The fourth annual Binham Grange Summer Art Exhibition is scheduled for August 2012. The exhibition originated in 2009 from a conversation between artists interested in creating exhibition opportunities in West Somerset. The first exhibition was held in the barn at historic Binham Grange estate and was a success, leading to it becoming an annual event. The exhibition is organized by Gallery 4 Art, a group that aims to make art accessible by holding exhibitions in unique non-gallery venues around Somerset.

1. Interviews
Louise Parker
Nick Rees
Angus Stirling
Julia Copus
Geoffrey &
Catherine Bass
Taunton Literary Festival
Programme
Calendar of Events
Somerset Art Works
Binham Grange Art Exhibition
Importance of Being Earnest
Quartz Festival
Illumina
Short Story
Free
July-Sep 2012
Shining a light on literature, art, music and performance in Taunton & West Somerset
The Literary Festival
Comes To Town!

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3. Contents
We have been delighted
by the positive response
the first issue of the
LAMP magazine has
received and welcome
you to the second issue
for August/September,
increased from 40 to 48
pages. It includes the full programme
of the second Taunton Literary Festival,
which takes place between 22-30 September.
05 Introduction by Jeremy Harvey
06 Louis Parker: Jazz Singer
10 The Fourth Binham Grange Summer Art
Exhibition
14 The Importance of Being Earnest
17 Taunton Literary Festival Programme
27 Calendar of Events
32 Somerset Art Works
33 A Potters Life: Nick Rees & John Leach
34 Artists Angus & Kitty Stirling
36 Quartz Festival
38 Julia Copus: Poet
40 Early Blackdowns Music
42 Illumina at Hestercombe Gardens
44 Short Story: Anthony Howcroft
Lionel Ward
Editor: Lionel Ward
Copy Editor: Jo Ward
Advertising: Clair Bennett
Events Compiler: Julie Munckton
All enquiries:
lampmagazine1@gmail.com
01823 337742
c/o Brendon Books,
Bath Place, Taunton
The views expressed in Lamp are
not necessarily those of the editorial
team. Copyright, unless otherwise
stated, is that of the magazine or the
individual authors. We do not accept
liability for the content or accuracy
of the magazine including that of the
advertisers.

4. OPEN DAY
B E PA RT O F T H E E X P E R I E N C E
Saturday 6th October —10 am arrival
Please call us to reserve your place.
Co-educational day boarding: ages 13 –18 telephone: 01823 328204
admissions@kings-taunton.co.uk www.kings-taunton.co.uk

5. Dear Reader
Taunton is a good place in which to live. Three reasons, among many, are the excellent
service at Brendon Books, the Literary Festival, and the support LAMP is giving to the
arts.
Lionel Ward acquired his bookshop in February, 1989. He ran our first Literary Festival
in 2011. By then he saw the need for a magazine to cover the arts in depth, available to
anyone. He knew there were lots of good things happening in and around Taunton but
that the coverage of them was ‘severely lacking’. To test his hunch he looked at costs,
conducted some interviews, realised he had good material, and received encouraging
feedback. And so LAMP was published this May.
Since when he has been amazed by the ‘positive comments’ he has received, indeed
overwhelmed by them. He sees his bookshop, the festival and the magazine as linked in
a natural way, each helping the others. His success has motivated him to bring out further
copies of LAMP, his huge initial input having proved very rewarding.
LAMP will continue if he receives enough advertising support. Secondly, he needs you
and me to call in and pick up a batch of this edition to distribute among our friends, neighbours and organisations in order that the magazine may be distibuted as widely as possible.
Thank you, Lionel, and many congratulations. I look forward to reading this new number.
Jeremy Harvey
Chairman of the Somerset Art Gallery Trust (SAGT)

6. Feeling
Good:
Louise
Parker
Growing up in a musical family and being named after Louis
Armstrong all helped
to shape talented singer Louise Parker’s future jazz career. She is
looking forward to her
forthcoming performance at Ilminster Arts
Centre in August.
Having a father in the army meant the
young Louise was constantly on the
move, growing up mostly in Germany, but
also different parts of the UK, and even a
stint in the Far East. ‘So I don’t have any
roots anywhere’, she says, quickly adding, ‘my roots are now firmly in Devon.’
It was during a cycling holiday to
Devon and Cornwall that she fell in love
with the West Country, finding the beauty of the region and the friendly people
particularly appealing. She had been
living in London for two years, where
she had been training in Hackney to be
a midwife. She describes how returning
from holiday to London was ‘a shock to
the system’ and decided it was time for a
change. In 1988 she moved to Plymouth,
taking up a post at Freedom Fields Hospital-and hasn’t looked back since!
Louise Parker in performance
Both Louise’s parents were music lovers, with an extensive and wide ranging
collection of records. While her mother
enjoyed listening to folk, calypso and
opera, it was her father in particular who
was an avid jazz fan, playing records
by artists from Louis Armstrong and
Bix Beiderbecke through to [John] Coltrane and [Charlie] Parker. ‘As a child
he would sit me down and we would
listen to music together’ Louise fondly
recalls. ‘He was always keen to point out
virtuoso solos, inventive arrangements
or beautiful melodies. His sense of rapture and enthusiasm was infectious and
I learned how music can transport you
- make you laugh and cry, and all other
emotions in between.’
Her mother grew up in Jamaica and as
a child sang in the choir at her local Baptist church. ‘She used to sing at home all
the time’, remembers Louise, ‘and has
an absolutely beautiful soprano voice,
but was always too shy to sing in public.’ Her father on the other hand would
sometimes sit in to sing with jazz bands,
including Kenny Ball’s Jazz Men (singing Dr Jazz).
As a teenager Louise discovered Billie Holiday, and subsequently became
completely obsessed with her and music in general, but unlike her idol never
thought to do it herself until she reached
her late thirties.
Over the past decade her own vocal
talents have earned her a great reputation
in the jazz world, and she has enjoyed
performing with (among many others)
the likes of BBC Jazz Award winners
Alan Barnes and Craig Milverton, as
well as the late great Humphrey Lyttelton who regarded Louise as his favourite
singer and described her as “a splendid
new voice on the block” with a sound
that “swings like fury”. Indeed, Louise
Parker became a regular performer on
Humph’s Best of Jazz - the BBC Radio
2 show he presented from 1968 until
shortly before his death in 2008, and
recorded with him on his last CD Cornucopia 3.
Her debut album, Don’t Explain was
recorded live in 2004 and gives a wonderful insight into her abilities, doing
justice to covers such as the Newley/
Bricusse-penned Feeling Good- a song

7. first performed by Cy Grant, but which
Nina Simone made her own on her 1965
album I Put a Spell on You, plus Gershwin’s classic Summertime, and other jazz
standards such as You Go To My Head,
Afro Blue, and a nod to Billie Holiday in
the album’s title track Don’t Explain.
A powerful live performer, Louise has
become a big hit on the festival circuit,
wowing audiences at Glastonbury, Port
lie Holiday’ she says when asked what
the audience can expect from her forthcoming show at Ilminster Arts Centre,
‘but I will be doing some other stuff as
well...I mostly do jazz and blues standards, with one or two reggae influenced
tunes and a couple of gospel numbers.’
She will be joined on the night by The
Craig Milverton Trio, with whom Louise
has just recorded a live album. ‘We’ve
Louise Parker with Humphrey Lyttelton
Eliot and the Isle of Wight International
Jazz Festival with her skilful interpretations of various musical styles, incorporating swing, blues and gospel classics
in her repertoire. She has a warm, bluesy
gospel sound to her voice that captures
the passion and spirit of some of the
great jazz divas, not least her early inspiration Billie Holiday, ‘I’ve been asked to
do some numbers from my tribute to Bil-
been playing together for five or six
years now...we know how each other operates but there are still surprises!’ Craig
Milverton also played piano on her second album No More Strangers which
was highly praised by Humphrey Lyttelton on his Best of Jazz radio show, and
who described Craig as “someone who’s
given Louise much encouragement, and
should feel well rewarded by this hugely
impressive self-produced album.”
Louise says she is looking forward to
play Ilminster Arts Centre once again,
having received a warm and enthusiastic
reception when she last played there 2
years ago. No doubt the venue is pleased
to welcome her back, as with a number
of new projects lined up, Louise is most
certainly in demand.
‘At the moment I am summoning up
the courage to learn some Nina Simone
material’ explains Louise of her being
booked to do a tribute concert at Cornwall’s Calstock Chapel in March next
year. She has also recently joined an
African-influenced band, with original
music written by the band leader Pete
Scott, which she describes as being ‘very
up-tempo and good to dance to’, and is
considering starting up a funk band, adding ‘I am also the lead soloist in a local
gospel choir - phew! - now I know why
I’m never in!’
There are a number of musicians
she would like to work with given the
chance, among them Christian McBride,
Monty Alexander, Gareth Williams,
Dave Green, Joe Sample, Buena Vista
Social Club and Herbie Hancock.
‘Be patient. Learn your skill by doing as many gigs as you can get in the
book’ is her advice to upcoming young
performers just starting their careers in
music, ‘listen to music as much as you
can. The audience might not listen to
you. Don’t worry about it, one day they
will. A lot of the time, being a musician
is not glamorous - it’s hard work. Most
importantly, keep going and never lose
the joy’.
By Sara Loveridge
Hear Louise perform on Friday 3rd August
Ilminster Arts Centre at The Meeting House, East Street, Ilminster. TA19 0AN. At 8pm.
Tickets: £12. Pre-Show Supper £9.50 (at 7pm). Box Office: 01460 54973. Website:
www.themeetinghouse.org.uk.

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9. The Fourth Binham Grange
Summer Art Exhibition
The Binham Grange
Summer Art Exhibition is now firmly established as part of the
August calendar. Melanie Deegan looks back
at its origins and development and looks
forward to this years
exhibition.
During a casual conversation at a West
Somerset business development meeting
in March 2009 the seeds for what would
become Gallery 4 Art were sown.
Jim Munnion (painter and printmaker),
Melanie Deegan (sculptor) and a number
of others interested in art were discussing the lack of suitable venues for group
art exhibitions in the area. One of the
group who had recently dined at Binham Grange suggested approaching the
venue with a view to using their barn to
hold an exhibition. A meeting was soon
arranged and Marie Thomas of Binham
Grange was keen to give the idea a go.
Binham Grange is a unique Jacobean
The Seahorse in the Garden
Historic Binham Grange, mentioned in the 13th century in association with Cleeve Abbey
house of great antiquity with an awardwinning restaurant surrounded by formal
and informal gardens. Mentioned in the
13th century in association with Cleeve
Abbey it is surrounded by 300 acres of
beautiful Countryside.
The first exhibition was booked for two
weeks in August 2009. Working on a
tight time frame and even tighter budget
Jim and Melanie then sourced suitable
artists to join the group. The prospect of
turning a listed cob built barn into a gallery space raised some interesting challenges. The need to avoid any damage
to the walls resulted in a slightly Heath
Robinson hanging system attached to the
rafters giving the artists some headaches
handing work where the walls diverged
from vertical, a frequent occurrence.
For budgetary reasons Ikea products
featured strongly in the lighting system
and plinths were created from bales of
straw. With hard work and improvisation
the exhibition opened on Saturday 15th
August featuring paintings and prints by
Jim Munnion, Jan Tricker and Bea Hammond, sculpture by Melanie Deegan,
jewellery by Penny Price, ceramic work
by Lucy Brown, photographs by Andrew
Hobbs and life size portraits by Bill Ley-
shon. The whole event was such a success that it was booked again for the following year.
Gallery 4 Art emerged as a title for the
group when the need to develop a website for promoting future events required
a suitable domain name. Inspired by the
positive feedback from the first exhibition Jim and Melanie spent some time
defining the approach that the group
should take. Binham Grange had demonstrated the mutual benefits for everyone
involved by working with a location that
already had a visitor base and reputation
for good food while providing space for
an exhibition that would bring many new
visitors to the venue. In the prevailing
economic climate creating a model that
would benefit everyone involved was
seen as a key factor for the development
of the group. Making art accessible was
also important and by using spaces that
are a not conventional art gallery it was
hoped to encourage people to visit the
exhibition as much because they were
interested in the venue as in the art.
Developing this approach the next exhibition was held in February 2010 at
Kilver Court in Shepton Mallet followed
by another successful summer exhibition

10. THE LYNDA COTTON GALLERY
46 Swain Street, Watchet.
ANGUS STIRLING KITTY STIRLING








‘COMMON GROUND’
An exhibition of work by Father Daughter.
Monday 10th - Sunday 22nd September
The Lynda Cotton Gallery
46 Swain Street,
Watchet.
TA23 0AG.





Open daily 10:00am - 5:30pm.
(01984) 631814
www.thelyndacottongallery.co.uk
11

11. at Binham Grange in August 2010.
Each exhibition has added more to
the identity and infrastructure for the
group building on the collection of
display panels, lighting systems, signage and catalogues for events. The
membership has also grown and well
over thirty artists have now exhibited
with Gallery 4 Art.
Another chance conversation resulted in the winter exhibition for 2011
being held at Blackmore Farm near
Cannington, a 15th Century manor
with great hall and chapel. The prospect of sitting beside large log fires
in February made the venue particularly attractive for the artists. Again
an interesting challenge as a gallery
space with suits of armour and implements of destruction to work around.
The farm shop café provided food for
visitors who were often queued out of
the door. Blackmore has now become
a regular winter venue for the group
and the exhibition for February 2013
is already booked.
This year will be the fourth summer
at Binham Grange. The exhibition
will run for three weeks from 11th
August until the 2nd September and is
open every day from 10.30am to 5pm.
There is plenty of parking and entry
to the exhibition is free of charge.
Artists work will be displayed the in
the barns and gardens surrounding the
house. The Grange Restaurant will be
serving coffee, lunches and afternoon
tea each day in the formal dinning
room and on the garden terrace.
Providing a vibrant and varied exhibition is important and artistic styles
within the group vary considerably.
The delicate, subtle, architectural
Some of the artists exhibiting in the 2009 Binham Grange Summer Exhibition
drawings of Rebecca Birtwhistle contrast with the dramatic, vibrant abstract paintings of Diane Burnell. Ceramic artists Lucy Brown and Renee
Kilburn have very different styles.
Renee’s work is detailed, tactile and
oozing with colour while Lucy creates delicate, almost ghost-like lamps
or quirky jugs and bowls. Photographer Andrew Hobbs produces observant, often black and white studies of local landscapes and people.
Nic Wingate’s photography is often a
very different high-speed sports shots
in vivid colours, Nic also provides
much of the printed signage for the
group and a photographic record of
exhibitions. Other regular exhibitors
include Tracey Hatton whose drawings and paintings have a strong link
to the local landscape. Alison Jacobs
detailed images of animals with their
plain coloured backgrounds sit well in
the barns around Binham Grange.
Jenny Barron, Leo Davey, Sara Dudman, Louise Waugh and Penny Elfick
have also participated in previous exhibitions. The outdoor sculpture collection has featured work by Fiona
Campbell, Tom Wood, Jay Davey,
Sam Jeffs, Anthony Rogers, Kate
Semple, and Chris Webb.
Later in the year Gallery 4 Art will
be participating in the Hilliers Autumn Festival, Romsey, Hampshire, a
new venture for the group to explore
opportunities outside the local area.
The group have also been recently
approached by Children’s Hospice
South West about the possibility of
participating the Art for Life event
in Devon during September. Longer
term Gallery 4 Art intend to explore
other opportunities further afield and
to investigate the possibilities for
pop-up exhibitions.
Binham Grange Summer Art Exhibition
11 August - 2 September 2012
10.30am to 5pm every day
Binham Grange, Old Cleeve, nr Minehead, Somerset TA24 6HX
The Fire

12. 13

13. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
T
he importance of Being Ernest was first performed on Valentine’s Day 1895 at St James’s Theatre, London, when Wilde was at the pinnacle of his success. It followed the success of Lady Windermer’s Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893), and An Ideal Husband (also 1895).
It also marked the beginning of his downfall. Wilde sued The Marquess of Queensberry for comments he had
made about him as a result of his relationship with his son. Though Wilde withdrew from the libel action, the
activities of the defence in delving into his private life led to him being arrested, charged and convicted of
gross indecency, resulting in his imprisonment.
The negative publicity also meant that the play had a much shorter run than it would otherwise have had
(though there were 83 perfomances). However, it remains his most popular play and has been successfully
translated into several languages.
Antecedents
Both Oscar Wilde’s father and mother were writers. His father Sir William, was a noted ear and eye surgeon at a hospital in Dublin who
also wrote books on biography, medicine, archaelogy and folklore. His mother, Jane, also wrote poetry under the name of ‘Speranza’
(hope in Italian) for the nationalist Young Irelanders and was the author of a critically aclaimed translation of The First Temptation by M.
Schwab. They were not the most conventional of couples. It was not widely known that Sir William had three illegitimate children before
his marriage to Jane, though this did not seem to be resented by her. The eldest of the children, named Henry Wilson, was born in 1838 and
employed by Sir William in his hospital. The two girls, Emily and Mary (born in 1847 and 1849), and were adopted by his brother. They
died in a bizarre accident when their crinolene dresses went up in flames while they were admiring them in front of an open fire. In later
life, following the receipt of his knighthood, he was embroiled in controversy and a trial, foreshadowing his son’s trial some 30 years later.
A patient of his, Mary Travers, claimed she had been seduced by him two years earlier. She circulated a pamplet parodying the Wilde’s and
her supposed seduction under the influence of choloroform. When Lady Wilde complained to Mary Traver’s father, Mary brought a libel
case against Lady Wilde. Sir William refused to take the stand. Mary Travers won the case but was only awarded a farthing in damages.
Lady Wilde had to pay £2,000 in legal costs.
Lady Wilde, ‘Speranza’
Sir William Wilde
Scene from the original production at St James’s Theatre London between
Algernon (Allan Aynesworth) Jack (George Alexander)

14. Set in the year 1912, with
the Titanic sinking, mass
production just beginning
on the Morris Oxford and
the Turkey Trot causing
outrage across the dance
floors of polite society, this
tale of the strange contents of a handbag found
at Victoria station has been
subtly adapted to extract
every drip of humour and
contemporary relevance in
this open air production by
the Miracle Theatre which
takes place in Vivary Park,
Taunton.
Finding there was very little theatre to
speak of in Cornwall in the late seventies,
Bill Scott got together a group of likeminded actors (Bill had studied drama at
Birmingham University) and formed The
Cornish Miracle Theatre. They put on their
first production in the summer of 1979, The
Beginning of the World or Origo Mundi, the
first part of the Ordinalia or Cornish Miracle Plays. They adapted the play and gave
it their own interpretation and were pleased
with the response from the audience. It was
intended as a one-off performance but they
soon began to establish themselves with
regular outdoor performances, putting on
other classic plays, though usually adapted,
for example, to suit a small cast of actors. They also began to perform original
works, many of them written by Bill (and
in which, in the early days, he acted). They
toured English Heritage sights producing
humorous interpretations of events in history (such as the Spanish Armada) accompanying medieval jousting tournaments
and battles reenacted by The Sealed Knott.
Looking back at their productions over 30
or more years, they have produced a breath-taking variety of repertoire and brought high quality theatre to outdoor venues across Cornwall
and the South West. In addition to Miracle Plays,
adaptions of Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Gogol and
other classics and tongue-in-cheek histories, their
productions have iincluded Georgian-style pantomimes, a Victorian music hall show about Dr Livingstone, a medieval farce (The Scapegoat), pieces
of science fiction (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
The Time Machine and Cat’s Cradle) as well as
the modern masterpieces of Beckett’s Waiting for
Godot and Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs.
selves on a sound footing by attracting a
big enough audience, he believes, does require investment in marketing in addition
to energy and commitment for, ‘Only so
much can be achieved by word of mouth.’
It was, therefore, with great relief as well
as surprise that they were granted an arts
council award six years ago. For the first
time they were able to employ a Theatre
Manager and a Communication Manager.
Since then, Bill feels that their company
has gone from strength to strength.
They are now in the middle of their latest
production, The Importance of Being Earnest, which comes to Taunton’s Vivary Park
at the end of August. Though they have had
their share of problems with the awful June
weather they only had to cancel one performance on their tour - when they found
the field in which they were due to perform
was under two feet of water. The audiences
and actors have soldiered on through the
rain or sometimes they have been offered
alternative indoor venues. They performed
The Full Cast
Finding sufficient funding, as ever in the world
of the theatre, has sometimes been a challenge.
In the early days they were grateful for what they
could get. Recently, Bill donated some of their
old material to a performing arts archive and discovered a letter from bygone years from a local
garage agreeing to sponsor them for £25 and another from their local council - also offering £25
funding. He remembers these as ‘red letter days.’
Being able to develop the theatre and put them-
for a whole week at the exposed Minack
Theatre. However, despite the occasional
weather problems they achieved near sell
out audiences for all the performances.
Now that the weather seems to be taking
a kinder direction they look forward to another well attended performance in Vivary
Park - for surely one of the funniest plays
in the English language - perhaps in the dry
or even in glorious sunshine.
See The Importance of Being Earnest
at Vivary Park, Taunton
Friday 31 August - Saturday 1 September
2pm 7.30pm
Tickets from The Brewhouse Theatre:
Full £12 60+ £12 Conc. £8
Box Office: 01823 283244 www.thebrewhouse.net
Miracle at St Mawes
15

15. Creative Writing for Beginners
The Victoria Rooms, Fore Street, Milverton,TA4 1JU
A new course begins Thurs 20th Sept (1-3pm)
This warm supportive class provides the opportunity for both
new experienced writers to get pen to paper amass lots
of fresh writing material, from which fiction or autobiographybased projects may be developed.
Briony uses simple techniques designed to open the writer up
to a world of tantalising images, ideas, memories, sensations
associations.
Via a variety
of forms, from
lists to letters,
poetry to prose,
monologue to
dialogue, travel
writing to dream
writing, students
will explore the
nature of their
own voices
learn how to use them with confidence flare.
A 10 week course costs £120. For more info bookings email
brionygoffin@gmail.com or go to www.brionygoffin.co.uk
Briony Goffin teaches Creative Writing at Cardiff University,
alongside facilitating courses workshops in the community.
She has published widely on the art of teaching creative writing
supporting the student writer to fulfil their creative potential.
In May 2012 she was awarded ‘Inspirational Tutor of the Year’
by NIACE in Wales.
Wood Street
Community Choir
All welcome!
Wednesdays 7.30-9.15pm
Northtown School, central Taunton
Leader: Catherine Mowat
• All kinds of songs – bop to pop, groove to gospel,
float to folk, plus lots more!
• Songs in luscious harmony, unaccompanied
•
Friendly and welcoming
• Teaching mainly by ear
• Term starts September 26th
£5 /session or £45 for the 10 week term
For further information:
01458 250655 or
cemowat@gmail.com
www.singfromtheheart.wordpress.com

16. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September 2012
Over the following pages you will find the full programme for the
second Taunton Literary Festival organised by Brendon Books of
Bath Place, Taunton There are more than 40 events spread over
9 days over a wide range of subject areas. We would particularly
like to thank the participation of the following schools, colleges and
local institutions who have provided the venues:
The Castle Hotel, Hestercombe Gardens, Taunton School,
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, Queen’s College, King’s College,
Richard Huish College, The Brewhouse Theatre and Somerset
County Museum.
Many of the tickets for the daytime events at the schools are at a
special student rate and we hope that students form schools other
than the participating venues may be able to take advantage of this.
We would also like to thank the Somerset Council and the Creative Industries Development
Fund, Taunton Deane Borough Council and all businesses, local institutions and volunteers
that give their support over the coming months. It would be marvellous if the festival could
become an established part of the calendar and part of a vibrant cultural and artistic sector for
the Taunton area.
Each of the events typically lasts an hour with a talk and or/reading, questions followed by
a signing. Directions and maps to the venues are available at the literary festival website at
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net where tickets may also be ordered. Tickets are also available
by personal visit, phone or by emailing Brendon Books except for the Brewhouse Theatre
events or for the literary dining events at The Castle Hotel (see details on following pages).
Venuesfor the 2012 Festival
Saturday 22: The Castle Hotel
Sunday 23: Hestercombe Gardens
Monday 24 Taunton School
Tuesday 25: Taccchi-Morris Arts Centre
Wednesday 26: Queen’s College
Thursday 27: King’s College
Friday 28: Richard Huish College
Saturday 29: The Brewhouse Theatre
Sunday 30: Somerset Museum
17
Brendon Books, Bath Place,
Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742
brendonbooks@gmail.com

17. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 1, Saturday 22nd September
The Castle Hotel, Castle Green,
Taunton TA1 1NF
See below for ticket options
11.00am Sir Roger Carrick: Diplomatic Anecdotage; Around the World in 40
Years
There will be an opportunity at this event to have lunch at The Castle Hotel in the company of the
author after the talk and signing. Talk followed by a 3 course lunch. Price £39.00 For this option
please contact the Castle Hotel for tickets. 01823 272671 or www.the-castle-hotel.com
Tickets for the talk only may be purchased from Brendon Books, price £6.50
From Bulgaria to Berkeley, Indonesia to Australia, Roger Carrick has travelled the world as an English diplomat. He
was shadowed by the secret police in Sofia, witnessed the 1968 riots in Paris, befriended Shirley Temple at Stanford
University and negotiated the withdrawal of British troops from Singapore. In between he rose to the heights of
ambassador to Indonesia and High Commissioner to Australia. All in a day’s work for a distinguished diplomat. Diplomatic Anecdotage is
a reflection on the ups and downs of diplomatic life. A fascinating insider’s view to diplomatic life - full of humour, wisdom and good sense
about how to navigate our way through a dangerous world. Chris Patten. A diplomat’s life isn’t boring, at least Roger Carrick’s wasn’t.
Amusing, informative and fun. Lord Carrington.
4.00pm Alexander Waugh. Alexander will be talking about his father, Auberon, with
particular reference to a recent collection of his works, Kiss Me Chudleigh: The World
According to Auberon Waugh which will be available at the talk.
There will be an opportunity at this event to have tea in the company of the author after the talk
and signing. Price £20.00. For this option please contact the Castle Hotel for tickets. 01823 272671
or www.the-castle-hotel.com. Tickets for the talk only may be purchased from Brendon Books,
price £6.50
Auberon Waugh has been compared to Jonathan Swift. He was an outrageous satirist who slaughtered whole herds
of sacred cows and turned peoples heartfelt convictions on their heads. The best of his writing, collected in Kiss Me
Chudleigh, is as timeless as Gulliver’s Travels and has much power to outrage as the day it was written. Auberon Waugh was a master of
the art of going too far, but above all, he was very funny. Kiss Me, Chudleigh is a collection of Waugh’s best writing and is also a compact
biography.
6.30pm Felix Francis: Bloodline
There will be an opportunity at this event to have dinner in the company of the author after the talk
and signing. Talk followed by a 3 course dinner. Price £49.00. For this option please contact the
Castle Hotel, 01823 272671 or www.the-castle-hotel.com. Tickets for the talk only may be purchased from Brendon Books, price £6.50
From Felix Francis, bestselling author of Gamble and co-author (with Dick Francis) of Even Money and Crossfire,
comes Bloodline the latest Dick Francis novel. Set in the cut-throat world of horse racing, Bloodline is a thriller packed
full of suspense, mystery and intrigue. When Mark Shillingford commentates on a race in which his twin sister Clare,
an accomplished and successful jockey, comes in third, he can’t help but be suspicious. As a professional race-caller,
he knows she should have won. Did she lose on purpose? Was the race fixed? Why on earth would she do something so out of
character? That night, Mark confronts Clare with his suspicions, but she storms off after an explosive argument. It’s the last
time Mark sees her alive. Hours later, Clare jumps to her death from the balcony of a London hotel ...or so it seems. Devastated
by her death, and almost overcome with guilt, Mark goes in search of answers. Felix also has some interesting stories about his
father.
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com

18. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 2, Sunday 23rd September
Hestercombe Gardens, Cheddon Fitzpaine,
Taunton TA2 8LG
11.30am Rosemary Penfold: Posy of Wild Flowers
Tickets: £6.50
Rosemary Penfold’s A Field Full of Butterflies was an evocative memoir of her life growing up in the fields of the English countryside. A moving testament to a forgotten world and a rapidly disappearing and often misunderstood people,
Rosemary won the hearts of the nation with her story. In this, her second book, Rosemary returns to the idyllic countryside to continue her compelling story. Written in the same elegant narrative that has made Rosemary a much loved and
admired storyteller, she paints a vivid and touching portrait of a way of life that no longer exists.
2.30pm An interview with Stephen Moss
Tickets: £6.50
Stephen Moss is one of Britain’s leading nature writers, broadcasters and wildlife television producers. His programmes include Springwatch, Autumnwatch and The Nature of Britain. He has worked with David Attenborough, Bill
Oddie, Alan Titchmarsh, Chris Packham, Kate Humble, Simon King, Charlie Dimmock and Michaela Strachan. He is
the author of the ‘Birdwatch’ column in the Guardian and has written numerous books. His special areas of knowledge
include birds and climate change; the social history of wildlife-watching; getting children back in touch with nature;
and UK environmental issues.
4.00pm Duff Hart-Davis: Man of War
Tickets: £6.50
The incredible life story of Captain Alan Hillgarth from the Sunday Times bestselling writer Duff Hart-Davis. Hillgarth
was just 15 years old when he found himself aboard the HMS Bacchante as the First World War broke out. Within months
he’d fought at Gallipoli, bayoneted an attacking Turkish soldier, and been shot in the head and leg. After the war, Hillgarth
became an author of thrillers, a gold-hunter in South America, a diplomat and a spy-master. As British Consul in Majorca
during the Spanish Civil War, from 1936 to 1939, he saved countless lives acting as mediator between the two sides. From
1940 to 1943 he was Britain’s most important intelligence officer in Spain, a key player in the successful Allied subterfuge
Operation Mincemeat. Later he became Chief of Intelligence for the Eastern Fleet, in Ceylon, and a key advisor to Churchill, during and after the war.
6.00pm Graham Harvey: Quest For Real Food
Tickets: £6.50
After a spell at university where he read agriculture Graham Harvey took a job as a reporter on Farmers Weekly. That’s
when he started seeing the traditional mixed farm come under attack. In its place he believes we now have animal factories
and prairie-style wheat, guzzling oil and constantly buffeted by global commodity markets. For the past 14 years he has
been the Archer’s agricultural story editor, a sort of farm minister for Ambridge. But now he thinks it is time to get back to
the real world. Modern high-input agriculture, he believes, is wrecking our health, our rural communities and our planet. In
his view there’s only one answer; Britains forgotten treasure, family mixed farms. Real farms producing real food.
7.30pm Miriam Darlington: Otter Country
Tickets: 6.50
Over the course of a year, Miriam Darlington travelled around Britain in search of wild otters; from her home in Devon
to the wilds of Scotland; to Cumbria, Wales, Northumberland, Cornwall, Somerset and the River Lea; to her childhood
home near the Ouse, the source of her watery obsession. Otter Country follows Darlington’s search through different
landscapes, seasons, weather and light, as she tracks one of Britain’s most elusive animals. Written in mesmerising,
magical prose, Otter Country establishes Darlington as a prominent voice in the new generation of British nature writers.
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com
or Hestercombe Gardens: 01823 413923 www.hestercombe.com
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19. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 3, Monday 24th September
Taunton School, Staplegrove Rd, Taunton TA2 6AD
2.00pm Chris Ewan: Safe House
Tickets: £6.50 Schools:£2.50
Chris Ewan’s most recent novel is Safe House (published by Faber Faber), a stand-alone thriller set on the Isle of Man.
He is the award-winning author of four previous novels. In 2011, he was voted one of America’s favourite British authors
by a Huffington Post poll. Born in Taunton in 1976, Chris attended Bishop Henderson Primary School, The Castle School
and Richard Huish College before graduating from the University of Nottingham. He now lives on the Isle of Man with
his wife Jo, where he writes full-time.
4.30pm Ally Kennen: Bullet Boys
Tickets: £2.50
This is an electrifyingly dark teen thriller from the author of Beast and Quarry. Alex, Levi and Max follow the young
soldiers from the local army camp on the moor. But harmless rivalry develops into something far more incendiary. When
the boys discover a cache of buried weapons near the training grounds, deadly forces are brought into play. Ally reached
no. 41 in the UK charts in 2001 with a song she wrote and sang and subsequently toured round the world. She lives in
Somerset with her husband, her daughter and two sons, four chickens and a curmudgeonly cat.
6.00pm John Darwin: Unfinished Empire
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
John Darwin won the Wolfson History Prize for his book After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires. In
Unfinished Empire he examines the enormous influence of the British Empire. It has shaped the world in countless ways:
repopulating continents, carving out modern nations, imposing its own language, technology and values. For perhaps two
centuries its existence, expansion and final collapse were the single largest determinant of historical events.
7.30pm Gervase Phinn: Trouble at the Little Village School
Tickets: £6.50
Elisabeth Devine certainly rocked the boat when she arrived in Barton-in-the-Dale to take over as the head-teacher
of the little primary school. Now it’s January, and after winning over the wary locals, she can finally settle in to her
new role. Or so she thinks . . . For the school is hit by a brand-new bombshell: it’s to be merged with its arch rival,
and Elisabeth has to fight for the new headship with Urebank’s ruthless and calculating headmaster. She has her
work cut out for her. But add in some gossip and a helping of scandal, not to mention various newcomers bringing
good things and bad to Barton, and that’s not the only trouble that’s brewing in the village.
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com

20. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 4, Tuesday 25th September
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre, School Rd,
Monkton Heathfield, Taunton TA2 8PD
12.00 Ginny Baily, author of Africa Junction will talk on the subject of ‘The impossibility of getting to Timbuktu’ - how Africa, Mali in particular, inspired ‘Africa Junction’
Tickets: £6.50 Schools £2.50
Adele is in a mess. On her own with her young son, struggling to cope with her job as a teacher, and stuck in a disastrous affair - her life is unravelling. Her memories of idyllic years as a child in Senegal are fading, but she’s haunted
by a vision of her childhood friend, Ellena. Africa is in her head. Ellena’s childhood in exile from brutal conflict in
Liberia was far removed from the vibrant Senegal Adele remembers, and a careless, heartless act by Adele destroyed
the girls’ friendship and jeopardised Ellena’s fragile family. Adele must return to Africa to try and make amends and
2.30pm Beth Webb: Star Dancer Series
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
It is 58 AD. As the Romans tighten their grip on Britain, so the tribes’ resistance increases. But lust for power knows
no loyalty. A demon promises failed King Admidios untold wealth and glory in exchange for the soul of Tegen, the
young ‘Star Dancer’ druid in training - Britain’s only hope. Unaware of this dark bargain, Tegen sets off to find Mona,
the elusive Isle of the Druids, where she hopes to learn the magic that will defend her homeland. On the way, she
meets Owein, another young druid who is not what he seems and knows far more than he is willing to tell - even to
Tegen. Owein offers to take her to a Grand Council of druids and war leaders, where, he assures her, she will find a
guide. But Admidios is also waiting there, poised with all his demonic powers. Then a murder by magic brings the
British alliance tottering on the brink of disaster, and a black raven of ill-omen flies in the face of all Tegen holds dear.
Her only hope is to dare to walk through the flames of Sacred Fire.
6.00pm Open Mic Session organised by John Stuart of the Fire River Poets. A kaleidoscope of poetry in an open mic session for local poets.
Tickets: £5.00 Students: £2.00
The organisers do not know who will take part but we do know that many excellent poets live and work in
and around Taunton so this should be a fascinating whirlwind of different styles and subjects. Poets who
would like to take part in the open mic should book themselves their five minute slot in advance through
John Stuart (wj.stuart@sky.com or 01823 352486).
8.00pm James Forrester (Ian Mortimer)Title of Talk: The Senses of Elizabethan
England: an exploration of the audio and visual senses in Elizabethan England
Based on the historical fiction books of James Forrester.
Latest book: The Final Sacrament.
Tickets: £8.00
James Forrester is the fiction-writing persona (the middle names) of the historian, Dr Ian J. F. Mortimer. As Ian Mortimer he has pioneered a number of new literary forms in history, from writing guidebooks for those ‘visiting’ the past
(The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England) to a day-by-day account of a king over a particular year (1415:
Henry V’s Year of Glory).
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com
or Tacchi Morris Arts Centre 01823 414141 www.tacchi-morrris.com
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21. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 5, Wednesday 26th September
Queen’s College, Trull Road, Taunton TA1 4QS
11.00am Keith Gibbs: The Resourceful Physics Teacher
Tickets: £2.50
The aim of the talk is to show some fun and informative experiments that demonstrate some of the ideas in Physics. There will be between twenty and thirty experiments from spinning coat hangers and jellies to singing rods!
The experiments are not only enjoyable but also all demonstrate an important piece of Physics. They form the
basis of a collection of over seven hundred which appears in a new book The New Resourceful Physics Teacher.
This teaching resource comprises 400 demonstration experiments and ideas for pupils in physics. The author,
Keith Gibbs has drawn on 30 years experience of teaching physics to assemble these ideas.
2.00pm Patricia Ferguson: The Midwife’s Daughter
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
The new novel from Orange Prize listed author Patricia Ferguson. Violet, the Holy Terror, has delivered
many of the town children - and often their children - in her capacity as handywoman. But Violet’s
calling is dying out as, with medicine’s advances, the good old ways are no longer good enough. Grace,
Violet’s adopted daughter, is a symbol of change herself. In the place where she has grown up and
everyone knows her, she is accepted, though most of the locals never before saw a girl with skin that
colour. For Violet and Grace the coming war will bring more upheaval into their lives: can they endure
it, or will they, like so many, be swept aside by history’s tide?
4.30pm Helen Dunmore: Stormswept
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
Morveren lives with her parents and twin sister Jenna on an island off the coast of Cornwall. As Morveren and Jenna’s relationship shifts and changes, like driftwood on the tide, Morveren finds a beautiful
teenage boy in a rock pool after a storm. Going to his rescue, she is shocked to see that he is not human
but a Merboy. With Jenna refusing to face the truth, Morveren finds herself alone at the worst possible
time. Because when the worlds of Air and Mer meet, the consequences can be terrible! Helen Dunmore
has won awards for her fiction (the Society of Authors’ McKitterick Prize and the Orange Prize) and
also for her poetry (she has won the Cardiff International Poetry Prize, been shortlisted for the T. S.
Eliot Prize and had her books named as Poetry Book Society Choice and Recommendations). Dunmore
is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).
6.00pm Christopher Clark: Sleepwalkers
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
In The Sleepwalkers acclaimed historian and author of Iron Kingdom, Christopher Clark, examines the causes
of the First World War. The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot
dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule and it created a powerful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, killed millions of men and destroyed a civilization.
What made a seemingly prosperous and complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination? In
The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark retells the story of the outbreak of the First World War and its causes.
7.30pm Pam Ayres: The Necessary Aptitude
Price: £8.00
Pam Ayres comes to the Taunton Literary Festival to talk about her autobiography, The Necessary Aptitude, which is now published in paperback. It was the UK’s best selling female autobiography when it was
first published in hardback last year. The Necessary Aptitude tells the story of Pam’s 1950s childhood, as
the youngest of a family of six, growing up in the Vale of the White Horse in Berkshire. In her autobiography Pam describes her journey from a modest start to becoming a bestselling author and successful solo
theatre performer.
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com

22. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 6, Thursday 27th September
Kings’s College, South Rd, Taunton TA1 3LA
11.00am Doctor John Godrich:The Mountains of Moab: The Diary of Victor Godrich
Tickets: £2.50
Memoirs of a young soldier who joined the Territorial Army in 1905, aged 18, and was shipped to Egypt with his
horse after the outbreak of the First World War. He was posted to Shiva Bay, Gallipolli. This is the story of the
close-knit life of a country cavalry regiment. The diary of Victor Godrich, published by his son, Dr John Godrich
2.00pm Karen Maitland: Falcons of Ice and Fire
Tickets: £6.50 Schools:£2.50
Karen Maitland, the author of the hugely popular ‘Company of Liars’, has written a powerful historical thriller which
takes you right back to the darkest corners of the 16th century. Intelligently written and meticulously researched, ‘The
Falcons of Fire and Ice’; is a real treat for all fans of CJ Sansom and Umberto Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose’ ,’A tour
de force: dark and woven with the supernatural’ Daily Mail. Step back in time with Karen Maitland’s “Dark Tales”
and discover a world full of imagination in “The Falcons of Fire and Ice” - “A thrilling horrible vision of the Dark
Ages”. (“Metro”). Karen Maitland travelled and worked in many parts of the United Kingdom before finally settling
in the beautiful medieval city of Lincoln.
4.30pm Peter Benson: Isabel’s Skin
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
David Morris lives the quiet life of a book-valuer for a London auction house, travelling every day by bus to his
office in the Strand. When he is asked to make a trip to rural Somerset to value the library of the recently deceased
Lord Buff-Orpington, the sense of trepidation he feels as he heads into the country is confirmed the moment he
reaches his destination, the dark and impoverished village of Ashbrittle. These feelings turn to dread when he meets
the enigmatic Professor Richard Hunt and catches a glimpse of a screaming woman he keeps prisoner in his house.
6.00pm Nicci French: Tuesday’s Gone
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
Nicci French is in fact the pesuedonym of the English husband-and-wife team of Nicci Gerrard
and Sean French. They are the bestselling authors of What to do When Someone Dies and
Losing You. Nicci French returns with the second book in the gripping new series that began
with Top Ten Bestseller Blue Monday. Fans of Peter James, Roy Grace and Peter Robinson DCI
Banks series will love central character psychotherapist Frieda Klein, who is consulted on a
grisly and seemingly unsolvable crime.
7.30pm Paddy Ashdown: A Brilliant Little Operation: The Cockleshell Heroes
Tickets: £6.50
The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour - by the man who himself
served in the Special Boat Squadron. In 1942, before El Alamein turned the tide of war, the German merchant fleet
was re-supplying its war machine with impunity. So Operation Frankton, a daring and secret raid, was launched by
Mountbatten’s Combined Operations and led by the enigmatic ‘Blondie’ Hasler - to paddle ‘Cockleshell’ canoes
right into Bordeaux harbour and sink the ships at anchor. It was a desperately hazardous mission from the start
- dropped by submarine to canoe some hundred miles up the Gironde into the heart of Vichy France, surviving terrifying tidal races, only to face the biggest challenge of all: escaping across the Pyrenees.
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com
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23. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 7, Friday 28th September
Richard Huish College, South Rd, Taunton TA1 1XP
11.15am Katie Ward: Girl Reading
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
Seven portraits. Seven artists. Seven girls and women. A young orphan poses nervously for a Renaissance maestro
in medieval Sienna, and an artist’s servant girl in 17th-century Amsterdam snatches a moment away from her work
to lose herself in tales of knights and battles. A young woman reading in a Shoreditch bar catches the eye of a young
man who takes her picture, and a Victorian medium holds a book that she barely acknowledges while she waits for the
exposure.Each chapter of this richly textured debut takes us into a perfectly imagined tale of how each portrait came
to be, and as the connections accumulate, the narrative leads us into the present and beyond; an inspired celebration of
women reading and the artists who have caught them in the act.
1.15pm Tim Kevan: Law Peace
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
Chronicling the hilarious and sometimes almost unbelievable absurdities of the modern bar, and peopled by a cast
of unforgettable characters, Law and Peace is a funny, fast-paced Machiavellian romp through the legal world. Tim
Kevan is a barrister and writer. His first novel Law and Disorder (Bloomsbury) (originally called Baby Barista and the
Art of War) was described by broadcaster Jeremy Vine as ‘a wonderful, racing read - well-drawn, smartly plotted and
laugh out loud’; and by The Times as ‘a cross between The Talented Mr Ripley, Rumpole and Bridget Jones’s Diary’. It
is based on the BabyBarista Blog which he writes for The Guardian.
4.30pm Sophia Kingshill: Fabled Coast
Tickets: £6.50 Schools:£2.50
Pirates and smugglers, ghost ships and sea-serpents, fishermen’s prayers and sailors’ rituals - the coastline of the British Isles plays host to an astonishingly rich variety of local legends, customs and superstitions. In The Fabled Coast,
renowned folklorists Sophia Kingshill and Jennifer Westwood gather together the most enthralling tales and traditions,
tracing their origins and examining the facts behind the legends. The result is an endlessly fascinating, often surprising
journey through our island history.
6.00pm Helen Harvey: Dog at the End of the World
Tickets: £2.50
In a collection meandering from mermaids to garden sheds, from ghosts to PE teachers you’ll find a to-do list by God,
a public health warning for books, and (possibly) the longest excuse for not replying to an email you’ll ever read.
Helen Harvey’s first poetry collection blurs the everyday with the absurd, speaks in voices from every corner of space,
time, fantasy and reality, and riddles you never will guess. She has been published in numerous journals and anthologies: most recently her flash fic;Rob meets Pterodactyl; was included in the collection Under the Stairs (Divertir,
2011), and her poem;’Mermaids in the Thames’; featured in Polluto.
7.30pm Jerry Brotton: A History of the World in Twelve Maps
Tickets: £6.50 Schools: £2.50
Jerry Brotton is the presenter of the acclaimed BBC4 series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession. Here he tells the
story of our world through maps. Throughout history, maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of the world,
and our place in it. But far from being purely scientific objects, world maps are unavoidably ideological and subjective, intimately bound up with the systems of power and authority of particular times and places. Mapmakers do not
simply represent the world, they construct it out of the ideas of their age. In this scintillating book, Jerry Brotton
examines the significance of 12 maps - from the mystical representations of ancient history to the satellite derived
imagery of today.
Tickets for Talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or email: brendonbooks@gmail.com

24. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 8, Saturday 29th September
The Brewhouse Theatre, Coal Orchard, Taunton TA1 1JL
2.30pm Jane Robinson: A Force to be Reckoned With
Tickets: £10.00 Ticket and Book(RRP £9.99): £16.00
Everyone knows three things about the Women’s Institute: that they spent the war making jam; the sensational Calendar Girls were from the WI; and, more recently, that slow-handclapping of Tony Blair. 215,000 women in the UK
belong to the WI. Their membership crosses class and has recently begun to recruit huge numbers of young women. It
was founded in 1915, not by worthy ladies in tweeds but by the feistiest women in the country, including suffragettes,
academics and social crusaders who discovered the heady power of sisterhood, changing women’s lives and their
world in the process. Certainly its members made jam and sang ‘Jerusalem’, but they did, and do, much more besides.
4.30pm Victoria Eveleigh: A Stallion Called Midnight
Tickets: £4.00
Jenny secretly befriends ‘Midnight’, a wild horse on the island of Lundy. Midnight won’t let anyone tame him.
Anyone, that is, except Jenny - but that’s their secret. A perfect story for pony-lovers based on the real legend of
‘Midnight’ the Lundy Stallion. Jenny has to leave him on their island home and go away to school. Rumours are
spreading that Midnight is dangerous. How can Jenny keep Midnight safe and free if she’s not there to protect
him?
6.00pm Gavin Esler: Lessons From the Top; How Leaders Succeed Through the
Power of Stories
Tickets: £12.00 Ticket and Book (RRP £12.99): £20.00
Great leaders have always understood the great power of stories. Through the stories they tell, the most successful
leaders educate, persuade and bring about change, but we rarely have the background knowledge to explore how
they do so. In this hugely insightful guide to getting to the top, leading journalist Gavin Esler presents first hand
knowledge of the secrets of those who achieve power based on over thirty years experience interviewing world famous figures from Bill Clinton to Angelina Jolie. Gavin Esler is an award winning television and radio broadcaster,
novelist and journalist. He is the author of five novels and a non-fiction book about the United States, The United
States of Anger.
8.00pm Kate Mosse: The Languedoc Triology
Tickets: £12.00
The second novel in Kate’s Languedoc Trilogy, Sepulchre, was an international and UK number 1 bestseller.
Citadel, the final novel in the series, will be published this Autumn. Her short stories have appeared in a range of
collections including Midsummer Nights (Quercus) and The Book Lovers’ Appreciation Society (Orion). A guest
presenter for A Good Read for BBC Radio 4, Kate is also a regular guest on BBC Breakfast and The Review Show.
Mosse is the Co-Founder Honorary Director of the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, set up in 1996 to
celebrate outstanding fiction by women throughout the world. A regular judge of writing, literary and art awards
at national and local level - including the Asham Award, the Aventis Award, Orange Futures, the Harper’s Bazaar /
Short Story Competition - she is a well known campaigner for literacy and one of the authors leading the campaign
against library closures in the UK. In 2011, she was named by the Guardian and by the Bookseller as one of the top
50 most influential people in UK publishing.
Please note, tickets for the events on this page only should be ordered direct from:
The Brewhouse Theatre, Coal Orchard, Taunton TA1 1JL
Box Office: 01823 283244 www.thebrewhouse.net

25. Taunton Literary Festival
22-30 September
Day 9, Sunday 30th September
Museum of Somerset, Castle Green, Taunton TA1 4AB
11.30am Emylia Hall: The Book of Summers
Tickets: £6.50
Beth Lowe has been sent a parcel. Inside is a letter informing her that her long-estranged mother has died, and a scrapbook Beth has never seen before compiled by her mother to record the seven glorious childhood summers Beth spent
in rural Hungary. It was a time when she trod the tightrope between separated parents and two very different countries;
her bewitching but imperfect Hungarian mother and her gentle, reticent English father; the dazzling house of a Hungarian artist and an empty-feeling cottage in deepest Devon. And it was a time that came to the most brutal of ends the
year Beth turned sixteen. Since then, Beth hasn’t allowed herself to think about those years of her childhood. But the
arrival of The Book of Summers brings the past tumbling back into the present; as vivid, painful and vital as ever.
2.00pm Ben Kane: Spartacus:Rebellion
Tickets: £6.50
The mighty slave army, led by Spartacus, has carried all before it, scattering the legions of Rome. Three praetors,
two consuls and one proconsul have been defeated. Spartacus seems invincible as he marches towards the Alps and
freedom. But storm clouds are massing on the horizon. Crixus the Gaul defects, taking all his men with him. Crassus,
the richest man in Rome, begins to raise a formidable army, tasked specifically with the defeat of Spartacus. And
within the slave army itself, there are murmurings of dissent and rebellion. Spartacus, on the brink of glory, must
make a crucial decision - to go forward over the Alps to freedom, or back to face the might of Rome and try to break
its stranglehold on power forever.
3.30pm David Priestland: Merchant, Soldier, Sage
Tickets: £6.50
We live in an age ruled by merchants. Competition, flexibility and profit are still the common currency, even at a time
when Western countries have been driven off a cliff by these very values. But will it always be this way? Merchant,
Soldier, Sage is a remarkable book that proposes a radical new approach to how we see our world, and who runs it,
in the vein of Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History. David Priestland argues for the predominance in any society
of one of three broad value systems - that of the merchant (commercial and competitive); the soldier (aristocratic and
militaristic); and the sage (bureaucratic and creative).
6.00pm Jean Burnett: The Bad Miss Bennett
Tickets: £6.50
Mr Wickham turned out to be a disappointing husband in many ways, the most notable being his early demise on
the battlefields of Waterloo. And so Lydia Wickham, nee Bennet, still not twenty and ever-full of an enterprising
spirit, must make her fortune independently. A lesser woman, without Lydia’s natural ability to flirt outrageously on
the dancefloor and cheat seamlessly at the card table, would swoon in the wake of a dashing highwayman, a corrupt
banker and even an amorous Royal or two. But on the hunt for a marriage that will make her rich, there’s nothing that
Lydia won’t turn her hand to ...Taking in London, Paris and Brighton, Who Needs Mr Darcy?
7.30pm James Long: The Lives She Left Behind
Tickets: £6.50
In a Somerset village, a teenage boy confronts a teacher with a story he should know nothing about. The boy’s
impossible knowledge uncovers memories Michael Martin has done his utmost to forget - and soon propels him into
danger. As Martin confronts his past once more, three girls arrive in the village of Pen Selwood, one of them drawn
by an ancient instinct to find a man called Ferney. Her actions reignite a love story, an instinct that cannot be broken,
irrespective of the hurt and danger it brings to those around them..
Tickets for talks: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
01823 337742 www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net email: brendonbooks@gmail.com
or Museum of Somerset, Castle Green Taunton TA1 4AB 01823 255088

26. August Events
Events in date order. Contact details for most of the venues are given at the end of event listings. Please note, we do not
take any responsibility for errors or omissions. Please check with venue for timings and programme details.
Event Details
Date
Venue
Time
1st
Music
Vida Guitar Quartet
Dillington House
8.00
2nd
Music
English Guitar Quartet
Dillington House
8.00
Talk
Toni Davey talkes about her art
The Barn, Obridge Hosue
7.30
Photography
Cyanotype Photography Workshop
Bishop’s Hull House
10.00
Music
There on the Mountain: Folk Music From East Europe
St John’s Church (Taunt)
10.00
3rd
Music
Louise Parker The Craig Milverton Trio (Jazz)
Ilminster Arts Centre
8.00
4th
Photography
Photography Workshop with George Reekie
St Michael’s Church (Galm)
2.00
5th
Music
George Formby with Sam Shepherd
Friends of Wellington Park
2.30
6th
Talks
Helen Keenan: Dipped Toes Lasting Passions (Somerset Quilters)
Taunton Catholic Centre
7.15
8-18th
Musical
Sweet Charity MATA Summer Show
Regal Theatre
7.30
10th
Art
‘Loosen Up’ Workshop with artist Gwyn Ardyth
Bishop’s Hull House
9.30am
12th
Music
Yorkie - Wide Variety of Popular Music
Friends Wellington Park
2.30
Music
Taunton Sunday Band Concert
Vivary Park Bandstand
3.00
14th
Talk
Insect Photography - John Bebbington
Brendon Books
7.00
17th
Drama
Much Ado About Nothing - Folksy Theatre
Walled Gardens Cannington
8.00
18th
Writing
Creative Writing with Robin Brumby
St Michael’s Church (Galm)
2.00
Music
Wellington Acoustic Music Club
Wellington Arts Centre
8.00
Drama
Much Ado About Nothing - Folksy Theatre
Hestercombe Gardens
tbc
Music
Sapphire Easy Listening Music
Friends Wellington Park
2.30
Music
Stoke Sub Hamdon Band
Vivary Park Bandstand
3.00
Music
Much Ado About Nothing - Folksy Theatre
Hestercombe
tbc
Music
Dillington House Jazz Week Concert
Dillington Hosue
8.00
Music
19th
20
Tailgate Ramble Swing
Dillington House
8.00
22-25th Drama
His Dark Materials Part 1 - Brewhouse Young Company
Brewhouse
2.30/7
24-26th Music
Honk Musical - Pezazz Performing Arts
Regal, Minehead
6.30
24th
Gadjo Guitars - Jazz
Ilmintser Arts Centre
8.00
Music
27

27. September Events
Events in date order. Contact details for most of the venues are given at the end of event listings. Please note, we do not
take any responsibility for errors or omissions. Please check with venue for timings and programme details.
Date
1st
Event Details
Venue
Time
Importance of Being Earnest - Miracle Theatre
Brewhouse (Vivary Park)
2/7.30
Music
Ego sum qui sum - Blackdowns Early Music
North Curry Parish Church
6.30
Music
2
Talk
Tir Na Gog Contemporary Folk Music
Wellington Arts Centre
7.30
Music
Ego sum wui sum - Blackdowns Early Music
Culmstock Parish Church
6.30
Music
Taunton Burtle Silver Band
Vivary Park
3.00
6
Poetry
Fire River Poets
Brewhouse Studio
8.00
7
Music
Viola Oboe Recital - Ex pupils of Wells Cathedral
St John’s Church, Taunton
12.30
Music
Twelth Day Folk Music
Bridgwater Arts Centre
8.00
Comedy
Jethro
Regal Theatre, Minehead
7.30
Music
Julian Stringle Jim Hart Craig Milverton Trio
Ilminster Arts Centre
8.00
Music
Gilmore Roberts Contemporary Folk Music
Wellington Arts Centre
7.30
7-16
Lighshow
Hestercombe Gardens Illumina- Lighting up the garden
Hestercombe Gardens
8.00
8
Music
Live ‘N’ Up @ Brew Crew
Brewhouse Studio
8.00
Music
Oak Manor Golf Club Summer Ball
Oake Manor
8.00
12
Drama
Celebration of Tom Lehrer
Bridgwater Arts Centre
8.00
13
Drama
Adolf - Pip Utton
Tacchi-Morris
7.30
Music
The Upbeat Beatles
Brewhouse Theatre
7.45
14
Music
Wessex Baroque
Ilminster Arts Centre
8.00
19
Music
Melvyn Tan: International Piano Concert Series
Brewhouse Theatre
7.45
19-22
Drama
Monkey Bars - Chris Goode and Company
Brewhouse Studio
8.00
21
Dance
Taunton Tango! Tango!
Brewhouse Theatre
7.45
22
Talk
Sir Roger Carrick: Diplomatic Anecdotage (Lit. Festival)
Castle Hotel
11.00
Talk
Alexander Waugh: Kiss Me Chudleigh ( Lit. Festival)
Castle Hotel
4.00
Talk
Felix Francis: Bloodline (Lit. Festival)
Castle Hotel
6.30
Music
Hoorah! Amici accompanied by Ron Prentice Jazz Trio
Kingston St Mary Church
7.30
Music
Carry on Singing - Chris Dean’s Syd Lawrence Orchestra
Brewhouse Theatre
7.45
Music
The Alberni String Quartet
Dillngton House
8.00
Talk
Rosemary Penfold: Posy of Wild Flowers ( Lit. Festival)
Hestercombe Gardens
11.30
Talk
Stephen Moss Interview (Lit. Festival)
Hestercombe Gardens
2.30
Talk
Duff Hart Davis: Man of War (Lit. Festival)
Hestercombe Gardens
4.00
Talk
Graham Harvey: Quest for Real Food (Lit. Festival)
Hestercombe Gardens
6.00
Talk
Miriam Darlington: Otter Country (Lit. Festival)
Hestercombe Gardens
7.30
Talk
Chris Ewan: Safe House (Lit. Festival)
Taunton School
2.00
Talk
Ally Kennen: Bullet Boys (Lit. Festival)
Taunton School
4.30
Talk
John Darwin: Unfinished Empire (Lit. Festival)
Taunton School
6.00
Talk
Gervase Phinn: Village School (Lit. Festival)
Taunton School
7.30
23
24

28. September Events
Events in date order. Contact details for most of the venues are given at the end of event listings. Please note, we do not
take any responsibility for errors or omissions. Please check with venue for timings and programme details.
Date
25
Venue
Event Details
Time
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre
2.30
Open Mic Session (Lit. Festival)
tacchi-Morris Arts Centre
6.00
James Forrester: Senses of Elizabethan England (Lit. Festival)
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre
8.00
Talk
Keith Gibbs: Talk Experiments (Lit. Festival)
Queen’s College
11.00
Patricia Ferguson: Midwife’s Daughter (Lit. Festival)
Queen’s College
2.00
Talk
Helen Dunmore: Stormswept (Lit. Festival)
Queen’s College
4.30
Talk
Christopher Clarke: Sleepwalkers (Lit. Festival)
Queen’s College
6.00
Talk
Pam Ayres: The Necessary Aptitide
Dillington House
8.00
Music
Spiers Boden folk and roots music
Brewhouse Theatre
7.45
Talk
Doctor John Godrich: Mountains of Moab (Lit. Festival)
King’s College
11.00
Talk
Karen Maitland: Falcons of Ice Fire (Lit. Festival)
King’s College
2.00
Talk
Peter Benson: Isabel’s Skin (Lit. Festival)
King’s College
4.30
Talk
Nicci French: Tuesday’s Gone (Lit. Festival)
King’s College
6.00
Talk
Paddy Ashdown: Brilliant Little Operation (Lit. Festival)
King’s College
7.30
Drama
Fever Pitch
Brewhouse Theatre
7.45
Talk
Katie Ward: Girl Reading
Richard Huish
11.15
Talk
Tim Kevan: Law Peace
Richard Huish
1.15
Talk
Sophia Kingshill: Fabled Coast
Richard Huish
4.30
Talk
Helen Harvey: Dog at End of the World (Lit. Festival)
Richard Huish
6.00
Talk
Jerry Brotton: History of the World in 12 Maps (Lit. Festival)
Richard Huish
7.30
Music
Riamba London salsa band
Ilminster Arts Centre
8.00
Talk
Jane Robinson: A Force ot be Reckoned With (Lit. Festival)
Brewhouse Theatre
2.30
Talk
Victoria Eveleigh: A Stallion Called Midnight (Lit. Festival)
Brewhouse Theatre
4.00
Talk
Gavin Esler: Lessons From the Top (Lit. Festival)
Brewhouse Theatre
6.00
Talk
Kate Mosse: The Languedoc Triology (Lit. Festival)
Brewhosue Theatre
8.00
Music
30
Beth Webb: Star Dancer (Lit. Festival)
Talk
29
12.00
Talk
28
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre
Talk
27
Ginny Bailey: Africa Junction (Lit. Festival)
Talk
26
Talk
Taunton Sinfonietta: Ebony Ivory
Temple Methodist Church
7.30
Talk
Emylia Hall: The Book of Summers (Lit. Festival)
Somerset Museum
11.30
Talk
Ben Kane: Spartacus: Rebellion
Somerset of Museum
2.00
Talk
David Priestland: Merchant, Soldier, Sage (Lit. Festival)
Somerset of Museum
3.30
Talk
Jean Burnett: The Bad Miss Bennett
Somerset of Museum
6.00
Talk
James Long: The Lives She Left Behind (Lit. Festival)
Somerset of Museum
7.30
29

29. Contact List
Contacts List
Barn, Obridge House. Contact: Jeremy Harvey. 01823 276421
Barrington Court Barrington Ilminster, Somerset TA19 0NQ 01460 242614
Brendon Books Bath Place Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742 brendonbooks@gmail.com
The Brewhouse Theatre Arts Centre Coal Orchard Taunton TA1 1JL 01823 274608 info@thebrewhouse.net
Bridgwater Arts Centre 11-13 Castle Street Bridgwater, Somerset TA6 3DD 01278 422 700
The Castle Hotel Castle Green Taunton TA1 1NF 01823 272671
Church St Peter St Paul Moor Lane North Curry Ta3 6JZ 01823 490255
The David Hall, Roundwell St SOuth Petherton. TA13 5AA 01460 240340 info@thedavidhall.org
Dillington House Estate Office, Whitelackington, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9DT 01460 258648 dillington@somerset.gov.uk
Enmore Inn Enmore Rd Durleigh, BRIDGWATER, Bridgwater, Somerset TA5 2AW01278 422 052
Halseway Manor Crowcombe Taunton, Somerset TA4 4BD 01984 618274
Hestercombe Gardens Hestercombe Taunton TA2 8LG 01823 413 923
Hobbyhorse Ballroom Esplanade Minehead, Somerset TA24 5QP 01643 702274
Ilminster Arts Centre East Street ILMINSTER TA19 0AN 01460 55783
Oake Manor Golf Club,Oake Taunton TA4 1BA 01823 461992
Parish Church St John Wellington 72 High Street Wellington(01823) 662248
Porlock Village Hall Toll Road (New Rd), Porlock TA24 8QD 01643 862717
Queen’s Conference Centre Trull Road Taunton Ta1 4QS 01823 272559 contact@queenscollege.org.uk
Regal Theatre 10-16 The Avenue Minehead TA24 5AY 01643 706430 mail@regaltheatre.co.uk
Richard Huish College 2 Kings Close Taunton, Somerset TA1 3XP 01823 320800
Silver Street Centre Silver Street Wiveliscombe, Taunton, Somerset TA4 2PA 01984 623107
St Mary Magdalene Church Church Square Taunton TA1 1SA 01823 272441
St Mary’s Church Bridgwater St Mary Street Bridgwater TA6 3EQ 01278 422437 saintmarybridgwater@gmail.com
St Mary’s Church Stogumber office.qtb@btinternet.com
St John’s Church Park Street Taunton TA1 4DG secretary@stjohnstaunton.org.uk
Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre School Road Taunton TA2 8PD 01823 41 41 41 info@tacchi-morris.com
Taunton RFC Hyde Park, Hyde Lane, Bathpool, Taunton, Somerset, TA2 8BU 01823 336363
Temple Methodist Church Upper High Street Taunton TA1 3PY (01823) 275765
Warehouse Theatre Brewery Lane, Ilminster, TA19 9AD Tel 01460 57049
Wellesley Theatre 50-52 Mantle Street Wellington TA21 8AU 01823 666668
Wellington Arts Centre, Eight Acre Lane, Wellington, TA21 8PS 01458 250655
Wellsprings Leisure Centre Cheddon Road Taunton TA2 7QP 01823 271271
Art Exhibitions
7 July-11August. Brewhouse Theatre Gallery. Take the M4 East The the M5 South.
11 July-10 August. Brewhouse Theatre Cafe Bar. Somerset Society of Arts. Annual Exhibition 2012.
23 July-18 August. Ilminster Arts Centre. Double Vision: Barbara Whiteley, Felicity Brichien-Columbia
20 August-1September. Ilminster Arts Centre. Changing Perspectives: Jill Preston, Jo Hamilton Wendy Hermelin
20 August-9 September. Hestercombe Lutyens Gallery Exhibition. Allie Giles: Pen ink drawings.
11 August-2 September. Bingham Grange Summer Art Exhibition.

30. Piano Lessons
Experienced Teacher
Home Visits
Exams or Pleasure
Harry Sherman
01823 338842
31

31. Somerset Arts works takes
place between 15-30 September and makes up the
majority of the visual arts
programme in the area in
Somerset in September
with over 350 artists at
around 221 studios, barns
streets and other venues
across Somerset plus an
exhibition programme.
Amongst the highlights at this year’s Somerset
Art Weeks 2012 are beautiful garden ceramics,
wood sculpture and bowls from sustainable local sources, a silent auction for a Goldsmith’s
graduate’s paintings, site-specific weaving and
light installations, colourful limited edition
etchings, and dreamy watercolours inspired
by the Somerset landscape. These, and over
300 other inspirational, diverse artworks will
be on display in houses, barns, halls, studios
and streets during Somerset Art Weeks 2012,
September 15 – 30. Purchase or commission
unique artworks, craft, jewellery and ceramics, or just enjoy Somerset’s art and culture.
Many artists have international reputations,
all have a story to tell, and positively encourage conversation about their work. Most studios are family friendly and some also cater
for people with disabilities.
To complement the Somerset spirit of artistic
adventure, Somerset Art Works are also staging several events and exhibitions. SAW has
commissioned Chantelle Henocq from Fire
Ice to work with graduate photographer Sebastian King and Somerset based writer David Davis to produce images and words around
the theme ‘Artists and their creative space’.
The commission will be exhibited at the Cafe
Gallery at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton
during the Art Weeks. The Brewhouse Theatre will also be transformed into temporary
artists’ studios to host resident exchange artists from Stroud and an emerging artist from
Somerset.
Showcasing SAW’s curatorial programme,
Maximum Exposure, will be a 13 metre inflatable sculpture to celebrate Yeovil’s glove
making history (bouncing welcome!) and a
film documenting the moving art happening
from Illuminos where projections and illuminations highlighted pill boxes of the old Taun-
ton Stop Line- 300 military bunkers built during WWII to stop a potential German advance
from the West. Visitors can see the unique film
at Illminster Warehouse Theatre.
Artistic interpretations of the Great Crane
Project - the re-introduction of the majestic
crane back to the Somerset Levels - will be on
show at the Somerset Craft Centre, including
hundreds of origami cranes created by community groups, as well as sculpture, jewellery
and painting.
Somerset Art Weeks is organised by Somerset Art Works (SAW Ltd,) a not-for-profit
organisation which promotes the visual arts
and creates opportunities for visual artists
and makers in Somerset by advocacy, promotion and development.
Further Information
A comprehensive full colour guides
available from libraries and Tourist Information Centres throughout
Somerset as well as a number of
other pick-up points or by sending A5 SAE for £1.20 to SAW Ltd,
Town Hall, Bow St, Langport TA10
9QR. Alternatively see online venue
map and list of participants at the
following website addresses: www.
somersetartworks.org.uk/venue/
map and www.somersetartworks.
org.uk/SAW12_participant.

32. A Potters Life
Nick Rees, master
potter, celebrates 40
years at Muchelney
Pottery
Anyone who’s ever tried throwing a pot by
hand on a wheel will know how incredibly
difficult it is to control that spinning lump of
wet clay. Imagine then the challenge of handthrowing fifty or a hundred pots, one after another, all to the same design.
But Master Potter Nick Rees, right-hand man
at John Leach’s famous Muchelney Pottery,
near Langport, Somerset has achieved that.
And much more. As well as taking a major role
in producing Muchelney Pottery’s renowned
catalogue range of handmade kitchenware for
the past forty years, Nick has been closely involved with the pottery shop and the business
bookkeeping; managing the crucial and gruelling two-day firing of the pottery kiln, and explaining the workings of the pottery to visitors
from all over the world.
John Leach is quick to acknowledge that the
continuing success of Muchelney Pottery
owes much to Nick’s deft hand, critical eye
and potting skills. “He’s amazing. I feel we’re
more like partners than employer and employee,” says John. “The shapes of Muchelney
pots may be my designs, but Nick is fantastic
at interpreting them. And, it may seem a small
thing, but he is an absolute master at getting
lids to fit! He could make, say, fifty garlic pots
with lids – and the lids would all be interchangeable. Incredible.”
The pots that Nick makes range from mugs
and bowls to jugs and plates. “Goodness
knows how many I’ve made over the years – it
must be tens of thousands,” he estimates.
Looking back over his forty-year career Nick,
a highly intelligent but unassuming man, sums
it up: “I’ve been so privileged to work with
John at Muchelney. I love the pot designs and
my nature is such that I positively enjoy the
precision and the discipline needed to achieve
and maintain the level of craftsmanship handmade pottery demands.”
The physical toll of the work is demanding,
he admits. Mixing the heavy clay; carrying boards of unfired pots from workshop to
kilnshed; incredibly hot, back-breaking hours
feeding wood into the kiln. But the rigours
have always been immensely rewarding, not
only in the satisfaction of mastering the required potting skills but in the excitement
of discovery at each kiln opening and in the
ultimate contentment of using one’s hands to
produce desirable, useful objects.
Even in his spare time, Nick continues to
make pots, but to his own personal designs.
Pots which, although founded on his years of
experience in the Leach tradition, are noticeably different from the sturdy, classic shapes
of his “day job”. Nick’s decorative pots have
an elegance and a subtle refinement in outline
and their surfaces are accentuated by carving
and fluting and experiments with slips and
glazes.
“Making my own designs has been about finding a voice and making a spiritual statement”,
he explains.
Most of his designs are fired in the Muchelney
kiln which gives them the unique, organic signature of wood-firing. But two years ago Nick
began experimenting with an electric kiln and
this has led him to new exploration into the
possibilities of oxidised firing, “a process that
allows no hiding places.”
Since his first one-man exhibition at a prestigious gallery in Ringwood in 1990, Nick
has established a laudable reputation for his
distinctive personal work in stoneware and
porcelain. More exhibitions have followed
and his pots are now for sale in a selection of
leading galleries throughout the country. They
are also in the Leach Pottery at St Ives and in
the gallery at Muchelney Pottery.
It is here that an exhibition is planned for September to celebrate Nick’s achievements over
40 years, with the launch of his latest collection of individual, signed pots.
Nick’s career could have been very different.
Somerset-born in 1949, he initially trained as
33
a teacher in creative design at Loughborough
College of Education and spent two years
teaching woodwork in a Coventry comprehensive school before deciding to change direction and train to be a potter.
But Nick’s teaching abilities have proved very
useful at Muchelney. During public kiln opening events at the pottery, he is always on hand
to answer visitors’ questions about the making
process. “And he has been so good at running
a practised eye over the work of students and
apprentices who have trained with us over the
years,” adds John.
Nick remembers his own 1972 initial “trial period” at Muchelney very clearly. John Leach
set him the task of making 150 coffee mugs.
After inspecting the finished work, John threw
out 148 of the mugs and passed just two as
saleable. “I didn’t think he’d keep any of
them” was Nick’s reaction.
It was this reaction which helped to convince
John that Nick had the right kind of temperament to become a potter and that they would
work well together. “I really admired his patience – and I still do,” says John.
John’s confidence was fulfilled. With the aid
of a government grant Nick successfully completed his five-year apprenticeship. Then, at
John’s suggestion, he left Muchelney temporarily to experience work in Brian and Julia
Newman’s nearby Aller Pottery. Three months
later he returned and the rest, as they say, is
history.
In 1998 Nick was elected a Fellow of the Craft
Potters Association and in 2005 was elected a
Full Member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen.

33. Colour Matters
Painting is the latest
of several careers in
Angus Stirling’s life.
In September he will
hold a joint exhibition with his daughter, Kitty.
After he left university Angus worked as a
trainee at Christie’s auctioneers before becoming a merchant banker at Lazar Brothers for 10
years. It stood him in good stead for the rest
of his life. ‘It gave me invaluable business
experience,’He explains. ‘I could not have
done any of things that I did afterwards without it.’
But art was never far away from his vision.
After Hazard’s he spent a brief spell as the administrative director of the Paul Mellon Foundation who published literature on British art.
Following that he became deputy director of
the Arts Council where he remained for ‘nine
very happy years.’ He then joined the National Trust where he became director general and
where he was to stay for 17 years.
Angus was clear before his retirement that
he would devote himself to art and has done
so since then. He has a studio at his Somerset
home at the foot of the Quantocks. It is not his
exclusive interest (he retains some non-executive posts in London and enjoys walking and
photography among other pastimes), but it is
art that continues to inspire him - and he does
not like to be too long away from his studio.
He may have inherited a talent for painting
from his mother. She trained as an artist in her
twenties and was a talented figurative painter,
mainly of landscapes. She brought him up to
look at pictures from the age of 3 or 4. From
the age of 5 or 6 he received painting tuition.
His great-grandfather (on his mother’s side),
was also a fine painter; a traveller and explorer
who painted watercolours wherever he went.
Both his mother and father collected painting.
His father, who was a banker, preferred old
masters while his mother collected twentieth
century art.
After retiring, Angus sought out Robin Child
who had been recommended to him as an art
tutor. He has high praise for Child. ‘He taught
with great insight other artists work” He gave
him the intellectual stimulus to understand
what he was doing though Angus believes that
at some stage you have to launch out on your
own as, ‘Otherwise your painting can become
too derivative.’
Child also gave him a thorough grounding
in the technical side of producing art which he
believes he has improved on over the years.
Before painting in oils, for example, he takes
a great deal of trouble to prepare his palette,
setting up the warms and cools before deciding whether the general tone of the painting is
to be light or dark, believing that if you set up
your palette carefully in this way you are less
likely to paint a bad picture.
Angus’s training also embraced fundamental
principles governing the organisation of the
picture space. ‘It is a question of instinctive
awareness of where the golden section and
the square of the rectangle lie on the canvas,
in order to make the composition secure and
interesting. It is not always easy, but it is one of
the keys that unlocks a good picture.
When painting the human figure Angus will
usually sketch onto the canvas first though he
is less likely to when he is painting a landscape
or abstract painting. He often takes a small
pocket sketchbook and does a series of drawings, say a landscape or a building, especially
if travelling. These will usually be figurative
drawings. He will then take them back to the
studio and explore what the drawings make
him feel and reinterpret them in the form of
a painting.
What emerges is often very different from the
drawing. In fact, sometimes there is no obvious relationship between the drawing and the
painting. Sometimes the paintings that result
are abstract and sometimes they are not.
He is often approached by people who do not
think they like an abstract painting. They will
make such comments as what does it mean or
what is it supposed to represent. His answer is
to suggest the adoption of the same approach
that you would when you go to a music concert
Evocation of the garden of Ninfa
Angus Stirling in his studio
when you do not ask that question.
For him colour matters almost more than
anything else – he loves the effect produced
by their juxtaposition. Angus also attempts to
explore the form of the painting through the
colour as well as through the composition. He
particularly likes the American Expressionists,
‘because of their use of colour and the exciting
way they handle paint – in a free and expressive manner.’
‘I have no interest in reproducing accurately
what I see,’ he adds, ‘which does not mean that
I do not admire those who do’
He is influenced by the relationship of music to painting. ‘It does not mean that I listen
to a piece of music try to turn that music directly into a painting,’ he explains ‘but if I am
listening to a piece of music, say by Berlioz
whose music is particularly colourful I may
draw something from the rhythm and counterpoint and the tonal values – which also apply
to painting.’
Poetry can also sometimes be an influence
on his painting, particularly the poetry of A.E.
Houseman, Yeats and John Clare. He sold three
pictures inspired by John Clare in an open studio event for Somerset Arts Week a few years
ago.
Angus goes on to describe how he is searching for a kind of meaning when he paints a
picture especially ones which features nature.
He is interested in the spiritual value that you
can try to convey – albeit elusive and difficult
to find. ‘I’m not trying to make an image, but
rather to search for and discover an assemble
of mass, line, colour and texture that will blend
into a painting that conveys what I am trying
to say. If it then also speaks to the viewer, you
have gone some way to succeed.’
In order to give an example of this he turns to
his painter hero, Cezanne, citing the numerous
landscapes that Cezanne painted of St Victoire.
‘I think there were few artists of the twenti-

34. eth century that were not influenced in some way
by Cezanne,’ he continues. ‘I think he was the artist that understood the wholeness of nature. He was
truly original. He created a new way of looking and
interpreting landscape, figures and still life, integrating all elements of the picture and in his later years
foreshadowing the cubism developed by Braque and
Picasso.’
Angus has three children, all of whom have been
capable painters, but it is Kitty, his youngest daughter who has always wanted to be an artist since she
was a young child and is now a professional artist
and tutor. Angus and Kitty frequently work together
and share the experience of both the creative act of
painting and looking at art of all kinds. He believes
she has helped him appreciate how to use space in
a painting and admires her paintings. They shared
an exhibition at Cork Street Gallery in London in
November 2010. The exhibition was a tremendous
success. They sold 57 pictures in a week between
them in approximately equal numbers. Other galleries have since taken an interest in both their
works and now they are to repeat the joint approach
Early Morning, Quantock Hills oil on canvas
Exhibition by Angus Stirling and Kitty Stirling at the Lynda Cotton
Gallery 46-47 Swain Street, Watchet TA23 OAG 01984 631814
SEPTEMBER 10 - 22 SEPTEMBER. OPEN MONDAY TO SUNDAY
10.00AM - 5.30PM
KITTY STIRLING
Kitty Stirling says of her father, ‘ I have my father to thank for being an artist. When I was
young, despite his dedicated career in the Arts, he always enjoyed painting when the time allowed and my mother and he would do a lot of sketching on holiday. In 1976, aged 10, my father and I went to see a Turner exhibition at Tate Britain which had a big effect in my thinking
about painting. The exhibition as I remember, juxtaposed Turner with Rembrandt, two great
masters. Struck by the magnificent light emanating from these paintings, I was also taken in
by the window they created to another world, a coherent vision of nature. My father lifted me
up to the paintings so I could see them closely and in an instance I entered the world of paint.
That day I discovered that light was equal to white. In recent years, my father has become an
artist in his own right and I visit him in his studio from time to time to look at what he’s been
doing. I’m struck by his boldness in colour and his painterly expression. I enjoy his passion
and feel immensely proud of him. ‘
Kitty studied Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art and Byam Shaw School of Art and her work
has been regularly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions since 1990. Much of her life has
Kitty and Angus
been spent in the Quantock Hills of Somerset. Between 1999 and 2007 she divided her time
between England and Greece, where she taught and painted. Most recently represented by Caroline Wiseman Modern and
Contemporary, her work is in private collection and has been selected for the Lyn Painter Stainers Prize (2010) and the Royal
Academy Summer Exhibition (2012). Since 2009, Kitty Stirling has roamed freely inside the private allotments of Child’s Hill,
drawing a community of outsiders (in Greek idiotikes) whose personal stories led each one there; nurturing plants as a means
to nurturing themselves, returning there because there embodies the place in which they feel most at home. For the artist
such inanimate traces of human life offer an opportunity for contemplation, as if the last personon earth has just departed.
There is something unexpectedly poignant about these personal spaces, and to study them is an act of gentle voyeurism to
which the viewers are an intimate party.
Plot 42 North
35
Birdcage 1

35. Quartz Visual Arts Festival 2012
John Marston,
the Quartz Festival
Director looks
forward to the
2012 programme.
In the seven years since the inaugural
Quartz arts festival began in 2005 this
annual exhibition of paintings and
sculpture by some of the South West’s
most renowned artists has become a
key event in the region’s artistic life.
The evening performance events have
attracted audiences from all over region;
headlining acts such as Seth Lakeman,
the late and great Humphrey Lyttelton,
Sandy Toksvig and many others have
been boosting and refreshing the town’s
cultural profile for the last seven years.
Leading exponents of classical
music, jazz, folk rock, and theatre
groups, comics and poets have played to
audiences in the Queen’s Hall, and children from across the county’s schools
have been visiting the festival’s art and
enjoying the performance events. The
aim of the festival both in terms of performance and the art work has always
been to provide Taunton with a mix of
the popular and the provocative. The
John Hegley
Lesley Garrett
festival organisers have aimed to create
an intense ten day festival of art and
acts with strong flavour and an eclectic
appeal.
This year the tradition looks to
continue, both in terms of the high
profile artists exhibiting, some for the
first time, and for the diversity of the
performances in the evenings. Events
from the small scale intimate theatre of
Chris Larner, whose Edinburgh Festival’s award winning and bitter-sweet
exploration of assisted suicide will sit
alongside the well established acts of
Lesley Garrett and Elkie Brooks. In the
midst of this the festival we will also
welcome the poet comic John Hegley,
known as the ‘people’s laureate’, and
the idiosyncratic cricket commentator
Henry Blofeld, whose extraordinary
life story is worth hearing. The range of
appeal looks to be absorbing and should
create a buzz around Taunton as next
Autumn begins to take hold. Lesley
Garrett, whose early career included
engagements with Glyndebourne and
the English National opera, and who is
now established as one of the country’s
Louise Baker

36. Sara Dudman
most popular sopranos, will be coming to the festival for the first time.
Elkie Brooks, recently described by
the guardian as ‘still one of Britain’s
best voices’, returns to the festival after
seven years with her six piece band and
a new album..
This year the festival has widened the
remit of the exhibition to include not
only painting and sculpture but also
the Applied Arts; Furniture, Ceramics,
Jewellery, Textiles and Photography.
About 40 Artists will be showing this
year, some new to the venue: Matthew
Ensor, Maggie King, Paul Anderson,
Sara Dudman and some regular Exhibitors George Hider, Melanie Deegan
and Claire Western. There will be on
show a series of short accessible Artists
Films on a closed loop in the café and
the hope is to have an Andy Goldsworthy style Sculpture taking shape as the
festival progresses in the Gardens at
Queen’s. A series of fringe performances, as members of the public look
around the art work, will also take
place. These are to take place at 4.15
pm on each day of the festival. It’s
certainly worth looking out for the
clowning and visually stunning street
performers Le Navet Bete, who tour
internationally at 6th October 2012. For
tickets: www.quartzfestival.org.uk and
will be performing on Friday 28th of
September. There is to be a programme
of informal Artists talks in the Exhibi-
Artists on Display from Wed 26 Sep - Sat 6 Oct 2012
Maggie King, Nicky Clarke, Susan Deakin, Sam Photic, Waiyuk Kennedy,
Michael Tarr, Pauline Zelinkski, Sarah Thompson-Engels, Caroline
Mcmillan Davey, Judy Willoughby, Le Navet Bete, Mathew Ensor, Ursula
Leach, Chris Webb, Claire Schmidt-Norris, Claire Western, Heather
Hughes and Jenni Dutton.
Event Line-up
Date
Thur 27 Sep 2012
Mon 01 Oct 2012
Tue 02 Oct 2012
Wed 03 Oct 2012
Thu 04 Oct
Fri 05 Oct 2012
Event
Lesley Garrett
Harrison Richards
Henry Blofield
John Hegley
Elkie Brooks
Chris Larner
Time
7.30pm
7.30pm
7.30pm
2.00pm
7.30pm
7.30pm
Queen’s College, Trull Road, Taunton TA1 4QS
Enquiries: 01823 340805 or email quartz@queenscollege.org.uk
37
Lucy Hinds
tion Hall from 2-3pm on most days,
creating accessibility and added enjoyment to the experience. The festival will
welcome visitors new to the festival and
of course those re-visiting. The gallery
is open between 11.00 am and 5.00 pm.
Visitors can enjoy the art at their own
leisure and find good quality coffee and
cakes in the adjacent café. The evening
events are best booked online. Some
shows are likely to be sold out so it
might be wise to book early.