Well, the interweb, as we all know, is a wonderful thing and another example of that landed in my lap (OK, my inbox) yesterday.
I mentioned a few days ago that I had serendipitously e-discovered Ian Hocking an author who, like me, lives in Canterbury. Well, he’s obviously mentioned my mentioning him to another Canterbury-based author. Patricia Debney happens to be Canterbury Laureate. I was vaguely aware of this as somebody at work knew her from the University and asked if I knew her (assuming, as people tend to, that I will know all published and/or aspiring authors within a ten mile radius of my house). Well, I didn’t, but after her email yesterday, I do now. At least in cyberspace, where an increasing number of my acquaintances/friends seem to live. [Hmmm, note to self: GET OUT MORE]
As a result of exchanging a few emails with Patricia, I find I have agreed to stand (possibly in the pouring rain) outside Canterbury library next week in front of a microphone to read some of my stuff. This is not just some bizarre initiation ritual which Patricia makes any new local writer engage in, it’s part of the city council’s drive to publicise the National Year of Reading (which, I have to confess with much shame, I had not heard about til now…).
So, if you happen to be in the East Kent area on Saturday 29th of March and fancy seeing some writers strut their stuff, it starts at 10 and goes on til around 2. The library’s not hard to find, as it’s on the main shopping street – it’s confusingly called The Beaney Institute so you might not instantly recognise it as a book-repository but just ask anybody where the library is and (always assuming they’re not a tourist) they’ll point you in the right direction. Actually, given that the Beaney is quite an attractive feature on the Canterbury landscape (as you can see in the picture below) tourists’ll probably be able to point it out as well.
I’ve volunteered to help Patricia out with the 10 o’clock slot which basically nobody wants as there’s not much shopping activity at that point. But hey, somebody’s got to occupy the mic as all the delivery lorries do their thing…
I mentioned a few days ago that I had serendipitously e-discovered Ian Hocking an author who, like me, lives in Canterbury. Well, he’s obviously mentioned my mentioning him to another Canterbury-based author. Patricia Debney happens to be Canterbury Laureate. I was vaguely aware of this as somebody at work knew her from the University and asked if I knew her (assuming, as people tend to, that I will know all published and/or aspiring authors within a ten mile radius of my house). Well, I didn’t, but after her email yesterday, I do now. At least in cyberspace, where an increasing number of my acquaintances/friends seem to live. [Hmmm, note to self: GET OUT MORE]
As a result of exchanging a few emails with Patricia, I find I have agreed to stand (possibly in the pouring rain) outside Canterbury library next week in front of a microphone to read some of my stuff. This is not just some bizarre initiation ritual which Patricia makes any new local writer engage in, it’s part of the city council’s drive to publicise the National Year of Reading (which, I have to confess with much shame, I had not heard about til now…).
So, if you happen to be in the East Kent area on Saturday 29th of March and fancy seeing some writers strut their stuff, it starts at 10 and goes on til around 2. The library’s not hard to find, as it’s on the main shopping street – it’s confusingly called The Beaney Institute so you might not instantly recognise it as a book-repository but just ask anybody where the library is and (always assuming they’re not a tourist) they’ll point you in the right direction. Actually, given that the Beaney is quite an attractive feature on the Canterbury landscape (as you can see in the picture below) tourists’ll probably be able to point it out as well.
I’ve volunteered to help Patricia out with the 10 o’clock slot which basically nobody wants as there’s not much shopping activity at that point. But hey, somebody’s got to occupy the mic as all the delivery lorries do their thing…
2 comments:
You folks have a National Year of Reading? Wow.
Over here I'd settle for a National Fifteen Minutes of Reading.
Hi David - yes, pretty impressive, isn't it? I'm impressed anyway. One thing we've had here for ages is national book week where schools do things like get authors in to talk to the kids, get everybody (including teachers) to dress up as their favourite fictional character etc. Great fun. Not sure it's helped our abysmal levels of children leaving school without functional literacy however...
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