THE CROMFORD POETRY WEEKEND AT DERBYSHIRE, ENGLAND.

This event, which has run for over twenty five years, takes place over the
first bank holiday weekend in May (friday evening to monday midday). It has
in the past attracted a very wide range of participants from highly
professional poets to absolute beginners. There are a limited number of
organized events e.g. the reading of a long poem on the saturday night.
However the bulk of the program consists of a great variety of papers and
readings on subjects chosen by the participants. Anyone who wants to can
give a paper or reading for no more than  30 minutes. We also have
a cabaret or some similar light event on sunday evening.

The setting is a genuinely lovely 18th century house in Cromford, near
some of the best Derbyshire countryside. Saturday and sunday afternoons are
free for exploration of it. Cromford also has one of the best second hand
bookshops I know, which is also one of the cheapest.

The cost is about œ100, which covers full bed and board. The standard of
food is very high incidentally.

The long poems on saturday evening have ranged from the Rape of the Lock
to the Ancient Mariner and Prometheus Unbound via the Four Quartets. This
hour or so on saturday evening is an unusual opportunity to experience the
long poem in the way our ancestors must have done, as a communal event.

We try indeed to create an atmosphere in which Poetry can come into its own
without outside intervention. This was very much the stand point of that
very considerable and ignored poet, the late Edward Boaden Thomas, who
founded the group in the early Seventies, and in the ten or so years I have
been program secretary, that is the tradition I have tried to maintain.
If you want something which is NOT like Arvon, and NOT academic, but has a
high intellectual level this is something not to miss out on.

THOSE INTERESTED ARE WELCOME TO E MAIL ME via Douglas Clark, as above, or
to phone me on 01225-333153.

ALTERNATIVELY write to the administration secretary MAUREEN NORRIS at
23, Stanford Way, Cuxton, Rochester, Kent ME2 1LL, or give her a ring on
01634-722996, and she will send full details.

FRED BEAKE


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