My interview with writer Philippa Roberts, recorded at my home when a power-cut hit Stroud FM studios on Tuesday, will be going out TODAY AT 3 [Sunday February 28]...don't miss it! Philippa reads some of her distinctive poems, and also a cliff-hanger few pages from one of her short stories.

For all budding writers, this is must-listen interview...Philippa is one of the few freelance writers who actually makes her living from her writing.

Philippa has published ebooks, short stories, poetry, reviews and journalism, at intervals, over a period of about 20 years. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, from children’s magazines, Horizon and Aquila, to Cadenza and Quality Womens’ Fiction. It has also appeared in a number of anthologies, including children’s poetry from OUP. Philippa edited print editions of Winter Jasmine, The Golden Glory has Fled and A Wartime Poetry Journal - books of poetry by her grandmother, Effie M.Roberts - for her own publishing company, Fractal Publishing. She is at present working on a script and a mystery novel.

Due to the power cut, this interview will be repeated at the next Art Lot Slot on March 9. So listen in to hear some great writing tips...

NEWS! NEWS!NEWS!

NEW WEBSITE: POET KEN HEAD
Check out poet Ken Head's new website. I met Ken [pictured left] a few years back at an unforgettable [there's a story there!] poetry workshop weekend in East Anglia...we've kept in touch ever since, and I read his latest collection a few Art Lots ago; check out his new website:

http://www.kenhead.co.uk/

This poem is typical of Ken's no-nonsense poetry:

from: Bedrock
From a safe distance, because our nervous
guide doesn't want to risk going closer,
we stare towards the beach through razor wire.
They use inner tubes or home-made oil-drum
rafts and this is where the current drives them.
If they're lucky and don't choose a moonless
night to cross, a patrol boat may find them
before the sharks. Some survive, but flotsam
and jetsam here are the stuff of nightmare.
Those who make it in one piece are sent back.
Amputees follow when they can travel.
Freedom gets more expensive every day.

SEE THIS PLAY!
Recent Art Lot guest theatre-man Chris Garner sends this:
‘The Amazing and Preposterous Constance Smedley’ : Studio Theatre of The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. 11-13th March.
"In the early part of the twentieth century, Constance Smedley was a celebrity: a successful artist, playwright, feminist journalist and author of numerous novels and children’s books. She founded the International Lyceum Club for Women, established its clubhouse in London, and oversaw the foundation of similar Lyceum Clubs all over Europe. A century later there are Lyceum Clubs worldwide.

"Constance Smedley lived in Minchinhampton during the five years leading up to the First World War. Together with her husband, the artist Maxwell Armfield, she organised theatrical and musical entertainments, set up a toymaking co-operative, opened a bookshop and organised a spectacular Pageant of Progress in Stroud, out of which grew the Cotswold Players. She also found time to write three novels as well as several plays which the Cotswold Players toured round villages in the Stroud valleys under her direction.

"Frank Hatt’s play is based on events in the remarkable life of this woman, made all the more remarkable by the fact that from childhood she battled with a disability that paralysed her from the waist down. Her achievements were indeed amazing; her behaviour was often preposterous.

"‘The Amazing and Preposterous Constance Smedley’ tells the story of a slice of forgotten local history. But it also tells a bigger story: of a disabled woman with forty publications to her name, who contributed significantly to the women's movement, the international peace movement and the avant-garde theatre of the early twentieth century.

"Six of Frank Hatt’s previous plays have been performed professionally, mostly touring Gloucestershire and the south-west. They include ‘Walking to Whiteway’, ‘Not In My Back Yard’, ‘Surfing the Severn’ and ‘Against the Grain’.

"His interest in Constance Smedley was aroused when he was presented with a large bundle of Smedley family letters that a lady had rescued from a builders’ bonfire."

DON'T MISS IT!

News flash!
If you fancy an art workshop in the sun this summer, check out superb artist Helen Layfield ... www.helenlayfield.com

News flash!
This year I'm starting a charity of the month and I will give out details of that charity during the show ... so if you want to nominate your charity, and post a comment on this blog.

The first charity, of course -- for those who know me, will be The Encephalitis Society ... the charity very dear to my heart. Check it out on www.encephalitis.info.

Don't forget: if you have an event you'd like posted on The Art Lot Blog, then just add a 'Comment' and I'll post it asap!

Tune in! 107.9 locally, or from http://www.stroudfm.co.uk/ anyw