Blue plaque for J R R Tolkien - more photos

A few more photos taken at Monday's unveiling ceremony outside 2 Darnley Road in West Park, Leeds...

Unveiled - Tolkien's Blue Plaque

In a ceremony organised by Leeds Civic Trust, the plaque for one of our area’s most famous – and most beloved – literary residents was revealed on Monday morning, 1 October, on the red brick wall of 2 Darnley Road. It was unveiled by Dr Kersten Hall, graduate of St Anne’s College, Oxford and Visiting Fellow to the Faculty of Arts at the University of Leeds. 

The event followed campaigning by the Tolkien Society and its members. Here is part of the Society’s informative statement for the event:

J.R.R. Tolkien, graduate of Exeter College, Oxford, was Reader in English language at the University of Leeds, his family moved to Leeds residing briefly at 5 Holly Bank, Headingley and then leasing a house in St Mark’s Terrace. In 1924 Tolkien bought the semi-detached property in Darnley Road. He went on to be made Professor of the English Language at the university. The family lived there for over a year before Tolkien’s election to the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair of Anglo-Saxon saw them return to Oxford in 1926. 






During his time at the University of Leeds Tolkien was instrumental in shaping the English Language syllabus at the university; some aspects of this were still present sixty years later. He also worked with E.V. Gordon to produce an edition of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which was published in 1925.

Members of Headingley LitFest’s organizing committee were there, as might be expected, accompanying others in the crowd to the nearby Stables Bar for a reception. Speakers included Rory McTurk, Emeritus Professor of Icelandic Studies at the University of Leeds, who contributed to the LitFest programme in 2009. Included in his brief talk were references to a ‘completed’ translation by Tolkien of the story of Sigurd and Brynhildr - and also a Tolkien version of Beowulf, which might just be released for publication next year. 

In only-too-brief conversations with transient friends, it was established that some Tolkien Society members had come up to Leeds from many miles away - for example Dr Lynn Forest Hill, who had travelled from Southampton.

In letters to Allen and Unwin in 1961, the great man emphasized his gratitude for his time in Leeds: “I was devoted to the University of Leeds, which was very good to me, and to its students, whom I left with regret.”

Pictured below: Second Lieutenant J R R Tolkien during the First World War. To qualify as a signals officer, he attended a signals school run by the army's Northern Command at Farnley Park, Otley, which he left in May 1916. He did not see the full intensity of the Battle of the Somme, but he did experience the horror of trench warfare. In November 1916, he was invalided back to England with 'trench fever' and temporarily posted to Hornsea in East Yorkshire. His recovery from this was sporadic and , having relapsed, he was admitted to a Harrogate sanatorium. He also spent time at the Brooklands Officers' Hospital in Hull.  (from the booklet produced by Leeds Civic Trust)

Mimika Children's Theatre Comes Home

Mimika, the internationally acclaimed children’s theatre is to perform in Headingley on Saturday 3 November at the HEART Centre in Bennett Road in four special performances of their show Landscapes, presented by Headingley LitFest as part of our Between the Lines pre-March programme of events. 

This is the first time that Mimika has had a home performance in the city for twenty-five years!

Bill and Jenny, the inspired ‘do everything’ creators and animators of Mimika are really looking forward ‘to coming home’ and sharing their work with their local neighbourhoods. 

While their current show Landscapes has enthralled and enchanted audiences elsewhere in the UK and world wide, for example in London, Dublin, Madrid, Toronto, Singapore and in countries such as Denmark, the USA and recently China, Jenny (pictured, with goose) told us: while travelling around the world and performing to audiences from different cultures is often thrilling and fabulous this chance to show the work to friends, neighbours and the local community will be special.

Landscapes is a wordless theatre presentation set inside a beautiful white calico dome. It is an intimate, gentle and engaging evocation of four areas of the natural world. Audiences travel from the Desert to the Rainforest, from under the Sea to the South Pole. Using ingenuous crafted and designed models, puppets and sets, special lighting effects and an immersive sound track, Mimika take their audiences on a very special colourful and enchanting journey.  The show has been described as by far one of the most mesmerising children’s theatre pieces, (Canada) and as a show that should enchant audiences of any age (USA) with Mimika heralded by Kilkenny Arts Festival (Ireland) as one of the most original theatre companies in Europe.  

Performance times are 10.00am, 11.30am, 1.00pm and 2.30pm.  Adults £4.00, Children (under 16) £2.50. Children under ten should be accompanied by an appropriate  number of adults for groups of five and over. 

Tickets are now on sale at HEART . As each performance is limited to twenty-five persons, you are advised to get yours soon.

More information on Mimika at www.mimikatheatre.com

Linda Marshall at Salvo's

This Sporting Life at the Hyde Park Picture House

At the Hyde Park Picture House last Tuesday (4 September), This Sporting Life revived the feelings in me which I had when I first saw it on the big screen many years ago - it is stunningly powerful, with superb acting from just about all the cast. It's dour but brilliant. In spite of the odd, hybrid accent, which drifts into his native Irish at times, Richard Harris puts his heart, soul and athletic body into the part of Frank Machin, and Rachel Roberts is so impressive as Margaret Hammond! As with all classic films, you notice things you missed before - I recognised places I know now but didn't at the time of the first showing, I appreciated the innovative camera work and I took pleasure in recognising so many actors who made it after the first appearance of the film - William Hartnell (Doctor Who), Frank Windsor as a dentist, not a policeman, Leonard Rossiter as a sports journalist, not Rigsby, and Arthur Lowe as Charles Slomer, not Captain Mannering. 

Alan Badel (The Count of Monte Cristo, TV series in 1964) was truly aristocratic as Gerald Weaver, the moneyed sponsor in a camelhair coat, and he contributed strongly to the class element in the film - he's from another world completely to the grim one inhabited by Frank Machin. The match scenes were convincing, but the brutality was really played up - to go with Machin's ruthlessness: I would have enjoyed a couple more straightforward tries without players getting punched up, but then the film is pretty long already, and more scenes on the pitch would probably stretch it too much.

This showing will be, I hope, the beginning of a productive collaboration between sports and the arts in Leeds.

Meet The Beats

A terrific jazz group - Des The Miner - will be performing on Wednesday 5 September at the Mint Café, which is on North Lane, Headingley, as part of an evening with a focus on beat poets like Allen Ginsberg, whose 1965 poem ‘King of the May’, written just after he was expelled from Czechoslovakia, will be played from a very rare recording made at Betterbooks in London. 

Also performing with his keyboard will be the inimitable Ted Hockin and one or two surprise guests.  

There's no dress code, but if you own a beret...       

And make sure you sample the Lebanese buffet.