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had the chance this year to celebrate and honour Robert Rendall with an event to present his poems - well known and unpublished - to a new audience and readership.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

Seriously Sassy & Seriously Funny

There's a thread that runs through Magi Gibson's work linking the lives of girls and women from Seriously Sassy young teen to Wild, Wild Woman!

As Maggi Gibson, children's author, she will present the prizes to the Young Writers who have gripped her most in their poems about Adventure. 

2.00 pm Orkney Library & Archive

And she will also be doing an interactive reading from her Seriously Sassy series of books for young teens - 2.30 pm Orkney Library & Archive 

Suitable for boys and girls, the books feature the adventures of Sassy Wilde, who harbours not so secret ambitions to be a pop star and is also passionate about saving the planet. She has a gang of best friends too and you can read about them here.

And on Sunday evening, 14 April 7.30 pm, in the Stromness Hotel for Bemused Magi will shed a 'g' and read from her poetry collections, Graffiti in Red Lipstick and Wild Women of a Certain Age.

The Scotsman said of her Wild Women:
'A collection for anyone who imagines that sensitively wrought lyric poetry cannot also be tough and pungent.' 

Seriously Funny/Funnily Serious

Ian MacPherson is a comedian and writer who penned the hilarious The Autobiography of Ireland's Greatest Living Genius by Fiachra MacFiach. 

(Don't try and say that name with your mouth full of scone!) 

He will be reading from this and other work at: 

Bemused
Sunday 14 April 
7.30 pm
the Stromness Hotel.

And on Sunday afternoon, Ian will offer Orkney writers the chance to learn from him how to write funny. Seriously!

Comedy Writing Workshop
2.00-4.00 pm
Stromness Library

To sign up for Ian's workshop please contact:

pamela.beasant@virgin.net

And come along to the readings - they will be fabulous!

Be there or be a sad excuse for a festival-goer!

Tickets at the door.

Or get your Whole Festival Pass from Orkney Library. £20 gets you into all the events

A Festival of Many Delights

Like this gem of an exhibition put together by Sarah Maclean of Orkney Archives. 

It features a small selection of the many items in the Margaret Tait Archive. Notebooks, letters, photographs, international driving permit - all the elements that chart a life.

Particularly pleasing are the cards and notes from Gunnie Moberg, whose archive has recently been acquired by Orkney Library & Archive. In her generous cursive script she asks permission to photograph Margaret Tait. 

There are also short notes about the sale of her books. But these notes take on a greater significance when you read the signature: one set comes from Edwin Morgan, Scotland's late, great Makar.

Drop in to the Orkney Library & Archive on the first floor and take a look at this bijou exhibition. 

And then take in the other Margaret Tait events in Orkney Book Festival!

BEAT THE BLUES WRITING GROUP

Beat the Blues Writing Group ended on Saturday. For six weeks, Rosie Alexander and I spent Saturday afternoon at the Blide Trust with a group of aspiring and inspiring writers who accompanied us on the trip we took to look at ways we might use writing and reading to challenge our dark nights of the soul.

But can you write your way out of depression? Well, it's not a magic wand. But certainly we saw some light at the end of various tunnels as we went through the course.

There is research to back up the idea that we can affect our mood for the better by writing. Dr James Pennebaker, a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas, has over twenty years researched the impact of writing on our general wellbeing. His findings are pretty convincing. You can get more information by clicking on his name above.

James Pennebaker

But interestingly, although our course was aimed at people wanting to use writing to make them feel better about themselves and about life, what we eventually found was that we had a group in which all except one expressed the hope that they could improve their writing skills.

Still, we stuck to our original plan to encourage the group members to write freely and not immediately censor or edit what came out of their thought processes onto the page. We wanted them to kick out what Liz Lochhead once called 'the headmaster in the head', who gives you a bollocking for using inappropriate language or 'incorrect' English. 

Liz Lochhead

Indeed, we had in our midst someone who was belted at school for speaking in Scots in the playground. The experience was uncannily similar to the one described by William McIlvanney in his novel Docherty, when Conn provokes the ire of his teacher for saying, 'Ah fell an bumped ma heid in the sheuch,' and gets six of the belt for 'insolence'.

William McIlvanney

With a combination of writing exercises and linked poems or extracts we made our way through the six weeks with everybody getting down to writing in the class. Even the most reluctant among us joined in the exercises with everybody else and were surprised at what they wrote.

A big part of the involvement was having other folk respond to what you had written - a totally new experience for some.

Most people wanted the group to continue and Rosie and I are discussing a possible follow-on course.

Meantime, some members of the group will read from their work during the Orkney Book Festival next month.

If you'd like to come along and hear them, they will be reading:

Saturday 13 April

10.30 am

Orkney Library & Archive

Junction Road

Kirkwall

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

Orkney Book Festival 11-14 April 2013

I've had a great time being involved in the planning for Orkney Book Festival with the George Mackay Brown Fellowship.

Orkney Book Festival 

11-14 April 

I mentioned all the Margaret Tait events in yesterday's blog. Today I'll tell you about some of the other stars of the festival.

Magi Gibson

Magi Gibson, as well as presenting Glasgow Women's Library's film, Margaret Tait: Film Poet, will be playing several other roles in the festival. She will be reading her work, running a workshop for school children, judging the finalists and presenting the prize to the winner of the Children's Writing Competition. She will also be appearing with me, her fellow Reader in Residence, in a joint session, yet to be devised!

In 2009, Magi became Stirling's first Makar for 500 years. Her poetry collection, Wild Women of a Certain Age, attracted critical acclaim and enthusiastic reader appreciation, a magical combination not always enjoyed by poets.

With another hat on - and another 'g' in her name - Mag(g)i Gibson has written a successful series of children's books featuring Sassy Wilde - her name says it all - called Seriously Sassy. Check it out by clicking the link left.

Like me, since October last year, Magi has been one of Scotland's five Readers in Residence. While I am based in Orkney, Magi's residency is at Glasgow Women's Library. Also like me, she has been writing a regular blog. Have a look, but remember to come back here!

Ian McPherson

Ian MacPherson is a writer and comedian of note - who nevertheless didn't buy himself a goat! Instead he's written several funny books and has been awarded the Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship which allowed him to be flaneur-in-residence in Grez-sur-Loing in France - lucky fella!

He is currently dining out on the stories from The Autobiography of Ireland's Greatest Living Genius which may or may not be about himself.

In the Orkney Book Festival he will be reading from his own work and teaching local writers how to coax a chuckle out of their writing in a Comedy Writing Workshop. He will also be playing host to a cabaret style event where he and the budding comics - and maybe some others - will have a chance to read their work.

And rumour has it that Magi and Ian are an item. If this photo's anything to go by, I think the rumour may be true!

Poetry, Film, Stories, Music, Comedy

an Extravaganza of Delights 

at the Orkney Book Festival

11-14 April 

Don't miss it!

More about the Festival anon. Next time - the John Rae connection.

  



   

Time for Reflection

Two blog-free weeks and I feel I've lost the knack! It's not easy to live your life AND write about it. When I'm busy it seems like there's no time for reflection. 

And then there's what to write about? There's a lot going on now: groups set up and running as part of the residency; input into Orkney Book Festival which will happen in April; the ongoing work of promoting services; the eventual relaunch of a service in the library aimed at using books as ways of helping readers out of the doldrums. And much 
more!

There has been a couple of weeks of absolutely glorious weather. The photograph above is of Stromness harbour at sunset on the 17 February. I was there to join the George Mackay Brown Fellowship Group to discuss the upcoming Orkney Book Festival. Much of the festival is being run in collaboration with other groups - the Pier Arts Centre, Westside Cinema, Glasgow Women's Library. 

There are several strands to it: Margaret Tait, the Orkney film maker and poet will be featured through her films and her poetry. I will publish the full programme nearer the Festival, but meantime, here is a taste of what's to come:

Margaret Tait

There will be a screening of Blue Black Permanent, Margaret Tait's only feature length film, introduced by Sarah Neely and Gerda Stevenson, who stars in the film and knew Margaret Tait well.

Gerda Stevenson

The George Mackay Brown Memorial Lecture will be about Margaret Tait and will be delivered by Dr Sarah Neely of Stirling University.

Sarah Neely

Sarah also edited a book of Margaret Tait's poetry and other writings and there will be screenings of some of Tait's shorter films as well as readings of her poetry.







And another treat in store is Glasgow Women's Library's film: Margaret Tait: Film Poet by Marissa Keating, Michael Thomas Jones and Laura Dolan.

If you click on the link in the film title above, you'll see a fabulous trailer for it. It attracted four star reviews at its recent outing in the Glasgow Film Festival.

The film is being brought up to Orkney by Magi Gibson, Glasgow Women's Library's Reader in Residence. Magi will be playing a big part in the festival along with Ian MacPherson, Canadian novelist Struan Sinclair and many more!

See the blogs in the next few days to read more about the visiting writers and the organisations collaborating to bring you the festival.