Voewood Dreaming

 VOEWOOD DREAMING

i have just woken up... 

from the most wonderful dream...

i was in a house of butterflies...delicious wine and cake...chatter and laughter. We were drinking gin from tea-cups. And in this dream...there were books...and these inspiring and beautiful books all came to life. And up the winding stairs in each bedroom and on each pillow a gift of a book of Erotica by Simon Finch with chocolates...and water and painkillers...for the morning.

This dream was vivid and it became stranger. 'In Cold Blood' by Truman Capote was a puppet show with Allison Ouvry, with glorious Louisa Young singing....And Isabel...i met the lovely Isabel...blue skies above and...i thought this...that some people are just made of blue sky.

And the great Antony Gormley was there.
Oh and British Sea Power rocked the house. Mysterious, its most peculiar, as i seem to have woken up in possession of a handwritten BSP set list. Was this dream so real that objects appear...

I remember hearing the wonder that is The Real Tuesday Weld...with sublime soundtracks to the brilliant Glen Duncan novels, The Last Werewolf...Oh and i recall thinking how lovely was the voice of Beth Rowley...and later in this dream we mashed and pogo'd to Glen Matlock...it was his birthday and we sang to Glen Matlock and gave him a cake...he blew out candles...and who knows what he wished...for this was all a dream.

So colourful the dream of Cocktails and Cocktales in the Hendricks tent...with Niki Robinson and Joe Fletcher Dj'ing...Peter Jukes was there with Unbound John Mitchinson and his lovely wife and novellist Rachael Kerr...there were Dangerous Women...and a talk with Kate Mosse and Ross Raisin...how wonderful all the readings and talks...conversations that stay with you...like the brightest smiles.

ROWAN PELLING AND SALENA GODDEN: 'THE WORD CASINO' PHOTO TAKEN BY SASI LANGFORD

At night we gambled and debated words with heady sessions of a new game i invented called 'Word Casino' this involved battling words and long discussions about their meanings and worth...and with this i recall the games room...and jamming on the piano, i sang a song to Martin Parr....and duets in the Dining Room with Beth Rowley...and the lovely Isabel.

In the dream how i carelessly misplaced my wellington boots. You understand this surely wouldn't ever happen in real life. But i thank you to Nick Byfield Ward and Sasi Langford because in the dream you lent me some big-boy army boots...in the dream i felt like Tank Girl wearing your huge black boots.

 

There was a chicken called Henrietta, who was most popular. And there was more Hendricks gin, this time with Henrietta the chicken... and with David Piper...the lovely Howard Marks was there...and David Gilmour...and Polly Samson...all standing side-by-side...the whole dream was a photograph you'd frame and cherish...the images stay with you...remain in your head...and heart....i am remembering now...the sense of teamwork...family...comrades...DBC Pierre and Paul Blezard...deep voices and great story telling.

Oh come now my dears....i know hearing about other peoples dreams is boring....

But what a dream this was...
the delightful Rowan Pelling was talking to the director Stephen Frears....and Hanif Kureshi...Hanif and Stephen told me they wanted to be sure they watched 'Match Of The Day'...that's how i knew it was a dream...and Simon Gough was there...and Wade Graham was walking through the garden, spinning yarns and telling stories of the history and beauty of Voewood. As he spoke the ghosts were there and the spirits were bold, whispering in the lily pads and reflected in the waters.

In the dream of Voewood, the books all came to life and the words were dancing in my dreams...i had a lovely chat with Frances Bacon and William Burroughs.

And gin with the beautiful poet Clare Pollard and the wonderful Hannah Walker...and i heard the great John Niven with his whisky-toasted voice...oh what a surreal world this was...and you were all there.

Damian Barr and Diana Athill meandered through a picture book of a lush garden beside a waterfall....oh it was then, again, i knew it was a dream because i won a bid in an auction...Meg Rosoff promised she will use my name in her next novel....and the lovely Gavin Turk, he was there, with his son too....Oh what a dream of a dream....

Thank you to Simon Finch and all at Voewood and Thanks to Clare Conville and Patrick...Thank YOU to everyone that was in the dream called Voewood Festival...a magical place is Voewood dreaming....and whilst the dream lasted...the dream of a garden party was a garden party of a dream...and i just woke up...and i find i am singing 'dream a little dream of me...'

SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS

 NEXT GIG COMING UP - SEPTEMBER 8th.

 'LAST DAYS OF NOWHEREISLAND'

LISTEN OUT FOR MY SHOW

'STIR IT UP: 50 YEARS OF WRITING JAMAICA'

BBC RADIO 4, SEPTEMBER 1Oth.

COMING UP:

THE FIRST STORY FESTIVAL - SEPTEMBER 28th.

photo by Sasi Langford

Coming up: From Jameson to Voewood, to Tongue Fu and Jamaica

Aug 23rd: Jameson Presents...
Aug 24th-27th:Voewood Festival

Aug 20th: Tongue Fu Flicks
Sept 8th: Nowhereisland

Sept 10th: Stir It Up // Jamaica 50
please read on ;-)

gig / Thursday 23rd August, 7pm

 Rough Trade East In-store - Jameson presents... 

WHISKEY & WORDS with special guests

JOHN NIVEN & NED BEAUMAN 

Plus music FROM LAURA J MARTIN & L.A. SALAMI  

Host and poetry by SALENA GODDEN

 gig / Friday 24th-27th August

VOEWOOD FESTIVAL

Click here: Its The Arts Garden Party of The Year...  http://www.voewoodfestival.com/

 New release / One to watch: 'Tongue Fu Flicks' Coming soon! featuring Scroobius Pip, Salena Godden, Chris Redmond, Kate Tempest, Shane Solanki, Zena Edwards, Tongue Fu band, animations by CR&D and lots more... 

CLICK here for the tongue fu flick tasty teaser trailer!

AND Liminal Animal Tongue Fu anthology 

Click here to the Tongue Fu fbook page

 gig / September 8th: 'Last Days of Nowhereisland'

Bristol, Sept.7th - 9th

Look forward to seeing you there Bristol crew!

Click here to see and hear The Puzzle  

http://nowhereisland.org/resident-thinkers/47/#!/resident-thinkers/current/ 

'STIR IT UP - 
50 YEARS OF WRITING JAMAICA'

We have a date!

Jamaican Writers & Poets 

'Stir It Up' on BBC Radio4
 

September 10th 

#Jamaica50

To mark 50 years of Jamaican independence, author, poet and performer Salena Godden considers the impact of her Jamaican heritage on her literary identity. Salena will take us on a personal journey exploring the rich and varied body of work created by her literary contemporaries. She will speak to some of the ‘now generation’ of Jamaican writing, many of whom reside in the UK, and examine how Real Jamaica features in their writing, both as a physical and imaginary location - their relationship with home. Among others we’ll meet celebrated dub poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and author and poet Professor Kwame Dawes. Its a celebration of the poetic heart of Jamaica and a salute to Miss Lou, Bob Marley’s lyrical legacy and more...This programme will feature new poetry and excerpts of Salena Godden's book 'Springfield Road' adapted for BBC Radio 4.

  "I remember when we used to sit In the government yard in Trenchtown And then Georgie would make the fire light

Log wood burnin' through the night Then we would cook corn meal porridge Of which I'll share with you..."

Last but not least I've been enjoying recording the latest Bookslam podcasts, 

co-hosting with Elliott Jack, please do have a listen here:  http://www.bookslam.com/podcast/

see you here, there and everywhere

have a lovely august!

radio clips! http://www.mixcloud.com/salenagodden

top tunes! http://www.thisismyjam.com/wearesaltpeter

Grandpa George: an excerpt from 'Springfield Road'

Grandpa George used tools as they were properly intended, shoe horns and letter openers. He spoke with the gentility of another time. His pockets were always weighed down with old handkerchiefs, coupons and string. He loved animals, as he grew more elderly his love of animals led him to seek products that didn’t use animal testing. He loathed any form of animal cruelty and anti-animal testing posters were sellotaped to his lounge windows.

Grandpa kept to the rules of his childhood: Fish, often kippers, on Fridays, which made the house stink something awful because he had a tendency to forget about them and burnt them. He was to be found at Christ Church throughout the week and twice on Sundays. He never missed the Proms, and that was when classical music would boom even louder than usual through the house. He referred to steam engines as proper trains. His work in the church was both a job and something he enjoyed. He also loved the royal family and his Queen and country - And anything modern was described as new-fangled-claptrap.... 

Here you can hear his voice, this is an excerpt transcribed from a recording of an interview that took place in Hastings in 1988...

“I think there should be more periods of calm and quiet. I think there should be belief and dependence on God. I get involved with questions about God and spiritual matters and of course I don’t know and cannot answer…but somehow with God there are lots of things I don’t understand but I just find I accept it….we must try to have quiet times to reflect. I do think that prayers help an enormous lot. I don’t know how, but they do. If you ask for things that you want, sensible things, not selfish things, the answer comes somehow, in my experience. 

Also we should try very hard to think the best of all people. All sorts of people try to irritate and annoy, but we should try to think the best and think good of them. I think one of the terrible things that I have always hated is class distinction. It is one of the things I had to put up with when I was a youth. I found the army a good experience in that direction. You were thrown together in a barrack room with all sorts of different types that, as a youth, you would not be allowed to mix with. I found that they were not so bad and they probably found that I wasn’t so stuck up as they thought. I am not saying this in a communist sense, but I think there is good in all people.”  

 

“.…and the next thing I knew I was on a boat to Egypt. We weren’t supposed to know we were going to Egypt of course. The boat was called Sobiski – It was a British-built motor-liner but it was Polish owned - It got very hot, terrible conditions, and they put us on guard, guarding stategic points on the ship, I don’t really think it was necessary, just something to keep us busy. They were always trying to catch you out and give you jankers if they could. Major Gibson, he was on our side alright…but the ship is run by the commanding officer, so what he says goes…and anyway, they had class distinction with a capital C. You had to stand around and you had the most primitive, rough food…and the officers were up on the upper deck, you had to stand a few yards away from the officers who were la-di-da-ing it around, eating jelly and ice-cream, whilst some poor blokes standing guard there, not even speaking to him, of course, officers don’t talk to common people. 

Anyway we had our pep talk from one of the officers before going ashore, we were told that we weren’t to go back-slapping and familiarising with the natives and so on. If they weren’t kept in their place someday they’d only…well...talking about natives, well, the general view among ordinary troops like myself was that if a chap was good enough to stop a bullet for you, he was good enough to be treated decently, well, I still have that view, don’t you? We went to a soldiers canteen, one of the ladies said to me it was winter weather, how could we want ice-cream in this weather? And well, that is what we wanted alright, ice-cream was nice for us…”

'Grandpa George' 

born on this day August 9th 1916

To read excerpts from 'SPRINGFIELD ROAD'
follow the journey at http://salenagodden.tumblr.com/

'Springfield Road' by Salena Godden 
published by Unbound Books   

http://unbound.co.uk/books/springfield-road