Arts, literature, music, performance, entertainment, what's on,

1. Interviews
John Cole
Clare Viner
Jeremy Cooper
Angie Sage
Toni Davey
Natalie McGrath
Jeremy Harvey
Mark Bruce
May & June 2012
Calendar of Events
Taunton Literary Festival
Short Story
Poets’ Corner
Gallery 41
New Cookery Book
My Favourite....
Without the WooWoo
Take the Art Train
Free
Shining a light on literature, art, music and performance in Taunton & West Somerset

2. Clare Viner:Storyteller
A powerful message
from her grandfather
in a dream awakens a
long lost desire to tell
stories. It reads...well
...like a story, though
this one is entirely true.
Ever since she could remember
Clare’s grandfather told stories to
her, magical stories about fairy folk.
Unfortunately, he died when she was
eight and, though she could not remember many of the details of the
stories he told her, she remembered
the experience and the idea of the
magical world he created which he
would often relate to the physical
world around him; such as a picture
on the wall or a tree in the garden.
For many years her grandfather’s
stories were a fond memory. Clare
studied English literature and drama
at university and trained to become
a drama teacher at Goldsmiths College, London. She taught business
English in Prague and Northern
Spain for several years and then took
a drama teaching job in the UK. Feel-
ing a little disillusioned, she took a
break from teaching in her mid twenties and took a job in a cafe in Oxford, undecided at this point in which
direction she would take her career.
Then one night she had a dream. Her
grandfather spoke to her and told her
to tell his stories for her. ‘ It was such
a powerful dream,’ she said, ‘I felt I
had been given a message. I did not
really know what it meant. I tried
writing stories down but that did not
seem to work.’
Then she met someone in the cafe
where she worked who belonged to
a storytelling group. He invited her
along. ‘I discovered an enchanted
world that I did not know existed
where people told stories to each other,’ she comments. She told a story
of her own. As with her grandfather
the story came from her head rather
than from one she had written down.
‘People seemed to really enjoy it and
were surprised that it was my first
public telling,’ she recalls.
Encouraged by this experience, she
went to a number of storytelling festivals and discovered a course, which
she attended, called The Craft of The
Storyteller, which was based in Sussex, the county where she had lived
in as a child. The course lasted three
months and was very intensive. She
felt that it gave her a good grounding
for the launch of a storytelling career
and with this in mind, and a desire
to be near the sea again as she had
been in her childhood, she moved to
Devon in 2001, staying in a variety
of places before settling in her current home in Sidmouth.
Her first significant storytelling
venture was when she set up a show
telling sea stories entitled The Call of
the Sea at the Phoenix Arts Centre in
Exeter. The show proved popular and
led to involvement with storytelling within the local library services.
Further commissions followed. She
12
found work with The Magic Carpet
Charity (for those that cannot easily
access the arts), for Scrapstore and
provided a number of workshops to
schools in the area.
When her daughter was born Clare
had a short break from storytelling.
On her return to it, it took a new direction. Working with the AONBs (Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty) in
The Blackdowns and The Quantocks
and for the Forestry Commission, local museums and The Crown Estate.
She won a commission from Beaford
Arts which involved collecting and
telling local tales from North Devon.
Clare’s storytelling began drawing its
inspiration primarily from folklore
and the natural world – much as her
grandfather’s stories had - and this is
where she feels her passion is now.
She has also recently become a
trained kinesiologist. In her mind
there is a natural link here with the
current direction of her storytelling;
through finding ways of understanding the world using a more natural or
holistic approach.
‘There is an aspect of the detective
in both my approach to storytelling
and healing. I work very intuitively
and creatively in my quest for stories,
both in the landscape and people’s
lives. I believe that as we discover,
make whole and fall in love with stories, we can create more harmonious
ways of being!’
There was one particular story, The

3. Emerald Dragon, that she developed
from a folk tale that she could not leave
alone. Though she liked the story as it
was told to her, she found it was very
stark and lacked detail and complexity.
As she often does when she hears a new
story or is developing one of her own,
Clare began drawing pictures of scenes
from the story and then would walk into
the landscape, telling the story to herself,
adding to it and embellishing it, sometimes recounting it to herself in her house
while banging her drum (her daughter is
used to such apparent crazy behaviour!).
She realised after reworking the story
that it had become something quite different from the original. She developed it
further through many tellings in schools
and festivals until she thought she had a
story that she could at last write down.
She feels that the story is particularly important as it concerns how the Quantock
landscape has developed and how it was
that it became an Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty.
Other stories have followed which
she feels deserve to be written down.
Though many are based on folklore there
are others that come from her own imagination ‘The Lords and Ladies’ , for
example, is a story written by Clare that
is inspired by place names on the Ordnance Survey map of the Quantock Hills
and the ‘The Wolves’ story is based on
evidence of packs of wolves roaming the
Blackdown Hills in earlier times. Now
she has produced a collection of stories,
the title of which is taken from the ‘Emerald Dragon’ story that was the original
inspiration when she first wrote her stories down. She believes that producing
a book is a way of sharing the stories
more widely. The book is split roughly
half-and-half between those stories based
on the Blackdowns and those based on
the Quantock hills and is aimed at older
children, families and anyone else with
an interest in folklore.
The book is illustrated throughout by
Georgie Grant who is the author’s sister.
‘One of the great joys of working on this
book has been the opportunity to work
with Georgie. She is trained in illustration
and studied art history at The Courtauld
Institute. Georgie’s pictures are just like
Clare telling stories in the Quantocks
her; full of fun, joy and humour. They are
beautiful in a slightly quirky way. I feel
privileged to have her as my sister!’
However, if you are lucky enough to
hear Clare telling her stories don’t expect her to repeat them word for word
as they are in the book. When she is telling a story she adapts them to her mood
and the mood of her audience. Part of the
challenge of the storyteller is to keep the
story fresh, she observes: ‘If you feel the
story is becoming a little stale or boring the audience may think the same
way too.’ It is not something she would
have contemplated in her early storytelling days but with experience has come
confidence and the feeling that this is
part of her role. ‘The story will actually
change in the moment I am telling it, ’she
reveals. If she can tell that the audience
is particularly enjoying a part of the story
she will add to it, if it is not receiving the
response she would like she will shorten
it - though listening to the enthusiasm
and passion with which she talks of her
storytelling craft one feels it is much
more often likely to be the former than
the latter.
Please Note
The Emerald Dragon received support
from The Sustainable Development Fund,
Area of Oustanding Natural Beauty and
DEFRA.
Hear Clare Talk
Thursday 17 May, 7.00pm @
Brendon Books, Taunton
Clare will be talking about her book The Emerald Dragon &
Other Magical Tales of The Quantocks and Blackdown Hills.
Tickets are £4.00 including light refreshments and and are
available from Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER:
Tel. 01823 337742 email: brendonbooks@gmail.com or by personal visit. Book also available from here, price £4.99

4. Contents
Interviews
John Cole
A very fortunate man
Clare Viner
Storyteller
Jeremy Cooper
Two Important Books on art
Angie Sage
Author of Septimus Heap books
Toni Davey
The art of paper sculpting
Natalie McGrath
Inspired international premier
Jeremy Harvey
Artist & recorder of Taunton’s past
Mark Bruce
Made in Heaven
Other
Calendar of Events
Listings of Literature, art, music and
performance events
Taunton Literary Festival
Dates announced
Short Story with Lawrence Latham
Three Great Aunts and a Garden Roller
Poet’s Corner with John Stuart
Word of Mouth
Gallery 41
New art gallery opens in Watchet
New Cookery Book
Tamasin Day-Lewis
My Favourite...
John Newton Shares his favourite
piece of art, literature, music and performance
Without the WooWoo
A new straightforward self-help book
Take the Art Train
Art events along the West Somerset
Railway
Running my own
bookshop in Taunton,
organising a number
of talks and Taunton’s
first literary festival
has helped me realise
what a wealth of talent
and artistic endeavour there is in our
community.
I hope in this magazine, by reporting
on those engaged in the artistic community and making their activities better
known, it will help in some small way to
bring the arts to a wider audience.
I hope you enjoy this first issue of the
magazine.
Editor: Lionel Ward
Copy Editor: Jo Ward
Advertising: Clair Bennett
Events Compiler: Julie Munckton
All enquiries:
lampmagazine1@gmail.com
01823 337742
c/o Brendon Books,
Bath Place, Taunton
The views expressed in Lamp are
not necessarily those of the editorial
team. Copywright, unless otherwise
stated, is that of the magazine or the
individual authors. We do not accept
liability for the content or accuracy
of the magazine including that of the
advertisers.

5. Short Story
Extract from:
Three Great Aunts and
a Garden Roller by Lawrence Latham
Indoors, on the far side of the
house, Henry’s mother had already
been aware of an occasional rumble
and had looked up more than once
to check it was not clouding over.
On hearing renewed and more substantial evidence of an approaching
storm, she quietly left the dozing
relatives to investigate from a different window. If she were lucky,
she would just catch the end of the
International Roller Stopping Competition currently being held outside. Had she been luckier still, she
would have been in time to call it
off...
The sweating Henry reached the
end of his second run-up in the senior event, but as he swung into braking mode, the handle of the roller
slipped from his grasp.
“Oh, no!” he moaned, instantly
realizing the gravity of the situation. He desperately tried to reunite
with the handle, but it was swinging
wildly back and forth under the influence of the counterweight inside
the moving drum, and Henry was
running out of level ground.
His mother, still searching for an
elusive storm, was greeted by the
sight of the garden roller passing the
drawing-room window with Henry,
posturing a remarkably good stance
for one unacquainted with waterskiing, sliding in its wake, with dust
and possibly even smoke billowing
from his plimsolls...
For the snoozing household, the afternoon’s peace was about to be shattered along with the driveway gates...
On the other side of the road, the
Evans’ house stood at a slightly lower
elevation, so their front window did
not afford a clear view of garden and
drive where Henry had been holding his one-man athletics meeting.
Megan Evans, like Henry’s mother, had also been wondering about
the rumbles she had been hearing but had declined to rise from
her knitting, preferring to delegate
any storm chasing to her husband.
“It’s coming from over that way!”
he announced. He was standing at
the window and waving in the general direction of the great outdoors.
“I can see over that way.
There are no clouds!” insisted
Mrs Evans, consenting to perform
a thirty degree rotation in her chair.
“I tell you it’s over there!” Mr Evans
lifted his walking stick and pointed it
emphatically at the house opposite.
“Will you mind that stick? You’ll
break something!” His wife rose and
moved towards her husband who was
defiantly maintaining his dramatic
pose. “For pity’s sake, you look like
Moses by the Red Sea!” Mrs Evans
had remained regular at Chapel,
even after moving to England.
Her next exclamation was uttered in
shock and was not quite so suitable
for Chapel. With a terrible rending
crash, the wooden gates parted with
a speed which might have taken
even Moses by surprise. The unstoppable mass of the garden roller burst
through to career across the road
and smash into the stone wall which
formed the boundary to the Evans’
front lawn. Their cat, which had
been sleeping on the grass just behind the top of the wall, woke with a
startled cry and jumped up so quickly that it rose four feet into the air.
“Looks like the Egyptians made
it through first this time,” observed Gwyn Evans dryly as he
watched the iron chariot trundle
back to the middle of the road.
The conclusion to the above story can be found in the short story collection, In the Absence of Bats,
which can be obtained from Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton, TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742.
Or order online at www.brendonbooksonline.co.uk
37

6. Magykal Story
Angie Sage’s stories have
sold three and a half million copies worldwide, yet
her early ambition was to
be a doctor and she did not
envisage that she would
write a novel.
Angie Sage always loved books as far
back as she can remember. She was a
voracious reader, so much so that her
mother would complain about her ‘always having her head in a book’. Her
father was responsible for book production at Eyre & Spottiswood and
later at Rainbird and Maclean and was
an important influence in her developing an early love for books. His job
involved visits to buy paper behind
the iron curtain in the 1960’s from
which he returned with numerous stories which made an impression on the
young Angie, setting her against the
idea of tyrannical regimes which, she
says, sometimes appear at the edge
of her older children’s fiction. Found
struggling with Crime & Punishment at
the age of 10 or so, he told her, ‘I know
what you want to read,’ and gave her a
copy of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s, One
Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.
Despite Angie’s love of books she did
not envisage that she would ever write
one and had quite a different career
choice in mind as a teenager. Though
she was more academically successful
at art rather than science subjects she
believed that she would make a good
doctor. Undeterred by the fact that she
did not have the requisite science qualifications she became a radiographer
and then took ‘O’ levels in physics and
chemistry. Finally, she was granted a
place in medical school.
However, the tragic death of her father in a car crash at that time meant
she was unable to take up her place
that year and there was no place available the following year. Her career was
blown off course. Instead Angie went
to art school and,when she graduated,
began illustrating children’s books,
first for others and then, benefiting
from the experience of having her own
children (two daughters), she began
to write them herself. Her first picture
book, she remembers, was Monkeys
in the Jungle published by Methuen.
A number of others followed. Then
came some chapter books including
the first two in the series of popular
Araminta Spook stories. This was her
training ground for the longer form of
the children’s novel, which became her
metier and where she discovered that
her writing was character led, the story
emerging from the characters rather
than from an elaborate plot.
While she continued to write and illustrate for younger readers, an idea
was growing for something on a larger
scale, something about a whole new
world. It began with a couple of picture book stories – never published –
and grew until at last it seemed to work
as a longer novel. Angie wrote the first
eight chapters of what she thought of
as her ‘Septimus book’ and sent it off
for her agent to read. There was not an
immediate response and Angie feared
the worst.
This was not an easy time for Angie.
Although by objective standards she
was already a successful author and
illustrator, illustration work was disappearing fast and like all but a few au-
thors she could not earn a living solely
from her books. She made a very reluctant decision to sell her house and
return to radiography if Septimus did
not ‘work’ and waited anxiously over
Christmas for her agent’s verdict.
However, ‘Christmas,’ said Angie,
‘was a good time for an agent to read
the first part of Septimus, which is
snowy and stuffed full of atmosphere.’
Her agent came back saying that she
loved it. A three-book contract followed with HarperCollins in the USA
followed by a flurry of foreign rights
sales, with the UK rights being sold to
Bloomsbury. By the time Magyk, the
first volume, was published, Angie was
well into writing the second one: Flyte.
Magyk went straight to the top of the
New York Times bestseller list and
stayed there for three weeks. The three
book contract became a five book contract and finally a seven book contract
Septimus Heap
and the Septimus Heap series has now
been translated into thirty-three languages. Every one of the six volumes
has reached the top ten in the New York
Times bestseller list – no mean feat.
Septimus Heap is a story of many lives
in a different land, a different time from
ours. But although because of this, it
has attracted the label of fantasy, Angie
feels that it is primarily a story about
people, especially about people growing up and discovering their true place
in the world. The characters that fill the

7. Wall painting of Henry VIII at Angies Sages’s home
books are both adults and children, and
each one has developed a passionate
group of fans, all of whom have opinions and hopes about what should happen to ‘their’ characters. Angie keeps in
touch with fans regularly online through
septimusheapblog.com and loves this
unexpected part of being an author.
Like others that have been in this situation, Angie is not finding finishing the
final volume in the series a straightforward task. She is taking care with her
characters, explaining the world they
live in a little more, and also planning
what to do next. She hopes to continue
writing about the Septimus Heap world,
focusing on some new characters but
revisiting the old and much loved ones
too.
The Septimus Heap series has given Angie security and fulfilment and enabled
her to move to a fine old house in Somerset. Dating back to the 1500’s the house
provided its own kind of magic when
she and her husband, Rhodri, discovered
a wall painting dating back to that period
hidden behind some plaster. The painting was no less than a representation of
Henry VIII, described by Prof. Michael
Liversidge of Bristol University as being ‘of national importance’. The house
had been the summer residence of the
archdeacons of Taunton, who included
Thomas Cranmer and other movers and
shakers from Henry VIII’s court. The
mural is an imposing presence though
Angie is as comfortable with ‘her Henry’
as she is with the village that they have
moved to - they are very much involved
in the local community in Milverton.
‘We were immediately made to feel welcome,’ she says. ‘We feel very much at
home here.’
The discovery of the Henry mural has
enabled Angie to explore her third great
passion, history (in addition to that of
literature and art). In the autumn of 2011
she produced a play based on Henry
and his first two wives performed with
the mural as backdrop, which, required
a good deal of historical research. The
play has a narrator and all the words
spoken by the actors were either said by
the characters in real life or reported as
being said from contemporary sources.
Using entirely local actors, the play was
such a hit that it was repeated a further
four times over the winter. This reveals
another ambition of Angie’s, to write
drama for the radio, and screenplays.
Given the quiet determination that has
brought her this far, who is to say that
she will not do it?
But there is plenty to do before then.
She has a book (a very important book)
to finish, a film (Magyk) which has been
contracted with Warner Brother and is
waiting for them to find a big star, then
there is the pantomime to write for the
local drama group ...
The Septimus Heap series:
1. Magyk
2. Flyte
3. Physik
4. Queste
5. Syren
6. Darke
Araminta Spook series
1. My Haunted House
2.The Sword in the
Grotto
3. Frognapped
4. Vampire Bat
5. Ghostsitters
Companion to Septimus Heap Series:
The Magykal Papers
Meet Angie Sage
Thursday 28 June, 4.30pm @Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
Angie will be talking about and readiing from Darke which will be newly available in paperback
pre-publication especially for this event. This is a free event but please R.S.V.P. to reserve your
place. Copies of all of the series are also available from Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton,
TA1 4ER. 01823 337742 www.brendonbooksonline.co.uk

8. The Art of Paper Sculpting
Minehead artist Toni
Davey is having an
exciting year. Her artwork, made from burnt
or sculpted paper has
grown in recognition
and this year she has
two major shows in
London; in May at Wimbledon Fine Art Gallery
and in November at the
Beardsmore Gallery.
Toni’s success comes after a long
break from producing and exhibiting
art, a period when she was looking after a young family and then teaching
art full time. The style of work unique
to her can be tracked back to a previous time, as a student at art college and
even to childhood.
Toni, the daughter of an Austrian
mother who came to Yorkshire after
the war to marry an English soldier
spent an isolated childhood away from
other children. However, she found diversion in colouring books. When she
had finished with them she coloured
in the football coupons [delivered
TREAD
weekly to most households] filling
in the regular squares. Visitors to the
house were mainly other immigrants,
Poles, Czechs and Austrians, who
came to the house to share company
with her mother – and to knit, crochet
and embroider. Consequently, Toni
learned these skills from a very young
age and became fascinated by the pattern books, their grids, sequences and
measured imagery. This was an escape
from the surrounding chaos of early
life into an ordered world.
At primary school her form teacher,
who was also an artist, encouraged her
to draw and paint and she continued her
art at grammar school and, though she
got good ‘O’ level results did not go on
to the sixth form but instead took a two
year foundation course at Bradford
College of Art (whose recent alumni
included David Hockney). There she
came under the wing of the sculptor
Michael Werner who suggested she
study at Hornsey College of Art in
London. ‘That was where my life really began,’ she says. She met a number
of interesting artists there and this was
also the time of great student unrest. A
number of her fellow artists were politically involved and for many it put
their degrees in jeopardy. In fact, such
was the disruption, the college closed
for much of her final year. Toni managed to continue working and gained a
first class honours degree. She worked
mainly in wood making large geometric constructions. Despite the relative
bulk of some of these pieces there is
a lightness about them that prefigures
her later work. ‘Though I think of myself as a sculptor,’ she explains, ‘I do
not think of myself as a sculptor in the
manner of Henry Moore, producing
big heavy pieces that sit on a pedestal.’
She worked in the evening as a technician at Hornsey College to fund her
MA at Chelsea School of Art and then
used this experience and the contact
and involvement it gave her with students to gain a position as a visiting
lecturer at various colleges.
16
Toni Davey with her work
In 1972 following a whirlwind romance she married a fellow student,
Andy Davey, whom she had first met
at Hornsey. They did not tell anyone,
not even their parents. Forty years
later they are still married. They got
a house together she says, ‘Thanks to
Ken Livingstone; the GLC was offering 100% mortgages on unmortgageable properties.’ When the children
arrived she turned away from her art
projects which, she explains, required
her total absorption. ‘It was either
my children or my art and of course I
chose my children,’ she says with feeling. Happy years were spent renovating houses and caring for the family.
However, there were two important respects in which she stayed in
touch with her art. Firstly, between
the demands of looking after her three
children she would make numerous
sketches and drawings, experimenting
with ideas which she would use later.
Secondly, Michael Werner put her in
touch with Derek Sugden (main engineer for the Sydney Opera House)
and the architectural partnership of
Ove Arup. She worked in their architectural model shop between 1974 and
1983, mostly on a part-time basis during the school holidays when Andy,
who had become a teacher could be at
home. ‘I was with a team of the most

9. creative people. They were not just
model makers but artists, poets, writers and musicians’. Her experience as
an architectural model maker had a decisive influence on her thinking about
sculpture.
Andy worked in various London
schools and in the summers they would
take their growing family to Combe
Martin in Devon and they came to
love the area. There were tears when
they had to return home and it seemed
time for a life change. Andy applied
for a job at West Somerset Community College in Minehead as head of Art
and was successful. A few years later
as their children became older Toni
also worked in the art department. ‘We
work very differently,’ she explains,
‘but our goals are the same.’ Their
teaching partnership lasted 12 years
and was a fruitful one. When Andy
started teaching at the college the Art
sixth form consisted of 5 students. By
the time they had both finished teaching it had increased to 40. She loved
her job but, as she had predicted, she
was unable to find the time to commit
to her art projects.
All three Davey children have studied art at university level Fay at Goldsmiths [Art and Art History], Leo at
Falmouth [illustration],Rose at Edinburgh [Art and Art History] and the
Slade [MA painting] and have careers
in the art world. When the youngest,
Rose, asked Toni to exhibit with her at
a new cafe in Minehead she said that
she felt she could only do so if it was
new work.
‘Go on then,’ said her daughter. She
was given two weeks. This was a critical moment. She worked day and night
to produce a collection of work using
cut and manipulated paper. Though
the origins of her designs can be seen
in her early work the more recent precedent which led her to work with paper was a project she had conducted
with her ‘A’ level art students based
around an interest she had developed
in Japanese design. For a little while
she had been interested in noshi; paper
folded into shapes and given as a gift.
She had noticed how her Japanese students had a particular understanding
for materials and their use in design,
particularly paper. She gave her sixth
form a project where they were given
a piece of card each into which they
were allowed to score and fold but
then had to be able to fold back flat:
This experience influenced the ideas
for her pieces for the exhibition at the
cafe with her daughter.
The cafe exhibition was the kick-start
she needed. An exhibition followed
at the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton.
She produced 26 pieces of A1 work
in 6 months, teaching in the day and
working all night. Gordon Young, who
was responsible for the remarkable
Comedy Carpet in Blackpool, noticed
her work and as a result she received a
commission with the architects Stanton
Williams to work on the new council
offices in Salisbury producing a 12
metre long drawing etched onto glass.
The building achieved civic building
of the year 2011.
Ever since she has been working full
time on her art, all the while developing and refining it in all its subtlety, and
is now reaping the rewards of her artistry and industry with an impressive
amount of representation and sales in
gallery spaces. When asked to explain
the reason for the interest in her work
she says, ‘ I think I am working in a
different way to anyone else.’
However, she is always looking for
new ways of expressing her ideas.
Recently she has been producing her
measured marks on paper with the aid
of a blowtorch. ‘I have to get just to
the point before it catches fire – and
sometimes it does,’ she says. When
she describes the necessity for this I
feel we approach something of her vi-
sion of her own art. ‘The marks have
to be in the paper not just on the surface. I have to show its fragility and
the fact that I am trying to control what
may be thought uncontrollable. I am
always interested in going from
two dimensions to three dimensions,
from planes that move outwards and
EVO
interconnect. It is understanding and
interpreting those connections that are
at the heart of my work.’
Recently, following a visit to the Alhambra, she has developed a fascination with Islamic architecture and is
very excited about a forthcoming trip
to India and China which will have an
undoubted influence on what she does
next. Now that Toni is free to work exclusively on her art, and with the confidence of her recent successes, you
feel that there is much more to come.
See Toni Davey’s work
Forthcoming Exhibitions:
Wimbledon Fine Art Gallery, 6-16 May
41 Church Road, Wimbledon Village, London, SW19 5QZ
Tel. 0208 944 6593
Beardsmore Gallery, November (Dates to be confirmed)
22-24 Prince Of Wales Road, Kentish Town, London NW5 3LG
Tel. 020 7485 0923
Brendon Books: A few examples of her works are on display here from the beginning of June.
Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Tel. 01823 337742

10. Summer Holiday

11. You Can’t Say No
Somerset author Tamasin Day-Lewis is an inspirational food writer who, in her
own words, writes ‘for people who appreciate good food, for people of all skills’.
Tamasin contributes regularly for English and American Vogue, Saveur, Stella
(The Telegraph Magazine), Sainsbury’s Magazine, Waitrose Food Illustrated and
Reader’s Digest. She has also written a host of successful cookbooks, including
Supper for a Song (Quadrille, 2009). She has also produced and directed many
television documentaries and appeared in two television series entitles Tamasin’s
Weekends and Great British Dishes.
Her latest book is full of recipes you just can’t say ‘no’ to. There is a sample quick
recipe below. If you are further tempted there is a reader offer of £15.00, £5.00
off the recommended price, when you bring a copy of this magazine or article to
Brendon, Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER (while stocks last).
Tel. 01823 337742 email:brendonbooks@gmail.com
HOT GREEK FILOS
This is a 5-minute wonder to prepare, followed by 20 minutes in a hot oven. I had the idea
of wrapping up all those lovely flavours you find in a Greek salad and parcelling them
into buttery-crisp filo leaves. I worried that the olives might overwhelm, but they didn’t. I
made two different styles, an envelope and a purse, and they both turned out equally gorgeous. Do not attempt to eat straight from the oven – they seem to retain heat like nothing
on earth. Makes 4.
10 leaves of filo (from a 250g packet
feuilles de filo)
30g unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp kalonji (nigella) seeds
Photo: Simon Wheeler
for the filling
1 small courgette
10–12 cherry tomatoes, halved
100g (½ standard packet) Greek feta
cheese
2 tsp chopped oregano leaves
12 small olives (optional), pitted and
halved
1 heaped tbsp organic Greek bio yoghurt
1 heaped tsp tahini
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 tsp chopped mint leaves
black pepper
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. For the filling, using a swivel vegetable peeler, cut the courgette lengthways into long ribbons and place in a
bowl with the halved tomatoes. Crumble in the feta in bite-sized pieces and add the oregano and olives, if using. Toss to mix.
For the dressing, stir the yoghurt, tahini, garlic and mint together in a small bowl. Tip the dressing onto the salad and scrunch over some pepper (no salt, the feta has it all). Turn to mix gently with a spoon.
Cut the filo sheets in half, to give 20 squares. To make envelope parcels, brush each filo square with butter and layer in 4 piles. Divide the filling between them, placing it in the centre and brush the surrounding filo with butter. Fold one side over, brush with butter, then fold the other
side over. Fold the ends in to fashion an envelope and brush all over with butter.
To make purses, brush the filo squares with butter and assemble in 4 piles, but stagger the squares, to make star-pointed piles. Plonk a large
spoonful of the filling in the centre of each pile, gather up the surrounding filo and scrunch into a purse. Brush with melted butter.
Place the filo packages on a baking sheet and sprinkle with the sesame and kalonji seeds. Bake for 20 minutes or until browned and crisp.
Transfer to a wire rack and leave for 10 minutes before eating.
15

12. Growing
up with
the yBas
Damien
Hirst, for
‘If you
want to
m a k e
money
you are
not going
to
go to art
school.’
His involvem e n t
with the
Y B A s
goes back
to
his
time in
Local author Jeremy
Cooper has recently
brought out two important
books on the art world.
Following a degree in art history at Cambridge, Jeremy Cooper pursued a career
in the art and antiques world; as a Sotheby’s auctioneer, an Antiques Roadshow
expert and an owner of his own antiques
business in Bloomsbury. He also wrote
an important book on Victorian and Edwardian furniture (which is still in print).
It may have seemed that his career was
settled and as he moved into his middle
years he would become a doyen of the
antique collecting world.
However, this was not to be. Sometime
in the 80’s he began taking an interest
in contemporary music and architecture
and this soon began to extend to the
The cover for yBas
Jeremy visited in his kitchen by Noah and Moses
visual arts. He started writing and has
had published several works of fiction,
and this April has seen the publication of an important non-fiction book
on contemporary artists: Growing Up:
the Young British Artists at 50. It explores their collective legacy when they
transformed the art world in the 1990’s,
staging dramatic exhibitions, typically
in disused warehouse or factory spaces
rather than commercial galleries, while
focusing in detail on five of the their
number: Anya Gallaccio, Damien Hirst,
Gary Hume, Michael Landy and Sarah
Lucas. It is their history told by someone who was there at the time, is familiar
with their work and knew several of the
artists personally.
So what was the appeal to him of these
young British artists (YBAs), which, he
observes, are no longer young (most of
them now in their fifties)? ‘It is their energy, openness and classlessness, I like,’
he comments and points out that though
they may each be financially secure now,
their original motivation was not to make
money, an accusation which has sometimes been particularly directed towards
20
Shoreditch where he had his antiques
business, much patronised by Gilbert
and George. Joshua Compton, a Courtauld art history graduate and curator,
was a tenant from 1991-1996 and played
a central role in the YBA movement.
After his untimely death, Jeremy wrote
a book, No fun Without You, anxious that
his life and his place in the YBAs story
should be properly recorded. (Ellipsis
Books, 2000). It was following this that
he became good friends with Gavin Turk
and Gary Hume.
Acquainted with some artist friends in
Somerset and, following an extended
stay with local farmer and author Janet
White, in the year of the publication
of No Fun Without You, he decided to
move to West Somerset and the secluded
Cothelstone Estate where he now lives.
Here he finds the solitude he needs to
write his books while at the same time
he maintains a lifeline with London and
his artist friends, which has proved particularly important for the research into
his books.
There has been much written about the

13. YBAs so why is it that he felt another
book was necessary? ‘I wanted to describe the human process of being an
artist, he explains, ‘their relationship to
each other, how they support each other
and its influence on the creative process. I don’t believe this has been done
before.’ Jeremy’s personal knowledge
has been supplemented with a series of
interviews to produce a book rich in anecdote and observations. It also includes
a number of illustrations and photos provided by the artists themselves, many of
them published for the first time. If early
reviews are anything to go by, he appears
to have succeeded in his aim. Art critic
Portrait of Jeremy Cooper by
Tracy Emin
Louisa Buck has described his book as
‘Fresh, beautifully written....the last word
on the subject.’and cultural historian Marina Warner has commented: ‘The book
is riveting, filled with a sense of a spe-
The cover for Artists’ Postcards
cial world, a particular atmosphere and
spirit, and many remarkable characters
who synergised together. I find the treatment of the YBA as a group - a community like a colony of worker bees or ants
- very fruitful and convincing, and the
melancholy stories of the burnouts significant as symptoms of that community
too. The archive stuff is amazing and the
whole book admirably laid out.’
In his other new book, Artists’ Postcards, Jeremy covers a subject never
tackled before; postcard images by artists themselves, either original work or
additions or alterations to existing postcards. This has become an increasing
widespread phenomenon in the last 20
years or so and this is reflected by the
fact that the majority of the images are
from contemporary artists. However,
Jeremy also explores its origins and
there are examples from the early 1900’s
onwards. Artists include George Grosz,
David Hockney, Susan Hiller, Ben Vautier, Gordon Matta-Clark, Gilbert and
George, Gavin Turk, and Tacia Dean.
There are over 400 images in this beautifully produced book taken from his own
collection, most of which are currently
on show at Spike Island.
The solitude that Jeremy has found in
Somerset does not equate with a relaxed
lifestyle. When at his home he spends
most off his day working, typically from
eight in the morning until ten at night.
The YBAs book, for example, has been
four years in the making. He has few daily contacts save for the sheep which he
looks after with a neighbouring friend.
He is ambitious for his writing, both
fiction and non fiction, commenting
‘There is not much time and much to
do.’
Bibliography:
Growing Up: The Young British Artists
at 50. Prestel.
Artists’ Postcards. Reaktion Books
Kath Trevelyan. Serpent’s Tale.
Victorian and Edwardian Furniture and
Interiors. Thames & Hudson .
Ruth, The Folded Lie and No Fun Without You are currently unavailable as
new. The Folded Lie won the Guardian
Book of the Year in 1998.
Jeremy Cooper Talk
Jeremy Cooper will be talking about both his new books at Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton on Tuesday 29 May at 7.00 pm R.S.V.P. Brendon Books Tel: 01823 337742 Email:brendonbooks@gmail.com. Tickets are £4.00 refundable against the purchase of either book.
You can also see over 200 artists postcards as represented in the book at the following exhibition until
17 June 2012:
Spike Island Exhibition: The Artists’ Postcard Show, 133 Cumberland Road Bristol, Avon BS1 6UX
0117 929 2266

15. The
Shining
& Per-importance
in
of
a
is a consuming pas- came from more traditional artists
sion.’
such as Van Dyke. Bath Academy
a light on Literature,of ArtMusic a degree course at
Gordon describes Art, and then
formance modern Lancaster University opened up
his art as
Taunton & West Somerset
representational art. new exciting areas for him. Seeing
However, before he the abstract art of Frank Stella was a
semin a l
moment.
‘
I
suddenly
g o t
what
mode r n
a r t
w a s
possible to make a living from your art. (Brian
Clarke’s stained glass
can now be found
in locations all over
the world).
His partner, Alex
Leadbeater, was selected by
the painter
and poet
Adrian
Henri for
the Serepentine
G a l l e r y.
Another
example to
him that it
was possible to make it as an artist. They moved to Milton Keynes to be nearer to the art scene
in London. While Gordon was
producing art at this time he was
The most important thing
not successful enough to make a
living for meit. However, trueput
from was to stay he to
my vision,’ another enhis creative eye to he explains.
When he left art school he
deavour, selecting good quality
m u n i t y ists such as Sarah Lucascan be
and Tracy
was second hand clothes–
to Gordon Fauld’s art
and stylishalready determined toGordon Faulds feels wente r e art about.’ But his influences were not
wh
Emin were making their mark.They
found other artists. ‘I began to
school
his onlyon display at present read
what follow the life ofterm artist
we would now the vinmany of were chosen for the British Art Show
as much and selling them
i n s p i r a t i o at The Crescent Gallery in
n widely and was a great admirer of
tage clothes – as much as he was
shift in
able. He saw manyThen came the current crop of Young British Art- which had made a radicalSeventh diof his friends
films like Bergman’s
Seal.’
Taunton which he runs with
on Portobello market.
rection. However, though he was mixleaveaart school and become art
His art tookLiz. direction followa new
a move to gallery in Notting Hill.
his with YBA’s Gordon was finding
ing partner,
teachers However, the gallery
ing the minimalist school.
Exciting times.claiming that they would
the primary influence for his own art
remain The closure of the galartists and still produce
After leaving art school he was
did not last.
Gallery in particular,exhibitions
elsewhere,Opening Times
works of art but this almost never
lucky enough to meet the artist
lery also marked the end of his long
Monday - Saturday
by Julian Schnabel and Lucian Freud
happened. Alex.
and stained glass specialist, Brian
relationship with ‘It is easy to become
in Whitechapel. Gordon turned to11.00am -who showed him that it was
compromisedto Shoreditch and
and distracted. Art
Clarke, 5.00pm
He found his way
wards portraiture. There followed a
Other times by appointment,
rented out an artists studio of which
number of exhibitions which were
call:
many were available at a reasonable
well received though there were not
rent at that time. Here he found himTelephone 01823 turned towards
too many sales. He 321302
self part of a vibrant artistic comEmail art@crescentcontemporary.co.uk

16. ALBURY HOUSE GROUP PRACTICE
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Regular Classes
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Wed evenings 6.15 - 7.15 : Continuers Yoga Class
Wed evenings: 7.45 - 9.00: Beginners
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Wiveliscombe Community Hall:
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phasis on precise breath work. I have taught a whole range of people
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81

17. Without the WooWoo
book of new and ancient self-development insights (at this critical time in
human evolution) but their book would
be different as it would follow Austin’s fundamental principle of keeping
things simple. Their book wouldn’t try
and baffle readers with technical jargon
or heavy handed religiosity, it would
teach complex concepts about human
behaviour and consciousness in a simple, straight forward way ... without the
woo woo!
A self development book that
keeps things
simple, but how
did one of the
authors develop
a passion for
simplicity?
As a young electronic
engineer working for
EMI in the 1970’s, Austin Wyse encountered
highly complicated and
technical problems on a
daily basis. Every day a
multitude of faulty machines would land on his
workbench and it was
his job to repair them,
frequently without any
guidance at all. In fact
Austin even remembers
attending a training lecture about the
latest piece of machinery he would be
working on only to find out that the
teacher of the seminar didn’t even understand how it operated!
Through hours of painstaking repairs,
often only getting results through a
process of trial and error, Austin soon
began to realise that the best approach
to take with any piece of equipment in
need of repair was a simple one. While
his colleagues wrestled with diagrams
of circuit boards that resembled spaghetti junction, Austin would take a
step back and ask obvious, straight-forward questions before he jumped in and
caused even more confusion.
After leaving EMI and running his
own successful businesses, Austin went
on to train in various complementary
therapies and developed remarkable
skills for reconnecting energy circuits
N. B. Woo woo is the term used by
skeptics to dismiss anything they see as
‘out there’ or too new age.
Hear Austin & Dawn
in people. The important part of this story
is, although Austin was now dealing with
human beings and not pieces of electronic
equipment, he never lost sight of that fundamental principle he had taught himself
as an engineer; to keep things simple. No
matter how complicated the problem might
first appear.
Many years later, Austin moved from London to Taunton and teamed up with Dawn
Bailey, a Kinesiologist from Bristol who
also shared an immense passion for delivering messages of health and wellbeing in
a clear and concise way.
However the biggest problem the pair
faced was recommending mind, body spirit
books to their clients. Whenever a suggestion was made the feedback was the same;
‘it’s too complicated,’ ‘it’s too long winded,’ or ‘it’s too technical/spiritual.’
So they decided to compile their own
19
Tuesday 12 June 7.00pm
@
Brendon Books, Bath
Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
Austin Wyse and Dawn
Bailey will be talking about
their new book, answering
questions and signing copies.
Tickets are £4.00 and include light refreshments.
Available from Brendon
Books: Tel. 01823 337742
email: brendonbooks@
gmail.com or by personal
visit. Books also available
from Brendon Books @
£9.99.

18. A Very
Fortunate
Man
His influence on music in
Taunton and West Somerset has been profound.
Over the last 50 years
John Cole has, as much
as any other single person, been responsible for
bringing live performances of high quality classical music to the area.
In deciding to move from London to
Somerset in 1960 John Cole was returning to the county of his birth. Born in
1935 he attended North Town Primary
School. At 11 he gained a scholarship
to Taunton School. ‘In retrospect this
completely altered my whole life and
expanded my horizons,’ he muses. He
became passionate about sport, studied
scholarship level science and took piano
lessons with Herbert Knott, the Organist
at St Mary’s Church.
He did, however, suffer from the common prejudice against boys studying piano and was labelled a sissy by some of
the other boys. He began to cut lessons.
His parents intervened and insisted that
he continue lessons until the end of term.
His mother accompanied him to make
sure he turned up. ‘By the end of term
they may have regretted it,’ he explains.
For now he had become obsessive about
his music, rising early to practise the piano before he went to school and putting
in extra time wherever he could. The
result was that at 17 he was studying for
a performing diploma on piano. How-
John Cole rehearsing
ever, this conflicted with his advanced
science studies. There were just not
enough hours in the day for both. It was
his father, an employee of the tax office,
who made the decision. ‘Uncharacteristically,’ said John,’ ‘he metaphorically
thumped the table and explained that
there was only one way to go: he told me
that you would have to be truly brilliant
to make a living out of music whereas
you would be much more likely to make
a reasonable living out of decent science
qualifications.’ He believes his father’s
attitude was in part due to his experience
of the depression of the thirties.
For the moment music was put on the
back burner and John went to study
medicine at St. Thomas’s Hospital, London where he found he actually enjoyed
his medical studies. Music, though was
not to take a back seat for too long for St.
Thomas’s was, in John’s words, ‘a very
musical hospital.’ It had an excellent
choral society and performed stunning
Christmas shows involving a number of
people from the Cambridge Footlights
who made up a good part of the intake.
John became involved with the choir
and writing revues. He was taken on by
John Birch as a Gentleman Chorister at
All Saints, Margaret Street, a leading
London Choir School, remaining there
for four-and-a-half years. They sang a
full mass every Sunday morning, from
Byrd to Schubert and Rachmaninov.
6
A nurse friend who was a good singer
told him that her teacher, Nora Gruhn,
a Prima Donna at Covent Garden, was
looking for someone to play Figaro. She
not only offered John the part, but she
gave him free singing lessons at her Maida Vale Studio each Saturday morning.
‘This was such a big thing.’ It meant,
in effect, that he was receiving a music
education at the same time as he was
studying medicine.
On moving back to Somerset in 1960
he found that his senior partner had written an opera ‘ O Ye Gods’ which was
staged in 1961. John sang the lead role
in what was the founding of the Wellington Operatic Society. Then he was
asked by Rev. Eddie Heathcote, the
vicar at Ashbrittle Church, if he could
put on a summer concert at the newly
refurbished church. An advert was put
in the Somerset County Gazette asking
for ‘able singers.’ He received 40 positive replies and formed the Somerset
Summer Chorus. A further concert followed at Milverton the following year.
By 1976, when they gave two performances of Verdi’s Requiem in Wellington
to packed audiences in 90 degree heat,
there were 168 in the choir, tiered right
to the top of the church. One of the soloists was a tall soprano, Linda Marshall,
to whom he gave a recording of the
Requiem. Eighteen months later he and
Linda were married. The Somerset Summer Chorus ran for 21 years, presenting
major choral works (and the marriage
has lasted even longer).
When the Summer Chorus ended he
was appointed musical director of the
Taunton Choral Society, a post he held
for 15 years during which 50 concerts
were performed. Further invitations followed and at one time he was musical
director of four choirs.
During the period from 1976 to 2002
John sang some 40 major roles for Somerset Opera, from Osmin and Sarastro to
Britten’s Noah as well as directing Carmen, Tosca, Aida, and La Bohème.
He realised that at some stage he would
have to narrow his focus and in 1994
he founded the chamber choir, Amici.

19. Many of its members are solo singers in
their own right and the choir has several
overseas tours to its credit, including to
Italy, USA, France and Belgium. While
they do a good deal of what he calls ‘the
serious stuff’ (the Mozart Requiem was
performed at St. Mary’s Church, Taunton at the end of March to a large and
appreciative audience) they also perform ‘let your hair down concerts’, Gershwin, Cole Porter and the like. There
are two such examples in the forthcoming months. In keeping with the festive
atmosphere of this Jubilee Year, Amici
will perform a concert named ‘Amici on
the Lighter Side’ in Wellington Parish
Church on 30th June, and on September
22nd they will team up with a jazz trio
(which includes another local maestro,
Ron Prentice on bass) at Kingston St
Mary Parish Church to perform in a concert named ‘Hoorah!’
Amici have always considered it important to perform works by living composers and have given a dozen or so premieres since the choir was formed.
In February 2006 John founded Or
chestraWest and remains its artistic director. Its purpose has been to bring
professional symphonic orchestral playing to Taunton and the West Country. It
is an ambitious project which receives
no public funding and has no concert
hall in which to base itself. Somehow it
survives, is available for hire, and very
often plays in association with choral
The Amici Choir
societies and chamber choirs, including
of course Amici. Past performances have
included works by Elgar, Brahms, Sibelius, Strauss, Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky,
Beethoven, Wagner and Grieg.
Recently, having received support from
the Mayor’s Charity, John has also been
given significant funding from a local
company towards bringing voice and
instrumental teachers into local primary
schools. He also ‘scribbles’ fiction and
enjoys cooking.
Overall he considers himself extremely fortunate. ‘There is huge joy in the
life I’ve led. In addition to the immense
satisfaction from forty years as an old
fashioned, rather non-PC family doctor
I have over the years become associated
with a significant number of truly magnificent musicians. It is wonderful where
this journey has taken me, even though I
think of myself as a bit of a dabbler.’
However, one thing still irks. It is the
lack of that all important venue. ‘If we
had a venue such as the Mecca we could
set up an independent body, a conservatoire with administration, teaching and
an auditorium for performance all in the
same building – and, as far as the other
performing arts are concerned, we could
attract major touring companies like the
Royal Shakespeare Company for which
at the moment we cannot offer a large
enough venue’.
It is a magnificent vision and entirely at
one with the often voiced opinion that we
need to make our town centres places of
entertainment and culture in order to survive and thrive in the current economic
climate. One just hopes that someone is
listening and is bold enough to take the
opportunity.
Forthcoming Amici Concerts:
Erica Eloff, South African soprano,
who performed in the Mozart Requiem
at St Mary’s before Easter
Amici on the Lighter Side, 30 June Wellington Parish Church.
‘HOORAH’, 22 September With Ron Prentice Jazz Trio, Kingston St Mary Parish Church
Jennifer McQueen Memorial Concert, 11 November, OrchestraWest with Amici, R Strauss-Four Last Songs-Elizabeth WattsBrahms Requiem
Tickets: www.amicichoir.org.uk
8

20. Inspired
International Premier
In celebration of the arrival of the Olympic Torch in
Taunton, the Brewhouse
presents the international
premiere of a powerful
new drama by the exciting
South West based playwright Natalie McGrath.
The Cultural Olympiad’s
ideal of sport and art in
dialogue with one another has inspired this work,
and as such Rift has been
granted the Inspire Mark.
Natalie McGrath started out her playwriting career by having short pieces
of work produced in Exeter. However,
It wasn’t until she was chosen to be
one of ten writers for Hall for Cornwall Arts Council funded project Responses, in 2006, that she thought she
might successfully write a full-length
play. This project explored how the
plays of the English Renaissance still
have resonance today. Workshops were
undertaken with representatives from
across the theatre industry, including
Shakespeare’s Globe and National
Theatres. Lasting nearly a year, the
project culminated in five plays being
selected to have extracts performed in
a showcase of work. Natalie’s play
about two maps being made, one a legal map and the other a map of the stars
(illegal in Elizabethan times) was one
of those chosen. She was particularly
interested in Christopher Marlowe, his
play Doctor Faustus and his exploration of the occult.
She felt she learned a huge amount in
this process. ‘It opened up my wider
field of vision,’ she explains. In particular, she found working with director
Anna Coombs as a mentor, a fruitful
experience.‘ She helped me tackle my
play in terms of how it could work theatrically in an ambitious way, which I
haven’t forgotten,’ she comments. She
was inspired and gained the invaluable
experience and contact with expertise
that she needed to help her develop her
poetic style of writing. Not long after
completing Responses, Natalie left her
full-time job as a teacher to put her
heart and soul into becoming a playwright.
In 2007, Natalie participated in a
weekend workshop at the Brewhouse
in Taunton. She was one of five writers, who were given a brief to write
two new scenes to work on with two
actors and a director over the course of
the weekend. This was the beginning
of Coasting.
Natalie worked with Robert Miles
(Director and Chief Executive of the
Brewhouse), for whom she has high
regard. ‘I really enjoyed the collaborative way Robert worked over the
course of that weekend. He brought a
freedom to the discussions and asked
me direct and useful questions, giving
me the right to not always know the
answer, which opened up a range of
possibilities about what it might be.’
For the first time Natalie believed she
was in a position to become a professional playwright and with funding
support from Arts Council South West,
she was able to continue working on
her practice on her writing.
Coasting wasn’t further developed
until much later as Natalie was commissioned by the Northcott Theatre

21. and Royal Albert Memorial Museum
in Exeter to collaborate with groups of
young people to write four new short
plays about living west of the river Exe in
a cross-generational project called Living
Here. The short plays were performed
for the community upon whose stories
they were based and had engaged with.
This was further valuable experience for
Natalie in learning her craft.
Natalie was then invited to tender for
Theatre West’s new season Writing in
the Margins at the Alma Tavern, Bristol
between September and November. She
was one of six writers who were selected
to submit a full script and one of the final four to have their play produced. Her
play, Metal Remains, about female soldiers in Iraq, was then shortlisted for the
prestigious Meyer Whitworth Award in
association with the National Theatre.
Though it didn’t win, Natalie was encouraged by this to continue writing and
developing Coasting. Firstly, through
the Hall for Cornwall’s Beachcombing
project in association with Theatre 503
and then by Sharon Clark (Literary Producer) who asked her to submit a script
for the Ferment Programme at Bristol Old
Vic. She submitted Coasting and it was
given a reading in January 2010. This
was the beginning of a rigorous and fruitful dialogue between Natalie and Sharon,
who became central in working with her
to fully realise the potential of the script.
Coasting was the first full-length play to
be given a full production of work by a
Bristol Ferment artist in 2011. The production was well received by audiences
and attracted some very favourable reviews. It was an extraordinary experience for Natalie.
Since her playwriting weekend at the
Brewhouse she had stayed in touch with
Robert Miles and last year discussed the
idea of writing Rift and developing it as
part of another Arts Council application.
The application also supported her initial
development of The Peace, which is a
play about Mo Mowlam and the last 48
hours of the signing of the Good Friday
Agreement. This was developed through
Bristol Ferment. Six months were spent
working on The Peace and six months on
Rift, which is now coming into fruition in
May at the Brewhouse this year thanks to
further development support from ACE
South West. This is very pleasing for Natalie as there is never a guarantee that a
play will actually be produced.
At the centre of this new play is the idea
of how different forces or agencies from
will be based outside of Bristol from early May.
What is apparent is that the process of
producing a drama is an ever changing
one, often involving collaboration and
input from a variety of sources, and this
will remain true right up to the first performance of Rift as the involvement of
Kathryn O’Reilly & Ayodeji Aloba who star in Rift
different parts of the world might meet,
metaphysically or literally. The main protagonists are a Kenyan runner and Olympic hopeful in the Rift Valley and a woman
on Exmoor who runs in a pair of trainers
that do not belong to her. ‘I thought there
was a relationship there,’ and providing
an insight into her approach to the creative process she adds, ‘I tend to go with
my instincts and develop the language of
the world of the play rather than nailing
the story right at the beginning.’ It was
as though her instincts to produce a play
in the South West about this subject were
legitimised when she discovered that the
Kenyan running team for London 2012
the actors, director and creative team introduce further opportunities for change
and development.
It is also clear that even in the thick of her
preparations for her current play Natalie
always has another idea bubbling just
below the surface. As she finishes the interview she talks enthusiastically about
a plan she has for next year to stage a
project to commemorate the Great 1913
Suffrage Pilgrimage from Land’s End to
Hyde Park, exactly a hundred years after
the original event. It sounds intriguing.
Let’s hope that one comes off - and the
Mo Mowlam play too. But first, we have
Rift to enjoy.
See Rift at The Brewhouse
Thu 17 May - Sat 19 May 3pm, 7.45pm
Brewhouse Theatre & Arts Centre
Coal Orchard, Taunton, Somerset TA1 1JL
Box office: 01823 283244 www.thebrewhouse.net

22. Harry Frier:Artist & Recorder
of Taunton’s Past
Harry Frier is the one Taunton artist from the late Victorian-Edwardian period
whose work is still known
today. There is now an
opportunity to learn more
about his legacy with an exhibition of his art in May and
a talk by Jeremy Harvey on
his life and work at Somerset College in June.
What quickly became evident to Jeremy
Harvey in researching Harry Frier was
that here was a man about which there
were a number of contradictions and surprises: an artist who is avidly collected
and, increasingly, fetches good prices, yet
his work is of variable quality; associated
with Taunton though not a native; trained
as a portrait painter yet is best known for
watercolours and his pictures of landscapes; and an artist who experienced
some early recognition but died in poverty, his last years an apparent tragedy.
Our knowledge of Harry Frier’s life up
to now, Jeremy acknowledges, is largely due to the diligence of local author
Michael Jones who has written an excellent book on him, the result of years of
research and endeavour, published in its
most recent incarnation in 2002 though
now, sadly, out of print.
Jeremy’s own interest in art began with
weekly lectures by the art master at his
school. In the sixth form they would go
out into the countryside and he would
paint watercolours. His family did not
have any especial interest in art though
his father would sometimes take him to
art galleries. At Oxford University where
he studied history he attended art lectures
by Eric Newton.
He has maintained his interest in art
throughout his career and headship of
Bishop Fox’s School in Taunton (where
he oversaw its transition from the site
in Kingston Road to its current site off
South Road). However, it was of necessity, a spare time interest.
When he retired as head teacher he decided that he wanted art to come more to the
fore and began studying art more closely
and attending weekly painting sessions
on a Friday morning, learning from other
artists and beginning to appreciate the
skills and techniques required. ‘By doing
so,’ he explains, ‘ you can read an artists
The New Inn. Wilton, Taunton, 1898 (Now Vivary Arms) SANHS
Harry Frier
work more intelligently.’ Though modest
about his skills he has sold some paintings on his own account.
Jeremy began teaching art as part of the
adult education programme at Somerset
College. When the funding ceased he was
invited to give an open lecture along with
other speakers. The talk he gave was well
received and he was invited to continue
his lectures in the Conference Centre at
Somerset College. Since 2004-2005 he
has been giving approximately three talks
a year at the college, starting with Giotto
and the ‘old masters’ progressing through
to nineteenth and twentieth century artists
such as Sickert, Degas and Manet.
Despite his interest and involvement in
art he had no formal art qualifications.
However, an opportunity arose in an unexpected way when he and his wife visited a friend, Daphne, who they knew to
be the niece of Stanley Spencer. As they
were leaving, Daphne commented that
she wished someone would do something
with the letters she had from Stanley
Spencer. Seeing Jeremy’s evident interest
she went to a cupboard and pulled out a
box folder of 53 letters in pristine condition.
Excited by the find, Jeremy read the letters and gave a talk on them as part of his
Conference Centre programme (to which
he invited Daphne). Encouraged by the
response, he contacted Paul Gough,
RWA, at the time Professor and Head of
Art and Media Studies at The University
of the West of England who he knew to
be bringing a book out on Stanley Spencer entitled Journey to Burghclere, telling

23. him of his intention to do an MPhil on
the subject. Gough agreed to supervise
Jeremy. In total the MPhil took four years
under the tutelage of Mike Hill of Leeds
University. Jeremy says candidly, ‘He
gave strong opinions about how it could
be improved ‘ insisting that Jeremy write
some biographical details of every person
mentioned in the letters. ‘It was as hard
as anything I have ever done,’ admits Jeremy. However, in the end he must have
thought it was worth it for Mike Hill
commented on its completion that it was
work of national importance. Jeremy formally received his MPhil for his work on
Stanley Spencer in 2011 and is currently
in talks with a publisher in Bristol.
Harry Frier is a departure from Jeremy’s
usual talks for Frier was not considered
a great painter – though he could at times
be a very good one. However, he is hugely significant as a recorder of public and
private buildings and characters within
‘Tauntonians of the future will
owe Mr Frier a great debt for
having preserved for them the
sketches of many of the old
buildings in Taunton which
have now been demolished.’
His obituary by Charles Tite,
Somerset County Gazette, 26
Feb 1921.
Taunton, leaving an important legacy of
paintings and sketches of Taunton and
the surrounding area which he painted
towards the end of the nineteenth and the
beginning of the twentieth century.
Despite his association with Taunton,
Harry Frier was not a local man. He was
born in Edinburgh in 1849 and went to
Edinburgh Art School. He moved to London in 1878 during the ‘great depression’
unable to secure enough commissions locally to make a living from his paintings.
He was not a success in London either but
obtained a job in a London music hall as
a scenery painter where he met and fell in
love with one of the chorus girls, Kezia
(Kate) Dyer.
Kate’s father had died in 1872 leaving
Kate some property at Creech St Michael
and Bathpool. They were married in Taunton Registry Office on 1st March 1881
living first with Kate’s mother at Hyde
Lane Bathpool. He began to rent a room
in East Reach for use as a studio. Though
he had developed his artistic skills as a
portrait painter he found the few commissions he gained for portraits unprofitable
and time consuming and turned instead to
painting houses and views, approaching
the owners of larger properties to com-
mission paintings
In 1891 he gave up his East Reach studio and moved to 11 Greenbrook Terrace.
He sold watercolours at Alfred Vickery’s
artist materials shop and monochrome
watercolours to Bath Place photographer
William Corbett in imitation of photographic prints. In 1895 he moved to Bath
Place though they returned to Greenbrook Terrace (this time to number 15),
two years later. He also had a fruitful association with Charles Tite, secretary of
the Somerset Archaeological and Natural
History Society who paid Harry to produce sketches of local scenes and characters and allowed him to sell them on.
By the early 1900’s, however, he was
struggling to make ends meet. His relationship with Kate had deteriorated. and
he began to drink too much. As a result,
the quality of his painting declined. Kate
died on the 31st January 1912, after
catching a chill. Harry was inconsolable.
His niece, Lottie, took him into their own
house but his behaviour became intolerable and he went to the workhouse in 1917.
He was in and out of the workhouse over
the next few years and died there on 19
February 1921.
There are two significant public collections at the Somerset Museum in
Taunton and at Taunton Deane Borough
Council, (though many of the pictures are
unframed) as well as one or two important private collections. It is estimated
that he produced between 2-3,000 water
colour drawings for Tite. It is not known
exactly how many completed paintings
he produced though Michael Jones has
catalogued 600 (Harry Frier’s Taunton,
Michael Jones. Somerset Books, 2002).
‘Cockles, a penny a plate’, 1904 SANHS
Harry Frier Art Exhibition
12-23 May at Mendip House, High Street, Taunton TA1 3SX. Paintings and sketches will be on show from
private and public collections. For further information contact Somerset College. Tel. 01823 366366
Jeremy Harvey Talk: ‘Harry Frier:His Life & Times’
June 11th 7.00 – 9.00 at the Conference Centre, Somerset College, Welliington Rd, Taunton TA1 5AX
There will be an interval to look at originals and cards.
Cost: £5.00 payable at the door. Enquiries to Sam MacIntyre. Tel. 01823 252934
31

24. Poets’ Corner
John Stuart chairs the Somerset poets’ group, Fire River Poets. He has broadcast on BBC Somerset and 10 Radio, Wiveliscombe: and he runs the Poetry
at The Brewhouse series of readings and poetry cafe. The younger son of
Scottish parents and from a farming background, John is married with four
children and three grandchildren. He speaks French, German and Russian and
retired a few years ago from customer relationship management in order to
focus on poetry which has completely taken over his life.
Harvest watch
Son
He stands in deep shadow while the sun grinds
the day off on its stone. The gun stock warm
on his arm, hot boots tight to his feet, sweat
beads in his eyes, he has stood a full slow,
torpid watch and waits for the midday mark.
You should not imagine that
he’s ever doing nothing. If you find him
thrown across the sofa, head
propped blankly on a hand and eyes
fixed on the sightless distance,
You will not see him unless the husky bam!
of his twelve bore makes you look for movement;
and a few heads may turn, leading your eye.
A figure may bend in the black shadows
as his dog fetches and lies still again
don’t ask: he’s occupied.
You may imagine that he’s lost
in a desert without words,
a waste with no horizon
for the sun to climb. Life is a great jigsaw:
at his heel. Then they will flicker and fade
under the mottled light at the field’s edge.
If there had to be gods of the harvest,
talismans of childhood, and there were –
oh, yes, there were – it would be the watching men.
maybe he’s lost a piece
and needs to work on where it dropped.
Or love is a well
down which he may have thrown
his last penny and is breathless
Men trusted with guns. But he does not see himself
in the role of god. By his own secular measure,
blinking and staring, shifting his weight, loosening
his arms, stifling his yawns, he’s after rabbits
and that’s all it is, watching as the field
waiting for the splash. Or fortune
has an eye the size of the world
and he could be, he could just be
staring into the eye of fortune
trying not to blink.
is shaved of sanctuary. Let the boys ape
the rhythm of his gun, the smooth ease
of its snap, lock and glide to the shoulder;
the kick of its recoil. Let them laugh,
as their eyes lust for his metal monster.
Read More of John’s Poetry
John Stuart’s poetry collection, Word of
Mouth, priced £8.00 which includes the
above poems is available from Brendon
Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
Tel. 01823 337742
email: brendonbooks@gmail.com
www.brendonbooksonliine.co.uk
A man should not be turned by admiration. …
But when his son has come to the field’s edge,
he finds the majesty in a straight back
and high head, wants the boy’s eyes to pay
unmistaken homage to his dark shape.
36

25. LAMP is a new magazine, its purpose is to shine a light on literature, art, music
and performance in the Vale of Taunton and the surrounding area.
Running my own bookshop, organising a number of talks and Taunton’s first literary festival has made me realise what a wealth of talent and artistic endeavour
there is in our community and how often it goes unreported. In any month you are
likely to be able to see high quality musical offerings in our local churches, award
winning drama, displays from visual artists with an international reputation and
talks by highly acclaimed authors.
At the same time I believe there is a willingness and desire to embrace the arts by
the wider community. The magazine will include interviews with authors, artists,
musicians and dramatists, reviews and comments, a short stories and poetry, and, at
the centre of the magazine, a calendar of events for the following two months.
Business: a strong local economy and a successful artistic culture so often go hand
in hand.
Listings are free though they can be highlighted with an advert.
Within the magazine you will also find interviews with authors, artists, musicians
and dramatists, reviews and articles
I alos believe there is an increasing appetite

26. Made in Heaven
Following a successful
dance career, Mark Bruce
has become one of our
foremost choreographers
with close to a score of
productions to his credit
under the company that
bears his name, yet he
did not turn to dance until
he was seventeen.
Mark Bruce’s greatest ambition as a
child was to draw comic books, despite
the fact that both his mum and dad were
dancers. He explains, ‘It was not that I
rebelled against it, it was more a question of being surrounded by something
that you didn’t realise is front of you.’
Though seventeen is rather late to become involved in dance, he believes
it is easier to start late as a boy rather
than a girl where there is so much competition from a young age (though it is
Love & War
photo: Stephen Berkeley-White
beginning to change now). Showing the
determination and bloodymindedness
of youth and a willingness to work hard
he made it into the Rambert School of
Ballet and Contemporary Dance. He
does not believe he had a special natural talent and that, in any case, natural
talent is not enough on its own. ‘You
have to be fit to take part in professional
dance, rather like an athlete, and have
the mentality to keep working at it.’ In
fact, when he left Rambert he did not
class himself as a good dancer. He believes that his dancing skills really developed as a result of the influence of
his peers, professional dancers and choreographers after he left Rambert - allied to his willingness to stick at it. ‘It is
a long process,’ he observes.
His interest in choreography began as
soon as he went to dance school. In fact
there was a time when he thought he
might give up on dancing. However, he
realised that if he wanted to really understand movement and the vocabulary
of dance then he would need to pursue
his dancing career. This and the fact that
he made full use of his time at Rambert
to develop his choreographic skills – he
choreographed at least ten pieces before
he left ballet school - meant that by the
time he moved into choreography he
had a head start. He had also taken part
in the occasional tour with his father,
who had become a choreographer, and
observed how the process worked. He
likes to become involved in the total
creative process, putting together the
sets and design as well as the dance
movements. ‘I work with some great
collaborators and designers and give
them a lot of freedom because I want
their creativity to feed in to the overall
vision,’ But he is very specific about the
overall image that he wants to achieve.
He works visually and is influenced
by the movies. ‘I am trying to create a
world on stage,’ he explains.
Every piece of his work is original
even when he is drawing upon a classical story like Medea. Though he did
not deviate from the essential story and
34
Mark Bruce
photo: Hugo Glendinning
the emotional content, he gave Medea
a fury which is not in the original play
though it proves an invaluable device
for carrying out interpreting some of
Medea’s wishes.
As Mark’s career in dance and choreography developed he began working with a number of professional
dance companies both in the UK and
abroad, including Rosas, Bern Ballet,
Inrodan, Extemporary Dance Theatre
and DJazzex. It was in 1991 that he
launched The Mark Bruce Company.
Productions included Moonlight Drive
(1991), Lovesick (1995), Helen, Angel (1996), Horse, BlackBird/RedRose
(1998) , Dive (1999) and Dance Hall At
Louise Point (1997) - a celebrated collaboration with Polly Jean Harver and
John Parish.
In 2000 he and his partner decided they
wanted to move out of London to bring
up their family. He had fond memories
of holidays in the West Country as a
child. Frome, which was already known
to him, was, therefore, a natural choice.
He finds it a magical place. ‘It is a very
special town. There are so many creative people living here.’
He took a break to pursue other projects
after his move returning to make Fever
To Tell for Probe, Green Apples for
the ROH’s Clore Studio Summer Collection and Bad History for the Place
Prize 2006. In September 2006 Sea of
Bones premiered at Frome, Somerset’s
Merlin Theatre, followed by a UK tour

27. throughout 2007.
Mark’s theatre work includes Manchester Royal Exchange productions
of The Bacchae (premiere November
2010), Antigone, The Glass Menagerie, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Antony &
Cleopatra, Peer Gynt, As You Like It,
Fast Food, Still Time and The Way of the
World. He directed Rick Bland’s Thick
for the Edinburgh Fringe and in Canada
and New York. He has also worked in a
variety of new media, screen and interactive stage productions with Ruth Gibson & Bruno Martelli of Igloo. He has
written music for his own productions
and also for art installations, films and
video promotions for the company.
Mark created The Sky or a Bird for
Probe’s 2008 UK tour and Stars for
Dance South West’s Rural Tour 2008.
He co-devised Skellig- an opera based
on the book by David Almond – for
the Sage Gateshead in 2008. Bruce’s
Crimes of Passion, commissioned by
Bern Ballet, premiered in January 2010.
The Mark Bruce Company premiered
its new full-evening work, Love and
War, at the Tobacco Factory Theatre on
7 May 2010 followed by a U.K. tour.
Medea, his second commission by Bern
Ballet, premiered in February 2011.
He is concerned that there have been
so many cuts in grants to the arts in
Somerset, affecting, for example, his
local theatre, The Merlin, in Frome.
He believes that the arts are not valued
or held in such high esteem as they are
in the rest of western Europe where
they receive more funding and have
a greater status. He also believes that
this holds true in the education system
where he thinks much more could be
Scene from Made in Heaven
‘You could describe it
as Dante’s Inferno meets
science fiction and horror with a bit of Wizard of
Oz thrown in. It is like a
Vaudeville act in the tradition of the old fashioned
travelling show, very surreal with black humour.
done in the field of dance and drama.
He himself is very active in this area,
teaching classes and workshops in
the UK and internationally, including
photo: Stephen Berkely-White
workshops and dance classes for GCSE
and A Level. His forthcoming production, Made in Heaven, provides an ideal
subject for comparative study using, as
it does, both narrative and abstract elements, referencing myth, literature
and film. It is in part about fear and
denial, brainwashing and self imposed
blindness and challenges the idea of a
heaven and a hell that is sold to us
‘You could describe it as Dante’s Inferno meets science fiction and horror
with a bit of Wizard of Oz thrown in,’ he
explains. ‘It is like a Vaudeville act in
the tradition of the old fashioned travelling show, very surreal with black humour.’ It sounds intriguing. I can’t wait
to see it.
See Made in Heaven at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Centre
Tuesday 12 June 7.30 pm
Tachi Morris Arts Centre, School Road, Monkton Heathfield, Taunton TA2 8PD
Tel. 01823 414141 www.tacchi-morris.com
For information aboput workshops and tour details:
info@markbrucecompany.com
35

28. Gallery 41
A new gallery opened
in Watchet in April, conceived in a conversation
between Watchet resident and gallery owner
Nick Cotton and Paul
Upton.
Nick Cotton has an emotional attachment to 41 Swain Street for this was
where he grew up. His parents had run
it as a coffee shop and fish and chip
shop. Later it became an antique shop
and, over the years, a junk shop. Nick
had become friends with Paul Upton
sometime in the late 1990’s when Paul
was involved in renovating a couple of
houses in Watchet.
Perhaps, he asked, his friend, he could
renovate 41 Swain Street? Paul found
the property in a shocking state of repair. There was extensive dry rot in
its ancient structure and at that time
he could find little in favour of taking
on such an enterprise. He turned to-
The well attended gallery launch
wards another project he had in hand.
When that did not go ahead and Nick
asked him again he said in frustration,
‘What do you want me to do with it?’
When his friend suggested an art gallery, he was surprised as Nick already
ran the successful Lynda Cotton gallery in Watchet. ‘The more the better.’
was Nick’s attitude. If Watchet became
known as a town of art galleries, like St
Ives, he would benefit, not lose by it, he
thought. Looking at the project again,
taking into account some buildings at
the back that could also be developed
and with Nick’s blessing for an art gallery Paul thought he had a project that
might work.
Paul took possession of the property
in February 2011 and has found working on the building a satisfying and
rewarding experience. Paul grew up in
Bridgwater and trained as an architect
in the mid sixties. However, he became disillusioned with the direction
of architecture at that time and instead
turned to education where he had a successful career. He enjoyed three headships and became a principal lecturer at
the University of the West of England.
Building, though, was his first love
and, after taking early retirement at 50,
9
he began renovating old buildings and
took a post- graduate qualification in
architectural conservation. He has used
traditional building materials inside and
out of 41 Swain Street. The downstairs
walls are medieval in origin while it is
believed that a first floor was added in
the 17th century. Outside the walls are
rendered with lime render and the walls
inside are plastered with lime plaster
‘allowing them to breathe again.’ Above
the gallery there will be living accommodation and behind it three artists’
studios, a cottage and a tea room. ‘My
dream,’ explains Paul, ‘is that the whole
site should be involved in the artistic
endeavor.’ It is his hope that all the
occupants should be artist or involved
with art in some way.
To Paul’s delight many of the early
visitors have expressed an interest in the
building as well as the art. Though he is
committed to using traditional materials
he likes to put them in a modern context. The entrance, therefore, is modern
while the gallery itself shows contemporary art. Paul is also the case officer
of the Watchet Conservation Society
and hopes that Gallery 41 can be used
as an example of good practice. ‘You
need to work with old buildings and un-

29. derstand how they work,’ he explains. To
this end he has kept a blog of materials
used and commented on its progress. He
believes that the project may have encouraged others in Watchet to renovate
their buildings.
Neither Paul or his wife had any knowledge of how to go about setting up a gallery. They asked five friends to become
directors and to form a company to develop and run it. Only one of them has
experience of working in a gallery. However, what they lacked in experience they
made up for in enthusiasm and have developed a clear idea of where they want
to go with it. They want the gallery to be
a cultural hub of excellence in the artis-
tic world and do not want to compromise
on standards. Though many of the artists
in the opening show have connections to
Watchet they all have national or international reputations.
Zoe Bingham, the Gallery Manager and
Curator, heard about the enterprise having recently moved back to Somerset
from London after working in some of
the major galleries for the last 15 years,
and is impressed with the directors vision and is delighted to be involved. She
believes that it fits in well with the other
developments, such as the harbour at
Watchet and believes it presents a perfect opportunity for some of the artists
in the area for whom she believes there
are a lack of suitable outlets. There will
be four major exhibitions a year and it
is hoped that by the summer the cafe
will be open which will present opportunities for local artists to display their
work. They want to maintain the same
high quality as for the other work. (See
website for submission details). This will
include ceramics, sculpture and installations as well as paintings.
Early indications are encouraging. 350
turned up to the opening night and 17
works were sold (whose price range
from £50 - £5,000). Visitor numbers
since have exceeded expectations. It
seems that Gallery 41 can look forward
to a bright future.
Hanne Westergaard, Dancing Circles
R J Lloyd, Gate Screen
Above some examples of work from the
Gallery Opening Exhibition
David Imms, Quantock Moonlight
Forthcoming Exhibitions
Featured Artist: Vanessa Clegg ‘Fata Morgana’ : A Journey to the Frozen North
of Norway.
Three Potters: Jacqueline Leighton-Boyce, Alison Hood & Linda Wicks 9th May
- 9th June
R J Lloyd: 18th June – 14th July
Open 10am - 5pm Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Bank Holidays
and at other times by appointment.
Gallery 41, 41 Swain Street, Watchet, Somerset TA23 0AE
10

30. Fine Cards from...
good to send
good to keep & frame
ginger fig gifts and gallery
1b Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 326798
ginger fig gallery promotes artists and designers exclusively from
the South West, exhibiting new talent alongside established artists

31. It is with great pleasure that I introduce LAMP to you – a new magazine which
will shine a light on the arts in the Vale of Taunton and surrounding areas.
There is a rich seam of artistic talent and activity running through the Taunton
region, which deserves wider reporting, exposure and celebration. We enjoyed
a hugely successful literary festival last year. We have high quality live music
in our churches, award winning drama in our excellent theatres, internationally
recognised visual artists working and exhibiting in a number of venues. We have,
too, in Taunton a vibrant educational sector, with our schools and colleges sustaining a superb and
diverse artistic programme.
All of this deserves wider recognition.
Our community is keen to embrace the arts and LAMP will play a key role in keeping us up to date
on what is happening. The magazine will include a calendar of events covering the following two
months. It will also feature interviews with authors, artists, musicians and dramatists, reviews and
comments, short stories and poetry.
This new venture deserves the support of all, not least from local businesses: a strong economy and
a successful arts scene often go hand in hand. I am sure this magazine will play its part in building
the buzz and excitement that are at the heart of a thriving community. I am sure you will join me in
wishing it every success.
Richard Biggs
Headmaster
King’s College
Taunton

33. My Favourite...
We asked Dr John Newton, headmaster of Taunton School, to tell us
about his favourite book and pieces of art, music and drama.
As the Headmaster of Taunton School, it
is usually assumed that I have no time for
reading. Quite the opposite. Most Heads
I talk to, like me, see the Arts as a vital
source of refreshment and diversion. The
18th century notion that the aim of literature was `plaire et instruire’ - to please
and to instruct - still holds true.
I studied French and Russian at Oxford
and take a pleasure in literature from all
over the world. I am much happier taking on the big hitters (Tolstoy, Flaubert,
Joyce), but do spend a lot of time in holidays reading history and politics. But
what about some specifics on my current
favourite works and artists?
Top book? Must be War and Peace. I
know it is something of a door stop and
is top of the list of `books I would like
to read’ for many folk, but I have read
Leo Tolstoy, author of War & Peace
Photo: Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky,1908
it several times and consider it an endlessly colourful, challenging description
of what 1812 meant for Russia and what
it said about how History is formed.
licence to the bold for some exorbitant
claims and analysis. However, the plays
are pure magic. Secondly Chekhov. He is
a very different sort of playwright. Many
may not know that he made his name as
a short story writer first. He draws all
round characters about whom it is hard to
Mont Sainte-Victoire, Cezxanne (1882-85).
One of several studies
The revolutionary and effective creations of the Impressionists never fail to
be absorbing. If I have to pick one artist,
it must be Cézanne. His many pictures
of Mont St Victoire are a study in colour
and typify an outdoor approach to painting which was very new at the time. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed the biography of Matisse by Hilary Spurling in
the South of France last year.
In terms of music and theatre, my tastes
are very catholic. The Beatles will always rein supreme in popular music just
because of their marriage of great tunes,
meaningful lyrics and original thinking.
However, choral music has always been
a joy, blues hit the spot at the right time
and I have a real liking for Chopin. If I
had to choose an album for my desert island, it would have to be Abbey Road.
In the theatre, two figures stand out
for me. Shakespeare’s language is sheer
music. The wisdom and brilliance of the
man continues to stimulate books and
studies. Due to poor records, he is elusive as a person, which I suppose gives
38
Zebra Crossing outside Abbey Road Studios
where the famous Beatle album was made
Ronald Kunze,1969
make rash judgements and is the master
of the anti-climax. So top plays for me?
King Lear (as a father of daughters, we
have much in common) and The Cherry
Orchard - a very apt depiction of the decline of the upper classes in early 20 century Russia.
King Lear and the Fool in the Storm,
William Dyce (1806-64)

34. not just another estate agent...
Lower Merridge 5 Acres
£900,000
Nestling privately in a beautiful Quantock valley is this skilfully renovated and extended Georgian cottage which now
has a magnificent oak-timbered, 45 sq metre barn style living room with exterior decks and balconies designed to
harmonise with the natural beauty of the setting. Presented in pristine order throughout, this is a country house with
a real ‘wow-factor’ and appeared recently as a main feature in Country Homes and Interiors.
RICS
01823 230230
robertcooney.co.uk

36. Taunton Deane Duplicate
Bridge Club
at Staplegrove Village Hall
Mondays 7pm
Friendly bridge & refreshments
Spare partner available
Contact Julian Brown
07766 302608

38. The West Somerset will be running its first ever Art Trains Day
on Saturday May 19th. Armed
with Rover Tickets which give
the freedom of the line it will be
possible to spend a day travelling on the trains and sampling
what takes your fancy from the
following programme station by
station:Minehead:- Live music and
workshops by ARTSY-ARTSY
Workshops presents: drop in
workshops where children of all
ages can explore their imagination within a choice of structured activities that facilitate
expressive visual development.
There will also be bough houses
from Rob Heard and face painting from Minehead Eye
Dunster:- will host a wood
theme with willow workshops
and there will be a story walk
around Dunster village.
Blue Anchor:- Appropriately for
a seaside location a driftwood
workshop from Emma Duke.
Washford:- will have Ben
Horrobin demonstrating blacksmithing on his portable forge
and lots of other metal workers including silversmiths and
sculpture plus other artists.
Watchet:- Live music plus, once
again appropriately, paper making demonstrations and rope
making demonstrations from the
Boat Museum which is housed
in the former goods shed adjacent to the station.
Williton:- Live music and, still
to be confirmed, Punch and
Judy.
Stogumber:- A painted glass
workshop with Avril Silk.
Crowcombe Heathfield:- A pottery workshop with Jo Dove and
launch of “The Emerald Dragon
and Other Magical Tales of the
Quantock and Blackdown Hills”
by Clare Viner with illustrations
by Georgie Grant
Bishops Lydeard:- Textiles in
the Victorian sleeping carriage
and live music.
The Art Train Day is part of the
Making the Links in West Somerset project funded by the European Union and Defra, which
encourages creative industries
and tourism businesses to work
together to try out innovative
ideas. Other artists and crafts
people are still being added and
the best way to keep up with
Arts Trains Day is to call in on
the West Somerset Railway’s
website at www.west-somersetrailway.co.uk

39. BOOKS: New & Old
20,000 in Stock
Named as one of the top 50 of all bookshops in the UK
by the Independent Newspaper in February 2012
01823 337742
brendonbooks@gmail.com
www.brendonbooksonline.co.uk

41. All Aboard the Art Train
The West Somerset
Railway will be running its first ever Art
Train Day on Saturday May 19th. Below are details of the
events
Armed with Rover Tickets which give
the freedom of the line it will be possible to spend a day travelling on the
trains and sampling what takes your
fancy from the following programme
station by station:Minehead:- Live music and workshops by ARTSY-ARTSY Workshops
presents: drop in workshops where
children of all ages can explore their
imagination within a choice of structured activities that facilitate expressive visual development. There will
also be bough houses from Rob Heard
and face painting from Minehead Eye.
Dunster:- will host a wood theme with
willow workshops and there will be a
story walk around Dunster village.
Blue Anchor:- Appropriately for a
seaside location a driftwood workshop
from Emma Duke.
Washford:- will have Ben Horrobin
demonstrating blacksmithing on his
portable forge and lots of other metal
workers including silversmiths and
sculpture plus other artists.
Watchet:- Live music plus, once again
appropriately, paper making demon-
strations and rope making demonstrations from the Boat Museum which
is housed in the former goods shed
adjacent to the station.
Williton:- Live music and, still to be
confirmed, Punch and Judy.
Stogumber:- A painted glass workshop
with Avril Silk.
Crowcombe Heathfield:- A pottery
workshop with Jo Dove and reading
from “The Emerald Dragon and Other
Magical Tales of the Quantock and
Blackdown Hills” by Clare Viner with
illustrations by Georgie Grant
Bishops Lydeard:- Textiles in the Victorian sleeping carriage and live music.
The Art Train Day is part of the
Making the Links in West Somerset
project funded by the European
Union and Defra, which encourages
creative industries and tourism businesses to work together to try out
innovative ideas. Other artists and
crafts people are still being added
and the best way to keep up with
Arts Trains Day is to call in on the
West Somerset Railway’s website at
www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk

42. Taunton Literary Festival Dates Announced
The second Taunton Literary Festival, organised by Brendon
Books of Bath Place, Taunton, will take place over nine days
from Saturday 22 September until Sunday 30 September.
The programme of events will be available in the next issue
of LAMP at the beginning of July and on the website from
mid-June (at present showing event details for 2011). See
www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net. Some of the authors already
signed up include children’s and adult author and poet Helen
Dunmore, best selling author Kate Mosse and historian and
historical fiction writer Ian Mortimer. The venues will be as
follows:
Saturday 22: The Castle Hotel
Sunday 23: Hestercombe Gardens
Monday 24 Taunton School
Tuesday 25: Taccchi-Morris Arts Centre
Wednesday 26: Queen’s College
Thursday 27: King’s College
Friday 28: Richard Huish College
Saturday 29: The Brewhouse Theatre
Sunday 30: Somerset Museum
Kate Mosse will be talking about Citadel the final
novel in her trilogy which is
available just in time for the
festival
Citadel, the final novel in the
Trilogy, is set during World
War II in Carcassonne and
the Aude. It tells the story of
an all female resistance unit,
fighting against the Occupation of their country, but also
the discovery of an ancient
Codex that has the power to
change the course of history.
Citadel publishes in September 2012 in the UK
Helen Dunmore is equally
celebrated and successful as
a poet, novelist, short-story
writer, and children’s author
and is a Orange Prize winner. Helen Dunmore will
be talking about the latest
volume in the Ingo Chronicles series
Ian Mortimer has been said to
have ‘single-handedly put medieval history back in the hands
of ordinary readers’. He also
writes historical fiction under
the pen name of James Forrester and will be talking about
his latest book in the series.

44. Summer is for sharing
Entertaining has never been as easy
or as much fun as when you use COOK.
Now
delivering on
Saturday morning
for TA1 and TA2
postcodes
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