Come Together – Flow Together: the only way to solve the world’s problems.
We need hope in these dark times and Confluence Collective founded by Malcolm Atkins and friends never fails. I wrote a poem celebrating how the group bring creative people from every community together, from India and Pakistan from Ethiopia and China, Iran and Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan as well as France and Greece and Spain and Germany. Marian Eastwood who, unknown to me, filmed me reading it, was born in the Philippines. The only way the world will solve its problems is by coming together and flowing together…
https://www.facebook.com/marian.eastwood.3/videos/738207275337957/? Here are the words
Creative Confluence by Sylvia Vetta
Streams spring from the hills
to swell with spring rain.
People come to the city.
More and more people come.
They sing alone in
tongues of Babel.
Come together pleads the man
Flow together echoes the dancing woman.
She dances to the sitar and the guitar.
Male and female voices sing to the tabla’s beat.
‘Improvise’ demands the drummer.
Words flow as the rivers of Oxford rise.
Words from the Tigris and the Indus
Rhythms of India and Africa.
Come together pleads the man
Flow together echoes the dancing woman.
Wells of joy spring from Ethiopia and Iraq
From Bosnia and Brazil.
Mardi Gras meets Bach and Persian lute
Babel ? No Babel ?
The music of their souls
harmonise and improvise.
Come together pleads the man
Flow together echoes the dancing woman
Learn more about the group. https://confluenceoxford.com/ and join us coming together to celebrate in music poetry and dance and take part . Cafes are welcoming and informal.
They shared my edited version of Shelley’s Ozymandius – what future generations will make of Donald Trump.
Maga maga: King of Kings
I met a traveller from the antique land of Persia,
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked the Keirs who knelt before him
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is the DONALD , king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Making HISTORY and friendship across continents.
On October 11, Kennington will twin with Musanda in west Kenya. My village will be the second in England to twin with an African village. Musanda looks as if it’s the first village in Kenya to twin with an English village. Four delightful inhabitants of the village were in Kennington at the weekend so we organised a Towards Twinning event. You can see from the pics that it was moving and fun. The choir entertained us and the scouts have become penpals with some children in Musanda. They received their on paper letters and that felt special.
I was the first speaker because I was able to tell the His and HER –story! The twinning was my suggestion but it was made possible by Rev Samson Kuponiyi agreeing to chair the twinning committee and getting the support of the Parish Council. This act of friendship wouldn’t have happened if Kennington hadn’t been the only village in the UK to, every year for 50 years, to raise money for an overseas project. The intention was to show a few minutes of this video (link below) but that didn’t happen. The video was made for a KOA Gala Night to be shown before the folk singer Peggy Seeger and I burst through the door. It celebrated the ways KOA enhanced village life through events like the Bagley Wood Fun Run, the Kids for KOA concerts to encourage music and the First Pop up shop in Oxfordshire which ran every August from 1975 -2018.
https://vimeo.com/64536645 Fifties Fandango
For 40 years, I organised the main social event mostly Gala Nights with a three course meal and musical entertainment (arranged by the much missed Rebecca Alison). But, my first attempt at organising a KOA event, was in 1975 when I produced a one act play by Checkov and, downhill after that, because next up was a trite piece of my own writing A Victorian Musical Extravanganza. It was out of that KADS was born. (KADS being our Am Dram Society.) So, for many, the video brings back good memories.
Then I looked at the scouts as I said,
‘KOA started in 1969 long before you were born -in a time before mobile phones and the internet and before easy travel around the world. It’s because of that history that we are here today preparing to twin with a village in another continent wanting to be friends and to learn from each other. Kennington should be proud of what we achieved in the 50 years of KOA. I am most proud of being involved for 45 years.
When I handed a cheque to the founder of Integrated Village Development Trust, Michael Wright thanked the village saying, ‘Over the years you have undoubtedly changed the lives of more than 100,000 people for the better.’
This little village has made its mark in 3 continents.
The Buildings and infrastructure: The buildings we funded are still working. I often see Tonia Cope Bowley who founded the Thembisa Trust so know the preschool / community centre in KwaZulu Natal is still benefiting the community there. The disability centre for victims of land mines in Cambodia, the library in Bonu, Benin, and the Spirulina production unit in Musanda( PiC behind me) are still operational. My ex- business partner former Kennington resident, Gill Hedge, went to Mali. She described how the electric grain grinders we bought for the women in the 40 villages in Manankoro saved them three hours a day work pounding the grain by hand. The project had transformed lives. The women were enterprising and with the time saved they started market gardens and small businesses and were able to help their children’s education.The water tanks are still on the school roofs in Jinja province in Uganda providing drinking water for the staff and children. The toilets high in the Andes in Peru are still working.
Revolving Loan schemes in three continents are ongoing.
Helen Wright keeps me updated on the project in Jharkhand. India (2002) The boys taken out of bonded labour and given loans to set up businesses or to buy tools for apprenticeships is working because all but one paid back the loans.
Projects that had ripples: The Henry Doubleday Research Foundation, received funds from our government for research in organic agriculture but not to put any in to operation in Africa. We paid them to do it in Baring district in Kenya. Halcyon visited that project. It was so successful that neighbouring governments are copying it. Similarly the peripatetic skin care clinic for people with albinism in Tanzania is still working and the Malawi government has copied it.
That was the past but a past I believe Kennington can be proud of .
I’m a believer in libraries giving access to the world and for upward mobility. I wouldn’t be talking to you today if, as a child, I hadn’t had access to Luton Central Library. That’s why I am also proud that many people in Kennington rallied around to save our library from closure and are helping to build the first community library in west Kenya in Musanda, the village we will twin with.
Meeting here Today connecting with Nancy Rajab and Eunice is the Present
The Future is the scouts and their pen pals and the Cosmic Cats authors. I brought together St Swithun’s School with a school near Musanda for this project. Storytelling is loved everywhere in the world- it can connect us all. The children here and there produced this beautiful book. That is what friendship can do, feed the imagination and encourage empathy and love not hate. In the video, I was in a fifties car. Rajab and Eunice have flown here in a modern jet. In October, we hope to be transported to a new era- a future you in this room must create.
Jacqs Motion serving the Cosmic Cat cake and Daniel Livingstone reading his fabulous story.
There was an exchange of gifts. Amena Sutton, adminsitrator of Kennington Chorale presented a copy of I Love You All– the history of the choir and Crucifixion the work especially composed for them by Tom Edny.
Memories of Helen Peacocke: The importance of my talk at Headington LitFest on May 10
On May 10, I’ll talk about the importance of telling your story. Yesterday was the funeral of the former The Oxford Times food writer, chef, author and drama critic, Helen Peacocke. The Humanist celebrant, Ian Wilcox used my castaway interview with Helen when giving his tribute to her. Similarly, when Trevor Cowlett the founder/ director of Kennington Choir and Air Commodore Bob Martin died, their families were able to use their life stories written by me. I expect many of you have experienced the feeling. Why didn’t I talk to my father, sister friend about that when they were alive? If you haven’t been interviewed by me or anyone else, why not write down your stories ?
Memories of my friend which will keep her alive for me. I used to call us the LE girls –the female contributors to Oxfordshire Limited Edition magazine when it was award winning. We used to meet twice a year for a meal. Here’s a pic of us taken by Helen in her garden.
She was a dog lover and real ale lover and wrote walks to pubs with dogs. I had the privilege of rekeying some of those walks with her I invited her to talk about the Paws books at the Kennington Literary Festival which I organised before the libraries were threatened with closure.
If you go to the Story Museum you will see Winnie the Witch’s birthday cake. Helen made that. So when we wanted to thanks Korky Paul for helping us to save the libraries, I asked her to make one we could give him.
Her food photography was second to none. Take a look at her pics in Green Power the Spirulina Cookbook. She provided the recipes for free for the Nasio Trust.Helen did something exceptional 10 years ago-she believed in locally sourced food and lived only on them for year- to show it can be done. The only exception she made was salt, coffee and lemons.
She loved poetry and booked tickets for us to go to Adelstrop on the 100 anniversary of Edward Thomas’s poem. In those days writing for The Oxford Times was a privilege, as you can see from the pics display anther memorial yesterday. Pics of her with Terry Waite, John Thaw, Terry Wogan, Tommy Steele, Michael Palin etc. Here’s her castaway feature.
Helen-Peacocke408590-b2a8-4bc6-bea0-69dc45a70b91 See some of you on May 10?
Peggy Seeger and Ruth Crawford Seeger
Today, March 19.2025, the composer of the day on BBC Radio 3 was the first celebrated female American composer, Ruth Crawford Seeger, the mother of Mike and Peggy and stepmother of Pete, who sang at Obama’s inauguration. I had the privilege of sending Peggy to my mythical island of Oxtopia. Her life story was long adventurous and controversial so it took six hours and I had to reduce it to 4 pages. You can read it on this link.
Peggy’s mother died in 1953 so Peggy was denied a deep personal adult knowledge of her. Ruth wanted Peggy to become a concert pianist and she could have but it was folk music and Ewan MacColl who stole her heart.
Last week Roberta Flack died. Her recording of Ewan’s song When First I Saw Your face was an enormous hit and helped Peggy and Ewan when their life was tough financially. Ewan had composed it for Peggy and only sang it once -over the phone to lure her back to England from the USA.
When I met her, she was about to start work on her memoir which she fittingly titled FIRST TIME EVER and so invited me to the launch and I organised a second successful launch in my village of Kennington for our library.
Before that we had fun together appearing in a local film directed by Philip Hind supporting KOA and the Children’s Radio Foundation
It was first shown at a Fifties Fandango where my artist friend, Weimin He, made the delightful sketch of her.
https://vimeo.com/64536645 Fifties Fandango
Memoir in all its variety.
Laurie Lee grew up not far from Carterton where I’ll talk memoir on March 4. The audience will know the PLACE but not the TIME.
Following my interviews of Ray Foulk and Roger Bannister for the Oxford Castaway series, both men wrote their memoirs and I had the privilege of reviewing them and compering Ray’s book launch in Blackwell. Artist Weimin He captured the moment in brushstrokes. I wrote Weimin’s story from Manchuria to Oxford via Belfast in Oxford Castaways. Weimin He – Castaway
Memoir doesn’t have to be about every aspect of a life and it’s true in this case. Rays’ Stealing Dylan from Woodstock is double the size of Food of Love but is about one momentous year. Roger decided to concentrate on just two aspects of his life –his sporting and his scientific career.
Memoir can help readers empathise with people in circumstances almost beyond their imagination such as Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. It was easy for me to understand how that felt because when Atam and I met in Smethwick in the West Midlands mixed relationships were regarded with hostility.
Memoir and novels help us walk in someone’s else’s shoes. I recommended these memoirs for Shepherd.com https://shepherd.com/best-books/memoirs-which-help-us-understand-the-world
Politics, Lives, Page Turners: The Courage of Claret Press publishing Sylvia Vetta and Pen Farthing
Politics, Lives, Page Turners: The Courage of Claret Press publishing Sylvia Vetta and Pen Farthing
I first made this blog before Pen Farthing and I talked at the Oxford Indie Book Fair .
Today’s Guardian feature warrants re-posting it.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/18/kabul-afghanistan-animal-airlift-whistleblower-employment-tribunal?
I love my publishers new book mark. It sums up what Claret Press is about. Their latest author is Pen Farthing and his book is titled Operation Ark. The last government and the Tory Press trashed Pen’s reputation as a means of diverting our attention from the chaos and apathy that marked Dominic Raab’s handling of leaving Afghanistan. Decide for yourself after reading his account telling the WHOLE story ! Or come to the Oxford Indie Book Fair on Dec 1 and hear us discuss it. https://www.oxfordindiebookfair.co.uk/whats-on-december…/
Pen had previously been published by one of the big guys, Penguin Random House. But they decided his brand is ‘toxic’. I’m delighted that Claret Press has published his account of events in August 2022, so readers can make up their own minds knowing all the story and not just the propaganda line ‘Pets before People’. In my opinion, the government used him as a scapegoat to divert the vitriol away from their incompetence. After twenty years in Afghanistan, they hadn’t a plan for an orderly and successful evacuation and the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab couldn’t be bothered. He preferred to stay on the beach in Cyprus. That Pen managed to get out his 68 Afghani staff without their help, is an achievement. You need to read the whole story to understand that this charity is not about Pets over People. 1000 Afghans a year were dying of rabies after being bitten by street dogs and his charity was trying to make that a thing of the past.
I knew that Katie had courage. My first novel Brushstrokes in Time was 10 years in the making. When I learned from the artist Qu Leilei about the courageous Stars artists, I realised that their story was ignored and forgotten –written out of history. I believe it’s an IMPORTANT story that needs to be told. As no one else would write it, and no one in China can, because of censorship, I took on the task. That entailed three years interviewing Leilei and other Stars, a year researching and visiting the places in the book. While doing that I studied for the Diploma in Creative Writing at Oxford ,so that I had confidence to do it as a novel. By creating a few fictional characters, I could tell the story without harm to living people.
I sent it to Myslexia. I knew they introduce you to an agent if they shortlist you. They indeed did that for me. The agent said that my novel was interesting, well-written and a publishable page turner but unfortunately she wouldn’t be able to sell it. I tried other agents and the ones who responded did so in a similar way. One was honest and explained the reason, ‘You are not Chinese.’ They were afraid of the toxicity of the label ‘cultural appropriation.’ I thought the Ms would stay on my computer until a friend told me about Claret Press. In her latest newsletter she explains why she takes on authors like me and Pen. https://www.claretpress.com/single-post/a-sip-of-claret-news-operation-ark-is-out-now
She writes,
‘Last Saturday I set up my stall at the Oxford Indie Book Fair alongside 60 other exhibitors. The OXIBF promotes books and voices from outside the mainstream publishing industry (by mainstream I mean the ‘Big Five’ publishers responsible for 80% of all books published in the US and UK). It was, as always, a delight. It was, as always, bigger and better than before. And its existence is thanks to Claret Press author Sylvia Vetta and a few of her friends. I met Sylvia after a literary agent told her that no publisher would take her novel which was inspired by Qu Leilei, the Chinese founder of the Stars Art Movement, now exiled — like so many of his compatriots. Her fictionalised telling of recent Chinese history lifts the lid on its tumultuous change including the Cultural Revolution, the Democracy Movement and the Stars Art Movement (1979).
Equally, it is a touching coming-of-age love story. Brushstrokes in Time was praised by professors at both Harvard and Oxford and the Guardian’s chief foreign correspondent for China, among others. It was translated into German. And yet, the reason why the big publishers wouldn’t take it because Sylvia is not Chinese. They didn’t think it was authentic enough despite the story being based on many, many interviews of Qu Leilei conducted by Sylvia herself.
Also at the Oxford Indie Book Fest was The Dawson and Lucy Series author Steve Sheppard, who writes page-turning thrillers full of twists and adventure with a kick-ass heroine and a lovable hero. They also happen to be laugh-aloud funny. So are they comedy thrillers? What to call this unique blending of styles? For lack of an easily marketable label, Steve couldn’t get published by the big leagues. My gain. Again Steve’s books have been praised widely by comedy writers and by his growing legion of fans.
And then there’s Pen Farthing. We launched his book in London this Monday. He was a Sunday Times bestseller who fell out of favour with his publisher because of the uproar over the Afghanistan Evacuation. You’d think that would mean that he’d be even more of a hot ticket. But no. He got blackballed and lost not just his publisher but also his literary agent. Again, his book, Operation Ark, about escaping from Afghanistan during the disastrous evacuation in the summer of 2021, has been highly praised.’
To buy copies of Oxford Castaways 2
Go to
http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk
and click on the cover image.