The Walter de la Mare Society Blog Forum

Walter de la Mare on BBC Radio 7 this Christmas

2010-12-09T18:12:00.002Z

Upcoming BBC Radio Event

BBC Radio 7 are airing a selection of short stories by Walter de la Mare, read by a variety of actors. The first - All Hallows - is read by Richard E Grant on Christmas Eve at 6.30pm, to be followed by four others to be aired each day at 6.30pm over the Christmas period (all repeated at 12.30am). The other stories to be aired are:

Seaton’s Aunt (Christmas Day)
Crewe (Boxing Day)
A Recluse (Bank Holiday Monday)
The Almond Tree (Bank Holiday Tuesday)

For more information, see the Christmas Edition of The Radio Times, or see BBC7 Homepage

The Listeners Animation

2010-08-02T16:35:00.004+01:00

The Listeners Animation

The Listeners - Illustration

2010-08-02T15:40:00.003+01:00

Upcoming Events and Publications

2010-08-02T13:45:00.003+01:00

Upcoming Society Event

'Connections and Diversions' -
A Sideways Look at Walter de la Mare

Written and Performed by Ann Harvey
6pm for 6.30pm at Thursday 28th October 2010
The Artsworkers Guild, 6 Queens Square, London, WC1N 3AT

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Upcoming Publications

‘The Ghostly Concept of Childhood in the Fiction of Walter de la Mare’, in The Lion and the Unicorn 34.3, (September, 2010)

‘Ghostly Relations: The Aunt-type in the Fiction of Walter de la Mare’, in English 59.226 (Autumn, 2010)

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Recent Society Events

Exploring the World of 'The Listeners'

The Talk expanded on Giles' contribution to the BBC, 'Adventures in Poetry' of November 2008. It was held in London at The Artworkers Guild in October 2009

Facebook

2010-04-13T15:16:00.002+01:00

Do check out the Facebook page of Walter de la Mare set up last June by Malcolm W.K - 115 friends and counting...

Edward Thomas Fellowship

2010-04-13T15:03:00.001+01:00

Below are details of two literary events near
Swindon, on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th May. They are open to anyone.

As perhaps these will be of interest to members
of the Walter de la Mare Society, I wonder if you
would be so kind as to pass on the essential
details to them. I can provide high-resolution or
website-friendly digital photographs of Edward Thomas if required.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Haggerty,
Edward Thomas Fellowship.

Programme for the Study-day

Fields of Vision: an informal study-day devoted
to the lives and writings of Richard Jefferies and Edward Thomas
Saturday 8th May 2010, Liddington, Wiltshire

This study-day is a collaboration between the
Edward Thomas Fellowship and the Richard
Jefferies Society. It will examine both writers,
particularly their shared interests and concerns,
and the Wiltshire landscape that they both knew and wrote about.

Jem Poster, the distinguished poet, novelist and
literary scholar, who is currently preparing a
new edition of Richard Jefferies: His Life and
Work by Edward Thomas for Oxford University
Press, will be the keynote speaker. His lecture
is entitled 'First Known When Lost: Edward
Thomas, Richard Jefferies, and the Rural World'.
There will also be talks by Richard Emeny
(Chairman of the Edward Thomas Fellowship, who
has written and lectured prolifically on Thomas
and various related authors) and Terry Lloyd (a
Swindonian, and since childhood an enthusiast for
the works of Thomas and Jefferies, who has
thoroughly explored their landscapes on foot).

This event will be held in Liddington Village
Hall, from 10.30 to 4.30. Participants may bring
a packed lunch or eat in the Village Inn nearby.
During lunchtime, publications and other
merchandise from the Edward Thomas Fellowship and
the Richard Jefferies Society will be offered for
sale in the Village Hall, where there will
probably also be a second-hand book stall.

Places at the study-day cost £15 (£5 for students
and unemployed people), which include
refreshments but not lunch. Bookings must be made
before 1st May. A booking-form can be downloaded
from the Fellowship's website at .

At the end of the afternoon, there will be an
opportunity, using car-share, to visit St James's
Church at Eastbury, Berkshire, which features an
impressive engraved-glass window by Laurence
Whistler, commemorating Edward and Helen Thomas,
and where Helen is buried in the churchyard.

For more information about the study-day, contact
its co-ordinator, Martin Haggerty:
or 01723 - 37 55 33.

_____________________________________________

In the Footsteps of Richard Jefferies
Sunday 9th May 2010, Coate, near Swindon, Wiltshire

Andrew Rossabi, a former President of the Richard
Jefferies Society, who has written introductions
to several new imprints of Jefferies' works and
is currently working on a new biography of this
writer, will lead a guided walk (with readings)
along the east side of Coate Water, over Cicely’s
Bridge, to the Gamekeeper’s Cottage at Hodson,
where walkers may look around the garden and view
the old thatched cottage, as well as the
bluebells in Hodson Woods. The return route takes
in the west side of Coate Water, where a picnic
lunch may be eaten (alternatively eat at the Sun
Inn, Coate). In the afternoon, until 4.30 pm,
everyone will be welcome to explore Richard
Jefferies' home, watch the film Jefferies Land,
and share readings from Edward Thomas's and Jefferies' works.

This event is free and no prior booking is
required. Gather at the Richard Jefferies Museum, Coate, for a 10.30 start.

Edward Thomas Fellowship
Visit our website at www.edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk

The Dawn

2010-04-13T15:00:00.002+01:00

I was trying to find the rest of this poem on various poetry searches.

It is the first lines of a poem called The Dawn by Walter de la Mare but I could not find it.

Eventually I found the book that I had remembered it from. Do you know of it?

“One after other break the birds

From motionless bush and tree

Into a strange and drowsy praise,

The flush of dawn to see.”

First of six verses.

Laurence Smith

"UNSUNG HEROES"

2010-02-01T19:08:00.001Z

The Association of English Singers and Speakers
presents

"UNSUNG HEROES"

The Music of Armstrong Gibbs and the Poetry of Walter de la Mare

Sunday 7th February 2010 at 3.00 p.m.
Budworth Hall, Ongar, Essex

Following the success of the Betty Roe concert in September 2008,
the AESS has conceived the idea of a series of events celebrating
composers and poets who are unjustly neglected.

The first of these will take place at Budworth Hall, Ongar on the
afternoon of 7th February at 3.00 p.m. and will feature songs by
Armsrong Gibbs and the poetry of Walter de la Mare with whom he
had a close artistic relationship.

On this occasion we will be collaborating with the Armsrong Gibbs
Society and the Lee valley ISM Centre. Angela Aries of the Armstrong Gibbs Society and Michael Pilkington are guest speakers and the following AESS and ISM membes and their pupils will take part.

Margaret Cadney, Patricia Williams, Michael Hancock-Child, Rossemary
Hancock-Child, Karen Harries, Michael Pilkington, Georgia Kemp, Carolyn
Richards, Melanie Mehta, Stephen Miles, Graham Trew,Ione Chadwick,
Marion Lines, Betty Roe, David Kirby Ashmore, Oliver Ddavies,
and the Milton Keynes Youth Chorale.

Budworth Hall, High Street, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9JG
Located on the A218, east of the M11 and north of the M25

For further information please email williams.typnig.error@tiscali.co.uk

or visit: Http://www.aofess.org.uk

Some One (Came Knocking)

2010-02-01T19:00:00.000Z

I am trying to gather a little information about the poem, 'Some One (Came Knocking)', and hope you can help. I'd like to know whether it appeared originally as part of a collection of poems for children, and if so which one.

Just to explain why ...! I am a Scottish-based musician and broadcaster and a native Gaelic speaker. My mother recently translated this poem into Gaelic, really just on a whim to amuse herself, but it was done so beautifully, I wondered whether it might be possible to do likewise with one or two others. She really managed to encapsulate the rhythms, rhymes - and suspense - in translation. She has a gift for it that stems from her being a singer and having an inate understanding of how the rhythms and sounds of words run naturally, whether English or Gaelic.

I'd be very grateful if you were able to point me in the right direction, as I have so far failed to find any indexed bibliography online.

Many thanks in advance - ceud taing airson ur cuideachaidh.

Mary Ann Kennedy

Walter de la Mare: illustrations by Bold‏

2009-11-14T11:34:00.002Z

I'm hoping you can help me learn more about the designer "Bold," who illustrated Broomsticks & Other Stories, Stuff and Nonsense, and a Constable edition of The Listeners. Obviously, google doesn't help with this search, and the Library of Congress has him (her?) listed only as Bold.

I featured some of the illustrations from Broomsticks on my book blog:
http://ajourneyroundmyskull.blogspot.com/2009/09/bold-settled-on-some-foreign-shore.html

I did not see any mention of Bold in Theresa Whistler's biography.

Thank you,
Will Schofield
(writing from Philadelphia)

Gerald Bullett & de la Mare

2009-11-14T11:14:00.002Z

My great uncle was Gerald Bullett who was a rather more general wordsmith than W de la M, doing book reviews, short stories, novels, poems, plays and one film script of one of his books. He also wrote scripts for the BBC and read them on air. He also was a book publisher for a time and a magazine editor.

W de la M and he were frequent correspondents by letter and visited each other f5rom time to time. All this comes from letters that W de la M kept and are now in archives.

From my researches into Gerald I find I have one other review of W de la M work in Fortnightly Review in 1934 by Gerald but I have no more information than that.

I am afraid this is a bit thin but comes from a comment in correspondance.

Any thing you might have found incidentally about Gerald and are able to pass on will be gratefully received

Nicky Bullett

"Late last night while the whole world slept..."

2009-11-14T10:51:00.004Z

I live in Australia and trying to find a poem believed to be by Walter de la Mare for a lady I just met today in a shop.
She has a brain tumor and cannot remember the full poem but loved it as a child and is keen to find the poem. I would like to be able to brighten her day by finding it for her and just searched on google with no success. I did find Walter de la Mare's website and your email address so here I am hoping you would be able to help me to help her find her childhood poem.

What she does remember goes something like this
"Late last night while the whole world slept, into the land of dreams I crept"

Thank you for any help you can give me

Facebook

2009-11-03T23:04:00.006Z

Do check out the Facebook page of Walter de la Mare set up in June by Malcolm W.K - 171 friends and counting...

Upcoming Society Event

2009-10-21T19:11:00.001+01:00

Our October Event for 2009 will be -
a Talk by Giles de la Mare on -
"Exploring the world of 'The Listeners'.

The Talk will expand on his contribution to the
BBC, 'Adventures in Poetry' of November last.

This will take place on, Thursday 29th October, at
The Artworkers Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1N 3AT,
near Russell Square, at 6.00 for 6.30 p.m.

2009-10-21T14:13:00.001+01:00

The new site looks terrific. Well done.

Welcome

2009-10-19T12:47:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the new Walter de la Mare Society Blog.