Headingley LitFest

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Good old Samuel Plimsoll

Nicolette Jones talked to a large audience to open the LitFest in Headingley Library this evening. All seats were taken.

With a Power Point screen behind her showing Victorian illustrations from Vanity Fair, The London Sketch Book and Harper's Weekly, she brought Samuel Plimsoll to life - and all of those present probably agreed that his memory has been far too neglected.

Jones's account is entirely worthy of its deserving subject....Plimsoll emerges as a great reformer wrote Sarah Burton in the Independent at the time of its publication in 2006 - and that just about sums it up.

Although she now lives in London (in Plimsoll Road of course) she was originally a native of Headingley, having been brought up in Rochester Terrace.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

More launch pics

Below, Jane Oakshott and Mary Francis, Richard Wilcocks.

Monday 10 March 2008

Well and truly launched!

The well-attended LitFest launch party happened on Sunday evening: by all accounts it was a tremendous success.

Richard Wilcocks thanked the owner of the house where the party took place - June Diamond - and other members of the small committee which has been behind LitFest preparation - Mary Francis, Rachel Harkess and Vivian Lister. Poetry followed - from Trio Literati, Murray Edscer and Michelle Scally-Clarke.

Then came the auction of various donated items, which included a device for making newspaper into burnable logs, a bottle of Irish whiskey and a silver necklace from Azendi. Auctioneer was Trevor Bavage, total raised was £204.50

Music and chatting continued long into the evening, in the house and under the gazebo in the garden. Now for Nicolette Jones on Wednesday.......

Below, Trevor Bavage auctions the log maker and Michelle Scally-Clarke reads from her most recent collection She is:

Friday 15 February 2008

Dates

It's in the middle of March. Soon.

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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.