year project). Bill then took Matt back to discussion of an earlier film script for “Suite Francaise” : which was shared with the Director,

Saul Dibb. Then questions came quickly from the members’ audience which helped us to understand this disciplined and determined (‘driven’ ?) young man and father. Since having two children he is keen whenever possible to sharing bedtime with them. At home he works for the morning on one project, has lunch and a short walk before writing for a different one in the afternoon before the kids’ bath-time. Several scripts are in hand but especially a film with Spielberg about the American commentator, Walter Cronkite and his campaign against the Vietnam War.

 

As a result of this fascinating evening I have managed to share the DVD of “Bridge of Spies” with my wife (first seen last year at the Kino) and two friends: it has an excellent 15 minute summary of the Cold War which for many young folk can be unknown territory. I have watched a couple of Matt Charman’s YouTube interviews – as we now know, this is a format of presentation in which he excels. Always he marvels with gratitude at the opportunities which his discovery of a hitherto unknown American Lawyer, James Donaldson, has given him. In writing the script it came to life when he met Donaldson’s son, sitting in a New York diner, to talk about and hear about his father. The Donaldson family came to the New York premiere of the film – so appreciative that the story about the man they loved had now been told.

 

Two days before this superb evening, the Society’s reading group had met to discuss a recent Winchelsea crime novel: “Murder on the Strike of Five” by M.P. Peacock. Maddy Coelho and her brother, Paul Youlten came to explain to us their joint writing of this story as a novel for Kindle publication – without agents or orthodox publishers. It was another surprising meeting and this account of some varied, often unpleasant, Russians trapped on the Trans-Siberian Railway at the start of the Revolution in 1917 is well worth a read and can be easily obtained from the Rye Bookshop (if you don’t have a Kindle).

 

Alan McKinna 

January 2017 Newsletter

Happy New Year to Everybody.

The following posts have been put on the blog since 1 December:

1) An account by Howard Norton of Denis Moriarty's talk to the society on Edward Lear.

2) Another glowing review of Jonty Driver's latest book, Some Schools.

The 2017 speakers and dates of our Friday Meetings can be found in the panel on the right of the screen.

Book Group choices have not yet been finalised. The January meeting on Wednesday 18 January will discuss "Murder on the Strike of Five" introduced by the author, M P Peacock. The Rye Bookshop still has some copies and the book can be bought on-line from Amazon, or downloaded on to a Kindle. Maddy Coelho (aka M P Peacock/2) has some copies for sale price £8.00, and she can be contacted by e-mail at maddycoelho@hotmail.com

Please let me have items for February before the last week in January.

Denis Moriarty's talk on Edward Lear, 9 December

Thanks to Robbie Gooders for supplying the above picture by Edward Lear.

Many thanks  also to Howard Norton for the following write-up of our latest meeting:

Denis Moriarty’s  talk on Edward Lear at the December meeting on Literary Society introduced us to one of the most extraordinary literary figures of the nineteenth century.  Holbrook Jackson, in his introduction to the Complete Nonsense Rhymes, writes, ‘There was something preposterous about Edward Lear, amiably preposterous’.

Denis did ample justice to his subject’s amiable eccentricity: his talk was laced with humour throughout which made it a perfect appetiser for Christmas.  Like all good speakers, Denis didn’t hesitate to explore alluring cul-de-sacs.  For example, how many of us knew that snooker was invented at the hill station of Ootacamund (Ooty)?  Another characteristic of an effective presentation is that it encourages the listener to explore further.  Denis certainly did that:  he left so many fascinating questions unanswered.  (In this regard, can I recommend Vivien Noakes’ splendid book, ‘Edward Lear The Life of a Wanderer’) 

Would Lear have become a Royal Academician if he had been less prolific?  In reality, that wasn’t an option.  Lear’s past forced him to be a ‘pictorial merchant’.  As in the cases of Dickens and Trollope and so many other famous Victorians, his father had been in a debtor’s prison and, as he had sired twentyone children, perhaps one should not be surprised. 

Would Lear have been the brilliant humourist he was if he had not been a melancholic cursed with frequent bouts of depression to the extent that ‘he would walk around a room with his face streaming with tears of loneliness?.  One wonders, if he had lived in a more permissive era, whether he would  have attempted suicide.

Would Lear have been a happier, albeit less creative figure, if he had had a stable marriage?  His emotional homosexuality and fear of commitment prevented that and most of his relationships ended in frustration so that, at the end of his life, this most clubbable of men had to rely on his cat, ‘Old Foss’, for companionship.  In a similar way Tennyson postponed his marriage because he was fearful of passing on Lear’s demon, epilepsy, to future generations.

What exactly were Lear’s feelings for his estranged friend’s wife, Emily Tennyson?  They must have been fairly intense for him to have named his house in San Remo after her.

Finally, how did Lear interact with the young Queen Victoria as he taught her to draw?  He certainly had ambivalent feelings towards the monarchy.  One would like to have been a fly on the  wall.

As Denis continued, we were amazed by the range of Lear’s interests and his versatility: ornithologist, painter in watercolours and oils, scintillating diarist and letter-writer, teacher and accomplished tenor who once reduced an audience to tears as he rendered several of Tennyson’s poems which he had set to music himself.  But above all, he will be remembered as a comic rhymester of genius whose nonsense delighted his contemporaries.  Incidentally, how astonishing that an age of grim religiosity should have produced the two greatest masters on comic verse in the English language; Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. 

For all his tortured creativity, Lear remained a marginal figure who never quite became an eminent Victorian, whereas Lewis Carroll did.  Perhaps history has been a little unkind to Edward Lear.

For further information on Edward Lear CLICK HERE

Another review of Jonty Driver's latest book

‘Some Schools’some man!
Jonathan Watts reviews Jonty’s latest book

Jonty Driver recalls an occasion when, as Head of Island School in Hong Kong,he took his place at the back of thelunch queue – a reflection in itself of hisegalitarian instincts and the desire to get to know pupils better. ‘Two boys ahead of me, one of whom I had recently dealt with for misbehaviour of some trivial kind, hadn’t noticed me. “He’s a bastard”the first boy asserted. His friend agreed.
Then the first boy added reflectively, “But fair.” It is through such anecdotes – some self-effacing, some purely factual, some reflecting a justifiable pride in a job well done – that Jonty provides witty, perceptive and often humorous or poignant insights into the life of a teacher and Head from the 1960s until his retirement as Master of Wellington in 2000. As an accomplished poet and novelist, he is adept at depicting his own character and thoughts with utter candour and honesty, and this entertaining and enjoyable book is suffused with his strong personality and equally strong views. His writing is superbly crafted with great subtlety: within the narrative of his career in education – and
the simultaneous changes in educational thinking and practice - Jonty includes short reflections on all sorts of relevant topics such as bullying, drugs, homosexuality, the politics of education, curricular
change, leadership and the debate over the continued existence of independent schools.
What is perhaps most illuminating is the way in which he explains through examples from his own experience how schools work, and in particular the complex relationship between teachers, heads, governors, parents and pupils: it will give anyone a far greater grasp of how their own school functioned.
Jonty is typically generous towards those dedicated and inspiring teachers with whom he has worked, highlighting the careers of particular individuals and why they deserve praise; on the other hand, he is scathing of the inadequate, inept or incompetent – often by name. He can be equally critical of schools, and it is clear that, when he took over at Wellington, it was not a happyplace. Did lawyers, I wonder, have to go through the text to avoid legal action - not something which I suspect would worry an author who, early in his life, was detained in solitary confinement for his student activism against the apartheid system in his home-country of South Africa and suffered years of statelessness as a result.
A former Prime Minister said that never in his wildest dreams could he exercise the power wielded by his own headmaster – but any political theorist will tell you that there is a big difference between power and authority. Jonty has been unafraid to use his personal authority to solve problems and,
at 6 foot 4 with an athletic physique and a suitably expressive and terse vocabulary, he was well able to put the fear of God into miscreant pupils and colleagues.
But there is nothing self-congratulatory or smug about this book which is largely about the problems which face a Head and how they can be solved – and for Jonty, any solution must be for the good of the young people in his charge. There are all sorts of apparent contradictions in this self-portrait
– the advocate of comprehensive education who ends up running an elite school; the libertarian democrat who is happy to exercise authority which might be seen as arbitrary; the doubting, introspective poet who has firmly held views of right and wrong. Yet these complexities only serve to
show how human a head can be (did any of us ever think of our school heads as human beings?); everything Jonty has undertaken has been the result of his underlying concern for humanity and ensuring that young people are brought up with the values and vision to make them effective
members of society. His description of two former colleagues applies equally well to Jonty himself: ‘intelligent, compassionate, intellectually rigorous, energetic and goodhumoured’.
Perhaps we value in others the qualities we nurture in ourselves. And beside him on this journey has been his wise and supportive wife Ann – ‘behind every great man…..’; perhaps she will tell
her story one day. ‘Some Schools’; some man!

Some Schools by CJ (Jonty) Driver is
available in hardback and paperback from
Amazon, the Rye Bookshop or direct from the
publisher (John Catt Educational Ltd)

 First published in Ewhurst & Bodiam Parish News © Jonathan Watts / Ewhurst & Bodiam Parish News

December 2016 Newsletter

MP Peacock in the Bookshop with the Wine Bottle.
Crime Writing: Upcoming free event

An open brainstorming session on 21st Century Detective Fiction

6.00pm, Saturday 3rd December 2016, Rye Bookshop

The Reverend Ronald Knox wrote his famous Ten Commandments of detective fiction in 1929:

"No ghosts, no secret passages, no identical twins and no Chinamen. No hidden clues, no last minute criminal arrivals, no obscure science or poisons. No murderous detectives. No dissembling assistants."

The golden age of detective fiction - Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham - followed his rules, most of the time, for very good reason.

Do these rules still work almost 90 years later? We live in a different world of DNA testing, mobile phones and the internet.

Should they be updated to reflect modern times? Do they still retain some element of literary merit?

Next Saturday, 3rd December at the Rye Bookshop, Maddy Coelho and Paul Youlten, better known as MP Peacock, author of Murder on the Strike of Five, (for details see September Newsletter below dated 25 August) will be leading the investigation into 'Should we rewrite the rules of detective fiction?' 

Come and help draft the new commandments.

 Former Headmaster in the Art Gallery with the Book 

Smarden Art Gallery on Thursday 15th December, 6-8 p.m. 

Jonty Driver will be reading from and answering questions about his new book, SOME SCHOOLS (available from the Rye Bookshop). There will be drinks and small eats, and a chance to see what is available in the gallery too.

Short Stories:  At its last meeting the Book Group had a lively discussion about the short story genre. We discussed two short stories by Katherine Mansfield, introduced by Gill Southgate. By chance, there was an article by Elizabeth Day on writing short stories, in the Daily Telegraph last week, prompted by the recent death of a master of the short story, William Trevor. Here is a link to the start of the article, and if you want to read the rest I can send you a cutting, kindly provided by Alan McKinna: CLICK HERE

Comic Writing: There's another interesting piece on a different literary topic, namely the work of    P G Wodehouse, in the Daily Telegraph of 29 November. This was prompted by the news that Wodehouse's literary archive has been acquired by the British Library, with the implications for the rehabilitation of this perhaps under-rated and unfairly demonised author. CLICK HERE to read the whole article. 

November Meeting, Friday 18th 7:00 for 7:30, Lower Court Hall.

The Life and Work of E F Benson, by Allan Downend

The talk will look at Fred Benson by; placing him within his family; following his education and early work; discussing his writing career; mentioning some of his friends and circle and finishing with his time in Rye. There will be some readings from his books. 

 

  

Our Speaker 

Most of Allan Downend's career was as Area Librarian for Chiswick and then after a major re-organisation he became a Heritage and Tourism Officer and did the restoration of Hogarth's House for the Tercentenary; exhibited permanently for the first time the local collection of paintings together with the restoration of several rooms at Boston Manor; conserved a local collection of C18th and early C19th books, organised Book Fairs, and began the bid to restore the museum and mansions in Gunnersbury Park. After early retirement he was Curator at Rye castle Museum until 2007. In 1985. together with others, he founded the E.F.Benson Society and ever since has been the Society's Secretary.