Just a quick heads up about the fabulous event on *tomorrow* (Sunday 25 June) in Scampston Hall’s beautiful Walled Garden, near Malton. ‘A day of nature-themed literary activities for all the family’. I look forward to seeing you there! Find out more here.
Article from the Ryedale Gazette & Herald
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
In case you were unfortunate enough 
to miss the York Festival of Ideas launch of my new book Flying High! last Saturday, here’s a little snippet from my show. I’ll tell you a bit more about the whole event below.
The event was a ‘triple bill’ consisting of:
Matt, taking full advantage of the bird walk photo opportunities. (Photo: Ann Taylor)
Performing my Flying High! show (Photo: Vikki Pendry)
Signing copies of Flying High! (Photo: Vikki Pendry)
It gave me great pleasure to look out over the audience and see ages ranging from under 10 to over 80, smiling and joining in.
And it was particularly pleasing to meet three of the photographers whose sensational photos appear in the book, and who had come along specially for the launch event. Here I am (rather windswept!) with two of them, Mandy West and Roy Lowry (along with RSPB V-P Prof. Sir John Lawton).
Photographer Mandy West, RSPB V-P Prof. Sir John Lawton, me, photographer Roy Lowry
I was thrilled that photographers Mandy, Roy – and Lindsey Bowes – were able to attend the launch, and so pleased that the audience applauded their fabulous photos.
With Mandy West, one of the Flying High! photographers
What did the audience think of the event? Well, take a read:
‘Wonderful. So much fun.’ Ruth T
‘Lovely morning at University of York. Fantastic presentation, we loved it.’ Ann T
‘The show was so fascinating and your performance was absolutely brilliant. I was totally inspired: on my walk home I was looking out and listening out to see if I could identify any birds.’ Rowan J
‘A delightful performance and book launch.’ Margaret K
‘A lovely morning of poetry reminding us of the brilliance of birds and creative writing.’ Vikki P
So, that’s Flying High! launched – in York at least! If you fancy a Flying High! show where you are, just get in touch.
A very big Thank You to Prof. Sir John Lawton, for all his Flying High! support and his invaluable contributions to the launch event. Thanks, too, to all the York Festival of Ideas team for including our event in this year’s festival.
Meanwhile, I’ve another Flying High! ‘show + bird walk + book signing’ combo on 28 July at St Nicks in York. See my What’s On page for more details of this and other events – including the fabulous Scampston Hall/Ryedale Book Festival event I’ll be at next Sunday (and where Flying High! will be on sale).
You can find out more about my Flying High! book here, read the first press review here, and order your copy below.
What an inspired idea! Bring children from different primary schools together at a gorgeous venue, set in fabulous grounds, for a day-long poetry festival in the company of three very different poets.
The idea was Chloe Garner’s. She’s the Director of the – very wonderful – Ledbury Poetry Festival.
Chloe Garner – Director of the Ledbury Poetry Festival
The gorgeous venue was Hellens Manor, in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, not a million miles down the road from Ledbury:
Hellens Manor, Herefordshire
The grounds are gorgeous, both formal:
The grounds of Hellens Manor
And more wild:
The grounds at Hellens Manor. (The elephant is a sculpture, in case you were wondering!)
And the poets were me:
Me!
Sara Hirsch, preparing her next workshop …
and Rob Gee (who I kept meaning to take a snap of, but didn’t get around to!)
We three poets performed for the children and with the children, we put on poetry writing and performance workshops, and we all came together at the end of the day to listen to the children performing their new work.
Then we did something very similar the next day (with different children).
And the children? What did they make of it all?
Children in our Poetry Festival lunch break
Well, here’s the – completely unsolicited – letter one of the children gave me:
A letter from one of the participants in the ‘Poetry Festival in a Day’
Can’t ask for much more than that!
And the grown-ups? What did they think? Here’s some feedback from one of the accompanying mums:
‘What a joy it was to join my son’s primary school and 2 other schools for a
Festival of poetry at Hellens Manor.
A trip out of school to such a beautiful yet friendly location was a great
start to engaging the children but then a day of hard listening, thinking
and writing really got them buzzing and creating. The three so different but
excellent poets performed wonderfully right from the start as the children
asked questions; then listened to the funny, serious, challenging and even
slightly naughty material; then enjoyed three absorbing workshops and
finally performed their own work to their friends and new friends, using a
mic.
Conversations and laughing about the poetry continued in the car and I
believe was taken up next day in lesson plan changes by their teachers.
If days like these don’t get children realising that writing and poetry can
be so rewarding, fun and exciting, I don’t know what will.’
As for me … I found it a very enriching and inspiring experience, in a location so beautiful that I could quite happily have stayed there for ever and ever and ever …!
Fortunately, Chloe is hoping to put on a similar events in the future. Next time she invites me, I may just have to refuse to leave the premises at the end of it all …
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
I’m just back from Herefordshire, where I’ve been putting on poetry performances and workshops with primary-school children for the Ledbury Poetry Festival. I’ll tell you more about it later. For now, I’d just like to share this fabulous – completely unsolicited – letter that one of the children came up to me and gave me. I was completely bowled over. Job satisfaction doesn’t get much better than this!
A letter from one of the participants in the ‘Poetry Festival in a Day’ I took part in
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
Well, I never thought when I started up theBigBuzz back in 2007 that I would end up performing at Le Moulin Rouge in the company of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Ant and Dec. But that’s exactly what happened this Yorkshire Day (= 1st August, for the uninitiated!)
Perhaps I need to unpack that a little. Le Moulin Rouge in question was a fantastic Spiegeltent temporarily erected in the centre of my home town York, as part of The Great Yorkshire Fringe Festival.
Le Moulin Rouge (The York spiegeltent version!)
And Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Ant and Dec were in fact present in the guise of face masks only, aka local volunteers judging the Yorkshire’s Got Talent portion of the day’s events. (And boy, has Yorkshire ever got talent! The contestants all sang amazingly!)
Simon Cowell (almost)
What was the day? Well, it was the family part of the Yorkshire Day Festival, a whole day and night’s worth of acts performing to raise money for the Lord Mayor’s charities, one of which is St Nicks (of which I am a Patron).
It was fabulous to watch so many other talented acts over the course of the day – and in such an amazing performance space.
Ukelele Sunshine Revival performing in Le Moulin Rouge
My contribution to the day was an edu-taining ‘Birds and the Bees’ poetry show. I’m pleased to say the feedback was great – including this on the day:
‘The Birds and The Bees act was very good. My granddaughter loved it and was up on stage holding up drawings. Very good day indeed.’
and this from @FamiliesYork on Twitter:
‘Loved it. Anneliese was amazing #myfavourite of @yorkfringe on #YorkshireDay‘
Can’t ask for more than that!
I hope that much money was raised for the Lord Mayor’s charities. And that the families who came along were inspired by my portion of the day to do plenty of minibeast hunting and birding over the summer holidays.
Thank you to the friendly and professional crew at the venue who were a great help to us all. And to Emma Courtney of The Social Octopus and Kellie Taylor for organising the event.
The Moulin Rouge crew in action
If you’d like some ‘amazing’ eco-edutainment at your event, just get in touch!
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
For great cartoons of all the poets who performed at this York Literature Festival poetry feast, go to Sam Zuppardi’s blog: https://brushingup.wordpress.com/2016/01/10/york-literature-festival-programme-launch/ (Scroll right down to the bottom for his cartoon of me performing this very poem!)
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz.biz – Bringing poetry to life
‘Step through the magnificent gates into a magical woodland world …’ the Festival brochure said. And it wasn’t wrong.
On Sunday, children, parents, grandparents and godparents galore gathered in Malton’s ‘secret garden’, Castle Gardens, for the Ryedale Book Festival Family Fun Day themed around nature.
The day started off with artist and illustrator Matt Sewell teaching us all how to draw birds, in his Spotting and Jotting workshop:
Matt Sewell teaching us how to draw birds
Then storyteller Catherine Heinemeyer and I took to the stage to perform our Flying High show all about birdsong – ably assisted by members of the audience, young and not-so-young alike.
Catherine Heinemeyer and I performing Flying High, ably assisted by an audience member. Ryedale Book Festival, October 2015
And the entertainments kept coming! I had had a word with the Mayor of Malton on the previous Friday about securing us good weather for the day, and she didn’t disappoint. It was a beautiful sun-soaked Autumn day. So we were able to enjoy and explore the outdoor space with a book-cover trail, particularly fine face-painting …
Face painting by Sarah Corner of facepaintingcorner.co.uk
… freshly baked pizzas and coffee and cakes, all accompanied by exquisitely crafted book-themed songs written and performed by the fabulous Bookshop Band.
The Bookshop Band at Ryedale Book Festival
Waterstones was on hand to sell books, with a nice big space for us authors to sign and dedicate copies for our readers.
Signing copies of Buzzing! at the Waterstones bookstall
And whilst we were roaming the Gardens, Matt Sewell was at the boundary wall creating a wonderful bird-themed mural – a flurry of Long-tailed Tits:
Matt Sewell creating his mural at Castle Gardens, Malton
All in all a lovely, lovely day with a huge range of inspiring activities and experiences for all ages. If you missed it this year, then do put Ryedale Book Festival in your diary for next year.
I’ll leave you with a quote from the Festival brochure:
‘The Ryedale Book Festival is an inclusive, community-led, not for profit organisation run by a team of dedicated volunteers with a passion for books. If you would like to get involved, contact the Festival team: events@ryedalebookfestival.com‘
And … it even has its own beer!
Thank you to all the volunteers who put so much work into creating such a friendly and well-run Festival – especially Sarah Tyson, Audrie Woodhouse, Helen Lowdell and Pinelopi Bourke. It was a great pleasure to be part of it.
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
