Poetry inside

Great Poetry Slam at Pentonville the other day--powerful poetry and song from the heart. Dorigen Hammond of Writers in Prison had elicited great work. The judges-- who performed too-- were the brilliant Chris Preddie and Joelle Taylor.  The winner the extraordinary Chanel. Coincides with the publication of Inside Poetry: Voices from Prison Volume 5 and as Rachel Billington, the editor, writes "Their voices fly with their message over barbed wire and high walls to freedom."
Give a Book is pleased to have given dictionaries for prizes and to be there.

Night Walks

The extraordinary Maggie's Culture Crawl took place last night. Hundreds of walkers assembled in the early autumn evening sunshine in Victoria Embankment Gardens. The walk kicked off with music, a rousing warm up, and the fabulous Dame Harriet Walter and husband Guy Paul reading selections from Dickens' Night Walks to see them off into the night.  Later, actors Jamie Glover, Harry Livingstone, Sarah Whitehouse, and GAB's own the wonderful Helen Mumby read poems from Josephine Hart's anthology Catching Life by the Throat in the exotic surroundings of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Walkers came, stopped to listen, were gripped and then walked on to taste Fortnum & Mason's tea before walking away into the night.
At the end of the 15 mile walk every walker was given a copy of Night Walks as a memento by Give a Book, who gratefully acknowledge the generous help of Penguin in doing this. It was all in aid of the excellent Maggie's Centres whose new centre opens in Aberdeen on Monday. And GAB was pleased to be part of it. Onwards. And please go on to Give a Book so that we can keep this going.

Poems in the waiting room

Once, waiting, I read 'Thaw' by Edward Thomas:
Over the land half-freckled with snow half-thawed 
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed, 
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as a flower of grass, 
What we below could not see, Winter pass.

The waiting got better. Poems in the waiting room. And then please do go back to Give a Book.