More on John Lucas, and Beeston International Poetry Festival

Sixty people came to the Nottingham Bromley House Library launch of John Lucas' Next Year Will Be Better and Things to Say (see postings passim). Two more events to go, London and Edinburgh. John Lucas and most of the guests are out of the picture, which is probably where he, at least, prefers to be. John is also the organiser of the Beeston International Poetry Festival, starting 16th of this month. That's Beeston in Nottingham, and yes, it is international, with Greek, Australian and various other international poets as well as home grown. The full programme is on http://tiny.cc/beestonpoetry, but you do need to scroll down to reach the programme, past a worryingly blank page. There is also a Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121458364576549#!/group.php?gid=129081423811358.

Those who know John will know that he is responsible for neither electronic medium!

Stanely Middleton 1919-2009: a celebration

The handsome chap with the sideburns and the book collection is Stanley at the time he was joint winner of the Booker Prize for Holiday.
Five Leaves and others, in cooperation with the Middleton family, are organising a celebration of his life, 2.00-4.30 on Saturday May 8th at the Djanogly Lecture Theatre, Lakeside, University of Nottingham NG7 2RD.
Stanley lived in Nottingham all his life, save for his war service. He worked as an English teacher yet still wrote a published novel nearly every year from 1958 onwards.
The celebration will include live music from Stanley's granddaughter, the soprano Caroline Danks, accompanied by Nicholas Danks on piano. There will be readings from his published work, unpublished letters and his poetry.
For a period Stanley's Holiday was on Five Leaves' list before reverting to Hutchinson. We had re-issued it for his 80th birthday together with the festschrift Stanley Middleton at Eighty. There are still a few copies of the latter available. Only on typing this did I realise that all the speakers and readers at the celebration have been regularly or occasionally published by Five Leaves, including David Belbin, John Lucas, Sue Dymoke, Barry Cole, Philip Davis and Tamar Hodes, while Paul Binding is currently working on a commission for the press. That is rather pleasing.
For further information and to reserve a place see http://tiny.cc/middleton. All are welcome to attend. There will be refreshments and the event is free.