Headingley LitFest: Sweet Wild Note

Thursday, 15 March 2018

Sweet Wild Note - Richard Smyth

Audience Comments

Very interesting event. We are birdwatchers but not very good on birdsong, so we shall listen more carefully this year!

Interesting. The sounds of birds are not so frequently talked about as their appearance. Bird-song is a great joy and I believe that (???) research revealed that it is relaxing and good for the human psyche

Interesting lecture which will improve as the speaker gains experience.

Questions well fielded. Good environment.

A rare exclusive insight into nature’s most loved sounds. A pleasure to meet

the author and have a signed copy. This was my first event and I will come to more.

Very interesting talk on birdsongs which I actually found quite amusing listening to the talk and sounds made from Richard Smyth. Some good points from the audience as well.

Richard’s talk was fascinating – I find that when I put on my hearing aids and go for a walk next to hedges here in Headingley I can hear a riot of birdsong.

Excellent! There should be more, much more, like this.

It was lovely. I really enjoyed it.

-->

Enjoyed it, some good ideas for songs!

-->

No comments:

LITERARY HEADINGLEY

Headingley is just the place for it! Don't expect a big circus with marquees, though: we're not at that stage yet. We're all volunteers as well.

Our venues include the HEART Centre on Bennett Road, the New Headingley Club on St Michael's Road, friendly cafés, historic local cinemas, Headingley Library, people's houses and the historic Leeds Library in Commercial Street, city centre.

Headingley's Literary Links

Headingley has strong connections with many writers:

Arthur Ransome was born in Headingley, J R R Tolkien lived at 5 Holly Bank and also at 2 Darnley Road, West Park when he was reader in English Language at the University of Leeds 1920 - 25, Alan Bennett lived over a butcher's shop opposite the Three Horseshoes, now Royale Dry Cleaners.

Lucy Newlyn has published poetry about her early life in Headingley, George Orwell stayed at 21 Estcourt Avenue with his sister Marjorie and her husband Humphrey 'Humpy' Dakin (with whom he visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth), T S Eliot used to visit his mother-in-law in Weetwood Lane, William Fryer Harvey was brought up in Spring Bank, Trevor Griffiths lived just off Victoria Road on Winstanley Terrace, Jon Silkin's first office of STAND magazine was his flat at 144 Otley Road, Sir Geoffrey Hill lived in Shire Oak Road, Peter Redgrove lived in Headingley between 1962 and 1965 when he was Gregory Fellow of Poetry at the University of Leeds, and playwright Kay Mellor still lives near The Hollies in Far Headingley.

Wilson Barrett, the charismatic first manager of the Grand Theatre, Leeds (a prolific playwright as well), lived in Beech Grove Terrace, Woodhouse in the 1870s. His house was a meeting place for many writers, artists and visitors to Leeds - such as W. S. Gilbert, George Grossmith and Atkinson Grimshaw.

Headingley LitFest 2020 was the thirteenth. The fourteenth will take place from March 2021 and will be adapted to the rules of the Covid pandemic. We are now a proud part of the annual Leeds Lit Fest.