Local poet Anthony Owen will be on his home turf when he appears at the Third Coventry International Festival Of Literature at the Belgrade Theatre in May. The Coventry Literature Festival is unique among UK literature festivals due to its focus on community events, with public writing workshops, children’s events and opportunities for local writers incorporated into the programme.
You can buy tickets and find out more on the Belgrade website:
Wednesday 13 May, 8pm. Heaventree hosts the Festival’s opening night by inviting the editors of a number of poetry presses and magazine publishers to showcase their best new writers. Guests will include Horizon magazine, The Wolf magazine, Flarestack Press, Under The Radar and the Warwick Review.
This is an invaluable chance to research the diverse opportunities for publication offered by the UK poetry industry, gaining that knowledge of the terrain which is vital for new writers.
Tickets: £5.Thursday 14 May, 8pm.
The launch of My Father’s Eyes Were Blue by Coventry poet Antony Owen and Still This Need by Michael McKimm.
Antony Owen is a commercial manager from Allesley who writes poignant, unsettling poems, reminiscent in style of the Mersey Beats and their French forbears.
Until last Saturday I hadn’t been to Coventry Market for ages. I’d forgotten how good it was – and in fact, it’s got even better!
You can still get the black and white pudding etc. (although better at the Irish shop in Empress Buildings I’m told) – but now you can also get a wide variety of Afro-Caribbean food as well.
Another favourite was the stall that sells unread back issues of magazines for a pound each – I stocked up on recent back issues of all my favourite food magazines.
So, next time I have people round to eat I’ll be doing goat water and fu fu!
What with this and Alma’s deli, for Polish and Russian stuff, never let it be said that Coventry doesn’t have good food shops.
And even Tesco’s at The Arena (whisper it quietly) has an entire aisle of Thai, Turkish, Polish, Indian and Afro-Caribbean imported foods.
Yesterday I cycled into work. It was the first time I’d cycled in years and is a story unto itself…
But it did mean that I was in Earlsdon in time for the school run as I skulked outside the cycle shop waiting to pick up my bike .
The main thing that struck me was the family resemblances between fathers and sons – not so much mothers and daughters . Sons seemed to be recognisably mini versions of their fathers, not necessarily in terms of features but in style of clothing and facial expression and attitude.
As I looked at the various fathers walking their offspring to school it was obvious to me that these school children were exactly as their fathers would be now (if that age).
The other thing – and hooray for this – is that I didn’t see anyone booting kids out of a vehicle at the school gates.
I am really quite alarmed at the amount of people who voted BNP….
My natural inclination is towards PR – but on reflection maybe we’re better off as we are…
On another note, mildly surprised to see my mum’s cousin and her husband standing (NOT for the BNP I hasten to add).
(I really wanted a photo of Nicholas Nicola Scott, who plays the Female Officer who shouts “Alarm!” when she sees Indy and his dad in the castle in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to illustrate this – but I’ve had to settle for an alarm clock instead.)
What a fabulous idea! And good news for Coventry too.
Hopefully the range of languages will grow though. It would be
really useful to have carefully selected levels of conversational
Italian snippets to listen to.
Well, Himself and I are winding down after an incredibly greedy and gluttonous weekend.
Friday
Drinks at The Kenilworth – including the best cocktail in the world – the Caipirinha
– and I’m feeling smug and secure in the knowledge that I have a bottle
of cachaça at home on top of the fridge – followed by a lovely
Vegetable Thalli in the Indian Edge.
The Kenilworth
is the nicest cocktail bar within a reasonable distance – and I urge
everyone to visit. They gave us a private room and everything.
Thank you Julia.
Saturday
Lounging
around the Godiva Festival indulging in fabulous jerk chicken, plantain
, rice & peas and dumplings washed down thoroughly with oceans of
6% farm cider – wonderful stuff – only wish I could remember the name
of the farm.
Still, that’s too much cider for you.
Then out for a birthday meal (Mexican) followed by a desperate and unfulfilled search around Leamington for Mojitos.
Sunday
Back
to the Godiva Festival for more of the same – and popped in to the City
Arms on the way home to be sociable. Where I fell victim to Pear
Kopparberg.
It is an amazingly beautiful and refreshing perry.
Say
what you will about the City Arms, and believe me I rarely have a good
word to say about a Weatherspoons myself, Pear Kopparberg to me
justifies its existence!
So after that weekend I think we need to diet and detox for at least a fortnight. It was such good fun though!
Until last Saturday I hadn’t been to Coventry Market for ages. I’d forgotten how good it was – and in fact, it’s got even better!
I am really quite alarmed at the amount of people who voted 
Drinks at The Kenilworth – including the best cocktail in the world – the 
Lounging
Back
