Celebrating the launch of the first Oxford Indie Book Fair
Yesterday Ray Foulk, James Harrison, Andy Severn and I celebrated the launch of the first Oxford Indie Book Fair which will take place April 4 10.30am -5pm @ Wesley Memorial Halls New Inn Hall Street Oxford. (next to St Peter’s College)
Oxford is blessed with an internationally celebrated literary festival which runs from 27 March to April 5 .The Financial Times sponsored festival is now in its twenty fourth year and locals have noticed it grow and change. The line-ups for the festival tend to be famous established authors, media celebrities and politicians and so the tickets have inevitably risen in price.
Oxford is a major city of arts and letters, renowned for writing and publishing and we felt it is time for the ever-growing indie sector to have a stronger voice. If the Oxford Indie Book Fair on April 4 is a success we see it as a spring board to a fringe festival next year. The event itself is not only about selling books although there will be 40 exhibitors, it will include performance art, performance poetry, as well as a fascinating diversity of talks.
Joanna Harrison the director of Going on a Bear Hunt and the script writer for the latest Channel 4 Christmas film The Tiger who Came to Tea will give a presentation on animation. The ever popular Korky Paul will present Magic Moments with Winnie and Wilbur to under 8s. The aim is to have something for everyone of all ages and backgrounds. Go to https://www.oxfordindiebookfair.co.uk and click on What’s On. I’ll be talking about why mixed relationships inspired Sculpting the Elephant.
We are working on a logo. Here is one idea? Opinions welcome . Oxfordfolio published Bill Heine’s book Hunting the Shark . I sent Bill Heine the owner and John Buckley the artist who made it to Oxtopia and like Picasso’s Desmoiselles d ‘Avignon its was pretty radical at the time so I think it is appropriate. OxfordIndieBookFair Logo 3
Food will be provided by Puks and they will donate 10% of the profits to Asylum Welcome. It is one of the chosen charities of Lord Mayor of Oxford Cllr Craig Simmon’s who the organisers are delighted has agreed to open the event. The Oxford Mail has just flagged up the event and used a pic they used of me in a previous article.
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/18216095.indie-book-fair-planned-oxford/
Events Open to the Public
Monday February 24: 7pm
Minster Lovell History Society (Oxon)
Village Hall
Based on her experience writing the 120 life stories in the Oxford Castaway books Sylvia will talk about
Life-writing and how to begin.
Saturday April 4 : 10.30- 5
Oxford Indie Book Fair Ox Indie Book Fair _ info sheet-compressed_rev5 (1)
Wesley Memorial Hall (next to St Peter’s College in New Inn Hall Street) Oxford.
The Lord Mayor of Oxford will open the 45 exhibitor fair which has a full programme of workshops, performances and talks – all free admission
They will include a workshop with world famous illustrator Korky Paul and ‘Animation’ presentation by Joanna Harrison of ‘The Snowman and the Snow Dog’ , ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ and ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea.’
Sylvia will talk about ‘Mixed Relationships and how they inspired Sculpting the Elephant .’@ 3pm
12.30 –12.50pm: Launch of ‘Around the World by Land, Sea and Air ’by Michael Harry.( Anglepoise) In conversation with film maker Richard Scrase on experiences on the Trans- Siberian railway .
1.0-pm – 1. 20: Performance poetry by Euton Daley ‘The Politics of Love’
1. 25 -1.45 Jenny Lewis and Adnan Al Sayegh will perform accompanied by music and dance with Confluence Collective
1.55 – 2.15. Lapa Performance Artists. Text in Performance Art – followed by more performances outside weather permitting.
The full programme will be published in late February .
Thursday April 16
Chinnor and District U3A
Village Hall Chinnor @2.30
Brushstrokes in Time as below but @2.30
My Anglo/Indian event @ Abingdon Library on Thursday 21 and great feedback.
Drawing on my experience – from which I created my novel Sculpting the Elephant – l’ll explore the dilemmas of identity in mixed- race relationships. Doors open at Abingdon Library at 7 pm on Thursday 21 November for Bombay Sapphire and Pakoras and a taste of England too . My talk starts at 7.30. All welcome .
Abingdon Library: The Charter, Abingdon. OX14 3LY Tel: 01235 520374
Thursday Nov 21 7 for 7.30: Tickets available on door £2 include Anglo/Indian refreshments.
Signing and Selling at Kennington Book Fair (Kennington Village Centre) Saturday Nov 30 10 am-1
Green Fair Oxford (with Oxfordfolio) @ Oxford Town Hall Sunday Dec 1 from 10am-4 pm.
I gave a similar talk at McGill University (Montreal) on October 30. Among the audience was a distinguished Professor of Computing. His 60th birthday was honoured by his research community with a three-day symposium, called Prakash Fest, held at Oxford University. Kerelan born Prakash made a comment that made me realise that I had got the character of Ramma right in Sculpting the Elephant. He said Ramma going alone to Oxford is rare. An Indian PhD student at McGill insisted to him, ‘I am here by myself for myself. I am not a wife!’ He said that was unusual because most female masters students accompany their husbands. I wanted Ramma to be a strong and independent woman but for readers to realise that was harder for her than for most Western women. I wanted Ramma to be like his PHD student!
Caroline Foulk – co- author of Picasso’s Revenge has just finished reading it and says
‘Sculpting the Elephant is a joy and the story is a unique gateway to Anglo-Indian culture – such an interesting flashpoint of cultures, and so rich with a sense of art and history. It reminded me of my joy for stories such as Jewel in the Crown. I hope I managed to capture my enthusiasm for it.’
Feed back about this talk from the fundraiser at Watlington Library CHAIRMAN OF TRUSTEES Dr Anna Tilley
The Friends of Watlington Library were delighted to welcome back accomplished local author Sylvia Vetta last week to talk about her recently published second novel, Sculpting the Elephant, an engaging love story set across two different cultures. Inspired by her own personal knowledge of marrying her Indian husband in 1960’s Britain and the challenges they faced, Sylvia pitched her talk around the very topical issue of Mixed- Race relationships, whilst deftly interweaving the creation of her two protagonists into her words. Sylvia is an eloquent and assured speaker and spoke movingly about her own experiences; a topic that is increasingly relevant in our multicultural society. Her talk was extremely personable and whilst offering an intimate insight into an important relevant issue, was entertaining and excellently pitched and provoked a number of questions from the floor and a real interest in reading what is a wonderful novel.
This was a second visit, following her talk on Brushstrokes in Time, a talk and book that were also extremely well received, and we look forward to hearing her speak on her next novel.
Events coming up very soon
Friday 30 August: the Ashmolean: I’ll be guiding a tour of visiting Chinese academics. I’m calling it ‘ Crossing Cultures ;Crossing Time’ and emphasising how ideas and inventions spread from East to West and from West to East’ . I am happy to repeat it.
Tuesday September 10: Walton Manor WI (7.30 ) St Margarets Church Polstead Rd. (I believe non members are welcome)
Wednesday September 11: Goring Library .6pm
Both these talks will be on mixed relationships and Sculpting the Elephant (See Watlington Library poster)
Saturday September 14 West Wimbledon Society
How I cast away 120 amazing people
Saturday June 1 – The final day in Antiques on High !
Join me for prize winning quiz , signings , fizz and a surprise
Antiques on High (Oxford) opposite Queens College 3.30-5pm
Friday June 7- Watlington Library
Talk on Mixed Relationships
Sunday 16 June : Second London Launch
Anglo Indian high tea with entertainment RSVP to me please
The anniversary of the Shakespeare in Oxford project – Oxford’s own Romeo and Juliet – Joe and Zara
Today is the anniversary of the Shakespeare in Oxford project. It was hard work for Polly and I raising the money, bringing together the young people and organising the three days of workshops and filming but these young people are amazing don’t you think – so thoughtful? (See video link below the pics) The scene where Joe and Zara fall in love- they are acting in West Side Story! This concerns Polly’s re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet . Eve Ahmed movingly reflected on the authenticity of it. Given the turbulence of our world in 2019 we need to ‘only connect’ even more !
Weimin He kindly designed the logo and sketched on the final day and Philip Hind organised the filming. This pic is of Victor Glynn, Polly and I promoting the project to young people.
In Sculpting the Elephant , Harry and Ramma face obstacles but not life and death ones as in Joe and Zara.
Weimin He kindly designed the logo and Philip Hind organised the filming. He has just made a video for me to show at the launches of Sculpting the Elephant.
My new talks topic – a more personal one.
The Friends of Watlington Library are fortunate in their poster designer – Ross Speirs. He made a great poster for my talk there about Brushstrokes in Time. I must have done okay because they have asked me back. Its open to anyone so if any Oxfordshire friends are interested -do come along. Watlington use talks like mine to fundraise for their community library. Tomorrow they have none other than Philip Pullman so I’ll have a hard act to follow! I had hoped to go to that one but I am booked to talk about Brushstrokes in Time and China at Long Hanborough.
What do you think of this poster?
To buy copies of Oxford Castaways 2
Go to
http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk
and click on the cover image.