Tenth Birthday Celebrations

I spent yesterday in Northampton in the company of fellow writers and readers for the tenth Birthday celebrations for Cinnamon Press which was founded by the industrious and inspiring Jan Fortune in 2005. In her usual generous spirit the weekend’s events were shared with other independent presses Fair Acre Press, Grey Hen Press and local organisations, Creative Writers @the Museum and Northampton University Creative Writing Department.

So it was a day fulled to the brim with abundance, highlights for me included the opening workshop on writing success led by Hazel Manuel – do follow her on twitter for writing tips and ideas, the  reading by Charles Bennett who was the first Director of the Ledbury poetry festival and now teaches creative writing at the University of Northampton. I particularly loved his poems about Dragon Orchard in Herefordshire. If he brings the same level of energy and enthusiasm to his teaching then Northampton is clearly a good place to study creative writing. Then Susan Richardson entranced the audience with her poems based on Inuit myth and legend. And if you haven’t come across Liz Lefroy’s Mending the Ordinary then you are missing out on some remarkable work.

I was able to share the poems in Convoy and later in the day met someone whose father had been on one of the Royal Navy ships protecting the convoys. I will write another blog post about how to find out more about the convoys.

It was a chance to catch up with fellow Cinnamon authors and to hear new work from authors I hadn’t previously met. Frances Spurrier spent the day organising pop-up readings in the cafe and led the way iwth her own poems from The Pilgrim’s Way.

And there was cake of many sorts in the cafe and wonderful home-made Asparagus soup with sourdough bread for folk like me who prefer savoury treats.

4 Replies on “Tenth Birthday Celebrations

  1. I do apologise for not coming up for your reading – various factors… however, today (Sunday) was brilliant – lovely to touch base with the Cinnamon crew, especially Jan, and to meet Adam Craig of Liquorice Fish. Happy Birthday Cinnamon, and welcome to the world, Liquorice Fish!

  2. Hi, It was good to meet you last weekend, even if it was only briefly at the top of the stairs! Sorry to have missed your readings but I have enjoyed reading "Convoy". It is a great piece of work which has obviously been researched in detail. It felt very real and insightful.
    I have since discovered my Grandfather, (Roger Frederick), was actually a naval officer seconded to serve on the Melbourne Star during Operation Pedestal, so it was very poignant, especially as my Grandfather rarely spoke of this conflict. Though, I am pleased to say my Grandfather lived to 91 and had many other wonderful stories to share. I am looking forward to sharing "Convoy," with the rest of my family and remembering my Grandfather and the other men who served in the Malta Convoys.
    I hope we get the chance to meet at a future event.
    Stephanie Percival

  3. Thank you for your comments. It was good to meet you too Steph and I'm pleased you have managed to find out a little more about your grandfather. I'm not surprised that your grandfather rarely spoke about Operation Pedestal as his ship, the Melbourne Star was in the thick of it. Like my grandfather he was probably glad to have survived and wanted to put it behind him.

    I do hope we get a chance to meet again too.

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