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Conference 2011 |
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Powys Society Publication List Powys titles currently in print A Visit to The National Library of Wales Supplement to Powys Checklist & Readers’ Guide 2010 TFP The Voice of God by Michael Kowalewski JCP OWEN GLENDOWER The Seen and the Unseen by P.J. Kavanagh First Powys Lecture in Ireland
(Reprinted by Faber Finds)
The Life of John Cowper Powys
MR WESTON'S GOOD WINE T. F. Powys
T. F. Powys
EARTH MEMORIES Llewelyn Powys
The Brothers Powys by Richard Powys Graves
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The Powys Society Conference 2011
The latest Conference triple DVD set, Llangollen 2011, is now available here
'CYMRI AND CIMMERIANS'
'... that mysterious country of the underworld of which the Greek wanderer had his vision, coming to it at last through those Cimmerian mists ...' We are returning once more to The Hand Hotel, beautifully set above the dark River Dee, in a landscape charged with symbolic resonance, and with a magnificent view of the hill of Dinas Bran high above. What all three Powys brothers have in common in their writing is the experience of Walking - of journeying on foot as a kind of Quest -so that each landscape will tend to take on primeval, mythic overtones. John Cowper took up the hints in Rhys and elsewhere that the Welsh 'Cymric' might be synonymous with Homer's 'Cimmerians', who lived beyond the Oceanus, in a land of fog and darkness, at the edge of the world - at the entrance to Hades. Among the few facts recorded about these mysterious Cimmerians is that one of their kings was named 'DUGDAMME'. And it is in Ducdame (1925) that JCP develops a mythology of 'Cimmery Land' as some longed-for retreat, a 'land of untroubled twilight', fed by 'the memory of old, defeated, long-forgotten gods whose only immortality was in grey, cool, silent, sadly-driven mists'. We are close here to Keats' vision of Saturn's underground realm - the deposed god plotting his return. Twenty years after Ducdame, in Obstinate Cymric, John Cowper writes: 'the everlasting Welsh habit has been to sink inwards' - a dominant theme in all his Welsh fiction and, it could be argued, in the daily practice of life for both Theodore and John throughout their later years. For better or worse that Cimmerian aspect should be less in evidence on a busy August weekend in Llangollen. Our Conference programme encompasses all three brothers. Patrick Wright will speak mainly about Llewelyn; Stephen Batty about Theodore; while Jonas Holm Aagaard will focus on one chapter of A Glastonbury Romance. It is a special delight to welcome again a long-absent but almost legendary Powysian, the poet Jeremy Hooker, who will speak on the writings of Mary and Gerard Casey and their relation to both Theodore and John Cowper.
Programme Friday 19th August 16.00 Arrival 17.30 Reception and welcome 18.30 Dinner 20.00 Stephen Batty: 'Cold, silence, height: T. F. Powys & Friedrich Nietzsche', introduced by Louise de Bruin
Saturday 20th August 08.00 Breakfast 09.30 Jonas Holm Aagaard: 'Reading the Will', introduced by Charles Lock Coffee 11.15 Jeremy Hooker: 'On the Writings of Gerard and Mary Casey', introduced by Glen Cavaliero 12.45 Lunch Afternoon free for expeditions 19.00 Dinner 20.00 A reading of Mr. Weston's Good Wine, adapted for voices by Kate Kavanagh
Sunday 21st August 08.00 Breakfast 09.30 Patrick Wright: 'Metal, Compost and Chalk: Reflections on English Vision and the ground beneath Llewelyn's feet', introduced by Timothy Hyman 11.00 AGM 12.00 A Discussion 13.00 Lunch 15.00 End of conference and Departure ◊◊◊◊◊ About the Speakers Jonas Holm Aagaard wrote his Master's thesis on JCP at the University of Copenhagen, under the supervision of Professor Charles Lock. His essay 'John Cowper Powys: Titles' is in The Powys Journal xix (2009). He is now extending his work to Powys's contemporaries, including Dorothy Richardson, to explore theoretical issues arising out of book history and printed matter. The Reverend Canon Stephen Batty is parish priest of Branksome St Aldhelm, Poole, and is a non-residentiary canon of Salisbury Cathedral. He has worked on TFP manuscripts in Dorchester (including his annotations to Nietzsche) and is planning to research the mss of TFP's Biblical interpretations at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas. He came to know Gerard Casey well, and conducted his funeral service at Mappowder. Jeremy Hooker, poet and essayist, was an early member of The Powys Society. His first collection, Soliloquies of a Chalk Giant, came out in 1974, and his collected poems were published by Enitharmon in 2006. Mary Casey was the daughter of Lucy Penny and niece to all the Powys brothers. She married Gerard Casey, born in South Wales and later Will Powys's assistant in Kenya. Both were remarkable writers in verse and in prose. (For a link to visit Jeremy Hooker's website please click the following: www.jeremyhooker.co.uk) Kate Kavanagh joined The Powys Society in the 1980s (?) and has been Newsletter editor since 2001.This radio version of Mr. Weston was made (with P. J. Kavanagh) in the 1970s, for an enthusiastic, but ultimately powerless, BBC' producer at Bristol. It is almost entirely in dialogue lifted straight from the book. A small group at Dorchester enjoyed reading it in 2008, and we hope it will find favour with a larger audience at Llangollen, equipped with lively imaginations. Patrick Wright is a cultural historian and journalist with a long-standing interest in the Powyses as one strand in that weird tapestry of Utopians and prophets that took shape in southern England between the wars. His many chronicles of absurd cultural collisions range from The Village that Died for England (about Tyneham in Dorset) to Journey through Ruins (about Dalston Lane in east London). In 2001 Patrick Wright collaborated with Timothy Hyman on the Tate's Stanley Spencer retrospective. His most recent book, Passport to Peking, centres on a mission to China in 1954 that included both Spencer and A. J. Ayer. (For a link to Patrick Wright’s website please click the following: www.patrickwright.net) ◊◊◊◊◊ Contact Our Conference Organisers, Louise de Bruin (01258-817825) and Anna Pawelko (email: anna.pawelko@ntlworld.com), will be happy to answer members' questions.
Above: Conference organisers Anna Pawelko and Louise de Bruin Download 2011 Conference Booking Form
Further details about the venue can be found here: http://www.hand-hotel-llangollen.com For anyone wishing to look up the site on multimap, the postcode is LL20 8PL If you are not yet a member you may like to consider joining us. ◊◊◊◊◊ To visit the webpage of last year's Conference (2010) please click here To visit the webpage of the previous year's Conference (2009) please click here. DVDs are available of presentations from previous Powys Society Conferences |
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This website is © The Powys Society 2011. Permission must be asked before using any material from this site.
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A GLASTONBURY ROMANCE John Cowper Powys |
A Powys Society Meeting |
PORIUS John Cowper Powys |
SOMERSET ESSAYS Llewelyn Powys |
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U.K. Registered Charity no. 801332 • © 2011 The Powys Society |
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