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.
The first press review of my new book Flying High! is out. It’s a fabulous feature article in The York Press by Stephen Lewis.
I was thrilled to see my book described as being ‘glorious’, and that it ‘will delight children and young-at-heart adults alike.’
The review goes on:
‘what makes the book so special is the sheer joy, fun and enthusiasm Anneliese brings to her versions of common British birds.’
Well, I can’t ask for much better than that!
Thank you to Brambleby Books, designer Tanya Warren and all the photographers whose photos feature, for helping me to create this book.
You can find out more about Flying High! here, and there are some sample videos here.
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
Today’s literary limerick was inspired by former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen’s visit to York Festival of Ideas yesterday. He was talking about his new book on Zola. The novel in today’s literary limerick isn’t a Zola novel, but it is a French novel that Michael Rosen knows well.
How do I know he knows it? Because it was my parents who taught it to him when he was doing A-level French at school, and they were his teachers.
Here’s the limerick. Can you guess the novel?
In a comment to this blog some years back, Michael Rosen said that studying this book and ‘La Symphonie Pastorale’ with them was: ‘Some of the best education I ever had’.
Stop press: The limerick got the Michael Rosen seal of approval on Twitter!
Here is Michael Rosen with my mum, after yesterday’s York Festival of Ideas event. During the event, he let the audience know she was there, and they gave her a round of applause!
Michael Rosen at York Festival of Ideas with his former French teacher, my Mum.
It’s good to know, when you’re 85, that your former pupils remember you, and that you made a difference to their lives.
Meanwhile, if you’ve got the literary limerick bug, check out my literary limerick page. Can you name the books featured there?
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
I love Finn, Paddy and Conor dearly. So dearly that I dedicated my new book Flying High! to them. The day after it was published, I went round to their house to give them each a copy of the book. It was fabulous to see their faces light up when they realised their names appeared in it.
So far so good.
But when we went outside to take a photo of each of them with their copy … well, have you heard the expression ‘herding cats’?
Even with just one of them, it seemed like too ambitious an undertaking …
But persistence is all in photography. And here, at last, is the shot I was looking for:
Happy birding, boys! I hope you enjoy your books!
And if you have a photo of your child with their copy of Flying High!, do send it along to me (letting me know where it was taken), and I’ll pop it on the (soon-to-be-created) Flying High! gallery page of this blog.
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
Catherine Bamford, Volunteer Manager at York Blind and Partially Sighted Society (YBPSS), is full of bright ideas! I know this from her days working at St Nicks. (Here are some of the things she and I got up to together then.) One of her latest bright ideas was to put on a Pizza and Poetry Party for YBPSS volunteers as part of Volunteers’ Week, which started yesterday. And guess who she asked to put on the ‘poetry’ part of the party. Yes, yours truly.
My remit was to put on an event that would result in the participants creating a poem that YBPSS could display. As it was a Pizza and Poetry Party, I came up with the idea of their creating Poetry Pizzas, to complement the pizzas we were going to eat.
Putting on the ‘Poetry’ part of our ‘Pizza and Poetry Party’ at YBPSS
The participants were a varied bunch, some fully sighted, some visually impaired, and included volunteers, a trustee and the Chief Officer herself!
I was really impressed by how they all threw themselves into our poetry workshop, and came up with poems that shone a light on the fabulous work they all do for and with blind and partially sighted people in York.
Some of their poems made us all chuckle. Some brought tears to my eyes. All went onto our poetry pizzas – which you can see in the photo below.
With some of the YBPSS participants and their Poetry Pizzas
Thank you to everyone who took part. It was a great pleasure meeting you all. And a privilege finding out about the volunteering work you do, making a difference to the lives of the – surprisingly large number of – people with visual impairments in York.
(Oh, and thank you for the pizzas – and cake! – which were all very delicious!)
If you fancy volunteering for YBPSS, contact Volunteer Manager Catherine on 01904 636269 or volunteermanager@ybpss.org.
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
Great excitement here, as today’s the day my new book, Flying High! Discover the poetry in British birds is published! I hope you enjoy it!
Buy your signed copy, with free postage, for £9.99
Anneliese Emmans Dean – theBigBuzz – Bringing poetry to life
