Waiting for Godden: 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...'