Throughout the Festival.
Shedman [aka John Davies] in residence
The Churchyard, St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
'What Wordsworth did for daffodils, John Davies does for sheds.' Mark Lawson, Front Row, BBC Radio 4
Shedman is John Davies, the writer and poet based in Brighton, England. John writes poetry and fiction. He explores out-of-the-ordinary stuff within the ordinary - the quirky, the peripheral. He maps and narrates connections. He's fascinated by the tension and connections between two apparently separate categories, the natural and the artificial.
John's alter ego is inspired by all kinds of sheds - garden sheds and aircraft hangars, shed antlers or skins, shedding tears or shedding light. He's writing a book about his shed experience. On his travels researching the subject he creates enthralling workshops and lively events that explore the place of the shed - and literature - in everyone's hearts, using sheds as the focus for a unique interaction with people of all ages, cultures and backgrounds.
"A refreshingly different approach to an arts residency…a memorable mixed media installation with a very human face.." John Cooper Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton.
Be sure to visit the shed and share your shed memories!
http://www.shedman.net/
Friday 9th July
12.30 Rebecca Shaw & Jack Sheffield £7
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Rebecca Shaw has written a wonderful long-running series set in the village of Turnham Malpas and another popular series set in a veterinary practice in the Dorset town of Barleybridge. Her latest title is The Village Newcomers , published this year. She is now a Sunday Times bestselling author.
"If you enjoy stories about English villagers, do whatever you have to do, but get these books. Bliss!" - Publishers Weekly
Jack Sheffield is the author of the best-selling Teacher series of novels. A retired Yorkshire headmaster, Jack's first novel attracted the attention of a literary agent at the 2005 Winchester Writers' Conference. In 2006 he signed a contract with Transworld Publishers and his first three novels, Teacher, Teacher!, Mister Teacher and Dear Teacher were Waterstone's Books of the Year for 2007, 2008 and 2009.
His latest novel, Village Teacher, published earlier this year, is expected to follow his first three books into the international market. Jack is currently writing the fifth and sixth in the series along with his first teenage novel, Hexagon.
"Jack Sheffield’s charming Teacher series will certainly put a smile on your face" - Daily Express
"Wry observation and heartwarming humour in equal measure" Alan Titchmarsh
"Jack Sheffield’s Teacher books have become nationwide best sellers" - York Press
www.jacksheffield.com
17.00- 17.45 Charlie Millar acoustic guitar Free Event
The Churchyard, St John the Evangelist, West Meon
20 year old music student Charlie likes to do something different with a guitar. Extracting elements of folk and blues and playing in a predominantly fingerpicking style and occasionaly including the more experimental percussive elements of the Acoustic Guitar.
http://www.myspace.com/charliemillarmusic
18.00 Christopher Martin-Jenkins £5
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Former chief cricket correspondent of The Times and Test Match Special commentator, one of the most authoritative writers and broadcasters on cricket and President designate of the MCC, Christopher Martin-Jenkins will be talking about his recent book The Top 100 Cricketers of All Time with Dave Allen the Honorary Curator of Hampshire Cricket.
A great chance for cricket fans to reminisce and take issue with the experts.
Follow CMJ on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/cmjcricket
20.00 Sophie Hannah & Poppy Adams £10
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Sophie Hannah is the author of four best-selling novels and published in 19 countries. She is also a prize-winning poet and was short-listed for the TS Eliot Prize in 2007. Hat Trick Productions have bought the novels and plan a Prime Suspect style televion series. The first in the series, The Point of Rescue is due for transmission in 2010.
"Intelligent, classy and with a wonderfully gothic imagination"- The Times
"A perplexing thriller with intrigue and infanticide..It's a given that nothing will be as it seems in the latest psychological thriller from Sophie Hannah, who marries complex plots with crisp, converstional prose." Marie Claire on A Room Swept White
Poppy Adams' The Behaviour of Moths which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, tells a disquieting story of two sisters, reunited after forty-seven years, and the ties that bind - sometimes a little too tightly.
"This is a dark book, but an extremely funny one, recalling Mark Haddon and Barbara Trapido by turns. A brilliantly paced debut." - The Daily Mail
"A striking debut" - Financial Times
" Whatever Happened to Baby Jane comes to Devon, in Adams's gothic tale of madness, sibling rivalry and lepidoptera. Adams is a skillful, entertaining storyteller." - Guardian
"...shades of Du Maurier and Hitchcock..." - Elle
Read on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime
Saturday 10th July
11.00 Daisy Hay & Jennie Rooney £7.50
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
In Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron and Other Tangled Lives, Daisy Hay shatters the myth of the romantic poet as a solitary, introspective genius, telling the story of the communal existence of an astonishingly youthful circle in a gloriously entrancing and revelatory read, the debut of a young biographer of the highest calibre and enormous promise.
"Enthralling" - Sunday Times
`The originality of this engrossing narrative comes from Daisy Hay's unusual focus on the passionate allegiances and literary influences between her characters... It is a most impressive achievement.' - Sir Michael Holroyd
Jennie Rooney grew up in Liverpool, Zambia and Bromley before reading History at Cambridge University. She taught English for a while in a primary school in France before training as a solicitor in London and Paris. Her first novel was written during this time and was published in 2008, and was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2008, the Waterstones New Writer of the Year Award, and was a Richard and Judy Debut Book Club choice in 2009. Her second novel, The Opposite of Falling was pub;ished in June.
‘It's a fine, funny, unfussy novel that pays overdue tribute to those magnificent women in their flying machines’ - The Guardian
‘As effortlessly as Proust or Forster, she incorporates unexpected aperçus’ - The Independent
Stop Press
Unfortunately, Gillian Tindall will now be unable to join us due to ill health. However we are delighted that Jennie has been able to step in at such short notice.
13.00 - 13.45 Charlie Millar acoustic guitar Free Event
The Churchyard, St John the Evangelist, West Meon
20 year old music student Charlie likes to do something different with a guitar. Extracting elements of folk and blues and playing in a predominantly fingerpicking style and occasionaly including the more experimental percussive elements of the Acoustic Guitar.
14.30 Jane Gardam OBE £7.50
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Winner of the Whitbread Novel and many other awards, Jane Gardam’s recent novel, The Man in the Wooden Hat recounts with poignancy, subtlety and wit the tale of the wife depicted in her earlier novel Old Filth [short-listed for the Orange Prize]. That earlier novel described the life of a brilliant barrister in Hong Kong emotionally damaged by his upbringing as an orphan of the Raj and here we are delighted to see Jane Gardam reveal the enigma behind the wife’s perspective.
Her novel God on the Rocks was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a much-praised TV film.
“Gardam's writing is like painting on glass: vivid and translucent” . –The Independent
“an extraordinarily rich account of a long marriage, the restraints, the compromises and the sacrifices” -The Guardian
"Moving, written with an assured elegance and very funny" Daily Telegraph on The Queen of the Tambourine - Winner of the Whitbread Novel of the Year
"Brilliant, wickedly comic...masterly and hugely enjoyable" Daily Mail on The Queen of the Tambourine
16.00 Natasha Solomons £6.50 inc. Tea
Please note: this event takes place in West Meon Village Hall
Mr Rosenblum's List: Or Friendly Guidance for the Aspriring Englishman is Natasha's “charming debut” (The Daily Telegraph), a humorous and poignant novel about a Jewish couple trying to come to terms with being plunged into an English village in the 1950s deep in the Dorset countryside.
'Yes, the movie is already on its way - but please read the delightful novel first.'- The Times
The West Meon Women's Institute will be serving a specially themed tea at this event. Included in the ticket price. Limited Tickets!
http://natashasolomons.com/mr-rosenblums-great-british-tour
17.30 Tim Pears £5
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Multiple award-winning novelist Tim Pears has written an evocative and authentic new novel set in the Welsh marches – Landed.
“Landed is a bleak and brave novel...Like moments of sunshine on a Welsh hillside, shafts of brightness irradiate the gloom, passages of descriptive writing of such clarity that the scents and sounds of lost childhood assail the reader with deep, moving pungency. Pears is a remarkable prose stylist...Landed offers rich pickings” – The Times
"Reminiscent of Faulkner and Garcia Marquez, the writing retains a very English Scale...A triumph....Sensitive, heart-warming and hallucinatory" - Financial Times on In the Place of the Fallen Leaves
"Constantly delightful and constantly surprising...Comic and wry and elegiac and shrewd and thoughtful all at once. Please read it' AS Byatt. Daily Telegraph on In the Place of the Fallen Leaves
20.00 Virginia Ironside £10
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
The Virginia Monologues- why it's Great to be Sixty!
When an agony aunt reaches sixty, she can lie like a trooper, jump off a bridge – or take to the stage. Virginia has decided upon the latter!
Virginia Ironside explains that unlimited free drugs, boring for Britain, fun funerals, grandchildren and sex – or, even better, no sex – make the sixties the best – and funniest time of your life.
"...in her younger years she interviewed the Rolling Stones, Hendrix and Joplin and had her fair share of sex and drugs... Now bird tables, gardening and playing with her grandson in the park are more her kind of thing. Her mission is to celebrate the advantages of losing your memory, lowering your expectations and taking frequent naps. But she also has some useful and subversive suggestions about the kind of bad behaviour you can get away with in old age." - The Scotsman
"...one of the myriad pleasures of hitting one's sixties is the confidence that comes with old age. And one need look no further than Ironside herself for the proof." - The Independent
Directed by The Young Ones' Nigel Planer, this show premiered at the Edinburgh Festival fringe and we are now delighted to welcome Virginia to West Meon.
Sunday 11th July
10.30 The Dragon of Fizzle-Pop Mountain £3.50
Treehouse Summer Party
*Children's Event*
Please note: this event takes place in West Meon Village Hall
90 minutes of action-packed Summer Party fun!
Will you be a Knight or a Princess?
Dress up and join in with a magical journey of performance and story-telling, with lots of games and songs along the way.
Meet Smoky the dragon who lives at the top of Fizzle-Pop Mountain. Why has the dragon forgotten how to laugh? Will the Princesses or the Knights be the first to make her chuckle and restore the kingdom to happiness?
Suitable for ages 3-9. Young children must be accompanied by an adult (who sees the show for free!).
10.30 Maureen Duke Free Event
The Church of St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Internationally renowned Art bookbinder Maureen will talk about the bookbinder's art and show some examples of her exquisite work.Maureen Duke is one of the most respected bookbinders and teachers of our time. Over a career spanning more than sixty years she has introduced many students to this special craft. She has travelled widely, taking bookbinding to new audiences around the world, has written extensively on the subject and has been a pioneer in book restoration.
In retirement Maureen has been busier than ever and teaches at Urchfont Manor and West Dean.
12.00 Graham Hurley £5
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
The latest in Portsmouth author Graham Hurley’s police series starring Joe Faraday is Beyond Reach.
No Lovelier Death was published last year and shot straight into the Sunday Times Best Hardback Fiction Seller list
"Hurley never disappoints and here in No Lovelier Death he proves his standing as one of the UK's finest crime novelists“- The Independent on Sunday
"It's a mystery in itself why Hurley, a former television documentary maker, is not better known as a crime writer. His Joe Faraday police procedural novels are spot-on - well-written and plotted, utterly convincing and really exciting. No Lovelier Death is an excellent and complex crime novel"- The Daily Mail'
"Another gripping chronicle of crime in Portsmouth" - Literary Review
A good story, carefully plotted and with a gritty and realistic appreciation of the setting in Portsmouth.” Crimesquad.com
“Graham Hurley’s position in the British crime-writing firmament is assured” – Barry Forshaw in Good Book Guide
www.grahamhurley.co.uk13.00 Open Mic Poetry at The Red Lion Free Event
13.00 Open Mic Poetry at The Red Lion Free Event
Everyone Welcome.
A chance to hear some great poems from local writers and maybe read one of your own!
Come and spend a relaxed lunchtime in the newly re-opened Red Lion with our own genial Resident Poet John Davies [Shed Man] and a host of passing bards. The Bar will be open throughout the event and sandwiches will be available from the bar.
Be brave- join in!
13.15- 14.00 Charlie Millar acoustic guitar Free Event
The Churchyard, St John the Evangelist, West Meon
20 year old music student Charlie likes to do something different with a guitar. Extracting elements of folk and blues and playing in a predominantly fingerpicking style and occasionaly including the more experimental percussive elements of the Acoustic Guitar.
15.00 Wendy Cope OBE & Lachlan Mackinnon £10
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
One of Britain’s best loved poets Wendy Cope is joined by her partner Lachlan Mackinnon in a joint reading with a short joint question and answer session to follow. Tea will be served in the short interval.
Her most recent volume is Two Cures for Love: Selected Poems 1979-2006 published in 2008. She was appointed OBE for services to literature in this year's birthday honours list. Wendy will be reading some poems from her forthcoming book, due to be published in the spring as well as some older poems.
“Beyond her famous rueful wit and hard-won, lightly-worn insight, Wendy Cope in her poems offers a painless lesson in the intricate pleasures of form” - The Independent
"Wendy Cope is without doubt the wittiest of contemporary English poets, and says a lot of extremely serious things". The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams
A writer of literary criticism and biography as well as a poet, Lachlan Mackinnon teaches English at Winchester College. His fourth collection of poems Small Hours has been published this year.
"He writes with an attractive mixture of clarity and doubt" The Guardian
“Lachlan Mackinnon's too-rare books show an eye for enthralling particularities” The Independent
18.00 Songs of Praise Free Event
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Join BBC Radio Solent's Tim Daykin, Reverend Caroline Sackley and Portsmouth Cathedral Girl's Choir for an hour of your favourite hymns and readings.
Everyone welcome.
20:00 John Hegley £10
St John the Evangelist, West Meon GU32 1LF
Mr Hegley was born in Newington Green, North London, and was educated in Luton, Bristol and Bradford University.
His first public performance monies came from busking his songs, initially outside a shoeshop in Hull, in the late Seventies. He performed on the streets of London in the early Eighties, fronting the Popticians, with whom he also recorded two sessions for John Peel, and has since been a frequent performer of his words, sung and spoken, on both local and national radio.
He has produced ten books of verse and prose pieces, two CDs and one mug, but his largest source of income is from stages on his native island. An Edinburgh Festival regular, he is noted for his exploration of such diverse topics as dog hair, potatoes, handkerchieves and the misery of human existence.
He is an occasional DJ, dancer and workshop leader, using drawing, poetry and gesture. He has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts from what is now the University of Bedfordshire, and once performed in a women's prison in Columbia.