A forgotten film made in the Forest of Dean will kick off our weekend of events marking 50 years since the publication of the book A Fortunate Man, with a screening in Soudley. Made in 1972 by then young producer-director Jeff Perks, the film was based closely on the book by John Berger and Jean Mohr about a Forest GP and his patients. Though not named, the book was actually about St Briavels doctor John Eskell and featured photographs of him and his patients.
The film was actually shot on location around Blakeney and Soudley. It features local people in all but the lead role of the doctor (played by actor Michael Bryant), and includes scenes with children and staff at Soudley School, and the children of Blakeney Hill Sunday School. Shortly after being made it was shown at a special Littledean House Hotel screening, then to the book’s author John Berger in London, but since then has lain largely forgotten in the vaults of the British Film Institute. Following a tip off from a local expert, Reading the Forest travelled to London to view the film, and lo and behold, there on the screen was the Forest of Dean. As well as local footage providing a backdrop to the drama, the film includes interviews with a local Freeminer underground, and rare footage of the former chemical works at Beechnehurst as two of the men that work there speak about their jobs. The film’s maker Jeff Perks (who now works as a sculptor and painter) will be at the screening. ‘I’m really looking forward to coming back to the Forest,’ says Jeff, ‘and especially hoping that maybe some of the people who appeared in the film will be at the screening’. The film will be shown at Soudley Village Hall at 7.30pm on Friday 22nd June, and again at St Briavels on Saturday 23rd June . Both events are free, and you're all welcome with anyone who remembers the film being made, or who was in it, especially welcome to the Soudley screening to meet Jeff and share your memories of the film.
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A Fortunate Man Revisited - 50 years on In 1967, A Fortunate Man, written by the art-critic John Berger with photographs by Swiss documentary photographer Jean Mohr, was published to international acclaim. It explored the relationship between a rural doctor and his patients in the Forest of Dean and would go on to become recommended reading for trainee GPs. It was an intense, probing analysis of the doctor – Dr John Sassal – but also provoked questions about the role of the GP more widely in society. The setting of the book – St Briavels – and the doctor and his patients were all anonymised in the interests of confidentiality and securing participation, although the pictures and the dramatic death of the GP years later made the location and participants apparent. In 2015 the book featured at a Royal College of Art conference celebrating Berger’s diverse and prodigious career. As the panel of doctors discussed the book, one aspect was starkly absent: the people and landscape of the Forest of Dean. Last year saw the fiftieth anniversary of the still in print publication and the death of the author. In a weekend of events this June the University of Gloucestershire’s Reading the Forest project, in partnership with FODLHS, seeks to address precisely that: A Fortunate Man Revisited, 50 years On, will examine the book firmly from the perspective of the real community (St Briavels) at the centre of the book. Was it a fair depiction of the village, community and wider Forest of Dean, of the 1960s? What picture does it paint of the real-life St Briavels doctor, John Eskell, at the centre of the book? How accurate is Berger’s depiction and analysis? The weekend will begin on 22nd June with the presentation of a 1972 docu-drama that featured performances from local people and filmed in Blakeney and Soudley, and then move to St Briavels for a weekend exhibition, tour, talks and discussions, as well as a screening of the 1967 BBC TV feature on the book filmed locally, and cine films from the late 1950s of village life made by Dr Eskell. More details soon... Where would the Forest of Dean’s literary heritage be without its female authors? Imagine the Forest without the writing of Winifred Foley, Joyce Latham or Maggie Clutterbuck – to name just a few. Women writers are woven into the fabric of Forest literary culture, and have been since the beginning. In the nineteenth century, it was the poems of Catherine Drew, detailing the unique history, economy, politics and personality of the Forest at the start of the 1840s. Later that century would come Ada M Trotter, S M Crawley-Boevey, Flora Klickmann. Like their male counterparts, Forest literature’s women writers vary in their economic circumstances as much as they do in the genres they write and the stories they tell. Crawley-Boevey, at Flaxley-Abbey was a member of the local landed gentry. Her Dene Forest Sketches span the centuries and the classes. Winfred Foley has had and continues to have a major impact as a chronicler of the sometimes-cruel circumstances of working-class life in the first half of the twentieth century – in particular the lot of women. Her stories and autobiography are rooted in and of the Forest, but too she tells of her life and the lives of women beyond the Forest, in particular in London. And Forest literature’s women have an international reach too. Ada M Trotter, daughter of a local mine owner left the Forest as a young woman for Canada and later America. A successful journalist she travelled back and forth across the Atlantic well into her eighties. Whilst in America she wrote her two novels set in the Forest, full of description of the Forest landscape, the people, and a level of fascinating specialist detail about mining. The topics of her journalism spanned the globe. And today the Forest’s female authors from Maggie Clutterbuck to Sarah Franklin – and many more – continue to build a body of Forest literature that is unmistakably of this distinctive and well-loved place, the Forest of Dean, and that continues to reach out beyond the Severn and Wye connecting to places, characters and stories from around the world. Happy International Women’s Day. It's World Book Day and if you happen to be snowed in (as some of us could be over the nest few days here in the Forest) what could be better than settling down with a good book? Whatever your taste there's probably a book set in the Forest, about the Forest, or written by a Forest of Dean author that will be just right for you. Books can take us inside other people's heads, let us experience the past or possible future, take us on an adventure, make us think, make us feel. And they can spin tall tales to keep us entertained, drawing us around the fire. Once upon a time....on one such snowy day, a log time ago, a group of travellers were trapped in The Speech House (lucky them!). The snow really set, and they were there for a week. "The snow fell faster than ever, and we had to give up all thoughts of setting forward journey" So the travellers - a doctor, a clergyman, the grey-coated man, the commercial man, and a lawyer - end up pass the time by each telling story each evening after dinner: "We sat once more round the blazing log-fire of the old Court-Room, our minds in genial contentment with ourselves, the snow, and the whole wide world around us" The stories tumble out each evening, The Drunkard's Vow, The Suicide's Wakening, The Voice from the Tomb, The Lost Letter-Bag, and The Blue Lady of Minsterley. These tall tales take them beyond the walls of The Speech House, beyond the wintery scene to a village in Spring, an old country house, an Autumn hill side. Until finally, on their last night, it's the turn of the Landlord. And when he comes to his spooky tale, his is set in the very place itself: The Ghost of the Speech House! "As I was shaking and sweating with fright, something fetches me a spikish dig in the back" By the end of the week the snow has melted, and somewhat regretfully, the travellers are on their way taking with them fond memories of their week in, "the dear, the romantic old Speech-House. This fascinating and entertaining old book, written by Dr. Charles F Grindrod of Malvern, and published in 1886, is just one of the fabulous range of books that make up our rich Forest of Dean literary heritage. Whether its tall tales written in the 19th century, poems from the present day, or dystopian novels set in a future-Forest, there's a Forest book for you this (snowy) World Book Day. Check out our growing book list here for suggestions - and once you've read one let us know what you think and we'll share your thoughts here. Happy World Book Day! With so much fascinating history in the Forest, have you ever thought about writing your own historical short story or novel? The highly acclaimed local author Andrew Taylor will be talking about his approach to writing historical fiction on Friday 23rd March at Coleford's Baptist Chapel. The event is being put on jointly by Reading the Forest and Forest of Dean Local History Society. Andrew has a distinguished and award-winning career as a writer of detective crime fiction but has more recently turned to historical fiction. Still very much with crime and mystery at their heart his novels such as The American Boy are set more than a hundred years earlier than, for example, the Lydmouth series, whilst 2017's The Ashes of London was set in the 1660's. And in his latest novel, The Fire Court, Andrew returns again to the period as London begins to rebuild after the Great Fire. Andrew will be talking about how he approaches historical fiction writing. So whether you just want a fascinating and entertaining evening's conversation - or perhaps pick up expert tips for your own writing project - come along! Tickets cost £2 (free for FoDLHS members). This event is supported by University of Gloucestershire, Foresters' Forest, and Forest of Dean Local History Society. Coleford Festival of Words celebrates its 10th year, and its marking it with a its annual competition for writers. Reading the Forest is especially pleased to once again be supporting the young writers category. The competition is open NOW with a closing date of 13th May. The theme is 'Ten' and entries should be no longer than 1,000 words. Details of how to enter below... Join BBC Radio Gloucestershire's Jo Durrant in conversation with Sarah Franklin the author of Shelter an acclaimed first novel set in the wartime Forest of Dean. Friday 23rd March 1.10pm-2pm The Library, The Main Place, Coleford Sarah Franklin's first novel, Shelter, was published in 2017 (available in paperback this summer). The idea for Shelter began when the Conservative government announced that they were going to sell off some of Britain’s forests, including the Forest of Dean, where Sarah grew up. ‘The concept that my formative landscape could be sold off randomly was just unfathomable. I wrote about it for The Guardian and realised that this, maybe, was the book I needed to write. I didn’t want to knock out an angry contemporary polemic, so I started to think about other times in history when this centuries-old forest might have come under threat.’ Sarah turned to the Second World War, when the Forest served the national purpose as a sanctuary and a timber resource. Italian prisoners were brought to work in the Forest and the newly-formed Women’s Timber Corps had its training HQ in the Forest of Dean, bringing hundreds of young women into the Forest to learn how to manage Britain’s timber stocks. Against this background people were thrust into an alien environment, sometimes against their will, and from this the characters in Shelter were born. The story of loss, identity and new beginnings - centred on the experiences of the independent, wilful Connie - are told against the turmoil of the changing forest. Sarah is senior lecturer in publishing at Oxford Brookes University, promoter of literary events and judge for the Costa Book Awards. Jo Durrant has interviewed authors at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and around Gloucestershire. She recently interviewed Andrew Taylor. Jo is familiar with the tradition of Forest authors from her work on BBC Radio Gloucestershire's programme on Leonard Clark and more recently, Winifred Foley. She is currently researching and recording a series that illustrates the influence of women’s writing from the Forest of Dean over the last century. Humphrey Phelps’ 1993 book A Forest Christmas is a fascinating, heart-warming compendium of reminiscence, poems, stories, fact, fiction and pictures reflecting Christmas in the Forest of Dean. The book features the memories of well-known local personalities such as Cinderford stalwart Elsie Olivey (co-founder of the Dean Heritage Museum); ex-newspaperman and then reverend to Ruardean Cliff Davies; and freeminer Eric Warren as well as many more. The work of local authors such as F. W. Harvey, Winifred Foley, Leonard Clark and Harry Beddington, Ralph Anstis and many others feature too. In this extract from the book Harry Beddington (in a poem that first appeared in his own book Forest Humour) fondly extolls the virtues of the Forest's brass and silver bands traditions at Christmas: It’s allus bin the practice ‘ere Amongst the photographs in the book several show seasonal snow-bound Forest scenes. Newspaper clippings date as far back as the nineteenth century. This one from the early twentieth century reminds us of a much loved Forest business. If you're ever struggling to get into the Christmas spirit this is the book for you - within minutes of delving into its covers you'll be humming carols and glowing with festive cheer and good will to all! For anyone interested in the Forest, Humphrey Phelps is a great story teller, historian and researcher - for all seasons of the year.
We’re celebrating this year’s National Poetry Day with Forest of Dean poets and poems in voice. Rather than reading the Forest we’ve got recordings of poets speaking, expressing the very essence of The Forest. #SpeakingtheForest will see videos and audio released throughout the day (Thursday 28th) on Twitter @readingthefod and on Facebook /readingtheforest National Poetry Day began in 1994 with the aim of celebrating excellence in poetry and increasing the audience for it. BBC local radio, poets, community groups and schools up and down the country get involved every year. The Forest has a great tradition of poetry with its earliest mention in poetic print appearing to be Michael Drayton’s epic Poly-Olbion that sets out to describe the landscape and history of England and Wales - including the Forest: Here (The queen of forests all, that west of Severne lie); Her broad and bushy top Deane holdeth up so high, The lesser are not seen, she is so tall and large. And standing in such state upon the winding marge. To more recent times and significant local poets include F W Harvey whose work became known around the UK in part due to his MANY BBC radio broadcasts. His young protégé Leonard Clark would go on to publish many books of his own poems, as well becoming a specialist in poetry for young people. He surely would have appreciated the aims of National Poetry Day! Both writers feature in our digital celebration, as well as the work of more contemporary Forest poets: two firm local favourites Maggie Clutterbuck and Keith Morgan, as well as rising star Stewart Carswell. So if you’ve not done so already, sign up to Twitter or Facebook to enjoy a day of #SpeakingtheForest. This Saturday (9th September) All Saints Church Viney Hill celebrates the village’s connection to a remarkable, larger than life character: Xavier ‘Gypsy’ Petulengro. Author, showman, broadcaster and mail order businessman, Petulengro was a widely known and loved personality in the inter-war and post-war years – so much so that up to 1,500 people from the Forest and across the UK attended his funeral at All Saints in 1957. As well as his many other interests and enterprises he was a prolific author, writing memoirs, fiction, and several books on Gypsy traditions, food and remedies. As part of the fantastic Heritage Open Days programme across the Forest of Dean, Reading the Forest is putting on an exhibition exploring his life, works, influence, and his Forest connections. We’re particularly interested in meeting anyone who remembers his visits to the Forest, his close friends Mr & Mrs Vine who lived opposite the church, and his funeral.
The event is free, and runs from 12noon until 6pm. The exhibition is being put on with the support of University of Gloucestershire, The Foresters’ Forest, All Saints Church, and Heritage Open Days. |
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