Jon Woolcott wrote the Dorset edition of the Seren Books publication "Real…." series. Published in 2023 it continues to be a valuable resource to this relative newcomer to the county and also introduced me to "psychogeography"- the use of geography of a region to evoke history, recollections and stories. There's plenty of psychogeography in another of Jon Woolcott's roles as editor of the online magazine from Dorset based Little Toller Books, "The Clearing", and it is from this that this new anthology has been developed.
There are 30 contributions including amongst the poetry a group of children from the Byker Wall Estate in Newcastle who have come up with a vibrant, gutsy work in collaboration with playwright Lee Mattinson and who perfectly represent the generation who really need attuning to nature and place.
It was interesting to see how a number of pieces related to the restrictions of the Covid lockdown, and it has taken a while, but I think I am now ready to read about this time. During this weird period of our lives I think a lot of us felt both more linked to our natural world and more distant from it as it continued to go along very nicely without us. Tim Hanningan's discovery of a long-abandoned horse rake whilst walking in his designated area for exercise, Mariel Harrison's "Pier" which includes a tribute to her father, Christina Riley's beautiful act of sending pebbles from her environment to friends during this time and especially Martin Maudsley's "Lost In Time" will particularly resonate with those of us who still experience a sense of displacement from those strange days.
The collection offers a pretty enthralling mixture of pieces, both in tone and content which I actually found difficult to put down. I didn't know any of the authors' work prior to this but have made note of their published writings and what they are working on helpfully listed at the back of the book. And do I sense an in-joke at work? A number of the pieces (including the Introduction) contain "Anthropocene" and "palimpsest" – both words I had to remind myself of the meaning of and which appear too frequently to be coincidental. I appreciated this little quirky turn and found myself looking out for them.
Louisa Adjoa Parker has a coastal memory in the pipeline which is a must-read if it matches the quality of "At The Water's Edge" which explores her relationship with the seaside environment- as someone who has always felt the pull of the sea this particularly struck a chord. Tim Dee wrote a book "Landfill" about seagulls and rubbish and in his piece "Bird Island" he experiences both in the South African fishing town of Lambert's Bay and beautifully recreates this environment. Some use literature as a way into the landscape. It is Byron for Amina Khan and John Clare for Nic Wilson.
Throughout it all runs our responsibility towards the environment before things get totally out of control. I was particularly moved by Kathleen Jamie's "Lissen Everything Back" who promotes a change of viewpoint to paying close attention to everything around us as a way forward. Some of the contributors share their experiences growing up with nature and the role of parents in this. Others describe their own childhood misadventures as their way in. For Jeremy Hughes it was pilfering bird eggs, David Higgins attempts to instil the world of birds to his toddler son before trucks and diggers sideswipe his attention but hopefully not before birdsong has established a permanent place on an impressionable mind and this brings me back to the aforementioned Byker Wall children whose "Happy Meals" recognise that all is not jolly in the shadows of the golden arches of the burger company as the children plan a great escape.
""Let's start a revolt"
I holler to Rob
"They're making them sad to taste better in gob
Rip open those doors"
I call Charlie's way
"Me, you and these cows are all going astray.""
An inspiring collection!
Going To Ground was published on May 1st 2024 by Little Toller Books
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