Reading at Porthmeor Studios: 'World War One Poetry with Alan Shepherd and Friends'
On 22nd September I will participating in this event to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the 1914-1918. I am delighted to have been invited by Alan Shepherd to read at Porthmeor and I have agreed to do so not to 'glorify' war - that would be anathema - but rather to honour all those who fought so bravely and well - and, sadly, all too often, fought with little hope. How quickly and absolutely their young lives were plunged into the horrors of a new and relentless kind of warfare. They can scarcely have known what had hit them. I find it particularly difficult to think about those young men who, having endured so much , died without ever having the opportunity to live.
My own grandfather, Percival Tallett, was one of the lucky ones. Born in 1900, he lied about his age to enlist at the age of fourteen and a half and, despite serving in France, he survived the whole of the conflict, even going on to serve in Iceland during the Second World War. Grandad Percy was a quiet and very gentle man with a fondness for budgerigars. I never heard him speak a word about his war time experiences. Like many men who did come home, he prefered to keep his silence and to try to forget.
This event is being organised as part of the St Ives Festival, 2014. It will take place at the Porthmeor Studios. Below is an extract from the St Ives Festival website. I look forward to seeing some of you there.
'The First World War provides one of the seminal moments of the 20th century in which literate soldiers, plunged into inhuman conditions, reacted to their surroundings through poetry. The distinct, emotive and varied work of Owen, Brooke, Sassoon, Graves et al, lives on and has inspired generations that followed. Local poet, Alan Shepherd, and a selection of friends read from their own and selected work to commemorate a war which still runs through the British modern-day psyche like no other conflict. £5.50'
