discovering forest literature

​Hi there - I’m a new volunteer with Reading the Forest.  I got in touch with the project leaders recently, as I was looking for somewhere to focus my creative energy as well as offering my time.  The project particularly interested me as an opportunity to learn more about the area I live in, it’s unique history and the people it has inspired to put their experiences in writing.
     When I was asked what interests me during my introductory phone call, I mentioned that I felt drawn to write, but that I needed a push from someone to tell me what to write about.  So when I was asked to contribute a reflective piece on “discovering that the Forest has a rich literary heritage” to be used in this blog, I immediately realised be careful what you wish for, particularly if your last attempt at creative writing was over thirty years ago in your early teens and entitled “the Turnip Man”!
     So, time for a closer look at the website.  I was really impressed at the diverse range of published books and also delighted and encouraged to see so many accomplished female contributors, past and present.  Having lived in the Forest as an “incomer” for just over eight years I’m quite ashamed it’s taken me so long to find this out.  As an area of such breathtaking beauty and cultural and historical heritage, it should have come as no surprise that people have found themselves moved to share their experiences, by way of factual accounts of Forest history, autobiography or poetic verse and so much more besides.  It’s all here on the website for you to look at and to stimulate further enquiry.  Most of all, I realise this really must be something that Foresters are proud of and I’m so glad I found it.

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Having explored the website a little, I’m left with a sense of keen curiosity to learn more about the writers and how the Forest has shaped their lives.  I look forward to reading some historical pieces and maybe find a novel that makes me wonder which part of the Forest has inspired it.  I have an initial highlight I’d like to share, a couple of verses from “Secret Places”, which is a poem by Joyce Latham.  I will hold these words close as I walk in the Forest, in the hope of stumbling on such secret places of my own:

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I know of secret places where the willows bend,
And little whispering streams play hide-and-seek;
Where minnows dart
And dragonflies swoop from the sky,
But no-one else knows, only I.
 
I know of secret places where the bluebells sway,
And timid deer hide deep within the shade;
Where thrushes sing
And honeysuckle climbs up high,
But no-one else knows, only I.

'Secret Places' from Poems of a Forester (1991) by Joyce Latham