Tag Archives: book

New poetry book published

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P1130249

Trying to ignore the fact that I suddenly feel quite congested, heady and tired. It’s probably   just an an instinctive attempt to postpone tomorrow’s visit to London in the time-honoured fashion, but I’m hoping it’s no more. I am also due to read some poetry at Pinkys in Halesworth tonight.

This came on after I walked up to the church hall with some Communion wafers that I’d obtained for Sunday. At the same time I dropped off a copy of my new book, The Road Ends, for Stuart, who wanted to purchase one. My first sale! I also popped a complimentary copy through the Greens’ door.

So far 20 of the 50 copies I got earlier in the week are accounted for, including the compulsory copy to the British Library and five to other libraries. Got a good response when I mentioned it on Facebook.

On Monday Dot arrived back earlier than expected from Rayleigh; the weather was also extremely wet. So instead of going to the 20 Group Private View I cooked a meal for her. I visited the exhibition on Wednesday instead, and it was pretty impressive, though I have to say that the standout pieces IMHO were by people I already know and love (Martin Laurance, Kate Coleman, Sandra Rowney).

On Tuesday I picked up Dr Karen Smyth from the UEA and took her to a PHS trustees meeting at North Walsham. Straightforward enough on the outward journey, but not so easy coming back, when we coincided with the rush hour. Still she was a pleasant passenger, and we talked about Northern Ireland and our respective upbringings with reference to church. She is a Presbyterian Protestant but not affiliated to Mr Paisley.

The meeting was delayed slightly by Lucy’s thinking it was at hers, but was otherwise unremarkable. Karen gave an outline of the grand plan to create a Digital Paston Museum, but it’s dependent on our getting a mammoth grant. However, this is not impossible.

David phoned on Wednesday to say that his boiler had finally bitten the dust but was safely and quickly repaired by British Gas. I have resumed a tanka dialogue with Joy, who apparently woke up in the night and read my book. It’s good to have at least one enthusiastic reader.

All systems needing attention

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Warning sign near St Olave's

Have just booked a visit from the gas man – thought I’d better get the central heating fixed before Christmas, although it’s more or less OK at the moment. Speaking of faulty systems, I went to the doctor’s yesterday, and he gave me a relatively thorough going over but couldn’t come to any conclusions about various intermittent symptoms. So I’m in for a blood test next week – on what would have been my mother’s 100th birthday. Doesn’t time fly?

In other news, the weather has been quite dry by day, and mild, but windy at times. Neither Dot nor I has been 100%, but we’ve been out and about, and have bought most of our Christmas presents, except for close family. Last night we went to a special evening at the Living Rooms, just this side of Poringland, which sells ethically sourced furniture and smaller items. Nice atmosphere, mince pies, and we bought a few things too.

Raced up to the Castle on Tuesday to hear a lunchtime talk from Anna on some of the pictures in the Family in Art exhibition. Really good. Afterwards we had lunch at M&S, and while Dot went to a schools events at the Cathedral, I bought our Christmas cards from the charity shop. Thought I’d made ample provision in cash, but after buying stamps too, I had to go to the cash machine to complete the transaction!

On Wednesday – a lovely sunny day – I drove out to North Walsham to deliver a cheque to Rob Knee as part of the Another Country payment and to discuss future ideas for the Paston Heritage Society. Quite a fruitful discussion: we felt that maybe the full exhibition had had its day and the church project was a bit of a dead duck. We’re going to suggest pulling out of the church project – partly to see the reaction of the PCC – and concentrate on smaller events, producing cards, maybe a leaflet on the Pastons in Norwich and look at the possibility of using St Peter Hungate as a Paston centre in the city. We’ll also be looking at opportunities to use readings and maybe more wide-ranging ideas (songs? monologues?) to sell the book. I’ve suggested the latter to the other poets, who seem keen.

Afterwards I called in at Jessie’s for a cup of tea and a biscuit. She seemed well. We talked about her retirement from the Blind Association (?), where she has been a helper for many years. Coincidentally, at the PCC that evening curate John Easton announced that he was stepping down after 40-45 years, and he and Jean will be taking a back seat. They are both over 70. Bit of a shock, that. At the same time, Nicholas is keen on starting an alternative type of evening service, which sounds interesting.

Encounter with a songwriter

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Andy Martin, of Astral Void, by the Bure at Oxnead Hall

October dawned very warm and sunny, but is now showing signs of slipping into autumn: a cooler feel to the weather, leaves on the ground, a strongish wind, and snow forecast for Scotland. Still quite pleasant, though, and it was very warm for Dot’s Dutch trip, which went well on the whole: it was quite a major event, and their workshops were full. The journey also passed almost without incident, if you overlook their not being able to find the car at Stansted when they got back – a purely temporary aberration.

I have been working hard on a couple of books: finishing off the Norfolk poems book – Words in a Landscape – with David, and getting the material together for Another Country – our next Paston publication. This comes to a head on Friday, when I meet with Rob Knee to decide what it will look like. The artists have suddenly come up with material, so the decisions may be harder than predicted.

Readers will I am sure be delighted and astonished in equal measure to hear that the rogue Humax has been working perfectly for several days. And Dropbox has finished its mammoth uploading of my picture files. Quite a relief.

Went to a concert at St Andrew’s Hall on Saturday. Vicki Ellis was on piccolo in the first two pieces and sat out the third with us. Apparently Dvorak has little use for piccolos. Nice to see her and her parents. Nick and Jan Miller were also there. Aunt E has been proving difficult over the last few days, calling out all and sundry, sometimes several at once. Dot has been out there today and was there yesterday too. E was not strong enough to make the planned visit to North Walsham with Dot yesterday, so I went instead, and had a rather nice meal with Dot’s mother’s cousin Sheila, her daughter Teresa, Teresa’s daughter Anna, and Anna’s son Harry (aged 18 months and very keen on tomatoes). That’s four generations in one room. Teresa (our bridesmaid 43 years ago) made a rather lovely raspberry-flavoured, crispy pastry dessert with almonds to round it all off, the only downside being that I then had to make a meal for the Tuesday Group while Dot went to the Nafpht annual meeting at the Ram, Tivetshall. Didn’t really feel hungry. Don’t know why.

On the way home from North Walsham we stopped to look at the church and hall at Oxnead (Paston connection), and encountered a young musician who was looking for the river so that he could get some songwriting inspiration. We walked down to the Bure with him and had a chat about the Pastons and other things. Turned out he was Andy Martin, guitarist and singer for Norwich-based band Astral Void, who I tracked down on the internet afterwards. Interesting.

On Sunday afternoon I decided to go over to Horsford to catch the end of the Norfolk Chess Championships. Glad I did: always get a warm welcome from chess people, and there were a couple of interesting games and anecdotes. In the end Mike Gough won by boring Mervyn Hughes into making a mistake, thus depriving Charlie Fry of his first overall victory. Watched a fascinating win by Dave Hall over Ron Hughes and was pleased to say I saw the winning moves in advance. Always easier when you’re watching.

High quality exhibition

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Flooding on Carey's Meadow at the bottom of Harvey Lane, where I went for a walk a couple of days ago

I’ve been feeling a bit rough this past week, off and on. Not sure if it’s the antibiotics or an infection. Yesterday was bad; today is a bit better. I’m seeing the doctor this afternoon on what I believe is known as an unrelated matter – results of recent blood test – so I will mention it to him. Meanwhile Dot’s back is not much better, and she is seeing the chiropractor tomorrow. We’re going to Derbyshire the weekend after next, and it would be nice if she was fit enough to walk in the hills. It would be nice if I was too.

On Sunday after church we went to a big exhibition by Martin Laurance at Mandell’s Gallery in Elm Hill. As expected, very high quality, but nothing actually screamed “Buy me” at us. Even if it had, we probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Many of the usual crowd were there: Annette, Mike, Teri, Caroline, Hilary Mellon among others. Had a quick chat with Martin too. Very pleasant hour: we parked in the Monastery car park, which I think was full of exhibition-goers’ cars. It’s normally empty on a Sunday. We only drove there because we had to go somewhere else first (he hastened to add).

Yesterday Dot had lunch with Anne and was in the city till late afternoon. Much of the time she spent at the exhibition I went to last week. I meanwhile was stocking up at the supermarket in preparation for a large Tuesday Group: 12, if you count month-old George. Just about capacity, I think. We started watching The Nativity, but TM only managed about three minutes, saying it was too Anglicised. Not sure what that meant. He started trying to explain afterwards, but his argument was rather weakened by his only having seen about three minutes of it.

Today Barbara is here, working with Dot on their Philosophy4Children days at Dudley next month. I spoke to Maryta on the phone and discovered she had to cancel her holiday because of her back, which is still far from good. She finds any kind of travel by car difficult; needless to say, she’s still going in to work, mainly by rail. At least there’s no snow to stop her: it’s turned colder again, but blue sky the last couple of days.

OK, I’ve been to the doctor now, and he was ecstatic about my blood. I don’t think  he’s a vampire: it was more that the PSA level was about as low as it can be, which is very good news. He also gave me some stronger antibiotics for the urinary tract infection, and I’ve going to have a something-oscopy to see if my bowel is OK – mainly because I still have this tight, heavy feeling in my lower abdomen. We both think it’s scar tissue, but he wants to be sure. Sorry if that’s too much information.

We’ve just heard that Rosemary has gone into hospital for tests after having severe vomiting. OK, enough information.

I’ve just read Natural Mechanical, by J O Morgan, which I got for Christmas. It’s an extended poem about a lad from Skye who is a kind of naive genius at living off nature, but also brilliant with anything mechanical. Beautifully written, with elements of Dylan Thomas but also very distinctively different. I heard the author read at Aldeburgh and was much taken by it: the book sold out at the festival shop almost immediately, so others must have been taken by it too. Some lovely touches.

Startling red

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Dramatic sky over Thorpe Road offices

Feeling woozy and a bit achy this morning, but I don’t think it’s flu: I think it’s the antibiotics I’m on for a UT infection. I’m about to have my hair cut, so monitoring the effects of that should be interesting. Our hairdresser Linda, normally blonde, has arrived with startling red hair, so I shall have to keep my eye on her. The weather has turned much milder, but there’s been a fair bit of rain, with the usual flooding in the Tas valley.

The recycling stuff hasn’t been collected since before Christmas, so yesterday Dot and I went to the tip and were strangely exhilarated by getting rid of a carload. Later, and coincidentally, a council guy came round and explained the new system; happily, he also noticed the mounds of uncollected rubbish in the street and made inquiries. He was told it had been collected, which must be one of the least convincing lies ever told.

The week began, as I mentioned last time, with Dot and Barbara doing a philosophy session at Dulwich College prep school: very good result – both of them extremely impressed with the school and hoping for a return match. In the evening I got a good result myself, winning quite a good game against a player ranked higher than me. It was in fact the return match of our club A and B teams, and the B team won 2½-1½. (Burrows ½, Moore 1, Tuffin 0, Lenton 1)

Apart from my annoying UT infection, Dot managed to injure her back and was incapacitated for a couple of days. She’s still pretty stiff. Both feeling our age for a while, but no doubt it will pass, though of course there will come a time when it doesn’t. Meanwhile I’ve been landed with the job of DCC treasurer, at least on a temporary basis, and am going for a clarification session with our current treasurer, Vicky, next week. Vicky has recently given birth to George, who isn’t quite ready to take the job over yet.

As I was in the city a couple of days ago and feeling rather below par I decided to go and see the Art of Faith exhibition at the Castle Museum. It occurred to me that if I was getting flu (for example) it would be closed before I recovered. Dot obviously wants to see it too, but she was happy that I went. Sometimes you miss things simply because you can’t co-ordinate as a couple. Still, we did get together to go to the cinema last night for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the latest Narnia film, in 3D. Pretty spectacular and nicely done, I thought, justifying its good reviews. The exhibition was also good, though I don’t get as blown away as some people by artefacts and the guesses as to their functions. Some nice artwork, though, and interesting links to the Paston period, including Oxburgh Hall. I did enjoy the exhibition film Something Understood, which cut the practising of different faiths with shots of the Norfolk countryside; and a stunning painting by a Baha’i artist.

On leaving, and after buying the catalogue book for Dot, I was accosted by a woman doing market research about my museum experience and was reminded how useless such research is (How many times have you been to a museum in the last year? I have no idea; let’s say four.) The woman was interesting, though: on  hearing I was a writer, she revealed that she’s written a book called I’m a Street Girl Now which, in case you were wondering, is about her market research experiences. Not often you come across a marker research person with a sense of humour.

I’ve just finished Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen – a quite long American novel given to me (together with four others) by David Coomes. I quite enjoyed it: it was witty and you got involved with the characters, though you never really liked any of them. At least, I didn’t. It did have some striking things to say – by implication– on the nature of freedom, though you did wonder if it would all have worked out so nicely if one of the main characters hadn’t been killed in a road accident.

OK, I’ve had my haircut now and am reminded of some lines from once-Poet Laureate Alfred Austin on the medical condition of the King at the time: Across the wires the electric message came / He is no better, he is much the same.

Scarves, face paint and flags

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Norwich City players tour the city centre by bus to celebrate the championship

Weather is still chilly, but the forecast is warmer air moving in over the weekend. About time. Still, it’s not bad walking weather – when it doesn’t rain. Yesterday I did about 4 miles, starting through the Rosary, down Ketts Hill and up to St James’ Hill, then walking across the other side of Mousehold to Sprowston Road, then a bit further round the “inner link” before getting a bus to Tombland and walking home. Hard going at first, but easier the further I went.

Later on Dot and I did some additional walking when we went up to Castle Meadow to witness the open-top bus tour by Norwich City players, champions of League One. Got a reasonably good view and some excellent pictures, considering the crowds. Sun was shining brightly: atmosphere enthusiastic in that slightly self-deprecating way that is typical of Norfolk people. Of course there are also the wild enthusiasts, to whom football is a religion. Lot of slightly bemused little children in scarves, wearing face paint and waving flags. Also salesmen selling expensive cheap memorabilia. Helicopter and motorbikes, ambulance and bus: how could it not be fascinating?

Managed to finish editing the book yesterday and have sent off a few queries to the author before letting her have the final version. A strange book, skating over what appear to be serious events and going into great detail about trivia. the subject of the book herself is undoubtedly interesting, though to tell the truth a bit irritating at times. But you have to admire her perseverance and positive attitude to all kinds of problems.

On Wednesday evening we went to the Theatre Royal to hear John McLaughlin and band (the 4th Dimension) as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. The technique of the musicians was stunning: some of McLaughlin’s guitar-playing was almost unbelievable, and keyboardist Gary Husband was also exceptional, as were the bass guitar player, Etienne M’Bappe, and drummer Mark Mondesir. Hard to pin down the type of music – sort of progressive and jazzy – but it is the kind that becomes very samey after a while. You are amazed at the virtuosity of the musicians but yearn for a tune or, more particularly, a singer. For the connoisseurs, certainly, and there were times, especially in the first hour, when I was spellbound. But…  We actually left early, not because we we were bored but because Dot had a very early start for a school inspection the next day. The audience was also a bit odd: there was a lot of coming and going to the loo, starting as early as about a quarter of an hour in, and the woman sitting in front of me was exceptionally irritating because she would not sit still. She sat back, then forward, then put something on, then leaned over on to her partner, then went through the whole cycle again. And none of it in time to the music. All in all, a rather unreal evening.

Naked feet on the edge of the bath

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Red ball
Part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival, this giant red ball will be appearing in various parts of the city. Yesterday it made its debut outside the station.

Got quite a bit of work done on the book yesterday, and also fitted in painting the bathroom ceiling: well, parts of the bathroom ceiling, after Dot revealed that she had in fact painted it last year. So I was just painting over a couple of deteriorating bits, and now it all looks brand new. I was prepared for it to drip all over the place, so painted in old shorts and a T-shirt, with naked feet. Actually naked feet came in useful for standing on the edge of the bath.

The book is a bit odd: parts of it are quite professionally written, but then you come to a paragraph that’s barely English. Ah well; it shouldn’t take too long, though I’m feeling a bit below par today. This may be because I think I have another UT infection, or it may be the really lousy weather (wet and cold) or it may be because I got very little sleep last night after a late meal at Delia’s Restaurant with the Robinsons. The meal was excellent and quite reasonably priced, but late eating doesn’t suit my metabolism, what with the sherry, vodka and wine. Not excessive; oh, no. Just a bit too varied. Had interesting conversation with Philip Robinson about the Election and What Happens Now. If pressed to compare Delia’s with the Swan, the Swan would just get my vote. But Delia’s is good.

Today has not been great so far, especially as Norwich City managed to finish the season in triumph with a pretty pathetic 2-0 defeat – just what you want when they’re going to present you with a trophy. But the Higbees will be joining us for egg curry later. Annette and Mike have cried off with illness, and I tried to contact others to join us, but was unsuccessful. Dot is feeling a bit down after knocking her glass butterfly onto the floor and breaking it. Hope this does not affect the weather thousands of miles away. Perhaps someone has broken a butterfly in China.