About this event
Three fantastic writers are the line up for this special Wordfest evening of the monthly Shoreham Catalyst Club
Rebecca Stott: A bridge too far? Writing historical fiction set in the Dark Ages
Rebecca Stott is a writer, historian and broadcaster. She taught literature and creative writing (with fourteen years at UEA) for three decades but has recently given up teaching to write full-time and to move to Sussex. Her memoir about growing up in a cult, In the Days of Rain, won the Costa Biography prize in 2017. She has published three historical novels, the latest, Dark Earth, set in the derelict sixth-century city of Londinium. Rebecca will tell the story of writing this ambitious book, of how challenging it was to bring a world to life that is reputed to be the very darkest corner of the darkest period of British history, how she had to find ways to work sometimes with only archaeological fragments in the absence of written records.
She will try to persuade you that all this was fascinating and fun. She will show you pictures of maps, archaeological finds, swords and mud. And she will try to do all of this in less than 15 minutes.
Dr Bramwell: Outlandish Journeys
Outlandish is host David Bramwell’s new collection of writings, stories and essays that celebrate some of his favourite countercultural heroes and explore some rather unconventional journeys.
Tonight he’ll be sharing a few of his favourites tales. It might be the life of Paul Robeson or Sister Corita Kent, the PopArt nun who invented the Sixties Happening. It could be the bizarre eleven-year odyssey of Eva Peron’s mummified corpse or the Amazon-bound ethnobotanist Richard Evans-Schultes, who catalysed a psychedelic revolution. Rest assured he’ll definitely be sharing the story of how Andy Warhol’s penis ended up on the moon.
Rachel Poulton: Cuckmere River
Rachel Poulton is a writer, photographer and educator whose interests lie with our connections to time and place. Her work examines philosophy, inner and outer landscapes, myth and reality, the past, the present and the borderlands between.
For Wordfest, Rachel will introduce her long-form visual and literary project Unseen and then take us on an atmospheric wander along East Sussex’s Cuckmere River that wends its way from the weald to the sea and explore the ghosts and lore that lie en route – from the ancient burial mounds on Windover Hill, guarded by the Wilmington Giant; to the medieval ghost village at Exceat and the World War Two pillboxes mingling with memories of nineteenth century smuggling gangs down at Cuckmere Haven.
To find out more about Rachel and her work, check out her website
rachelpoulton.com
