Rachel Sargeant's Blog, page 2
June 11, 2015
Putting Real People in a Gallipoli Novel
The main characters in Gallipoli: Year of Love and Duty are entirely fictitious: Sara, Bessie, Lily, Ed, Mary, Verity, Mrs Ramsay, Idris, Roger, Major Hughes, Julian etc.
I have retained the names of real people Muriel mentioned in her diary whenever I referred to them in the way that Muriel wrote them. For example, Muriel wrote:
“Good Friday 2 April
… I with Col. Braund and Major Pain climbed the big pyramid. It was well worth the trouble of getting to the top.”
Sadly a month later, she also wrote:
“Mon 3 May
Called up at 4am to receive the wounded.
They were in a worse condition than on the previous Sunday and the wounds much more severe. Heard that Col Braund was shot dead.”
I have retained Col Braund’s real name in my novel because I haven’t embellished him in any way. Muriel’s diary entries highlight how dangerous Gallipoli was for soldiers and officers.
I have also referred to real people when they were public figures and are well documented. A number of the major players visited the Gascon while Muriel was on board.
“Thu 6 May
Same routine. Col Syme has a septic hand and is going to leave us tomorrow.”
“Sat 15 May
Same precautions against submarine attacks as last night. General Bridges was wounded and brought on board today. It is not expected he will recover from his wounds.”
“Tues 18 May
General Bridges died at 6am. The work is terrific.”
“Wed 7 July
Heavy artillery working at Cape Hellas. Afternoon – monitor shelling Turkish positions. Generals Godley and Birdwood visit us. 7pm trawler “Loch Esk”, coming off to us, towing boat load of wounded, is fired at, 4 shells falling very close to her, likewise to us.”
In a letter to her parents, she wrote (Wed 19 May)
“Sir Ian Hamilton visited us a few days ago. Shook hands and was very nice.
George Adlington Syme (1859-1929) was a leading surgeon, working in Britain and Australia.”
Brigadier-General Sir William Throsby Bridges (1861-1915) was Commander of the Australian Imperial Force. He was mortally wounded by a sniper.
Major-General Sir Alexander Godley (1867-1957) was Commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
General Sir William Birdwood (1865-1951) was Commander of the Australian and New Zealand Corps. He was injured when a bullet skimmed his head.
General Sir Ian Hamilton (1853-1947) commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force until he was replaced in October 1915.
If you would like to know more about the roles these men played in the Gallipoli Campaign, I recommend:
Laffin, John Damm the Dardanelles! The Agony of Gallipoli (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1989)
I have retained the names of real people Muriel mentioned in her diary whenever I referred to them in the way that Muriel wrote them. For example, Muriel wrote:
“Good Friday 2 April
… I with Col. Braund and Major Pain climbed the big pyramid. It was well worth the trouble of getting to the top.”
Sadly a month later, she also wrote:
“Mon 3 May
Called up at 4am to receive the wounded.
They were in a worse condition than on the previous Sunday and the wounds much more severe. Heard that Col Braund was shot dead.”
I have retained Col Braund’s real name in my novel because I haven’t embellished him in any way. Muriel’s diary entries highlight how dangerous Gallipoli was for soldiers and officers.
I have also referred to real people when they were public figures and are well documented. A number of the major players visited the Gascon while Muriel was on board.
“Thu 6 May
Same routine. Col Syme has a septic hand and is going to leave us tomorrow.”
“Sat 15 May
Same precautions against submarine attacks as last night. General Bridges was wounded and brought on board today. It is not expected he will recover from his wounds.”
“Tues 18 May
General Bridges died at 6am. The work is terrific.”
“Wed 7 July
Heavy artillery working at Cape Hellas. Afternoon – monitor shelling Turkish positions. Generals Godley and Birdwood visit us. 7pm trawler “Loch Esk”, coming off to us, towing boat load of wounded, is fired at, 4 shells falling very close to her, likewise to us.”
In a letter to her parents, she wrote (Wed 19 May)
“Sir Ian Hamilton visited us a few days ago. Shook hands and was very nice.
George Adlington Syme (1859-1929) was a leading surgeon, working in Britain and Australia.”
Brigadier-General Sir William Throsby Bridges (1861-1915) was Commander of the Australian Imperial Force. He was mortally wounded by a sniper.
Major-General Sir Alexander Godley (1867-1957) was Commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
General Sir William Birdwood (1865-1951) was Commander of the Australian and New Zealand Corps. He was injured when a bullet skimmed his head.
General Sir Ian Hamilton (1853-1947) commanded the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force until he was replaced in October 1915.
If you would like to know more about the roles these men played in the Gallipoli Campaign, I recommend:
Laffin, John Damm the Dardanelles! The Agony of Gallipoli (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1989)
May 16, 2015
News Travelled Fast in WW1
One thing that struck me when reading Muriel Wakeford’s diary was how well-informed she was about what was going on in the rest of the Gallipoli Campaign and how quickly she received news. Of course it’s possible she added the diary entries retrospectively but, given the way they are written, I doubt it.
Here are two examples:
"Thu 13 May
The Goliath was torpedoed last night. All the ships are in darkness tonight. We are getting wounded steadily on all the time. I have 50 so far in my ward. For the biggest part these are medical."
"Fri 13 Aug
7pm we sail for Malta. News received that a transport Royal Edward was torpedoed off Kos Island with 3000 troops on board."
I was able to find more information about these losses and discovered how accurate Muriel’s information was.
On the night of the 12th/13th May H.M.S. Goliath sank 100 yards off shore in Morto Bay. The captain challenged an unknown vessel but, when the reply came back in English, no alarm was sounded. Three torpedoes struck. The ship sank within two minutes. Five hundred and seventy of the seven hundred strong crew drowned.
On the morning of 13 August the Royal Edward was torpedoed with the loss of approximately 1000 men.
Here are two examples:
"Thu 13 May
The Goliath was torpedoed last night. All the ships are in darkness tonight. We are getting wounded steadily on all the time. I have 50 so far in my ward. For the biggest part these are medical."
"Fri 13 Aug
7pm we sail for Malta. News received that a transport Royal Edward was torpedoed off Kos Island with 3000 troops on board."
I was able to find more information about these losses and discovered how accurate Muriel’s information was.
On the night of the 12th/13th May H.M.S. Goliath sank 100 yards off shore in Morto Bay. The captain challenged an unknown vessel but, when the reply came back in English, no alarm was sounded. Three torpedoes struck. The ship sank within two minutes. Five hundred and seventy of the seven hundred strong crew drowned.
On the morning of 13 August the Royal Edward was torpedoed with the loss of approximately 1000 men.
April 25, 2015
Bombardment of the Dardanelles
Although naval forces had been engaged in the area for some time, 25th April 1915 marked the start of the land battle for the Dardanelles. During the subsequent eight and a half months of the campaign, the Allies lost at least 140,000 men, of whom more than 44,000 died and the rest became sick or wounded. The Turks probably lost double these numbers.
To mark this centenary, here are the words of Sister Muriel Wakeford, a nurse on board the hospital ship Gascon. Muriel was my husband’s grandmother. My new novel is based on her 1915 diary.
“Sun 25 Apr 1915
Bombardment of the Dardanelles commenced 5 am. Moved off at 1am. Reached Gaba Tepe at 5. Shells were bursting everywhere. At 9 the first lot of wounded came on board. At midday the place was a fiery inferno. The London was lying almost touching us. Shells from the enemy frequently burst quite close to us. The first landing party cut to pieces by the Turks who fired shrapnel before the lighters even touched the beach.
At 6.30 left for Lemnos with 600 on board. In the meantime the wounded had to be placed on the various transports pending arrival of another hospital ship. The boys are wonderfully plucky and everyone on our ship worked like fury – to help them.”
To mark this centenary, here are the words of Sister Muriel Wakeford, a nurse on board the hospital ship Gascon. Muriel was my husband’s grandmother. My new novel is based on her 1915 diary.
“Sun 25 Apr 1915
Bombardment of the Dardanelles commenced 5 am. Moved off at 1am. Reached Gaba Tepe at 5. Shells were bursting everywhere. At 9 the first lot of wounded came on board. At midday the place was a fiery inferno. The London was lying almost touching us. Shells from the enemy frequently burst quite close to us. The first landing party cut to pieces by the Turks who fired shrapnel before the lighters even touched the beach.
At 6.30 left for Lemnos with 600 on board. In the meantime the wounded had to be placed on the various transports pending arrival of another hospital ship. The boys are wonderfully plucky and everyone on our ship worked like fury – to help them.”
April 6, 2015
Challenges of the Diary Format for a Novel Writer
Usually one writes up one’s diary in the evening after the event one wants to record. It is natural to select the past tense for this. For example Sister Muriel Wakeford wrote in her 1915 Gallipoli diary:
“Tue 9 March
Had a camel ride. Didn’t enjoy it.”
However, in my novel Gallipoli: Year of Love and Duty I wrote my narrator’s fictionalized diary in the present tense to give more immediacy to the writing. Muriel’s words thus became the stimulus for:
“Tuesday 9 Mar
Never again will I allow Lily’s wretchedness to get the better of me. Because I felt pity for her, she persuades me on to a camel. It is like perching on a raft eight feet above a choppy sea. The beast spits and groans with every step. The driver spits and groans back and brandishes his stick. They are an unhappily married couple. I feel like their battered offspring and am grateful when they set me down and free.”
I hope the reader accepts this unexpected tense in a diary for the benefit of the pace of the narrative.
Another challenge of the diary is the resultant limiting of the narrative to only one point of view. The reader can only see the world according to the main protagonist. How can the writer show the views of other characters? Or even show all sides of the narrator? This sets up the delicious possibility of creating the unreliable narrator. The main character says and believes one thing but the reader sees something else. One of the most successful examples of this is The Remains of the Day. We pick up immediately on the butler-narrator’s lack of understanding of Miss Kenton’s overtures of love and the inadequacies of his master Lord Darlington. (Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, London: Faber and Faber, 1989 http://theburiedgiant.co.uk/)
A third challenge for the novel told through letters or journals, the epistolary novel, is to make it authentically spontaneous. Straightforward first person narrators are recounting events in retrospect. They know what’s coming even if the reader doesn’t. In a journal, the diary-keeper is in the moment and has no idea what will happen to her/him the next day. The author must convey this in the writing even though she/he knows exactly what will happen on the next page.
A writer who uses the diary format to great effect is Fergus Smith. Check his website for when his new novel is coming out. http://www.headsailbooks.com/
“Tue 9 March
Had a camel ride. Didn’t enjoy it.”
However, in my novel Gallipoli: Year of Love and Duty I wrote my narrator’s fictionalized diary in the present tense to give more immediacy to the writing. Muriel’s words thus became the stimulus for:
“Tuesday 9 Mar
Never again will I allow Lily’s wretchedness to get the better of me. Because I felt pity for her, she persuades me on to a camel. It is like perching on a raft eight feet above a choppy sea. The beast spits and groans with every step. The driver spits and groans back and brandishes his stick. They are an unhappily married couple. I feel like their battered offspring and am grateful when they set me down and free.”
I hope the reader accepts this unexpected tense in a diary for the benefit of the pace of the narrative.
Another challenge of the diary is the resultant limiting of the narrative to only one point of view. The reader can only see the world according to the main protagonist. How can the writer show the views of other characters? Or even show all sides of the narrator? This sets up the delicious possibility of creating the unreliable narrator. The main character says and believes one thing but the reader sees something else. One of the most successful examples of this is The Remains of the Day. We pick up immediately on the butler-narrator’s lack of understanding of Miss Kenton’s overtures of love and the inadequacies of his master Lord Darlington. (Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day, London: Faber and Faber, 1989 http://theburiedgiant.co.uk/)
A third challenge for the novel told through letters or journals, the epistolary novel, is to make it authentically spontaneous. Straightforward first person narrators are recounting events in retrospect. They know what’s coming even if the reader doesn’t. In a journal, the diary-keeper is in the moment and has no idea what will happen to her/him the next day. The author must convey this in the writing even though she/he knows exactly what will happen on the next page.
A writer who uses the diary format to great effect is Fergus Smith. Check his website for when his new novel is coming out. http://www.headsailbooks.com/
April 1, 2015
Difficulties in turning a one-hundred-year-old diary into a modern novel
The first challenge I faced in reading Sister Muriel Wakeford’s 1915 Gallipoli diary was to decipher the handwriting. By about March, with the aid of a magnifying glass and my husband’s second opinion, I got the hang of it. Surnames and place names were the most difficult to work out. After transcribing the diary, I was able to fill in the gaps by cross-referencing the diary entries with Muriel’s letters to her parents. Several of her letters were published in Australian newspapers and can be read online at http://trove.nla.gov.au/
I made the decision to “correct” Muriel’s spelling, thus making amendments to Mohamed Aly (Ali); H.S. Cicilia (Sicilia), Shepherd’s Hotel (Shepheard’s) etc.
It was very noticeable that Muriel never used contractions – I’ve, she’s, isn’t … In an attempt to be authentic I kept them out of my novel’s first draft. However, it became obvious that this was jarring and stilted for a modern reader. The final novel therefore has its share of these although fewer than I put in my contemporary writing.
“D**m” is as far as Muriel went when it came to swearing. My narrator, Sara, adopts the same form in her diary entries in the novel. I felt it was authentic for ladies of the time and fitted well with Sara’s personality – although she does let rip b****r too!
The use of the word “native” in Muriel’s diary is, I think, uncomfortable for the modern reader. I thought long and hard about including it. On balance I decided that I wanted to be true to the era and not sanitise its memory. In fact, I made racial prejudice far more pronounced than in Muriel’s diary by making it key to the plot.
One of the greatest fears for the writer of historical fiction is using phrases and describing objects that hadn’t yet been invented. I am again indebted to my husband’s family here. Muriel and her husband Raymond bought the enlarged edition of Chambers English Dictionary published in 1914. This wonderful reference tool has passed to my husband. If a word isn’t in there, I haven't used it (I hope!). I recommend to anyone writing a novel set some time in the twentieth century to get hold of contemporary reference books.
Muriel frequently mentions people in the public eye as well as ordinary people she meets in Egypt and on board ship. I will return to the issue of using real people in a novel in a future blog.
I made the decision to “correct” Muriel’s spelling, thus making amendments to Mohamed Aly (Ali); H.S. Cicilia (Sicilia), Shepherd’s Hotel (Shepheard’s) etc.
It was very noticeable that Muriel never used contractions – I’ve, she’s, isn’t … In an attempt to be authentic I kept them out of my novel’s first draft. However, it became obvious that this was jarring and stilted for a modern reader. The final novel therefore has its share of these although fewer than I put in my contemporary writing.
“D**m” is as far as Muriel went when it came to swearing. My narrator, Sara, adopts the same form in her diary entries in the novel. I felt it was authentic for ladies of the time and fitted well with Sara’s personality – although she does let rip b****r too!
The use of the word “native” in Muriel’s diary is, I think, uncomfortable for the modern reader. I thought long and hard about including it. On balance I decided that I wanted to be true to the era and not sanitise its memory. In fact, I made racial prejudice far more pronounced than in Muriel’s diary by making it key to the plot.
One of the greatest fears for the writer of historical fiction is using phrases and describing objects that hadn’t yet been invented. I am again indebted to my husband’s family here. Muriel and her husband Raymond bought the enlarged edition of Chambers English Dictionary published in 1914. This wonderful reference tool has passed to my husband. If a word isn’t in there, I haven't used it (I hope!). I recommend to anyone writing a novel set some time in the twentieth century to get hold of contemporary reference books.
Muriel frequently mentions people in the public eye as well as ordinary people she meets in Egypt and on board ship. I will return to the issue of using real people in a novel in a future blog.
March 31, 2015
What are the truths of Muriel’s diary?
In my last blog I mentioned that I’d seen inaccurate quotes on the internet apparently from Sister Muriel Wakeford’s 1915 Gallipoli diary.
I’ve read the original and I would say two universal truths emerge:
• Ordinary people like nurses and soldiers involved in the grimmest ordeals just get on with it. They write about their experiences in a matter-of-fact way, not dwelling on the horror of it. In fact, in the first-hand accounts of war I have read, the word “horror” seldom appears. You can judge for yourself by reading the many digitalised letters and journals available at http://www.awm.gov.au/
• In amongst the times of action and death are hours, days or even weeks of waiting for something to happen. This extract from Muriel’s diary illustrates the point:
"Sun 14 Feb
Visited Cairo. Had a pleasant time.
Mon 15 Feb
Still measles, measles, measles, but they are diminishing. A number of the girls have succumbed. Fortunately for me I’m feeling very well.
Tue 16
Nothing new
Wed 17
No change
Thu 18
Had a pleasant afternoon. Visited the Zoological Gardens with Greig Anderson. They really are very fine. ... Came back and had dinner at the Continental. The night was gloriously moon-lit. We enjoyed the drive home.”
I’ve read the original and I would say two universal truths emerge:
• Ordinary people like nurses and soldiers involved in the grimmest ordeals just get on with it. They write about their experiences in a matter-of-fact way, not dwelling on the horror of it. In fact, in the first-hand accounts of war I have read, the word “horror” seldom appears. You can judge for yourself by reading the many digitalised letters and journals available at http://www.awm.gov.au/
• In amongst the times of action and death are hours, days or even weeks of waiting for something to happen. This extract from Muriel’s diary illustrates the point:
"Sun 14 Feb
Visited Cairo. Had a pleasant time.
Mon 15 Feb
Still measles, measles, measles, but they are diminishing. A number of the girls have succumbed. Fortunately for me I’m feeling very well.
Tue 16
Nothing new
Wed 17
No change
Thu 18
Had a pleasant afternoon. Visited the Zoological Gardens with Greig Anderson. They really are very fine. ... Came back and had dinner at the Continental. The night was gloriously moon-lit. We enjoyed the drive home.”
March 30, 2015
Muriel Wakeford - the inspiration for my new novel
Leontine Sara Wakeford, also known as Muriel Leontine Wakeford, was born the eldest of four children on 14th June 1887 in the Bathurst region of New South Wales. Her father, Henry George Wakeford, ran a bicycle shop and a florist shop.
Muriel played the piano. Aged thirteen, she took a principal part in her school drama evening. As if foreshadowing what was to come, her performance was entitled “When the Empire Calls.” (Illawarra Mercury, 18 September 1900)
She trained as a nurse and became matron at Cooma District Hospital. At the outbreak of war, she volunteered to serve in the Australian Army Nursing Service. In early April 1915 she was sent aboard the hospital ship Gascon. Less than forty eight hours later the bombardment of the Dardanelles commenced. The wounded started to come on board at 9am. They were the first of thousands of injured, dying and diseased men that Muriel and her colleagues cared for over the next few months.
During this time she wrote frequent letters to her parents who sent them to local newspapers. She became something of a local celebrity through their publication. Her column “A Letter from Nurse Wakeford” became an occasional feature in the Illawarra Mercury. Many of her letters have been indexed on http://trove.nla.gov.au/ the digitalised database of Australian newspapers.
Serving with Muriel on the Gascon was third mate Raymond Sargeant. They married on 28 June 1916 in Poplar, East London. As was the norm for the time, Muriel gave up her career when she married.
The couple made their home in Mombasa, Kenya where Raymond was Port Captain. They had one son, Henry William, born 16th January 1918. Harry, as he was known, had two sons. One is Nigel, my husband, and keeper of Muriel’s 1915 diary. When I first started researching Muriel two years ago I didn’t find much about her. Now, with the increased interest in WW1, there is much more out there but not all of it is accurate. I’ve seen “quotes” from her diary that I know do not appear in her original journal. The internet is a marvellous thing but don’t take it for the absolute truth.
(With grateful thanks to the late Neil Wakeford, Muriel’s nephew, for information about her family history.)
Muriel played the piano. Aged thirteen, she took a principal part in her school drama evening. As if foreshadowing what was to come, her performance was entitled “When the Empire Calls.” (Illawarra Mercury, 18 September 1900)
She trained as a nurse and became matron at Cooma District Hospital. At the outbreak of war, she volunteered to serve in the Australian Army Nursing Service. In early April 1915 she was sent aboard the hospital ship Gascon. Less than forty eight hours later the bombardment of the Dardanelles commenced. The wounded started to come on board at 9am. They were the first of thousands of injured, dying and diseased men that Muriel and her colleagues cared for over the next few months.
During this time she wrote frequent letters to her parents who sent them to local newspapers. She became something of a local celebrity through their publication. Her column “A Letter from Nurse Wakeford” became an occasional feature in the Illawarra Mercury. Many of her letters have been indexed on http://trove.nla.gov.au/ the digitalised database of Australian newspapers.
Serving with Muriel on the Gascon was third mate Raymond Sargeant. They married on 28 June 1916 in Poplar, East London. As was the norm for the time, Muriel gave up her career when she married.
The couple made their home in Mombasa, Kenya where Raymond was Port Captain. They had one son, Henry William, born 16th January 1918. Harry, as he was known, had two sons. One is Nigel, my husband, and keeper of Muriel’s 1915 diary. When I first started researching Muriel two years ago I didn’t find much about her. Now, with the increased interest in WW1, there is much more out there but not all of it is accurate. I’ve seen “quotes” from her diary that I know do not appear in her original journal. The internet is a marvellous thing but don’t take it for the absolute truth.
(With grateful thanks to the late Neil Wakeford, Muriel’s nephew, for information about her family history.)
March 29, 2015
Gallipoli – what’s it all about?
Gallipoli – what’s it all about?
This year marks the centenary of the ill-feted Gallipoli Campaign of World War One.
During the eight and a half months of the campaign, the Allies lost at least 140,000 men, of whom more than 44,000 died and the rest became sick or wounded. The Turks probably lost double these numbers.
For Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, this was not his finest hour and forced him to leave Asquith’s government.
The Campaign was initially planned as a naval operation to secure the Gallipoli peninsula and take Constantinople. This would knock Turkey out of the war and force the Germans to divert troops from the Western Front.
The fifty-two mile long peninsula juts into the Aegean Sea. The town of Gallipoli is near the top where the peninsula is four miles wide. The Dardanelles is the strait that separates the Gallipoli peninsula in Europe from mainland Asia.
I have had the privilege of learning about this chapter in history from the personal viewpoint of Sister Muriel Wakeford of the Australian Army Nursing Service.
Muriel was my husband’s grandmother. He has the diary she kept in 1915 while serving aboard the Hospital Ship Gascon. I was so taken with her voice that I decided to write a novel based on her diary and set off on my own journey of two years’ intensive research about the Gallipoli Campaign. My starting point was the marvellous Australian War Memorial http://www.awm.gov.au/ and its vast collections of digitised documents, private letters and photographs etc.
This year marks the centenary of the ill-feted Gallipoli Campaign of World War One.
During the eight and a half months of the campaign, the Allies lost at least 140,000 men, of whom more than 44,000 died and the rest became sick or wounded. The Turks probably lost double these numbers.
For Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, this was not his finest hour and forced him to leave Asquith’s government.
The Campaign was initially planned as a naval operation to secure the Gallipoli peninsula and take Constantinople. This would knock Turkey out of the war and force the Germans to divert troops from the Western Front.
The fifty-two mile long peninsula juts into the Aegean Sea. The town of Gallipoli is near the top where the peninsula is four miles wide. The Dardanelles is the strait that separates the Gallipoli peninsula in Europe from mainland Asia.
I have had the privilege of learning about this chapter in history from the personal viewpoint of Sister Muriel Wakeford of the Australian Army Nursing Service.
Muriel was my husband’s grandmother. He has the diary she kept in 1915 while serving aboard the Hospital Ship Gascon. I was so taken with her voice that I decided to write a novel based on her diary and set off on my own journey of two years’ intensive research about the Gallipoli Campaign. My starting point was the marvellous Australian War Memorial http://www.awm.gov.au/ and its vast collections of digitised documents, private letters and photographs etc.
July 31, 2014
Summer School Day Five
Today we looked at creating voices by having objects in front of us and describing them through a character's thoughts.
We had a talk by Jim Hinks from Comma Press who specialize in short stories. Watch out for their McGuffin written and audio short story app which is currently in development.
He also told us that after the dire years following the demise of the Net Book Agreement, there is once again room for good writing that doesn't have to be bestselling.
We had a talk by Jim Hinks from Comma Press who specialize in short stories. Watch out for their McGuffin written and audio short story app which is currently in development.
He also told us that after the dire years following the demise of the Net Book Agreement, there is once again room for good writing that doesn't have to be bestselling.
July 30, 2014
Summer School Day Four
A talk by Marigold Atkey from David Higham Agency. Despite the difficulties of making a living from writing, Marigold reminded us of the delight in books and encouraged us to keep at it. It was great to hear from someone who is so enthusiastic about discovering new authors and enjoying old favourites.
I also sat in a talk by poet on Eoghan Walls on Getting Published in Poetry. Again encouraging despite the odds, Eoghan gave us a strategy that could apply equally well to prose: 1. small magazines; 2. competitions; 3. big magazines.
And in the evening readings from works in progress by Yvonne Battle-Felton, Naomi Kruger and Zoe Lambert. Three stars of the future. Remember their names.
I also sat in a talk by poet on Eoghan Walls on Getting Published in Poetry. Again encouraging despite the odds, Eoghan gave us a strategy that could apply equally well to prose: 1. small magazines; 2. competitions; 3. big magazines.
And in the evening readings from works in progress by Yvonne Battle-Felton, Naomi Kruger and Zoe Lambert. Three stars of the future. Remember their names.
