A week of small screen, big poetry, & waterproof boots.

Starting from the end of the week, with the big event at the South Bank, where this year's prestigious - and lucrative - T.S.Eliot prize for poetry was awarded on Sunday to Bhanu Kapil for her collection How to Wash a Heart, as revealed after an hour-long presentation involving readings from all ten shortlisted poets. Ian McMillan, who introduced and steered this streamed version, promised to be live next year but I hope they continue to make this event available on line - it was beautifully organised, narrated, and presented, and the filmed readings were superb. All the poets' books were submitted before the start of the year, so it was impressive how many had a continuing relevance, and Bhanu was one of the most accessible, so it's good to see once again a confirmation that poetry is about life now, whoever we are. 

And now a poem about a local railway line: John Betjeman's jaunty evocation of Dilton Marsh Holt  as intriguingly performed by David Ellington for Wiltshire Creative and streamed, with optional captions to his signing, in their World Wide Wiltshire project. There are two other short pieces in this set, both reminiscent monologues, viewable here.

Frome's  Liv Torc, supporter of all things poetic,  hosted another edition of the Rainbow Fish Speakeasy cabaret from Yeovil's Word/Play group, always offering much to enjoy and this time featuring the ever-surprising & totally brilliant Chris White.  

 Chris came to Frome a couple of years ago to record a 'Word Play' session for Visual Radio Arts and he was unforgettable, though this session had to be deleted after intervention by the agent of another of the poets - a very sad loss to our developing poetry archive. Once again Chris's set was full of unexpected clever wordplay, chicaning between absurdity, profanity, and political satire, and I hope somewhere there's a recording of this event that won't be deleted. Followers of Liv will remember that her USP is collecting lines & phrases from her audience for a 'compilation poem' shared at the end of the event, and this was cleverly managed through the comments section by Jon. 

It's really good to see, also, increasing numbers of performers and drama communities exploring online options: Frome Drama are gearing up for their made-for-lockdown Terminus and Bristol Old Vic are streaming two archived shows - next up a Sherlock Holmes comedy/murder mystery.

And a reminder, in skinny days for interactive stimulus, of Eleanor Talbot's ever-vibrant talk show Variations on a Theme and Liv Torc's HAIFLU revival, a moving collections of our shared experience of this year, now in its third week.  Andy Wrintmore's Giant Pod has a US Inauguration Special, with Will Angeloro and John Nelson, deconstructing our 'turning world' as well as the ceremony from every angle including Lady Gaga's ballgown.

There's plenty of music online, as well as on Sky Arts, of course. The live blues session with Ruzz Guitar and Pete Gage at Frome's Cheese & Grain has twice been postponed now, but here's a taster of what we're looking forward to, with Ain't Nobody's Business. 

Following last week's theme of protecting our town from predatory developers: another at risk - as well as Easthill Field & Broadway allotments - is Frome river, where the footpath is under threat of inappropriate development (is there any other sort of development, along a riverside in a low-lying area notorious throughout history for its floods?) 

We're lucky to live in a town with such pro-active awareness to protecting and to celebrate too: there's a magical selection of bark samples you can view &/or download as a poster from the website of  Phil Barnett.

This was a week of wild weather in Frome: flood rain, sparkling frost, then fairyland snow, all looking amazing but limiting walking options, so I'll end with an image from today of the southern fields, seen from the edge of town.

Of roof gardens and other things

Nine years ago I led a writing workshop in Kythira which was where I met poet & now novelist Christine Coleman, and story-writer & now biographer, Roger Jinkinson. I can't claim to have launched them on their subsequent careers because they did that themselves, but the other great outcome is that ever since we've met annually in London for a catchup and supper with stop-over. Chris and I walk along the riverside at South Bank where there's always something on ~ it was a Festival of Neighbourhood this week, with window-box allotments under the plane trees.  Inspired by this bucolic idyll, we embarked on an exploration of city roof-gardens, discovering beds of mauve and cream flowers in Queen Elizabeth Hall and amazing views for miles across the city at Coq d'Argent. We wandered alone around the seven-storey high lawn, which looks a bit like something Tim Burton might landscape, supervised at discreet distance by one of the staff who admitted his role was suicide watch. 'It is surprising, in this beautiful city,' he said, 'but yes, they do it.' The skyline glimmered silver in the dusk as we sipped prosecco. So touching in its majesty, Wordsworth called this river view back in 1802. Still true today. Then on to meet Roger, who has a new book out: More Tales from a Greek Island is the second collection of vivid slices of real life in his adoptive home of Karpathos. As the review promises, a wonderful collection, written in easy style with honesty and love.

Amateur Dramatics, a phrase generally intoned with fastidious dread, doesn't inspire high expectations of performance, or even choice of play: Frome's am-dram Troupers under the direction of Philip de Glanville totally confound all prejudice. Their current production ~ Act 1 of Peter Nichol's 1967 classic A Day in the Death of Joe Egg ~
is so good it's off to Derry to represent England in the finals of the Amateur One-Act Play Contest. The company beat literally hundreds of other groups throughout the heats, and opened up their final dress rehearsal as a free performance at the Merlin. It was fantastic: outrageously funny, searingly sad, brilliantly acted. Super Troupers, the local paper bragged, and they were right. Can't wait to hear how they get on in Derry.

And now as we quiver on the brink of Frome Festival, I'm taking a quick look ahead to autumn as Chateau Ventenac is offering £100 off all writing courses to early bird bookers ~ read more here!