The literary community on the Isle of Wight is set to be enhanced, enlarged and enlivened by the arrival on the island of critically-acclaimed poet Len Blatt, winner of the 2002 Cromer Prize for his silent play A Lancashire Muslim in Harry Ramsden's, writes Petra Kiansonette, Aniseed, Politics, Environment, Whelks, Dairy Farming, Egyptology, Light Engineering, Ornithology, Weather & Literature Correspondent.The island's literary heritage is of course second to none:
Arthur Lord Dennison (pictured) lived at Farflung House, overlooking Freshwater Bay for nearly 40 years, and wrote Come Into The Condemned Greenhouse, Mary and King Perkin and His Bedraggled Gentlemen at Arms there. He also finished The Mysterious Floating Medieval Lady on the island and often welcomed famous photographers of nude children to Farflung House, including Juliet May Carmion and Charles Lewis, who also wrote the famous children's book Agnes in Dreamland.
Famous writer of sensual odes, John Bleates, also stayed on the island twice, between 1817 and 1819. He escaped to the island with his friend, Tom Browne, in an effort to cure himself of the contemporary disease of opium-exacerbated narcissistic sensuality. He was able to rid himself of this blight, but, sadly, fell victim to consumption, which eventually killed him. But not before he had produced some of the English language's greatest poetry. While staying at Shanklin and later at Mottistone, he worked on his celebrated Ode to a Sea-Plover, which explores the parameters of life and death as symbolised by the shifting boundaries of land and sea.
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Dear Mr. Quint
ReplyDeleteI read your missive numerous times and had trouble accepting that the actor Jeremy Irons was not mentioned. He is a proud son of Cowes. Any attempt at literature or the arts on the Isle that neglects mentioning this fine actor surely cannot be taken seriously.
Harrumphhh!