Workshops and events...writers-in-residence...literary
gossip...creative writing masterclasses...competitions...storytelling...trails...author
talks.
What’s this, you say?
It’s all part of a new project set up by three charities –
Literature Works, the Poetry Archive, and the National Trust – funded by the ArtsCouncil.
Five National Trust houses in the South West – Hardy’s Cottage and MaxGate (Dorchester), A la Ronde (Exmouth), Greenway (nr Brixham) and ColeridgeCottage (nr Bridgwater) – will be hosting a programme of literary events over the next 2 years.
Five National Trust houses in the South West – Hardy’s Cottage and MaxGate (Dorchester), A la Ronde (Exmouth), Greenway (nr Brixham) and ColeridgeCottage (nr Bridgwater) – will be hosting a programme of literary events over the next 2 years.
Last night I went to the launch at Max Gate, with guest
speaker Sir Andrew Motion (what a treat!). We heard how this exciting project
is designed to:
- provide experiences that connect people today to these special places;
- show the intimate every-day life of the authors who lived and worked there;
- highlight the strong spirit of the places, telling their stories in new ways.
Why are these places still so impactful today? What is their
contemporary relevance? It’s all about widening and diversifying the audience,
to enthuse the next generation.
Through contemporary writers and poets, you will come to see
how the authors who lived there were inspired, and how this inspiration is
still evident today, working its magic on future writers. Writers-in-residence
will let the essence of the place soak into them, to inspire and encourage new
writing.
Discover the conditions under which famous writers, such as
Thomas Hardy, Agatha Christie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the Parminter sisters, wrote – how
their houses and environment reflected them and inspired their work.
The ‘Writing Places’ project is being trialled in the South
West, and, if successful, may be rolled out across the whole of the National
Trust’s properties with a literary connection. These are not dry, dusty,
historic buildings, but living, inspiring places, capable of moving people today.
Details of events can be found at nationaltrust.org.uk/writingplaces.
For more about Thomas Hardy, see Dorset County Museum,
by Peter John Cooper published by Roving Press. This book was inspired by Max Gate and Peter's feeling for the place and its former inhabitants.
