Welcome to the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society
The Sylvia Townsend Warner Society was launched in January 2000 in Dorchester by a group of enthusiasts, assembling for an inaugural meeting at the County Museum. The main aim of the Society is to promote a wide readership for and a better understanding of the writings of Sylvia Townsend Warner.
We provide a wide range of information on Sylvia Townsend Warner. Please follow the links on the top of each page to learn about Sylvia's life, her works and the reception of her work by the general public and literary critics. Learn more about the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society.
News
Next Society Weekend will be in May 2011
After much thought and discussion, the Committee has decided to implement the agreement made at the AGM in May to hold only one meeting a year, rather than two. The reasons for this are partly due to increasing expenses for travel and accommodation, the difficulty of finding new venues with a strong connection to STW, and also to the fact that only a small number of members actually attend our gatherings. Therefore, we have taken the decision to postpone the visit to Bath until 13 – 15 May 2011, when we hope to hold the AGM in the Assembly Rooms and to visit places described by STW in her book ‘Somerset’. We also intend to visit the American Museum, and we hope that as many members as possible will join us, as this promises to be a very special weekend.
Instead for this year, we have arranged to meet for one day, on Saturday 18 September 2010. We shall lunch at the Pen Mill Hotel in Yeovil (where STW was ‘exiled’ when Elizabeth Wade White came to visit Valentine Ackland at Frome Vauchurch) and then go to Lytes Cary, a National Trust property, which STW mentions in her book on Somerset: ‘The [river] Cary accompanies the [river] Brue in a sisterly way, keeping a course more to the south-west. A feminine river, shy, sly and gentle, the Cary imposes its ladylike character on a pastoral landscape of poplar screens dividing peculiarly slender fields, and wears like a family jewel the manor-house of Lytes Cary, with a garden full of clipped yew compartments, and a pair of very handsome gateposts rising from the scrambling margin of a country lane.’
Rendezvous times and further details will be published in the Summer Newsletter. If any non-members would like to attend please email the Society on stwsociety@tiscali.co.uk.
More details about the visit to Bath in May next year will be announced later.
The Sylvia Townsend Warner Society in 2010
2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the inauguration of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society which came into being on 14 January 2000. Our first decade has been an exciting and busy one, with meetings twice a year, two Newsletters every year and the annual Journal. It is interesting also to recall just how many visits and activities we have undertaken in that time. Read more ...
Back Copies of Society Journals
The Society has a large number of back copies of our Journals, the first being published in 2000. So we have decided to offer these for sale at the truly bargain price of £2.50 ($5.00) each, instead of the current price of £5.00. This is a great opportunity, particularly for any researchers, members who have recently joined the Society or for anyone who would like a new copy of old favourites. Copies of all the Journals from 2000 right through to 2008 are available. Go to our Publications Page for a full list of all the Journals’ contents.
Furthermore, the Society has one remaining copy of Valentine Ackland's Journey from Winter – Selected Poems (ed. Frances Bingham). This is available to members to purchase for the special price of £15.00 each (inc. p&p).
If you would like to make a purchase please send a cheque made out to ‘The Sylvia Townsend Warner Society’ for the appropriate amount and send to Judith Bond, 26 Portwey Close, Weymouth, DT4 8RF, indicating which item you want to purchase and including your contact details.
There are also copies available of most of the Society’s Newsletters which will now be sold at £1.00 ($2.00) each. The articles in these are indicated on the alphabetical list of contributors on the Publications Page.