Guernsey
Posts relating to Guernsey
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La Gran’mère, a Guernsey goddess
I am an idolater. This is not something many of us can say in this godless age. My Goddess is somewhere between three and five thousand years old. She was hewn from a large lump of granite until, around the time of the Romans, she was carved again, adding the garments and, possibly, the face she wears now. She…
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An exile’s lament
I am an exile, but I am not alone. Most people I know live far away from where they grew up. Though born in London, my mother moved to Guernsey to live with my grandparents when I was little. I started school on the island, and my brother was born in the old granite cottage…
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Liberation Day
Guernsey was liberated on 9th May 1945, and this year one of my poems Root and Branch was beautifully read as part of a Liberation Day sermon by Dr Jonathan Frost, Bishop of Southampton. The service was featured on BBC Guernsey and you can listen here. The service starts at around 1:31 and my poem Root…
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Strange Journey by Richard Fleming
Richard Fleming’s new collection Strange Journey rings true. It is the poetry of biography filtered through a charged and fiercely honest imagination. The viewpoint is often that of a person assessing their own life from a position of uneasy maturity. The skill with which this is done forces the reader into what can be an occasionally…
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Howler
If I have learned anything from Defenders of Guernsey it is not to rush out a publication. Just before I went to bed last night I noticed a complete howler in the printed text. It is a scene where Archibald is explaining to Skelton about the geography of the channel islands. Now I could draw…
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Island Ink interview
Guerney’s Island Ink magazine edited by Gabi Nodes is a source of great encouragment for new writers on the island. Here is a short interview they did with me in the December edition. Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you started writing? I live in Brighton, but still think of…
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Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
Listening to a podcast of the BBC Radio 4 programme In our time, hosted by the excellent Melvyn Bragg about Foxe’s book of Martyrs first published 1563. This is a book I’d only vaguely heard about. It contains illustrations of Christian martyrs in the act of being executed. My ears pricked up when one of…
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Guernsey: year zero
I was sent recently by Tony Gallienne an essay called Guernseyness: In search of a Guernsey Identity (written as A C Gallienne). It is a remarkably thoughtful and sometimes lyrical piece which struggles with the idea of Guernsey identity, and the loss of Guernésiais as the dominant language. I quote here from the essay, which…
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Victor Hugo arrives at Guernsey
The Expulsion of Victor Hugo, by Jean Le Pelley, which originally appeared in the Transactions of La Society Guernesaise for 1970. Contains this glimpse into Victor Hugo’s arrival on Guernsey during a storm. I love this portrayal of the great man’s trunk with all his writings being in such jeopardy. In this description Le Pelly…
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Sam Thompson
Sam is one of those writers who has fallen under the spell of Guernsey, and has sent me some of his work. I am really delighted that lately more and more writers with a Guernsey connection are becoming interested in the Anthology. Here is an extract from Ste Marguerite de la Forêt (2006) is the…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 