Robert Rendall, Orkney Poet

The handsome volume on the left, Robert Rendall Collected Poems, contains a unique collection of the work of Robert Rendall, one of Orkney's most interesting literary characters.


In his day job he was a draper and worked in the family shop Rendall's on the corner of Albert Street and Bridge Street in Kirkwall. (Now Grooves music shop, this is where the book was launched at the end of last year.)

But in his time off, Robert Rendall was one of those remarkable self-taught Orcadians who wrote poetry, criticism and essays; painted in watercolour; studied Orkney's shores and discovered new species. One shell he was the first to identify looks like a butter curl! I found one in Stronsay once on the Rothiesholm sands.

Orkney Book Festival has had the chance this year to celebrate and honour Robert Rendall with an event to present his poems - well known and unpublished - to a new audience and readership.

It was Brian Murray and John Flett Brown who did the painstaking work of scholarship and editing to gather all the poems together into this one volume. John Brown is away, but Brian Murray will introduce the poet and a handful of Orkney Readers will read the poems.












Brian Murray on Robert Rendall
Orkney Library & Archive
Saturday 13 April
4.00-5.00 pm

ORKNEY BOOK FESTIVAL: Full Programme

 

Orkney Book Festival

11-14 April 2013

The second Orkney Book Festival features writers and speakers from Canada, Scotland and Orkney. The Festival celebrates Orkney filmmaker and writer Margaret Tait, and the bi-centenary of Arctic explorer John Rae as part of the year-long programme of events, John Rae 200.

Events include film nights, a book fair, readings and workshops, the results of the second Young Orkney Writers’ Prize, and the annual George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture. This year’s featured writers are:

Struan Sinclair novelist and academic from the University of Manitoba, Canada; Orkney Writing Fellowship Resident in 2004

Magi Gibson poet and writer for adults and children, current Reader-in Residence at Glasgow Women’s Library

Ian Macpherson acclaimed comedian, performer and writer for adults and children

Gerda Stevenson actor, musician and poet, who starred in Margaret Tait’s only feature film, Blue Black Permanent

Sarah Neely from Stirling University, editor of Margaret Tait: Poetry, Writings, Stories, who will deliver the GMB Memorial Lecture

Sarah Forrest filmmaker and first holder of the Margaret Tait residency at the Pier Arts Centre, attending courtesy of the Glasgow Film Festival 

Alison Miller novelist and current Reader-in-Residence at Orkney Library & Archive

Brian Murray writer and co-editor of many books by George Mackay Brown, and of Robert Rendall: Collected Poems

John Flett Brown Geologist, and co-editor of Robert Rendall: Collected Poems

Bryce Wilson Orcadian writer and historian, whose forthcoming book on the history of Stromness Harbour will be published later this year

Entry to all events is £5 (£4 concessions), payable at the door, except for Friday evening's event at the Pier Arts Centre (see below), for which booking is essential. Please telephone 01856 850209.

There will be a book fair at Orkney Library and Archive on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 April. Local publishers and booksellers are welcome to display and/or sell their books. To book a space, please contact Lucy Gibbon at Orkney Library & Archive, lucy.gibbon@orkney.gov.uk

Programme

Thursday 11 April

7.30pm    Film night    West Side Cinema

That Now by Sarah Forrest, first Margaret Tait Resident 

Blue Black Permanent by Margaret Tait, introduced by Sarah Neely

Followed by discussion with actor Gerda Stevenson, filmmaker Sarah Forrest and writer Sarah Neely

                                                              

Friday 12 April Orkney Library and Archive

12-5pm    Book Fair      

including local booksellers, publishers, and a special exhibition of Margaret Tait material from the Archive

2pm          Young Orkney Writers’ Prize     

2.30-4.00 Seriously Sassy               

Session for young people with Maggi Gibson

Friday 12 April Pier Arts Centre, Stromness

(booking essential, please phone 01856 850209)

7pm        GMB Memorial Lecture  

Margaret Tait: filmmaker and writer

Dr Sarah Neely, including short films by Margaret Tait

Followed by

Margaret Tait: Film Poet, by Marissa Keating and Michael Thomas Jones, commissioned by the Glasgow Women’s Library

Introduced by Magi Gibson, and a selection of readings and short films by Margaret Tait, from the Pier Arts Centre collection.

                 

Saturday 13 April Orkney Library & Archive

9.30-5     Book fair 

10.30       Beating the Blues Various Orkney Writers                            

11.30am  John Rae in Canada                 

Struan Sinclair, University of Manitoba

2pm  Books that changed our lives        

Magi Gibson and Alison Miller

4pm          Brian Murray and John Flett Brown                           

on Robert Rendall, with Orkney readers

Saturday 13 April Kirkwall Hotel

7.30pm    Readings with music                

Struan Sinclair, Gerda Stevenson, Alison Miller, hosted by Ian Macpherson

Sunday 14 April Stromness Library

11-12        Stromness and John Rae        

                  Bryce Wilson

2-4pm       Workshop – comedy writing        

                  Ian Macpherson

Sunday 14 April Stromness Hotel

7.30pm      Bemused                                   

                  A special evening with Ian Macpherson and Magi Gibson

The Orkney Book Festival is run by the George Mackay Brown Fellowship, funded by Creative Scotland, with the support of Orkney Library and Archive, Reader-in-Residence, the Pier Arts Centre, West Side Cinema, and the Glasgow Women’s Library. The support of the Glasgow Film Festival and the British Film Institute is also gratefully acknowledged.

ORKNEY BOOK FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

The programmes are out and about now locally for the second Orkney Book Festival running from the 11-14 April.

For those not lucky enough to be here in the 'small green isles', you can find the whole programme by clicking this link to the GMB Fellowship Website. 

After a week of gales and sudden furious snow flurries, the sun is shining and the sky is the colour of the sky in the poster above. Mind you, you'll still need storm pegs to hang out your washing if you don't want your clothes festooning the fields round about. Or worse, ending up in Norway! Have a look at mine today by clicking the link above.

I'll be blogging about the different events in the weeks coming up to the festival, but here is a taste of two poets to feature in the festival:

from Storms

I wished for a storm to test my strength against.
I cried for the gale-force wind,
For electric explosions,
For sheets of rain.
I looked to the motionless wisps of cloud,
To the serene blue of the sky
And wished them transformed.
I wished to be battered and to emerge triumphant ...

From Margaret Tait: Poems, Stories and Writings, edited by Sarah Neely

You can hear this poem in full read beautifully by Gerda Stevenson in the film Margaret Tait: Film Poet, 
to be shown on 
Friday 12 April at 7.00 pm 
in the Pier Arts Centre.

But if you want to see it, you must BOOK EARLY by phoning the Pier Arts Centre on 01856 850209.

The film was commissioned by Glasgow Women's Library and will be shown after the George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture to be delivered this year by Sarah Neely.

There is also a rare chance to see Blue Black Permanent, Margaret Tait's only feature film. This will be shown by Mark Jenkins in a special screening by the independent film group, Westside Cinema, in Stromness Town Hall on Thursday 11 April at 7.30 pm.

Gerda Stevenson in Blue Black Permanent

 The film stars multi talented Gerda Stevenson, who will be there in conversation with Sarah Neely and later in the festival will read from her own poetry.

Sarah Forrest with Alex Pirie, husband of Margaret Tait

The first recipient of the Margaret Tait Residency, Sarah Forrest, will also show her film, That Now on the same evening.

Cragsman's Widow

He was aye vaigan b' the shore,
An climman amang the craigs,
Swappan the mallimaks,
Or taakan whitemaa aiggs.

It's six year bye come Lammas,
Sin he gaed afore the face,
An nane but an auld dune wife
Was left to work the place.

Yet the sun shines doun on a'thing,
The links are bonnie and green,
An the sea keeps ebban an' flowan
As though it had never been.

Robert Rendall from Collected Poems, edited by John Flett Brown and Brian Murray

You can hear more of Robert Rendall's poems read by Orkney readers:

4.00pm on Saturday 13 April 
in Orkney Library & Archive 
with the book's editors, 
Brian Murray and John Flett Brown 

They will be there to talk about the poet and the process of bringing out this fine collection of his poems.

A Still from Blue Black Permanent