Just as lockdown kicked in back in March, Roger set about asking people to list their five favourite books - recommendations for a good read to keep us all occupied. The responses came in from people of all ages across the Forest, with their top fives posted on Reading the Forest's social media channels. Anna Grimmett has been looking at the lists, analysing the choices - and reflecting on the books that appeared more frequently than any others.... 
Hello again, Anna here. After twenty seven of you gave your five favourite book choices, Roger asked me to compile a book list in order of popularity and it’s been fascinating to see the books you chose and the reasons why you chose them. I was so pleased to be able to report back that a Forest book, Dennis Potter’s “The Changing Forest”, had taken joint top position along with C. S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, each having been chosen three times (although alphabetically I’ve popped Potter in at the number one spot). Six books emerged as the most popular, the remaining four each having been chosen twice. The rest of the books are listed in no particular order and I’ve highlighted Forest books for you in green.
Most Popular Book Choices 1. The Changing Forest, Dennis Potter 2. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis 3. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 4. The Lost Words, Robert MacFarlane & Jackie Morris 5. Macbeth, William Shakespeare 6. One Day, David Nicholls With no prior knowledge of Dennis Potter’s work other than from the Reading the Forest website, I borrowed a copy to read to help me reflect on why the most popular books might have been chosen. I struggled with the first few chapters and so a friend suggested I watch his Melvin Bragg interview from 1994, aired just a few months before he passed away. Although a very sad period in terms of Potter’s diagnosis, it came across as an honest portrayal of his life and work and I found further reading of his book much easier. Those who chose it described it as providing “a rare and unique insight into a significant period of change in the Forest’s history” and being “a profound book on social change in the Forest in the late 1950s and 1960s”. The style of writing and Potter’s frank and intimate descriptions gave me a real sense of this notable period of transition and how the resulting changes impacted so profoundly on Foresters. I can see why it is regarded as being so influential. A Google search of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” confirmed its popularity and it was no surprise that it generally ranked in the same position nationally as it did in the Forest. There’s a timeless quality to the story, not just in terms of different generations who have enjoyed it, but also that as adults we are still pulled back to those visceral childhood memories of stepping into our own fantasy world, through our very own wardrobe and creating heroic adventures in our own imaginary wonderland (or is that just me?). I have concentrated on the top two books for this piece, although I had hoped to be able to find a common theme running through the most popular choices. As with the rest of the books on the list, the six most popular are also very diverse and personal and I’ve not yet been able to spot any connections. I’d be interested to hear from you if you find any. It’s been a pleasure to learn which books have influenced people and to see so many Forest books chosen as favourites. Most Popular Book Choices: 1. The Changing Forest, Dennis Potter 2. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis 3. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens 4. The Lost Words, Robert MacFarlane & Jackie Morris 5. Macbeth, William Shakespeare 6. One Day, David Nicholls 7. 1984, George Orwell 8. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame 9. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer 10. A Night to Remember, Walter Lord 11. Severn Tide, Brian Walters 12. A Gloucesterhire Lad, at Home and Abroad, F. W. Harvey 13. The Stolen Years, Hugh Falkus 14. Forest Humour, Harry Beddington 15. These Silent Mansions, A Life In Graveyards, Jean Sprakland 16. Dancing the Charleston, Jacqueline Wilson 17. The World's Worst Children, David Walliams 18. A Place Called Perfect, Helena Duggan 19. My Friend Walter, Michael Morpurgo 20. Hetty Feather, Jacqueline Wilson 21. The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman 22. La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman 23. The Knife of Never Letting Go, Patrick Ness 24. Ruin and Rising, Leigh Bardugo 25. The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson 26. We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen 27. Stick Man, Julia Donaldson 28. Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne 29. The Witcher: The Last Wish, Andrzej Sapkowski 30. Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel 31. The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern 32. Eragon, Christopher Paolini 33. Confessions of a Sociopath, M.E. Thomas 34. Thomas the Tank Engine, Wilbert Adrey 35. A Squash and a Squeeze, Julia Donaldson 36. Usborne Illustrated Classics for Boys, Robin Hood, Various 37. A Children’s Treasury of Milligan, Classic Stories & Poems, Spike Milligan 38. Goosebumps, The Movie Novel, R. L. Stine 39. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder 40. Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery 41. Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank 42. Treasures of the Snow, Patricia St John 43. Black Beauty, The Autobiography Of A Horse, Anna Sewell 44. When Blackbirds Sing, Martin Boyd 45. Clean Straw for Nothing, George Johnston 46. The War of Don Emmanuel’s Nether Parts, Louis de Bernières 47. The Music Shop, Rachel Joyce 48. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte 49. Romeo & Juliet, William Shakespeare 50. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini 51. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon 52. My Family and Other Superheroes, Jonathan Edwards 53. The Great Gatsby, Scott Fitzgerald 54. On The Road, Jack Kerouac 55. Our Country’s Good, Timberlake Wertenbaker 56. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho 57. 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke 58. The Complete Beatles Songs, by Steve Turner 59. A Week’s Holiday in the Forest of Dean, John Bellows 60. The Spitfire Story, Alfred Price 61. Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula Le Guin 62. Shardlake Series, by C.J. Sansom 63. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell 64. Pride and PrejudiceJane Austen 65. The Shropshire Lad, A.E. Housman 66. Head Injury, A Practical Guide, Trevor Powell 67. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett 68. The Nine Tailors, Dorothy L. Sayers 69. The Concise British Flora in Colour, W Keble Martin 70. The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh 71. Head of State, Andrew Marr 72. The Children Act, Ian McEwan 73. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce 74. Catlin’s Cove, Kim Simmonds 75. Germinal, Emile Zola 76. On Photography, Susan Sontag 77. Geology of the Forest of Dean Coal and Iron Ore Field, F.M. Trotter 78. The Freeminers, Cyril Hart 79. A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams 80. Noughts and Crosses, Malorie Blackman 81. The Verderers and Forest Laws of Dean, Cyril Hart 82. The Forest of Dean: an Historical and Descriptive Account, H.G.Nicholls 83. Forest of Dean: Iron Making in the Olden Times, H.G. Nicholls 84. Sophie’s World, Jostein Gaarder 85. Harry Potter Series, J K Rowling 86. Lydmouth Crime Series, Andrew Taylor 87. Warren James and the Dean Forest Riots, Ralph Anstis 88. Exploring Historic Dean, John Sheraton & Rod Goodman 89. Student Diver Tool Box, Sub-Aqua Association 90. Goodnight Mr Tom, Michelle Magorian 91. Danny, The Champion of the World, Roald Dahl 92. Barbarian Days, William Finnegan 93. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving 94. The Life Project, Helen Pearson 95. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks 96. The Small Hand, Susan Hill 97. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres 98. Now All Roads Lead to France, Matthew Hollis 99. The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry Gerrard 100. A Story Like the Wind, Laurens van de Post 101. Green Wood, Leonard Clark 102. English Journey, J. B. Priestly 103. The Box of Delights, John Masefield 104. Old Peter’s Russian Tales, Arthur Ransome 105. Catch-22, Joseph Heller 106. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 107. The Ginger Man, J. P. Donlevy 108. Sepulchre, Kate Mosse 109. Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain 110. The Lord of the Flies, William Golding 111. Four Kings, George Kimball 112. Pet Sematary, Stephen King 113. Captain Scott, Ranulph Fiennes 114. Affluenza, Oliver James 115. Tony Benn: A Biography, Jad Adams 116. Revolution, Russell Brand 117. Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class, Owen Jones 118. My Story, Steven Gerrard 119. The Edge of the Sword, Anthony Farrer-Hockley 120. A Fool in the Forest, Leonard Clark 121. F. W. Harvey, Soldier Poet, Anthony Boden 122. Archaeology in Dean, by Cyril Hart 123. Landscapes, Robert Macfarlane 124. I Am the Seed that Grew a Tree: a Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year, Fiona Waters 125. Hill Shepherd, a Photographic Essay, John & Elizabeth Forder 126. Chasing the Monsoon, Alexander Frater 127. The Leopard, Guiseppe di Lampedusa 128. Akenfield, Ronald Blythe 129. The Diary, Samuel Pepys 130. The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
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 Heritage Open Days have been running in the UK since 1994 and today boast over 5,000 events across the country. Included are heritage sites of interest normally closed to the public, museums that normally charge an entry fee throwing their doors open for free, and buildings normally open to the community whose heritage has often been overlooked. Reading the Forest has partnered with several local groups in the Forest on Heritage Open Days in recent years. In 2017 the extraordinary story of Gypsy Petulengro and his links to Viney Hill were explored with an exhibition at the village's All Saints Church, the location of his remarkable funeral and burial.  Last year saw brass bands and poets come together at St Stephen's Church in Cinderford for a celebration of the Forest's rich heritage of band music and poetry, also marking 130years of the church building. The event included a competition prize-giving for some of Cinderford's best young poets, a sure sign that the town is incubating the next generation of literary talent. This year sees a return to St Stephen's - though 'in spirit' only - with a virtual online event that marks this important Cinderford building's link with the poet Leonard Clark. A series of specially recorded readings of some of Clark's poems will be launched online on Saturday 12th September - simultaneously via Reading the Forest's Events Page and the Cinderford Churches Benefice website. Amongst the videos are several poems chosen and read by members of Clark's family. Also included is a reading of Clark's remarkable final poem An Intimate Landscape in which he revisits the places and people of his youth in the Forest for one last time. The poem is read by popular Forest poet Keith Morgan.  Leonard Clark was a nationally important poet, literary editor, and educationalist whose life and work were grounded in Cinderford and the Forest of Dean. He was fostered to a family on Belle Vue Road in Cinderford and raised in the town until he left to train as a teacher in the late 1920s. He became an influential figure in the world of poetry principally through his anthologies and his role in promoting poetry education for which he was awarded an OBE. He was admired and praised by luminaries such as Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney before he died in 1981. His early life and subsequent work were strongly influenced by his experiences in St Stephen’s Church which stood a few yards down the road from where he lived. His mother was a member of the congregation and he became a chorister in the Church. Written late in his life, his memoirs A Fool in the Forest and Green Wood are replete with stories and characters that centred around the Church which was at the heart of the community.  He wrote about the choir and devoted one chapter to the story of Philip Charles Walding (1871-1949), also known as ‘Charlie’ Walding, the blind organist of St Stephen’s Church who played the church organ for forty-four years (seen in the photograph above holding the book). The profound influence of the church was such that he requested that his ashes be buried there and following his death a special service was held to inter them close to where he stood as a chorister seventy years previously.
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