Dear Howard
I am puzzled as you are. I knew Vivienne in the seventies and early
eighties, mostly via letters, but visited her several times in London,
promoted her reading at South Devon College, did my own performance
at Grundy, the reading series she organised at the Overground Theatre
in KIngston, contributed to her magazine "Tangent" and so on...
We also collaborated on the planning and research of an ill-fated poetry
series for Radio 3 "Places and Maps" which involved producing features on
Iain Sinclair, Allen Fisher, and Lee Harwood. I interviewed the poets in
their patches (which in Iain's case meant a trip around your patch,
including Christchurch, Spitalfields) and poems were taped in the studio.
But only the Sinclair project was completed, because the Controller of Radio
3 decided he didn't like it, for reasons that were never specified, and
other pieces were abandoned. I believe a tenth-generation dub of the
Sinclair tape was on sale in Compendium a few years back, although you won't
hear VF on it. However, the BBC contact gave her a foothold in freelance
radio, and for a while she seemed quite active.
We lost touch in the early eighties. Vivienne's marriage - which I suspect
had never been happy - came to an end, and I think she returned to live with
her parents in KIngston for a while. She was a remarkably brave and talented
woman. I would like to think she was thriving somewhere but I honestly don't
know...
Yours sincerely,
Paul
-- Paul A.Green
15 Rowland Close
Hereford HR1 1XF
UK
01432 269270
http://www.qbsaul.demon.co.uk
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>From: "Manager" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Vivienne Finch, Owlmaster, Possible Dark etc.
>Date: Fri, Nov 19, 1999, 5:18 pm
>
> During the late 70's and early 80's, Vivienne Finch published the above 2
> books, among others. Owlmaster was also produced as a spoken piece for CBC
Canada.
> Her poem Green Ice was published in the "Roses" anthology of British
> Female/Feminist writers.
>
> Does anyone know if she is still writing ? She was working as a free lance
> researcher / translator for the BBC in the mid 80's, we think. As anyone
> who attended one of her readings knows, she was in wheelchair due to a
> diving accident.
>
> We can find no record of anything published or written since Green Ice.
>
> Any ideas / news as to what happened next ?
>
> Thanks
>
> Howard Kenward
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