Skip to main content

Wirral Bookfest 2012

Wirral's annual Bookfest began today, with a chick-lit event at Bromborough Civic Centre with authors Lesley Pearse and Judy Astley.  Tuesday sees Professor Stephen Hawking at Birkenhead Central Library, talking about a replica Viking longship named Draken Harald Fairhair, which will sail to Wirral from Norway next year.  Wednesday brings Sir Andrew Motion, a former Poet Laureate, to Bromborough Civic Centre. 

There are two events on Thursday 13th.  Elizabeth Williams, of the Gaskell Society, will give a talk at Bebington Central Library about the role of love in Jane Austen's and Charlotte Bronte's fiction.  The history of Birkenhead will be the subject of a talk by Elizabeth Davey at Upton Library.

The event which interests me the most will be held at Wallasey Central Library on Friday, when Gavin Chapell will give a talk about the infamous Wirral privateer called Fortunatas Wright.  Personally, I suspect Wright might just be a pseudonym used by Spanish Jones.... 

Friday will also see a bookswap in the Pyramids Shopping Centre in Birkenhead.  Bring along your pre-loved books and swap them for someone else's.

Marc Gee, who has visited Riverside Writers twice now, will talk on Saturday at West Kirby Library about his work as a playwright, screen writer and novelist.

The search for the next Wirral Young Poet Laureate will also take place.  This runs in conjunction with the Chris Salmon Foundation, named in memory of a local poet who died at the tender age of fifteen.  The competition is open to all primary, secondary and 6th form students.

There are only three free events - the bookswap, the longship talk and Marc Gee's talk - and those with sharp eyes will have noticed that neither Riverside Writers or myself are taking part this year.  But fear not!  Because Parallel Dimensions will be happening later in the year anyway, on the 10th December, 2pm, at West Kirby Library.

Share   Subscribe

Comments

Sparroweye said…
Hello Adele. So glad to see you on Blogger. I hardly ever post on livejournal anymore. I was trying to find out how your brother is fairing in retirement. He is also one of my journal friends. We moved house. And now packing and moving stuff from old house. You can read about it on my blogger. Nice to be able to see what new books you are writing.
Eric can be found on Facebook, though he doesn't update very often. He's busy taking care of his wife, who is very ill.

I hope you settle into your new house well. Thanks for dropping by. :)

Popular posts from this blog

A Cure for Aging?

"All that we profess to do is but this, - to find out the secrets of the human frame; to know why the parts ossify and the blood stagnates, and to apply continual preventatives to the effort of time.  This is not magic; it is the art of medicine rightly understood.  In our order we hold most noble -, first, that knowledge which elevates the intellect; secondly, that which preserves the body.  But the mere art (extracted from the juices and simples) which recruits the animal vigour and arrests the progress of decay, or that more noble secret which I will only hint to thee at present, by which heat or calorific, as ye call it, being, as Heraclitus wisely taught, the primordial principle of life, can be made its perpectual renovator...." Zanoni, book IV, chapter II, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, first published in 1842. Oroboros keyring - Spooky Cute Designs The idea of being able to achieve an immortal life is probably as old as human life itself.  Folklore and mythology ab

Remembering Richie Tattoo Artist's Studio

Richard in the street entrance to his tattoo studio in Liverpool. The vertical sign next to Richard is now in the Liverpool Tattoo Museum. Yesterday, my sister Evelyn, Richard and myself stood outside Richard's old tattoo studio and looked up at the few remaining signs, whose paint has now mostly flacked away to reveal bare wood. On the studio's window are stick-on letters which read, "Art", where once it boldly announced his presence as the city's only "Tattoo Artist".  I can remember him buying that simple plastic lettering from an old-fashioned printer's shop. This was in 1993, not long after he'd opened the studio and before he could afford better signs. After he'd patiently stuck them onto the glass we realised that from the outside the sign read "Artist Tattoo", so we had to carefully peel the letters off the window and have another go, laughing over having made such an obvious error yet worried in case we spoiled the letteri

Ancient Rock Carving in Stapledon Woods, Wirral.

Richard on top of the rock, to give an idea of its size.  This strange carving can be found on the Caldy side of Stapledon Woods, facing farm fields which are separated from the wood by a low sandstone wall with a castellated top.  In summer, the rock face is hidden from casual view by trees covering the slope which leads up to it from the path running alongside the sandstone wall. Has anyone got any information about this carving - what it is, its age and purpose?  I've been given several theories; one that it was made for shelter, (which seems dubious as it wouldn't work very well); or that it was somekind of ancient relinquary relating to pre-Xtian religious beliefs.  Any further ideas or documented evidence would be most welcome.