It's Shakespeare's birthday, which gives me license to remember the dysfunctional number of times I stood at the back of the stalls of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, when standing cost 70p a ticket, dizzy with excitement at seeing Eileen Atkins play Rosalind, or Ian Richardson/Richard Pasco play Richard the Second, almost fainting with the intensity of seeing my first Romeo and Juliet with Estelle Kohler and Timothy Dalton (even though the staging was such that we could only see their feet in the balcony scene), and just don't get me started on Alan Howard's Henry the Fifth...
Those were the days when I first glimpsed the alchemy of language, how words can transfigure thought and emotion into something mystical and oceanic. I felt more alive in the blackened back of the stalls than I ever did in my own life. The private magic of a great read still has that effect on me today. So does attacking the base metal of my own writing, searching for gold, searching for gold.
It's not just Shakespeare's birthday, it's World Book Night as well, so to mark the double celebration, take some time to think what books have meant in your own life. I handed out free copies of Carol Ann Duffy's The World's Wife last year. This year, I'm going to follow Nicola Morgan's excellent suggestion and buy a book to give away - benefiting both the author and the recipient.
I wonder what Shakespeare would give away for World Book Night?
Showing posts with label World Book Night. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Book Night. Show all posts
Monday, 23 April 2012
Saturday, 5 March 2011
World Book Night
I'm filled to the brim with a warm glow. I've just got back from handing out copies of The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy, doing my bit for World Book Night. It was auspiciously bright and sunny in Bristol and there was a sense of spring burgeoning in a way that I hope this wonderful project will burgeon.
I left one in our local shop, three each in two cafes, pressed some on friends, ensured that some made their way to the waiting rooms, bereavement room and chapel in the local hospital. For the rest, I flagged down unsuspecting members of the public, old and young, male and female, fit and frail. I gave one to our Big Issue seller, who looked pretty chuffed, and another to a giver who had just finished handing out copies of her Seamus Heaney book. I tried to be as inclusive as I could. Only two people turned me down. Half a dozen said they weren't interested in poetry themselves, but they would like to be able to give a copy to someone else. Several people bit my hand off. One woman seemed genuinely touched: "It's a real gift, she said, and I could tell that it meant something to her.
It certainly meant something to me. It felt joyful to be be part of that sense of inclusiveness and shared passion; the act of giving really does stir the heart. I came home feeling elated, rather sorry that it was over and that I hadn't got any more copies to hand out. I hope it will give as much pleasure to all the readers. and it's great to think of the books now beginning their journeys round the country. A good deed in a naughty world...
I left one in our local shop, three each in two cafes, pressed some on friends, ensured that some made their way to the waiting rooms, bereavement room and chapel in the local hospital. For the rest, I flagged down unsuspecting members of the public, old and young, male and female, fit and frail. I gave one to our Big Issue seller, who looked pretty chuffed, and another to a giver who had just finished handing out copies of her Seamus Heaney book. I tried to be as inclusive as I could. Only two people turned me down. Half a dozen said they weren't interested in poetry themselves, but they would like to be able to give a copy to someone else. Several people bit my hand off. One woman seemed genuinely touched: "It's a real gift, she said, and I could tell that it meant something to her.
It certainly meant something to me. It felt joyful to be be part of that sense of inclusiveness and shared passion; the act of giving really does stir the heart. I came home feeling elated, rather sorry that it was over and that I hadn't got any more copies to hand out. I hope it will give as much pleasure to all the readers. and it's great to think of the books now beginning their journeys round the country. A good deed in a naughty world...
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
World Book Night - March 5th
Today is a red letter day - I've just heard that I'm one of the people lucky enough to be taking part in World Book Night on March 5th - another red letter day.
It's a fantastic scheme : twenty thousand people are going to be given forty-eight copies of various books to hand out to all and sundry. It's the first time that it has been run in this country (and possibly anywhere in the world) and is a wonderful way of bringing writers, publishers and the general public together in a celebration of the fantastic richness of the written word.
At a time when the future of printed books is as uncertain as it has been since Gutenberg invented the printing press, thanks to the advent of electronic media, this is an amazing gesture of faith in the important part that books play in all our lives. Both writers and publishers have shown considerable generosity in allowing the twenty-five chosen titles to be given away for free, in doing so providing the people who are going to be doing the hands-on stuff a chance to act as advocates for stories and poetry that really matter to them.
I shall be in Bristol, handing out copies of The World's Wife, an anthology of poems by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, pressing them on unsuspecting strangers, and if they're friendly and want to listen, I'll try and explain to them how, as a teenager, poetry changed and possibly saved my life, and that maybe it can do the same for them.
It's a fantastic scheme : twenty thousand people are going to be given forty-eight copies of various books to hand out to all and sundry. It's the first time that it has been run in this country (and possibly anywhere in the world) and is a wonderful way of bringing writers, publishers and the general public together in a celebration of the fantastic richness of the written word.
At a time when the future of printed books is as uncertain as it has been since Gutenberg invented the printing press, thanks to the advent of electronic media, this is an amazing gesture of faith in the important part that books play in all our lives. Both writers and publishers have shown considerable generosity in allowing the twenty-five chosen titles to be given away for free, in doing so providing the people who are going to be doing the hands-on stuff a chance to act as advocates for stories and poetry that really matter to them.
I shall be in Bristol, handing out copies of The World's Wife, an anthology of poems by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, pressing them on unsuspecting strangers, and if they're friendly and want to listen, I'll try and explain to them how, as a teenager, poetry changed and possibly saved my life, and that maybe it can do the same for them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)