The Write Idea: Late Summer Book Events in Sedbergh 2010

Event 1 Inside the Hidden World of the Pathologist

Sue Armstrong

Sue Armstrong, author of the book ‘A Matter of Life and Death’, talks about her collection of conversations with leading pathologists. The presentation will be introduced by William Sang.

Sue’s recently published book featuring 16 conversations with some of the world’s most eminent and pioneering pathologists shines a light on a world that is normally hidden, yet it is a world that we will all inevitably encounter at some time in our lives.

Sue Armstrong is a science writer and broadcaster. As a foreign correspondent she has worked for the BBC and for the influential magazine New Scientist. She has also undertaken a variety of assignments writing reports for the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS.

Event 2 The Write Idea: Creative Writing Workshop for Young People aged 10 to 16

John Rice with students at Hyndland Primary School in Glasgow
(photo: Glasgow Herald)

Sedbergh Book Town continues its commitment to encouraging young writers in the area with this 2–hour writing workshop for Young People led by John Rice.

If you enjoy writing poems, stories or sketches, come along and pick up some tips and ideas that will help you to improve your writing. The workshop will also include advice on how best to perform your work to an audience. Bring some examples of your writing as well as paper, pens and laptop if you have one.

John Rice lives in Sedbergh and as a poet and storyteller has earned a national acclaim for his inspirational work with young people, children and their teachers. John has visited over 2,000 schools and has published seven collections of poetry for young people. He has recently completed two years as Scottish Arts Council’s Poet-in-Residence in Glasgow.

Event 3 Bunting Around Briggflatts

Professor Stephen Regan visiting Basil Bunting’s grave at Briggflatts,
(photo: John Rice)

A presentation by Professor Stephen Regan, introduced by John Rice

To celebrate the publication of a new edition of Basil Bunting’s internationally admired poem ‘Briggflatts’, Stephen Regan, Director of the Basil Bunting Centre for Modern Poetry at the University of Durham, will talk about Bunting’s life and poetry as well as his lifelong connection with Sedbergh and Briggflatts in particular. After a short interval Stephen’s talk will be followed by a showing of Peter Bell’s film of Basil Bunting ‘An Introduction to the Work of a Poet’ first shown by Channel 4 in 1982 (running time: approx 40mins).

Stephen Regan is Professor of English and Head of Department at Durham University. His publications on modern poetry include essays on Yeats, Heaney and Robert Frost as well as two books on Philip Larkin. In 2004 Oxford University Press published his edited volume of Irish literature, ‘Irish Writing: an anthology of Irish Literature in English 1789-1939’, which traces the history of modern Irish literature from the revolutionary era of the late 18th century to the early years of political independence. His most recent book is ‘Irelands of the Mind: Memory and Identity in Modern Irish Culture’.

Event 4 The Poetry Café

Join Sedbergh’s writers and actors in the town’s three adjoining cafés for a selection of poems and prose on the theme of ‘Seasons & Reasons’. Bring one of your own poems to read and enjoy a light lunch or a coffee in the company of Sedbergh’s growing number of writers and poets.

Readers include: David Baines, Jan Harrison, Gillian Rea and John Rice.

Event 5 Sarah Hall

Sarah Hall (photo: Sandi Friend)

The award-winning Cumbrian novelist talks about her books.

Sarah Hall is the author of ‘Haweswater’ which won the 2003 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel and a Lakeland Book of the Year prize.

Her second novel, ‘The Electric Michelangelo’, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Prix Femina Etranger, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her third novel, ‘The Carhullan Army’ (2007) won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award, a Lakeland Book of the Year prize, and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction. Sarah’s most recent, ‘How to Paint a Dead Man’, was longlisted for the Man Booker prize. Sarah Hall lives in Carlisle and is working on a fifth novel and a collection of short stories.

Event 6 At the Water’s Edge - A Personal Quest for Wildness

John Lister-Kaye

For the last 30 years, Sir John Lister-Kaye has taken the same circular walk from his home deep in the Scottish Highlands and out to the local loch. Every day brings a new observation, or an unexpected encounter – a fragile spider’s web or a play-fight between two dog-otters. And when he arrives home, he records his thoughts in a journal. Regarded by The Scotsman newspaper as “One of the finest nature writers in the English language” John Lister-Kaye’s new book ‘At the Water’s Edge’ is a lyrical hymn to the wildlife of Britain and a powerful warning to respect and protect it.

Sir John Lister-Kaye OBE is one of the UK’s best-known naturalists and conservationists. He has lectured on wildlife and the environment on three continents and served prominently in the RSPB, the Nature Conservancy Council, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Wildlife Trust. His Aigas Field Centre in Inverness-Shire has won international recognition for its environmental education programmes and continues to welcome study groups from all over the world.

Event 7 Playwriting Workshop

Stephanie Dale

Tutor: Stephanie Dale

As plans for the Sedbergh & District Community Play in 2012 begin to take shape, this full-day workshop will give local writers an opportunity to sharpen their drama writing skills under the guidance of a professional playwright.

Stephanie writes for the stage, for radio and creates large scale theatre. She is a tutor on the Mphil in Playwrighting studies at Birmingham University. For the past five years she has also taught Applied Drama at Loughborough University. She also teaches Playwrighting at BSA, City University. She has an MA in Playwrighting, and BA (Hons) in Theatre & Media Drama. She is currently writing a site specific play to be performed in and around Weoley Castle for Birmingham Rep as well as having been commissioned by the Arts Council to create a stage play about Mary MacArthur to be performed at the Black Country Museum in 2011.