There’s a new Literary Festival launching in February, at the small port and harbour town of Watchet, in Somerset, just down the coast from us. We – my two writing chums and me, are planning to go to ‘Words in Watchet‘, and are looking at the events, talks and workshops on offer, and three competitions: Poetry, Crime Short Story, and Flash Fiction. I’m hoping to enter the crime short story, and possibly the poetry, but not the flash fiction.
Three of the events involve audience participation, in a most enjoyable way – lunch with Damien Boyd (my favourite crime author, so ticket already bought!) and at East Quay Kitchen, conversation with Tessa Hadley & Fiona Williams who are award winning authors, and a delicious meal. If you have room, and the timetable allows, you can join Neil Wilson and Cath Cooper of Backyard Theatre, for a literary afternoon tea in Chives Café. You’ll be able to listen to them read extracts from your favourite story, poem, play or even textbook!
There are many other talks, workshops and events , of course, poetry, stories for children, stories for older readers, talks on science, the local environment, history, local myths and legends and more. There are authors talking about their work and their inspiration, and others talking about publishing and book design. A couple of things which appeal to me, Anna Buckley will be speaking, the co-creator of the ever-popular BBC show, The Life Scientific, which I listen to regularly. I was greatly excited during one episode to recognize the voice of someone I was at junior and secondary school with! Another and practical talk is from Nigel Phillips, From Coast to Quantocks – the natural beauty of Somerset. There’s a rider to his talk, ‘If you have something you found on a beach and want it identifying bring it along!’ I’m not sure I have anything, but if I’m able to go, I’ll be interested in what other people might have found.
You can be assured, I’ll be writing about our experiences, and the things we learn and how it will help is with our own writing, and knowing us, there will also be several funny stories to go with it about our adventures by the sea!
Husband and I went to Watchet in the summer. This is what I wrote in June:
We went down the coast to the small harbour town of Watchet today. We had a little mission which was soon accomplished so we parked up and went for a wander. It’s longer ago than I realised since we visited, so it was nice to see it again, wander around, have some lunch and obviously, since we were beside the sea, we had an ice-cream. It’s on the mouth of the River Washford, down which minerals mined in the nearby Brendan Hills were shipped to be sent out from the harbour.
There’s been a settlement in this area for millennia, the site of an Iron Age hill fort is less than a mile away, and over the years since this small place has been significant in its own little way. Now it’s a great place to visit – which is what we did. We’d set off late so it was lunchtime when we arrived. We parked up and wandered to the harbour, took photos of a statue of the Ancient Mariner, and then stood wondering which of the three interesting old pubs we could see would be the best for lunch. We chose at random and went into The Bell:
The Bell Inn is currently the oldest pub in the town. Dating back to the 16th Century, it boasts many fascinating period features. What is now the function room and skittle alley, used to be stables, with horses being brought in directly through the bar. A serving hatch still exists between the pub and The Old Foundry in Swain Street, where beer was passed directly to the workers. An underground tunnel supposedly runs beneath the pub, used for the purposes of smuggling in days gone by. Local poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was believed to have stayed at The Bell Inn with his friend William Wordsworth and it is said that it was here that he began his most famous work – The Rime of The Ancient Mariner.
We had a very enjoyable lunch and then wandered some more until we found a place to buy an ice-cream. I was thinking all the time that this would be an ideal place to do some writing – maybe next time the writing chums fancy a day out, this would be ideal. Plenty of inspiration to be had, wonderful views across the sea to Wales, or down the coast to Minehead, or in the other direction East Quantockhead. There are two museums, but we didn’t visit today, and also there’s a station for the West Somerset Railway,
We couldn’t stay too long, but as we left I thought we definitely should plan to come back, explore more and definitely visit the museums – the Market House Museum and the Watchet Boat Museum… and investigate the other pubs!
Lois Elsden 