Lyndsay is pictured here with daughter Alice.
h and home! The wood-burning stove was blazing merrily as we all arrived from our various starting points - Stourbridge; Ludlow; Bridgnorth; Shrewsbury and Clungunford. Carole had made a delicious soup - leek, potato and celery, with Allen's home-made bread, followed by a lentil flan - wow! What a lunch!
Welsh bard, Menna Elfyn. Chatting over drinks we learn that Menna has recently been in Russia, India, New York ... is working on an oratorio to be performed by the Welsh National Opera; that her work is being translated into Hindi; that she looks after her 18 month old grand-daughter on Wednesdays; that she has recently completed a body of work called Field Notes - a collaborative work with an artist - that poetry is alive and kicking in Llandysul and around the world!Menna Elfyn is the best-known, most travelled and most translated of all Welsh-language poets. The extraordinary international range of her subjects, breathtaking inventiveness and generosity of vision place her among Europe’s leading poets. Murmur is her first new book since Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007, and includes translations of poems by Welsh folk hero and poet of peace Waldo Williams (1901-71) which challenge the notion of the Celtic melancholy and testify to a ‘hesitant hope’. Her own poems have facing English translations by leading Welsh poets: Elin ap Hywel, Joseph Clancy, Gillian Clarke, Damian Walford Davies and Paul Henry.
'Menna Elfyn is the firebird of the Welsh language, bright, indomitably modern and as undestructible as the phoenix. She gives hope to all writers in lesser spoken languages that great things can rise from the ashes' – Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
'Elfyn is a poet of healing…both compassionate and celebratory. Like a soul doctor she questions and probes, like St Teresa she endures the darkness, but in the end she sings a song which affirms that flawed humanity is indeed perfectible’ – Katie Gramich, Planet
'Liberation and enclosure are powerful themes in Menna Elfyn's work. She is a political poet, writing with passion of the Welsh language and identity for which she campaigns. But she makes her claims with realism…a restless, intensely responsive imagination’ – Helen Dunmore, Observer
na delights us by reading from her new, not-yet-published book: Murmur - coming out in September from Bloodaxe. The poems are moving, funny, lyrical, heart-breaking and powerful. She reads them beautifully, in English and in her native Welsh (she always writes in Welsh and has other poets - Gillian Clarke, for example - translate them into English.) We ponder the difference between pleading/begging/imploring. We ask her to read some of her poems twice through so that we can really hear them with our hearts as well as our minds. We listen to differences. We feel truly blessed.
(home-grown rhubarb, home-made marmalade, home-collected honey, home-made bread etc etc) we read the first of our short stories.
along the beach, or coastal path, or the nearby Preseli Hills, coming back to Broniwan in time for lunch. Today's lunch was a gorgeous spicy soup followed by another of Carole's wonderful quiches with salad and (Allen's home-made) bread. All of our stories this year are taken from the Self Help section of Collected Poems by Lorrie Moore. This morning's story is just called How and is about the disintegration of a relationship. More to follow after this evening's discussion.
ne foot planted solidly in the light-filled world,Thoughts of leaving will move in. Bivouac throughout the living room; they will have eyes like rodents and peer out at you from under the sofa, in the dark, from under the sink, luminous glass beads positioned in twos. The houseplants will appear to have chosen sides. Some will thrust stems at you like angry limbs. They will seem to caw like crows. Others will simply sag.
Now as the sun goes over the yard arm, we start to gather for our pre-dinner drinks by the fire, already mournful that we have only one full day left in this reader's paradise!
marriage, and Moore uses a photo album with photos of her mother prompting memories and reminiscences to propel her story. Although the story gave us lots to think and talk about (and we argued over which was the character more deserving of our sympathy) we rather felt that the story needed editing, and that some of the writing exercises employed by Moore didn't quite work. This particular selection of stories is taken from her 1985 book Self Help which was written for her MA in Creative Writing. Her inexperience shows through at times, but nevertheless, our over-riding impression is of a fine writer working well at her craft.
en reading more of David Whyte's marvellous The Heart Aroused, Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. Beautifully written, deep, insightful and soulful, this is about how poetry can help put soul back into the workplace - thereby saving the lives of its workers. I'm lucky (so lucky!) in that my daily work is also my daily love, but even so, this book is inspirational and resonates at a very deep level. I love it when reading one book leads to others - I am now on the lookout for the Burton Raffel translation of Beowulf, and must renew my acquaintance with Camille Paglia and am eager to re-read all of my Pablo Neruda! What a feast this is! Also a wonderful quote from Kafka is singing in my mind: "A good book should be an axe for the frozen sea within us."One of the powers of poetry is to establish
an inner imaginative discipline, which allows us to live a fiercer, more courageous, if simpler life at the centre of momentous events and besieging circumstances. In this way, we are able to create a more beautiful mind, to find a clearer focus, to work from a surer internal foundation than the one the media tries to establish for us, all the while cultivating a sense of humour and celebration that binds our independent selves into a larger community.
In this presentation, David Whyte will look at a body of poetry, his own and others, which looks at the ability of the imagination to create a robust, independent self that is equal to, if not larger than, the tenor or difficulty of the times.
Next though, Carole herself comes through to give us a poetry reading: some six years ago, for her MA in Creative Writing under the supervision of Menna Elfyn, Carole wrote a long sequence of poems about the Welsh princess, Nest. Based on meticulous research, Carole's poetry gives voice to this young woman's life in a way that has never been done before. Abducted, taken hostage, raped, married off, children taken from her - it is an incredible life, and one which has repercussions in Welsh and Irish history and culture to this day.Wenlock Books celebrates 25 years in the High Street!
Thank you to everyone who has brought in silver for our ‘silver collection’ – this is ongoing throughout the year so please do bring in any of those little 5ps you can do without and we will save them all up for Friends of Conakry Refugee School.
Other celebrations to be introduced as the year unfolds!
In the media
We’ve had a good showing in the national media since Christmas, with the Telegraph mentioning the “brilliant Wenlock Books”, the Guardian referring to us as “splendid” and the Independent calling us “one of the best” – all this is of course really useful free publicity and helps to bring people in: and don’t they love it when they get here!
Author talk at the Pottery, Wednesday March 7th, 7pm £3Our first author’s talk of the year is Philip Weeks, whose new book is “Make Yourself Better”. Whether you want to lose weight, increase your energy, address a long-standing ailment or just generally ‘feel better’ – Philip will inspire you to take action!
Philip is an engaging, informative presenter and is well known for his deep understanding and knowledge of ancient medicine, combined with a sense of humour and a down-to-earth practicality. During the evening there will be a chance for you to try some of Philip’s own brews of herbal and detox teas, plus other health-giving snacks and treats.
Tickets are £3 from the bookshop.
New website
Our new website is now launched. The address remains the same, www.wenlockbooks.co.uk so do please take a look and let me know what you think.
World Book Day
As always we are happy to receive World Book Day tokens from all our local and visiting children so do please call in to choose either a World Book Day book (straight exchange for a token) or for them to have £1 off any book of their choice.
Wenlock Poetry FestivalFor the third year running our Poetry Festival will be held in the town over the weekend after Easter, this year April 13th, 14th and 15th. We have a really marvellous programme for you with a whole host of exciting events. In addition to our Poet Laureate; the National Poet of Wales and the Scottish Poet Makar, we also have great names like Jackie Kay, Daljit Nagra, Elaine Feinstein and many, many others giving poetry readings that will be among the best you could find anywhere in the country. We also have a range of talks – about Housman, about John Clare, about the importance of poetry in all our lives and, from the renowned playwright David Edgar, about poetry in plays. There will be workshops from David Whyte, Gillian Clarke, Ian Duhig and others. There is a lively and exciting programme of events for children – do please bring your children; they will love it!! There will also be a chance for children to do poetry work of their own with the wonderful Mandy Ross – a great favourite. Our venues this year include the Edge Arts Centre, the lovely Methodist Church, the Pottery, the Priory Hall and new for us this year, Wenlock Abbey, courtesy of Gabriella Drake and Louis de Wet, and the wonderful Upton Cressett Hall, courtesy of William Cash. I really can’t tell you how unmissable this festival will be, so do take a look at the programme, available from the bookshop or online at www.wenlockpoetryfestival.org and get your tickets before they are all gone! BOX OFFICE NOW OPEN in Barrow Street!
Looking forward to seeing you in the shop and at the festival – spring is coming – hurrah!
With all good wishes,
Anna.
Thank you Philip Weeks for the great event at the Pottery last night!
He has travelled to Eastern Europe, Germany, and India in search of holistic medical techniques. He has sources from around the globe where he collects unique medicinal ingredients.Applying his deep understanding of holistic medical traditions from both East and West, Philip guides the reader through the process of restoring the body’s well-being using a simple combination of natural techniques, diet and herbal medicines. A large part of the book is devoted to the importance of good nutrition and detoxification, with clear explanations of specific methods and general principles. The health benefits of activity and physical exercise are also explored, as are the effects of potentially harmful substances such as mercury, additives and plastics, and the simple steps that can be taken to avoid these. In the final chapter, Philip looks in a holistic way at specific difficulties we all face from time to time, such as anger, stress and grief, and at how to deal with these in order to achieve well-being on a mental, spiritual and emotional level.
Compassionate and realistic, Make Yourself Better will empower the reader to make more informed choices in their every-day lives, and in doing so achieve a greater level of health and vitality.
Philip combines his deep knowledge with a sense of humour and a down-to-earth practicality. During the evening there will be a chance for you to try some of Philip’s own brews of herbal and detox teas, plus other health-giving snacks and treats.
Tickets are £3 from the bookshop, venue: The Pottery - http://www.wenlockpottery.co.uk/
Wednesday 7th March, 7pm - do join us!
Its a cold, cold day in February - freezing rain, snow forecast; a grey day. But a little bit of sunshine and a foretaste of spring and summer has just appeared: The Yellow Book 2012! I come from the Amazon generation, or perhaps even the post-Amazon generation: bookshops are perceived as either quaint (an elderly relative who makes a cup of tea for you to say thanks for visiting) or esoteric and intimidating (an elderly relative who throws a cup of tea at you because you've interrupted her research). During my Creative Writing MA, publishers and agents occupying various stations on the spectrum of smugness informed me that we're moving beyond the age of the printed book and into the age of the self-published work, instantly available for Kindle. Then again, those same publishers reckoned that stories about ghost zombies would be 'in' this year, along with stories about astronauts (presumably any zombie-ghost-rocket combination will be a sure-fire success).
And yet Kindle books are ephemeral in a way that printed books are not. All too often, they serve as examples of what Geoffrey Hill calls 'commodity English': mass-produced, bought, sold, forgotten. Of course, printed books can be forgotten too - my tasks at Wenlock Books included clearing dust from the top shelves, picking old books out for a January sale and realising that some had gone untouched for years. Even in a bookshop as frequently visited as this one, it's inevitable that a few books will slide into obscurity - but the long decline takes place over years or decades, whereas e-books have the unwanted capacity to vanish instantly, leaving no trace behind. No volunteer comes along to brush away the dust and restore them to a more prominent place on the virtual shelf.
**
In the prologue to 'God's Gift to Women', Don Paterson writes,
'The poem is a little church, remember,
you its congregation, I, its cantor...'
Sticking to religious analogies, the bookshop is perhaps a cathedral; Wenlock Books perhaps a friendly parish church. Much like churches, bookshops (and poems) contain spaces dedicated to the preservation of the past. Wandering among the shelves, it's hard not to feel the weight of previous lives, or the sense that, somewhere among the thousands of volumes, your thoughts will find mirrors. The further I go, the more I'm aware that others have preceded me every step of the way:
'...what there is to conquer
By strength or submission, has already been discovered,
Once or twice or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate - but there is no competition -
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again...'
(Eliot in East Coker)
The fascination with the past (especially when combined with the cathedral analogy) suggests sterility, perhaps a fear of change, but bookshops are incredibly vibrant places. Each time you walk through the door, you see thousands of books, each of which you could potentially buy and begin reading within the next few minutes (obviously anyone with a student loan to pay back should take care to buy the books one at a time, and only on special occasions). Of those thousands, how many have the potential to challenge and change your assumptions, to lead you down unexpected paths, to shift the course of your life? Dozens? Hundreds?
A friend of mine once walked into our college library and opened a book at random. An October storm was raging outside, and he was lucky enough to be able to watch the waves swelling and bursting out at sea, to listen to the wind battering against the library windows and take in one of those black autumn skies that hangs so low you feel you could touch it. The book he picked was Shelley's Collected Poems, and the page he turned to was the first page of Ode to the West Wind. The book collided with his life and altered it irreparably: now he's a writer with four published novels behind him. It's incredible to think that, in this shop, there are books with a similar power to change career paths, political views, whole lives...
**
Over the last few days, I’ve realised that I’m a woefully inefficient shelf-stacker: I pause to read first chapters, compose impossibly long reading wish-lists and occasionally lose my grasp on the alphabet (more or less the same phenomenon you experience when you stare at a word for minutes on end and begin to wonder whether it’s really spelt that way). It’s been wonderful to be part of a shop where the owner makes time for every single customer, where I’m always encountering books I desperately want to read or have already read and half-forgotten. Orwell famously devoted an essay to his ideal pub, The Moon Under Water; had he undertaken a similar exercise on the theme of the ideal bookshop, it’s tempting to imagine that what he’d have ended up with would be something bearing an eerie resemblance to Wenlock Books (albeit with the name changed to something rather more ethereal).
Jacob Silkstone
(j.silkstone@themissingslate.com)
