The Making of Poetry

Delightful book talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival with Adam Nicolson talking about his book on when Coleridge and Wordsworth lived together in Somerset and Tom Hammick, the artists he asked to illustrate it.

The discussion was held in front of a wonderful, brightly coloured screen decorated with one of the pictures based on his idea of Xanadu. Nicolson talked about why he wrote the book and how he went to the Quantock Hills where they stayed to experience the landscape. He said by doing this he experienced the rhythm of walking in the poetry they wrote at this time.

Hammick got involved when Nicolson invited him to join him in the area and go walking together. The original idea was to have eight black and white woodcuts but this ended up as 50 coloured ones. They are not just about Coleridge and Wordsworth but brought in modern themes such as replacing a manor house with a Barrett Home. He talked about how the wood used for the woodcuts was picked up on their walks which I though was magical. The trees it came from had probably been there when Coleridge and Wordsworth were there.

I loved the fact that this book was about an eighteenth century friendship but it also forged a modern one.