Patrick Bourke - ‘just one story, in the story of thousands'

Partnership event with Irish Arts Foundation 14 March, 8pm in HEART

Photo: Sally Bavage

Síle Moriarty writes:

The Claremont Room at HEART was packed last night as Brendan McGowan told us the story of Patrick Bourke – ‘just one story, in the story of thousands, which shows the precarious existence of the Irish in England at the time’ - mid-nineteenth century.

Brendan is a historian who has written previously about the Irish in Leeds (Taking The boat: The Irish in Leeds 1931-81), and it was as a historian that he investigated the story of Patrick Bourke but he also had a more personal interest – he was born in Leeds, of Irish parents, just a stone’s throw away from the Leeds Workhouse - now the Thackray Museum - where Patrick spent his last days before being ‘deported’ to Ireland.

The back-drop to Patrick’s story was the overcrowding and poverty of the Irish in Leeds in the early part of the nineteenth century which was exacerbated by the arrival in Leeds, after 1840, of an increasing number of Irish migrants fleeing An Gorta Mór (The Great Famine) in Ireland.

Patrick himself came to England in 1820 at the age of thirty and he spent the next more than forty years in and around Leeds supporting himself by his own efforts. During this time he never applied for poor relief or for any other sort of assistance but he was also semi-itinerant; he travelled around West Yorkshire plying his trade, as a street hawker and maker of spectacles, staying in lodging houses which were overcrowded and less than sanitary.  He never married and as he became older he could not maintain his lifestyle and in 1862, being ill and destitute, he applied for relief to the Leeds Union Workhouse.

Leeds Union Workhouse - now Thackray Medical Museum)

At this stage he was judged as having no settlement rights – under the Poor Law at the time relief could only be given by the parish where the applicant had settlement rights i.e. where they were born or where they had established rights through other means e.g. marriage or property. This meant that Patrick had to receive relief in West Port in Mayo, his place of birth. Thus, on 31 December 1862, seventy-two year-old Patrick set off for Ireland. His journey in the depths of winter included an eleven hour journey to Holyhead, a 3am sea crossing - where he was a deck passenger subject to the elements - a stopover in Dublin and a journey across Ireland, during the last part of which, in open-topped transport , he was soaked to the skin in a rainstorm. As can be imagined he arrived in West Port in poor condition and died two weeks later.

Patrick’s story, although desperate, would have remained obscure - we don’t know where he was buried - but for the action taken by his MP, Lord Browne, who raised questions about his treatment in the House of Commons. During the subsequent enquiry many of the people involved in his case, both in England and Ireland, were interviewed and records were kept which enabled Brendan’s research.  The outcome of the enquiry was that the Leeds Union had acted within the law but, as Brendan said, ‘it might have been legal but it was not humane’. There were subsequent changes to the Poor Law and limitations put on the transportation of elderly and sick people during the winter but there was no apology from the Leeds Union because they had, of course, acted within the law.

This story engaged our sympathy and Brendan was a knowledgeable and interesting speaker. Brendan, and many people in the audience, drew parallels with modern times when market forces reign supreme - the Great Famine in Ireland was exacerbated by the application of a market forces philosophy - and there was a lively Q&A session after the talk.

Audience reactions:

Really, Really interesting story. I’m so glad I came...

Very  good talk. Most enlightening with very engaging speaker

An interesting presentation giving a clear picture of the state of Irish immigrants and their way of life when fleeing the famine in Ireland. Also the bad way some people were treated on being sent back to Ireland

Taking the Boat: The Irish in Leeds, 1931-81 is available: at the Leeds Civic Trust, at Amazon and on ebay.

The Return of the Soldier

Photo: Sally Bavage

Sally Bavage writes:

The return of Dr Richard Brown, Reader in Modern Literature at the University of Leeds, to LitFest 2014, ably supported by his PhD student Daniel (both pictured), helped us examine Rebecca West’s debut novel – published in 1918 and the only one written in WW1 by a woman – in the context of the movement towards literary modernism. Human complexities and personal circumstances were explored individually rather than in the more Edwardian approach to a narrative of mass sacrifice.  As we know, the war produced a great upheaval in class and gender roles; this novel mirrors some of those societal changes through focusing on the impacts for the key characters.

Why choose that novel, when perhaps a more predictable choice for a seminal WW1 work might have been Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, or even something more in the Blackadder mould?  Exactly because it looks at the Home Front, or at least a part of it that strove to remain Forever England.  Without giving too much away – for you really should read this fairly brief, tightly-written and well-plotted novel – the central character returns from the trenches suffering from amnesia.  There is a wife, a lover and a cousin who move us through the dilemma – return the wrecked man to his military career and thus return him to the war?  Or leave him to remain in the aspic of his youthful happily-deluded self?

This echoes the research work and the book Stories from the War Hospital produced by the LitFest - to be launched on Friday 21 March in the New Headingley Club. The 2^nd Northern Military Hospital based at Beckett Park in Headingley gave treatments for ‘shell shock’, which was both shocking to military doctors and not caused by shells.  At least not physically; it was recognised in 1915 in The Lancet as an emotional or psychological response to extreme stress; there were 80,000 cases by 1918.  But even shell shock had a class bias – it was suggested officers suffered ‘anxiety neuroses’ because of their higher education and sensitivity whilst the lower ranks exhibited ‘mental illness’ causing tremors and speech difficulties. 

Rebecca West picks up on these class-based approaches in a plot detailing the fractured family lives of a wife and a lover each nursing an empty cot, the one responding to the amnesiac by trying to keep life and him just as it always was whilst the other adapts to the changes in the times and her man. West tries to express the processes of change that WW1 set off in British society through the device of the soldier who leaves one idyllic world, goes to as hellish alternative and comes back to find his world view fits neither. Though there is a plot twist to complicate this simple view.

Some  anecdotes about which literary and society figures West may have used for her character models, and why, completed an enjoyable look at how class hierarchies and gender roles were affected by WW1, then it was out into the night clutching the last of Headingley Library’s borrowed copies of the novel thoughtfully prepared by our librarian Rimpu Bains, for which many thanks.

As a member of the audience said “Shall Return to the Novel Immediately.  Excellent.”

'Men of Honour' assassinate Caesar

Caesar Must Die – ‘Films at Heart’ partnership event

Tuesday 11^th March

Sally Bavage writes:

For our inaugural partnership event with Films at Heart we couldn’t get a Tuesday film night much closer to the Ides of March on the 15^th of this month!  As we know, Caesar didn’t survive the literal cut and thrust of political and personal ambition; nor did democracy.  The assassination created the conditions for transition from republic to empire, from democracy to despotism, but  for Caesar’s adopted son Octavius a surviving role as the emperor Augustus.

The film focuses on wannabe amateur actors - in reality, lifers and long-termers in the high security section of Rome’s tough Rebibbia Prison - enacting the theme of surviving through the medium of Shakespeare’s message.   As they are introduced you realise that many came from Sicily or the Naples area, and were incarcerated for drug trafficking (the Mafia is Europe’s biggest drugs trader by far) or for being part of organised crime (Mafia again).  Mafiosi are described as ‘men of honour’ in those parts.

After the plotting and eventual assassination, the conspirators make their case in the ‘forum’ of the exercise yard.  They justify their deeds to the onlooking prisoners watching from the serried rows of cell windows.  Anthony was Caesar’s right-hand-man and they expect trouble and vilification.  However, he describes them as “all, all honourable men.”  Men of honour in art too - though of course Anthony doesn’t mean it and dishonours his pledges.

What the prisoners learn from exploring the motives and the emotions within the play is both profound and sad.  You are very quickly drawn into the plot to kill the ambitious consul, and forget they are amdram until drawn up short by rehearsals extemporised in other areas of the prison with an audience of fellow inmates.  They inhabit the parts they play with great skill and brio and you are left to pity many of them for the lives they led that led to the lives they lead.

The last line comes from the actor who played Caesar: “Since I got to find art, this cell has become a prison” he says, as he is once again banged up behind locked heavy double doors. Surviving his life sentence is both more challenging and less ordinary.

Comments from the 50-strong audience include:

Great movie, friendly atmosphere, good opportunity for university students interested in applied theatre, please ask the café to stay open for cake!

Tense and dramatic. Enjoyed the stagecraft.

Very good film – good idea to incorporate this form of film in LitFest.

Wonderful to get the chance to see this gem …Powerful and moving.

Brilliant film – well chosen. My first time – I will certainly come back.

… and a number of Films at Heart regulars had not seen LitFest brochures before and were tempted by some of the other many and varied events we have on offer over the coming weeks.  Once again a new partnership finds fertile ground.

Noah or Mad Max in a future dystopia?

Dr Tim Foxon        Photo: Sally Bavage

Sally Bavage writes:
A new partnership with Café Scientifique this year saw an appreciative audience of Café and LitFest regulars explore some key issues around surviving the delivery of our future energy needs at the same time as reducing carbon emissions.  Introduced by Dr Tim Foxon, Reader in Sustainability & Innovation in the Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, the session provoked some lively debate.

We all know the main scientific facts concerning the relentless rise in global carbon dioxide emissions, the projected temperature rise of between 2 to 5 degrees Centigrade by the turn of the century and our ever-increasing demand for energy. Mix this with some more information on the developing economies, the role positive feedback could play in an exponential further rise and the extreme weather becoming, well, even more extreme. More often.  Very few scientists of international standing deny the figures; interpretation is a more subjective and emotive issue.

Tim gave us a factual run-through of key considerations in our energy needs, then posed the question: Who will decide?  The Markets?  Central governments?  Or communities?  The Thousand Flowers strand of thinking (Let a thousand flowers bloom is a common misquotation of Chairman Mao Zedong's Let a hundred flowers blossom) but signifies that the answer may lie in a diversity of approaches.  We need to use our scientific, technological, political and social skills to change the habits of a lifetime before the life becomes shortened and unstable. There seem few scenarios with a soft landing.

Fire and flood?  Drought and pestilence.  Mass migration and resource wars. Fleeting images of Noah or Mad Max in a dystopian future are called to mind.  Politicians will not be pouring oil on troubled waters but burning the oil and stealing the water.  The price of carbon may turn out to be one that mankind can’t afford to pay.  A more positive future is possible, but humankind will probably need to overcome its collective addiction to consumption and economic growth to achieve this.

A sobering thought as the audience filed out to the bar.  

From the audience:

Very enjoyable and some food for thought.

Great to link Café Scientifique with LitFest, to increase involvement with both.

A very clear exposition of crucial issues looking forward to 2050 and beyond.

I wonder what Headingley LitFest will be like by then?

'Wounded' shortlisted!

Emily Mayhew is appearing at 7pm in Headingley Library on Tuesday 18 March to read from and talk about Wounded. From Battlefield to Blighty.

This has now been shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize - see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookprizes/10660055/Wellcome-Book-Prize-shortlist-announced.html

Gillian Clarke on 20 March

Tales from the Wood

James Nash                        Photo: Sally Bavage

… Ireland Wood, to be precise.  Wednesday 26 February saw the last school in our current group of primary schools complete their writing of poems and stories with a performance assembly.  ‘LitFest: Surviving’ once again harnessed the talents of local writer/poet James Nash (“the best poet”, it said on the birthday card the year 6 youngsters joyfully presented to him).

We had excerpts read to us of some beginnings, some middles and some cliffhanger endings of the poems and stories they had crafted with the support and guidance of a professional artist for whom class teacher Adrienne Amos had nothing but the highest of praise.  We even had one of the stories that Heather had been inspired to write, along with others, for the Radio Two 500-word story competition.  

Their work was displayed across the whole of the assembly hall for all children in the school to see, a fantastic model for others to follow. Three whole afternoons of writing were not enough, said one youngster shyly and the young man in the wheelchair threw up his arms with joy when he had read his contribution out to the audience. The clay head used by James to inspire the budding writers worked its magic once again.     (Sally Bavage)

Exhibition of historic photos of the wartime hospital.

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Photo by Theo Wilcocks

Photo by Sally Bavage

Thanks to all of you who climbed up the stairs to the Ridge Room in the Headingley Heart Centre yesterday evening. I hope to see you again at one of the LitFest events, soon. The exhibition is there for six weeks, so anybody using that room for a class or a meeting will get a chance to study the photos. Isn't that long 1917 panorama amazing! Have you noticed how nearly all the people in it (about five hundred of them) are either squinting, screwing up their eyes or looking down at their knees because the summer sun came out just as the shutter clicked. And why were five members of the kitchen staff, wearing white linen pancakes on their heads, placed right in front of the high-ups like Lt-Col Harry Littlewood and Matron-in-Chief Euphemia Innes?

The Story of Dorothy Wilkinson

A Yorkshire Post feature today - a shortened (too shortened) version of the true story of Dorothy Wilkinson. The full version will appear in Stories from the War Hospital.  Go to this link - http://bit.ly/1bcUgLZ










This is Dorothy in 1917. Photo was taken in a studio shortly after she first became a VAD (nursing member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment) who was sent to work at Beckett Park.

Extraordinary poetry from Quarry Mount School

Sheila Chapman writes:
A lovely sunny morning, for a change, and some lovely poetry too from the children at Quarry Mount primary school.

We listened to seven poets, drawn from the various years of the school, with the youngest coming from year 2 and the oldest from Year 6. The children’s interpretation of the theme ‘surviving’ was original, perceptive and brimful of imagery and linguistic dexterity - what a joy to listen to in such an intimate atmosphere. Here are some comments from the poets

-        I liked working with James and writing a poem. I liked working with all the other children as well ...

-        I liked working with James because he gave me good ideas and helped me.

-        I enjoyed the whole experience and working with the head and James, I would love this to happen again.

Each child could invite some friends to listen to them and there were also parents and teachers in the audience. Here are some of the comments from the audience

From children

-        It was all grown up and interesting and cool.

-        I thought it was very interesting and it was very emotional. They should do it more often.

-        I think the poems were extraordinary. They should do this more often.

-        In my opinion James gave them the power to be brave. I wish you can do it more often.

-        I think we should do this more often listening to creative people.

From teachers

-        This was a very special opportunity for the writers to share their work and the invited audience to hear such emotive poetry. A really valuable experience for all involved.

 Karine Hendley - Headteacher

-        A wonderful event – 3 weeks of quality work. The depth of work was first-rate. A great creative and learning process for the pupils – thanks to James and Headingley LitFest. Andrew Howdle – Year 5 teacher

-        Standard of writing and reading brilliant. Extremely moving. Great to see profile of poetry raised within school. The children very proud of their work.

Lynne Blackwood

From parents

·       It is very good to carry on, this will give children confidence and improve their skills.

·       Fabulous I thoroughly enjoyed the poetry and was pleasantly surprised at the maturity in the children’s writings. Amazing effort. Thank you James.

Thank you from Quarry Mount for such a wonderful morning

Big and green

The printed version of this year's LitFest brochure - twenty pages long - has arrived. If you can help by distributing or 'placing' it, get in touch. If you are in Headingley at the Farmers' Market this coming Saturday (8 February) you will see some rain-lashed people giving it out. Ask for a fat handful if you can use it.

Wonderful youngsters

Sally Andrews writes:
Monday 27 January finds St Chad's school assembly hall crammed with 160 keen pupils and their teachers listening in rapt attention to some of their peers in Year 6 read out poems written with the inspiration of James Nash, local writer and poet working in the school as part of Headingley LitFest's support for community schools.

Once again the compelling gaze of the sightless clay eyes of a terracotta head used by James inspired children to write about the current LitFest theme of 'Surviving'.  They wrote movingly, with wide-ranging vocabulary and read out their work with such mature assurance that it only served to illustrate the value of such opportunities to extend their experiences of poetry, poetic imagery and performance.  

As Holly said, “It was very inspiring to hear and see a real poet; it made me want to write more poetry.”  Her classmate Hajra added that “Planning the poem and setting out my ideas” had also been exciting. Their class teacher, Ms King, was delighted in the spur for her “pupils to keep writing poetry after James has left his mark on the school” and headteacher Mrs Pratten praised those “wonderful youngsters who showed courage in sharing their work with everybody and who had written in such a thought-provoking way.”

Jo Shapcott – multi-award-winning poet in the main LitFest on 20 March 2014 – it seems you have a lot to beat!

Programme brochure is being printed!

Exciting eh? They'll be given out at Headingley Farmers' Market on Saturday 8 February - and that's just a start. In the meantime, see the preliminary programme at www.litfestprogramme.blogspot.com

A warning from matron

Update on the LitFest's Wartime Hospital at Beckett Park project:

The illustrated book containing the true stories which have been collected and the discoveries which have been made over the past year or so - some of them extraordinary - will be launched at a very special evening on 21 March at the New Headingley Club in St Michael's Road. During the event, at 8pm, a group specially created for the occasion called Vedettes will give a performance based on some of the stories. You are being warned now that the club is liable to be packed out - so tickets will issued nearer to the date, even though entry is free - with a collection. You can book your place now by emailing headingleyhospital@gmail.com

Matron and nurses at the 2nd Northern General Hospital, Beckett Park, Headingley in 1917

Two heads are better than one

Sally Bavage writes on ‘Surviving’ at Brudenell Primary

As James Nash, local poet/writer working for the first time for LitFest with Brudenell Primary School, said of his storytelling sessions here: “I told Year 6 stories; their stories were better than mine!”  Monday 9^th December and yet another marvellous afternoon where young people shared their ideas with fellow pupils, parents, teachers and visitors, using a microphone and standing centre-stage to read out to an audience of 100 tantalising excerpts from their vivid tales woven around a clay head. 

Adventures, accidents, tragedy, terror, jollity, journeys – all here.  The clay model carries scars; speculation ranged from crashes to war, from falls to wounding, from kidnapping to family rescue from a cooking pot!  Dreams and nightmares.  Beautiful descriptions of candyfloss clouds, sun-drenched beaches, menacing streets.  From Scarborough to New York to Transylvania – we were taken along a global journey ourselves.  We look forward to seeing the whole stories on display later this year.

Headteacher Jill Harland commented afterwards: “Having an inspirational author work with our pupils has raised their ambition and love of literacy.  Some have been speaking English for less than two years – and now see where this work has taken their language development.”  Teacher Rachael Mann told us that “The event really inspired the Year Sixes to write more, and present their work confidently in front of an audience.  The language used in the stories was excellent and I think events like these really encourage children to have an interest in writing.”

We can leave the final words to some of Year Six themselves: 

“Working with James improved my writing as before he came I didn’t know how to start a story.” Asiman

“He inspired me to write more stories.” Maham

And, simply, “It was fun!!” Aryaan.

Draft Calendar for 2014

The calendar for the programme of the 2014 LitFest is almost in place, with only a few gaps for extra events to squeeze into - final version in a week or two - so far we've got (in the order of the calendar, and without some of the final titles), Climate Change (with Café Scientifique), Film at Heart (Caesar Must Die), Alison Taft's new novel, Irish Arts, Words on Tap Special (with Matthew Hedley Stoppard), Trio Literati, Malcolm Lowery poetry, Italian Classic readings (Dante and Bocaccio) at the Salumeria, Let Me Speak (creative writing group at Heart, with friends from Osmondthorpe if possible), The Return of the Soldier (Rebecca West, lecture by Dr Richard Brown), Leeds Combined Arts event, Jo Shapcott, Grand Launch of the book of stories from the wartime hospital at Beckett Park (together with a performance based on some of them from the Vedettes - Leeds Met students), Ridiculous Witches with Sarah Shafi, Surviving the Publishing Industry (workshop with Alison Taft), house events including one on little-known war poets, Theatre of the Dales, café events at Mint and Lento on North Lane, Scriptophilia with Peter Spafford and Richard Ormrod, a literary walk around Headingley and West Park, poetry slams at City of Leeds and Lawnswood Schools and Aritha van Herk at Heart.

'Surviving' at Spring Bank

Sally Bavage writes:

Macabre? Not a bit of it

Class teacher Jo Ward and her eager class of Year 5 filed in to a 200-strong packed assembly hall at Spring Bank primary school on Thursday 21^st November to read out the poetry they had carefully crafted in workshops led by James Nash, a well-known local writer and poet.  This was LitFest’s second collaboration with the school; year 6 “have not stopped talking about it since last year” and Jo herself “jumped at the chance” to work with James.  “He gets so much out of them, all of them; I don’t know how he does it but he generates huge leaps in confidence and performance.”

Working with a professional poet, supported by mentors Alice and Giulia from the local Older Wiser Local Seniors (OWLS) – who also read out their own poems – the children created some imaginative and powerful writing that quite took your breath away at times.  A clay head of a child, with some scratches on the cheeks and a crack across the skull, formed the stimulus material.  Macabre?  Not a bit of it: the youngsters saw through the cast eyes of the child and explored what that child might see.  From shaking sheets of paper held in nervous hands, they used the microphone with quavering voices.  But not for long!  The shyness vanished very quickly and the poetry they had created soon flowed out in front of teachers, friends, family and visitors.

The LitFest theme for this coming year is ‘Surviving’ and will include, next March, our researches supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund on the Wartime Hospital at Beckett's Park in WW1.  But for today, our young writers were taking a wider look at what surviving could mean.  In worlds where families are fractured, fight, leave, lose lives or hope. But our clay child observed it all and lived on, dreaming of a better future.  Confidence in writing and in creating the voice of an observer outside the self were strongly developed under James’ gentle support.  Only one young man was too shy to read his poetry; his friend volunteered to read it for him.  So we can add teamwork as well. 

“Again, well done to all the children!  They all sounded clear and confident.  I’m XXXX’s father and all I can do is thank you all for helping her improve on her reading and writing, also confidence.”  Parent

“Wonderful poetry by the children.  Really well written and performed.  Lovely and different for them to work on!”  Parent

“I’ve just come to listen to the poems that the children have created and am so impressed by the depth of emotion and expression that James has inspired from the children.”  Teacher

Silent Night in Headingley...

Photo by Sally Bavage

... which, for the denizens of Headingley, a quiet Friday night would be rare.  However, this was a Silent Night of an altogether different category.  A combination of original music and lyrics, with a script The Narrator performed whilst familiar images of World War 1 played across the screen and in our mind’s eyes too.  The stark images, however, segued into the portrait pictures of the many writers of letters used to create the script and the lyrics.

“I wake from a dream into a dream

Half in heaven, Half in hell.”

Thus the wonderful voice of Julie Lloyd begins to tell us the stories of life away from Blighty from the perspectives of the lonely soldier and lonely partner at home.  With the rest of the group iFive – Charlie Burman, Dave Bowie, Steve Jones and Tony Hall, who created this splendid performance as well as partnering Julie in the songs – The Narrator Les Staves, drafted in for the occasion, unfolded the story bit by bit.

The night before Christmas 1914 had no shelling, no noise; it was indeed silent. Men slept despite the biting cold and the clogging mud.  Then the refrains of ‘Stille Nacht or ‘Silent Night’ came to them from the German trenches and … well, we know about the football game with a tin of bully beef in No Man’s Land, the exchange of small tokens (buttons, cigarettes), the proud display of family photographs, the handshakes, the sharing of drink, the camaraderie of those who had volunteered to fight an enemy and found themselves looking at mirror images.  They even buried their dead together.

The Narrator told us poignantly of letters between lovers, amazement at the turn of events; complemented by a range of songs that echoed the loneliness, longing and loss of the men whose Christmas dinner treat was bacon dip.  It couldn’t last, of course.  Friendship was again transformed by word of command into hate.  But the performance was done with a light touch and never became maudlin or miserable, much more a testament to the humanity of man.

The packed audience at the New Headingley Club sat in their own silence, rapt in a familiar  story written by real people, real words, real emotion.  “A really moving event”, “so very professional” and “thank you so much for this opportunity” were just some of the many words of praise for this premiere performance for LitFest.  It will be performed again; catch it if you can.

Sally Bavage

Beckett's Park Hospital - the performance

Richard Wilcocks writes:
Five students from the Performing Arts course at Leeds Metropolitan University have now stepped forward to participate in the 'Wartime Hospital' performance, which will take place in March next year. It will be based on the research which has been done into the Beckett's Park Hospital in the First World War, the buildings for which were finished in 1913, just before it was taken over by the army medical services the following year. It is wonderful that Leeds Met students are taking part so enthusiastically in this project, for the simple reason that LMU uses the same site. 

Some of the true stories that have been collected from descendants of patients, nurses and members of the RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) are extraordinary. They are not all about victims of poison gas, amputations and shell shock, though there's plenty of that of course. This drawing was done by a patient for the VAD nurse in charge of his ward in 1917. It comes from her autograph book.

See www.headingleyhospital.org

Our next Between the Lines event

Young Local Poets. Very Young Local Poets

Working with three local primary schools to encourage ten year-olds to appreciate and write their own poetry has been something that Headingley LitFest has been working on since our main programme in March 2013.  Using the skills of acclaimed local writer James Nash, and working with some friends from Older Wiser Local Seniors (OWLS), James has worked in Weetwood, Shire Oak and Spring Bank schools over the past few months. 

Using a range of stimulus material, he has managed to get around 100 local youngsters to find their inner poet.  As one young girl from Weetwood said, “They were fabulous sessions, and I enjoyed every second!  And a young lad also commented, “I particularly liked the way we got inspiration from the book and the two pictures.  I think that the event would be better if it was longer but the rest was brilliant!

James himself comments, “Working at Shire Oak school, and writing poetry based on sporting and physical activity, showed me that with the great support  of staff and OWLS, and fitting into current curriculum projects of a school, we can enhance the writing abilities of all pupils and make writing relevant and fun for everybody.”

After funding from the Arts Council enabled us to develop our poetry work with local primary schools, it is now thanks to support from local councillors through the Area Management committee, Leeds City Council community funding and Wade’s charity, we have funding to be able to continue this work over the coming months and beyond our 2014 LitFest, themed ‘Surviving’.  Watch this space.

Robert Barnard 1936 - 2013

Winner of the Crime Writers' Association 2003 Cartier Diamond Dagger Award

A staunch friend of the LitFest, Robert Barnard, died last week in the Grove Court Nursing Home on Cardigan Road. He spoke on the Brontës and on crime fiction for us, very entertainingly and without using notes, and apologised for not being able to make it to any of the events during the last two or three years because of his rapidly deteriorating health. He was a professor, a scholar, a great opera lover and an award-winning author as well as a personal friend, who will be greatly missed. (Richard Wilcocks)

Guardian Obituary

Yorkshire Post Obituary

Telegraph Obituary

New York Times Obituary

Independent Obituary

Black Mask Obituary

Crime writer Martin Edwards remembers

Wounded by Emily Mayhew

Richard Wilcocks writes

Wounded is a homage to the heroic men and women who cared for the wounded in the Great War, described by her as “an undiscovered, somehow silenced group”. Using a remarkable collection of letters and diaries, and rooted in wide reading and original research, Emily Mayhew has produced a startlingly vivid and engaging account of the way the wounded (almost every other British soldier could expect to become a casualty) were rescued, treated and cared for by bearers, Regimental Medical Officers, surgeons, nurses, VADs, orderlies, chaplains, ambulance drivers and others during a conflagration which was sparked by a symbolic act of terrorism in Sarajevo, rolled on like a mad machine for four years, and which led to the crumbling away of empires and the destruction of countless lives. A modern conflict.

The military medical services hardly knew what had hit them at first, just like the British Expeditionary Force itself, which was nearly wiped out at Mons and the Marne in 1914. Veteran nurses and doctors were at the front at that time, possibly with Boer War experience, but dealing with ghastly shrapnel wounds on a large scale was very different to dealing with relatively straightforward bullet holes on the warm, dry South African veldt. In Flanders, the fields tended to be wet and heavily manured, and most of the tetanus and gas gangrene cases which resulted from just slight scratches as well as mangled limbs were destined to die horribly.  The up-to-date cylindro-conical bullets were fast, hit hard and took tiny fragments of dirty uniform and other contaminants deep into bodies. The medics learned as fast as they could, and coped with almost impossible situations over and over again, a fact made clear through a collection of true stories about the ones who were there.

Take the story of Regimental Medical Officer William Kelsey Fry of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, who, after heavy losses taking a small town from the Germans, went out onto the battlefield himself to retrieve casualties.  “Time after time he cleaned the mud off his glasses, braced himself and joined the fighting soldiers, oblivious to all but the cries of the man he was trying to find in the middle of the chaos. When he found him, Kelsey Fry hoisted him up onto his back and ran as fast as he could. During one of these trips, he was shot in both legs. The wounds weren’t serious, but he was lucky to make it back to the medical post with his patient.” It was his duty to look after the water supply as well, making sure it was fresh, and supervised the digging of latrines. His reputation for unflappability and efficiency caused the upper ranks of the Royal Army Medical Corps to offer him a promotion away from the dirt and gunfire of the front line, but he preferred to stay. During a battle in 1916 he had so little time that a proper medical post could not be set up, so with his bearers he dug a hole as deep as time and the enemy would allow and put a tarpaulin over it, “It filled with casualties almost immediately, like rain collecting in a puddle. As in every aid post on the line, they worked so hard that they stopped hearing the shellfire and didn’t notice as it crept closer and closer…” Siegfried Sassoon, who knew him well, was one of many who was shocked when he heard of his death.

Or the story of surgeon Norman Pritchard, who found himself responsible for  a ward of recently captured German prisoners. “When Pritchard first set eyes on them, in their special ward, he almost turned round and walked out again. The POWs were in a dreadful state. Most had been hiding for days, lying in abandoned trenches and shell holes, hoping that their side would retake the ground. They were fetid with infections and starved, many of them on the brink of death. It was difficult to know where to start. Pritchard had no German, and so a kind, firm tone would have to do…”

Or the story of Nurse Winifred Kenyon, who “never considered going anywhere else but a casualty clearing station. She wanted to be as close to the war as possible, to share in the adventure and excitement and to make her contribution”… “Perhaps the most unexpected thing Kenyon learned inside the ward tents was how much was left up to the nurses themselves. There were several wards that they ran without doctors, and they taught their new skills to the new arrivals like Kenyon. ‘Resus’ was one of them. The men were too weak to raise their heads, let alone be operated on, and it was the nurses who brought them back from the brink. Kenyon learned to administer the magic mixtures of hot saline, brandy and coffee, and that you could never have too many hot water bottles. Sometimes you put ten or twelve around a man close to death from hypothermia and gradually watched him come back to life. Men came in grey and went back pink.”

Or the story of Nurse Morgan, whose home was the No 3 Ambulance Train, 300 yards long, with a supposed maximum capacity of 440 and equipped with iron stands and straps where cots or stretchers were hung. “During the Somme offensive the pushload of 440 or more became the norm, as No 3 struggled to keep up. Carefully planned entraining and detraining routines simply went to pieces in the face of the sheer numbers of casualties at the railheads, and within a week of the Somme the whole system of transit simply broke down”… “Morgan tried to calm her patients, while all around them they could hear the moaning of men in agony, the train an island in a sea of human desolation.”

Most of the material in Wounded is new, from previously unused archival sources, and it is presented not in a cold, detached way, but with genuine warmth and engagement, because Mayhew has the skills of a novelist, the ability to empathise, to stand in the shoes of those who were so committed to saving lives a century ago. The reader is invited to engage with the senses, to smell the gas still clinging to the uniforms of those arriving at London’s Victoria Station on ambulance trains, to recoil from appalling injuries, to gasp at the madness of it all.

Published by Bodley Head     ISBN 9781847922618

UPDATE - website for published book Stories from the War Hospital is at www.firstworldwarhospital.co.uk

* Emily Mayhew will be a guest of Headingley LitFest on Tuesday 18 March 2014

First Youth Fringe day on Saturday 29 June

Thanks to the generous support from the Arts Council and the Co-operative Community Fund, Headingley LitFest was able to host its first major event specifically targeting young people in our community with a wide-ranging programme of events.

We started with a well-attended especially commissioned performance of ‘The Woodhouse New Woman’ by Theatre of the Dales, first performed at the main LitFest in March.  Focussing on Mary Gawthorpe, local suffragist, it both entertains and informs as it follows her journey from dutiful daughter into radical politics.  It is expected to tour to local schools in the autumn.

A creative writing workshop – to find your inner poet – was a delightful couple of hours in the company of James Nash, local published poet, assisted by Ruth Middleton from the Headingley Writers Group, run by the WEA at Heart.  Although a small audience, the quality of work produced was high – and the young people have given us ideas about how to recruit more of them in the future.  That’s what pilots are for!  As one participant said, “I brought my daughter to this event, and ended up participating myself!  It was a fabulous experience for my daughter, who has shown promise in her writing, and reads avidly, but is reticent about making her voice heard publicly. The session was skilfully and sensitively run.  Excellent.”

The film We Are Poets was again shown to a healthy audience that was both moved and uplifted by the story of six young Leeds poets, none with an easy backstory, who go off to an international ‘slam’ in Washington called Brave New Voices.  And get to the semi-final.  Beating forty other teams. But as Alex Ramseher-Bache, director, in the informative Q&A session afterwards, said “Points aren’t the aim; the point is the poetry.”  And it was – affecting, engaging, emotional.  For more information, check out We Are Poets.  Watch out for it on DVD soon.

Finally, Alex Rushfirth put together a great evening of local young musicians playing their own songs and poems to their original music.  As Seas-of-Green sang,

‘We're mutually in harmony/ all programmed by a man with a pocket full of pens’

Le Servo de Spock backed this up with some very original numbers where the music was definitely only illustrating the poetry. A shame we had to call time at 10.30 pm!

Were we happy with the programme of events?  Yes.  It would have been better to have had more young people involved, but we have learned a lot from this pilot, and will take the ideas from our contributors and audiences to our next venture for young people.

 

Society of Young Publishers

The Society of Young Publishers North and Midlands would like to invite anyone interested in the art of writing and publishing to a special event in Leeds

The Society of Young Publishers North and Midlands would like to invite anyone interested in the art of writing and publishing to a special event in Leeds at 7pm on the 18th June at The Outlaws Yacht Club. There will be discussions and networking opportunities alongside free food and drink.

The evening will feature talks and readings from:

Robert Williams, Faber & Faber Author
Mathew Headley Stoppard, Valley Press Poet
Louise Swingler, Arachne Press Author and Proofreader

The Outlaws Yacht Club is situated at 38 New York Street, Leeds. LS2 7DY. Doors are at 7pm and entry is free.

Established in 1949, The SYP is open to anyone in publishing or a related trade – or is hoping to be soon. Our aim is to help assist, inform and enthuse anyone trying to break into the industry or advance within it.

You can find out more and RSVP on Facebook and follow @SYPNorth on Twitter

Time Passing in HEART

TIME PASSING - a free poetry and song evening at HEART café - Wednesday 5 June 7.30 - 9.30pm featuring Lis Bertolla with Doug and Maria Sandle

A Headingley LitFest  Between the Lines event

Regarding Lis Bertolla’s book of poetry the reviewer in the current Green Spirit Magazine writes – a glorious jumble of laughter and lust, beauty and poignance, compassion, wisdom and whimsy                    

We Are Poets - on Youth Fringe Day at HEART

We've had plenty of enquiries about Alex Ramsayer-Bache's film We Are Poets, so here's a set of links which might help you. Why not start with this YouTube interview in which Alex is interviewed? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hkqtBYlIVs

Keep Saturday 29 June free! The day starts at 1pm.

USEFUL LINKS:

Official website: www.wearepoets.co.uk  

Twitter: http://twitter.com/WeArePoets

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/We.Are.Poets.Film

Brave New Voices & Youth Speaks: http://youthspeaks.org/

ARTICLES / REVIEWS:

Little White Lies: http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/theatrical-reviews/we-are-poets-20950

Screen International: http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/-we-are-poets/5043646.article?blocktitle=Latest-Reviews&contentID=1479

The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/apr/04/leeds-young-authors-wearepoets-poetry-slam-arts-council?CMP=twt_gu

Front Row Reviews: http://www.frontrowreviews.co.uk/reviews/we-are-poets-review/17446

Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/julian-benson/we-are-poets_b_1632672.html

Bradford Film Festival: http://itpworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/biff-2012-1we-are-poets-uk-2011/

We Are Poets talking points for schools/education: http://englishpgcme.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/we-are-poets.html

http://baroqueinhackney.com/2012/12/09/we-are-poets/

Cineuropa: http://www.cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=222815

Zofia Walczak: http://zofiawalczak.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/documentary-film-review-we-are-poets-alex-ramseyer-bache-daniel-lucchesi-2011/

Congratulations, George Szirtes!

Hungarian-born poet George Szirtes’ In the Land of Giants, illustrated by Helen Szirtes and published by Salt, has won the 2013 Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) Poetry Award.
The annual award, established in 2003, encourages and celebrates outstanding new poetry for children.

In the Land of the Giants, which includes poems translated from Hungarian, centres on a series of poems in which characters feel small and insignificant in a big world.

George was a contributor to the recent LitFest. In the picture, he is talking to poet Kim Moore. Read the review here.

Big Fish - Hyde Park Picture House

Martin Grund writes:
Tim Burton’s adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel fitted the ‘Lives and Loves’ theme of this year’s Headingley Litfest perfectly. The film tells of a son trying to learn more about his dying father’s life through the fantastic stories he has been told over the years.

From the start, the line between fiction and fact, between man and myth, becomes blurred.  The son is a writer, the father a teller of tales.  Storytellers both.  A child is entranced by fantasies and tall tales; an adult is merely embarrassed and angered by lies.  This film weaves the threads of the story, from past to present, from truth to embellishment, into a delightful fairy tale that takes you with it from what you do believe to way past the point where you suspend your disbelief – because you want to enjoy the feelgood effect. Tim Burton uses his unique style to give the look of the film an almost carnival feel, adding to the increased level of the fantastic that makes the stories so compelling. I’m not sure that the willingness to suspend disbelief would be so easy if it had been another director behind the camera.

Dad was fearless, faithful and philanthropic in his enthralling fables, his only son embarrassed, irked and estranged by the fabrication and deceit.  “You’d better talk whilst I’m here,” says the son, recalled to his father’s sickbed, and trying to find out something of his father’s real life. He wants all the facts, none of the flavour.

“No, you’d better talk whilst I’m here!” says the father to the son, aware he is close to death but still relishing the magic of mystery tales. The tale of the elusive big fish, caught only with a golden ring, serves as a metaphor for ‘who dares, wins’ throughout the film.   The father talked of a lot of exciting things he never did, but did a lot of good things he never talked about.  And we finally see the son embrace his father’s life with the telling of a tall tale to take his father peacefully through to death; literally a happy ending as each acknowledges the love between them. 

Thanks to the Hyde Park Picture House (http://www.hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk/) for hosting our first partnership event.
Read more about the Film Festival at: http://www.leedsyoungfilm.com/