I am delighted and excited to be the ‘Writer on the Road’ for the Bath and North East Somerset Council over the coming months.
The Council is running an initiative called Quest, which invites groups and individuals to create or join a wide array of projects covering all aspects of life across the region.
The quest of journeys that I’m undertaking provides opportunities for me to:
– give advice and support to local people, in order to improve their writing
– work as an ‘embedded writer’ during this summer of the Olympics and Paralympics.
Here’s an outline of what’s happening from the Arts Development team.
I want to discover the hidden corners of neighbourhoods, listen to stories, collect thoughts, and assist anyone wishing to write about their local history, fond memories or family adventures.
Catch me getting off the bus, outside the shops, in the library, or down at the caff having a cuppa!
Or email john.marcus.moore@gmail.com and tell me what I can do for you – workshops, word games, writing walks, whatever…. from poetry garden parties to tea-time talks, from starting a writing group to staging a cabaret.
And under the ‘embedded’ umbrella – seeing myself as a diarist, like a latter-day Samuel Pepys – I’m keeping a journal: blogging about set events, days exploring countryside contours, and entertaining encounters with townsfolk and villagers. Expect a mixture of the factual and whimsical, the personal and lyrical.
Here are links to the journal entries inspired by the days out and about:
Torch relay, morning – in Bath, with young Quest writers
Torch relay, afternoon – a glimpse of the Olympic flame
Street party’d out – the Quest team defies increasingly heavy rain
Park picnic, part I – a Roman soldier looks forward
Park picnic, part II – a Latin scholar looks sideways
The spider on the bus – a travelling companion (thoughts following unexpected threads)
Midsomer fayre’s fare – a day of medieval merriment
All the wheels a stage – of trick cyclists and troubadours
A certain Twerton – tucked away beyond the railway line
Thanks for the warm-up – basketball, boccia and an adapted bicycle
Spirit in motion – Bath celebrates the Paralympic Flame
In Your Shoes – a second visit to the Time Bank
A Puddleduck Sunday – the annual Circuit of Bath Walk
Written on the Road – a concluding summary
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