News Archive

1 – 3 May 2009 - Weekend Gathering

The Society will be holding its first gathering of 2009 over the weekend of 1 – 3 May. We shall meet in Dorchester on Friday evening for a meal; on Saturday the AGM will be held in the Dorset County Museum, followed by a talk on MI5’s surveillance of STW & VA. On Saturday afternoon, we shall visit Lyme Regis to explore STW’s links with Jane Austen, and gather for a meal in the evening. On Sunday we will be visiting East Chaldon.

Further details will be announced later and will be published in the Spring Newsletter.

23 February 2009 - Website relaunched

The Society is proud to present its newly launched website. There have been improvements in design and content to provide more information and offer better readability. For any feedback, questions and comments please contact Karina Taubert at 'kmake this email address more difficult to be read automaticallyt@townsendwarner.com'.

24 November 2008 - Journal 2008 published

The Society's journal for the year 2008 has just been published. All members of the Society will receive it by post soon. The journal features many interesting articles, among them a review of the New Collected Poems. It also contains two articles by Sylvia: ‘Barcelona‘ and ‘Soldiers and Sickles‘.

Find a full listing of the journal's content on our List of Publications. If you are not yet a member of the Society, you may order copies from here. (headline 'Backcopies').

7 October 2008 - September Weekend

Members of the Society enjoyed the best weather of the 'summer' at our weekend on 26 - 28 September. Walks at Tyneham and through the 'scooped valley' (in STW's poem) at Chaldon were magnificent. An unusual event was a meal of dishes mentioned in STW's letters, with lentil & rhubarb soup, curried chicken with gooseberries and chicken in cider butter. We hope to have recipes in the next Newsletter. Next year's programme will be discussed at the Committee meeting in December.

30 June 2008 - September Meeting

All those members who attended the Concert in Oxford in May enjoyed the wonderful experience of appreciating a little-known side of STW and hearing the great variety of music which she produced, reflecting her wide-ranging literary abilities. Also, the day spent at Idbury proved very exciting, when we discovered STW's signature in a record-book at Idbury Manor and saw the house in which she stayed there, possibly while finishing 'Lolly Willowes'. The weekend will be reported in detail in the Society's Summer Newsletter, out soon.

The next Society event will be 26, 27 & 28 September 2008 in Dorset. There will be a meal in Dorchester on Friday evening; on Saturday morning a gathering in the Museum Library to hear recordings, musical and spoken, by and about STW; in the afternoon a walk at Tyneham; on Sunday a walk at Chaldon. Full details will appear in the Newsletter.

19 April 2008 - OXFORD WEEKEND, SUNDAY 4 MAY

Peter Tolhurst has been in contact with the owners of Idbury Manor, previously owned by John Robertson Scott, the founder of The Countryman to which Sylvia Townsend Warner contributed many articles. They have kindly agreed that a group of Society members may visit the Manor on Sunday 4 May at 2.00 pm. If you would like to be part of this group please contact me at stwsociety@tiscali.co.uk

2 April 2008 - BODLEIAN LIBRARY VISIT, SATURDAY 3 MAY, 2008

A tour of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, has been arranged for members of the Sylvia Townsend Warner Society on 3 May, before the concert at St Anne's College in the afternoon. Only 13 places are available and these have all now been allocated. If you have a place on the tour, please note that it begins at 11.00 am, Saturday 3 May, 2008.

27 March 2008 - "NEW COLLECTED POEMS" BY SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER PUBLISHED

Claire Harmann is the editor of this collection of poems by STW. Included are over ninety previously uncollected and unpublished poems, with expanded notes, a chronology and an authoritative new introduction

17 March 2008 - THE SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER CONCERT, SATURDAY 3 MAY, 2008

The concert on 3 May 2008 will take place at the Mary Ogilvie Theatre, St Anne's College, Oxford, (note the change of venue) at 2.30 pm. This is to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Sylvia's death and will feature the first ever performances of her own compositions "Children of Earth" and "Memorial", musical settings of her poems by John Ireland and Paul Nordoff, and a new composition by Simon Whalley. Rebecca Outram (mezzo-soprano), Simon Whalley (piano) and members of Keble College Chapel Choir will perform.

Tickets are £10. Society members have received details of the concert and a form to reserve tickets. For non-members, if you would like to reserve a ticket, please contact the Society on stwsociety@tiscali.co.uk.

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at this very special occasion.

7 January 2008 - MAY WEEKEND

There will be a change to our usual May weekend programme in 2008. Claire Harman, STW's biographer, and her musical colleagues are arranging a concert of works by Sylvia Townsend Warner, several of which have probably never actually been performed, at Keble College, Oxford, on the afternoon of Saturday, 3 May. The Society will be holding its AGM there instead of in Dorset so that as many members as possible may attend the concert. It promises to be a very special occasion for all admirers of STW. We shall send out further information about this to members of the Society as soon as details are finalised.

12 October 2007 - Descents of Memory

This ground-breaking new biography of John Cowper Powys was launched at Dorset County Museum on Tuesday 9 October 2007. This is an important addition to works on writers connected with Dorset, and will be of great interest to admirers of Powys. Even more, it will draw in readers who have hitherto been unable to tackle his work and give them a guide into the deep workings of his mind. Essential reading for Dorset lovers, booklovers, anyone who has ever heard of Powys.

September 2007 - New edition of "Somerset" published by Black Dog Books

Black Dog Books has just published a wonderful new edition of Sylvia Townsend Warner's Somerset . This originally appeared in 1949 as one of the Vision of England series. Sylvia said of it, "Since I am constitutionally incapable of resembling a guide, an err-and-stray book would be nearer my measure." The reader is taken on a journey through the county's most beautiful scenery. Bath and Wells and the great Ham stone houses are among the highlights but STW is just as good on Somerset churches, its barns and cottages and the craftsmen who built them. She has a particular affinity for the willowy landscape of Sedgemoor and Glastonbury's legendary Tor and is equally at home with the Romantic poets on the Quantocks.

This new edition is illustrated with a selection of 64 stunning black and white photographs by several eminent photographers, including Edwin Smith, Patrick Sutherland and Chris Willoughby.

To order your copy of this delightful book for £17.99 (inc p&p) contact Black Dog books at 104, Trinity Street , Norwich , NR2 2BJ , 01603 623771 or email: blackdogbooks@computekmail.co.uk.

August 2007 - "Dead Men Talking: v. 3: Stories from East Anglia"

Another interesting new publication by Black Dog Books is the third in the series "Stories from East Anglia", "Dead Men Talking", following on from "A Distant Cry" and "Line Dancing" . This has two stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner, "Poison" and "A Stranger With a Bag". Other stories are by Angela Carter, Nicola Barker, Rose Tremain, Ronald Blythe, Virginia Woolf, Toby Litt, Philip Hensher and many others. The price is £14.95 (inc p&p) from Black Dog Books (contact details as above).

4 June 2007 - Scenes of Dorset

Dorset has provided inspiration for many writers. These photographs show why

19 May 2007 - Sylvia Townsend Warner

Sylvia Townsend Warner was a highly individual writer in several genres. She wrote seven novels, the first of which was Lolly Willowes published in 1926. She also wrote volumes of poetry and short stories, many of which were published in The New Yorker. In 1967 she completed her biography of T.H. White. She began visiting East Chaldon in Dorset in 1922 and there met the poet Valentine Ackland, and from then on the couple became residents of Dorset, firstly in Chaldon and later in Frome Vauchurch near Maiden Newton.

Despite the quality of her work, she remains an under-appreciated figure in the literary world and virtually unknown to most Dorset people.

30 April 2006 - Dorset Stories by Sylvia Townsend Warner,
with wood engravings by Reynolds Stone (published by Black Dog Books, price £15.99)

The writer Sylvia Townsend Warner spent the best years of her life in Dorset from the time she first moved to Chaldon Herring in 1927 to her death in 1978. Although none of her seven novels are set in the county a good number of the many short stories that first appeared in The New Yorker have a strong Dorset flavour. She was attracted to Chaldon by the presence of the novelist T. F. Powys and the influence of his quirky allegorical style is clearly discernible in her own early output.

It was here too that she met Valentine Ackland, her life-long companion, and ten years later the couple moved to a house beside the river at Frome Vauchurch on the outskirts of Maiden Newton. Most of the stories are set here or in Dorchester (Dumbridge) during the war years. Warner’s characters come from all walks of village life and are wryly observed in stories that are at once elegant, original and witty.

Collected together for the first time Dorset Stories contains a number previously unpublished and many others long out of print. Beautifully illustrated with wood engravings by her Litton Cheney friend Reynolds Stone, they are Dorset ‘to the life’.

Dorset Stories is a 272 page hardback (155 x 233) published by Black Dog Books with 16 wood engravings by Reynolds Stone. Price £15.99. ISBN 0-9549286-3-6 This volume is now sold out.