INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY- CELEBRATING IN BILLERICAY - MY CONTRIBUTION WITH THANKS TO LIBRARY
How I love our Essex Libraries and, in particular, Billericay Library, which is one of the busiest and most welcoming libraries in this area.
Yours truly and Lisa Horner on International Women's Day 8 March
So happy to meet one of their librarians Lisa Horner (herself a popular author (more about her in next missive), but such fun to be interviewed by her recently. She wanted news of my latest writing projects connected to the world's most famous women's writing organisation - The Society of Women Writers and Journalists (founded in 1894) and my current traditionally published books (12), my features (4,000+), eight anthologies and an update on my own interviews with the famous and (frankly notorious) characters over the last 33 years.
WORKING HARD ON A NEW TOPIC LINKED TO EARLIER RESEARCH ON PATHE NEWS (AND THAT FUNNY OLD COCKEREL)
VE Day's 80th Anniversary Plans Unveiled
In The News
The upcoming 80th anniversary of VE Day will be marked with 4 days of nationwide events and commemorations, it has been announced. Our VE Day collection has some of the best and most iconic footage of 8 May 1945 and its context.
Just lately, one of my research projects required a little help from Pathé News, the producer of newsreels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970 in the United Kingdom.
Their founder Charles Pathe was a pioneer of moving pictures in the silent
era. The Pathé News archive is known today as B Its collection of news film and movies is
fully digitised and available online.
Often, researchers and archivists have chosen Pathe News to widen their studies and many of us choose this area to learn more about this team of film-makers. Their roots lie in 1896 in Paris when Societe Pathe Freres was founded by Charles Pathe and his brothers Emile, Theophile and Jacques all living a the time in France. Charles Pathé adopted the national emblem of France, the cockerel, as the trademark for his company. After the company, now called Compagnie Générale des Éstablissements Pathé Frère Phonographes & Cinématographes, invented the cinema newsreel withPathé-Journal. French Pathé began its newsreel in 1908 and opened a newsreel office in London's Wardour Street in 1910.
The newsreels were shown in the cinema and were silent until 1928. At first, they ran for about four minutes and were issued fortnightly. During the early days, the camera shots were taken from a stationary position but the Pathé newsreels captured events such as Franz Reichelt's fatal parachute jump from the Eiffel Tower and suffragette Emily Davison's fatal injury by a racehorse at the 1913 Epsom Derby.
Duration: 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
During the the Great War, the cinema newsreels were called the Pathé Animated Gazettes, and for the first time this provided newspapers with competition. After 1918, British Pathé started producing a series of cinemazines, in which the newsreels were much longer and more comprehensive. By 1930, British Pathé was covering news, entertainment, sport, culture, and women's issues through programmes including the Pathétone Weekly, the Pathé Pictorial, the Gazette and Eve’s Film Review.
In 1927, the company sold British Pathé (both the feature film and the newsreel divisions) to First National. (French Pathé News continued until 1980, and the library is now part of the Gaumont-Pathe collection.) Pathé changed hands again in 1933, when it was acquired by British International Pictures, which was later known as Associated British Picture Corporation. In 1958, it was sold again to Warner Brothers and became Warner-Pathé. Pathé eventually stopped producing the cinema newsreel in February 1970. However, I am so fond of their team and am always keen to refer to them from time to time in my column work.
WARMEST WISHES TO FINOLA HOLIDAY, ONE OF OUR SWWJ BEST POETS ON HER ONE HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY.
Both East and West Sussex enjoy a remarkable literary past. Their list of legendary writers and poets includes Hilaire Belloc, William Blake, HG Wells, Lord Tennyson and a host of other illustrious characters who once lived and worked in this area.
Finola Holiday pictured in London receiving a new award
In modern times, numerous members of the prestigious Society of Women Writers & Journalists have excelled themselves in publishing their best selling books across all genres. The latest collection of poetry emanates from Hove resident Finola Holiday, who celebrates her centenary on 23 February. Finola's work spans a lifetime of award-winning publications.
Finola has long enjoyed success in regional and international poetry competitions. She won the ‘Sussex Poet of the Year’ prize and the ‘Edna Bourne-Jones Cup – an award of the Downland Poets Eastbourne - as well as the ‘Slipstream’ and ‘Ver Poets’ competitions and on three occasions, the prestigious SWWJ Lady Elizabeth Longford.
A ‘Nest of Tigers’ is the title of Finola’s latest collection of poetry, crafted over years spent in remote places in different continents. Some of her poetry belongs to the landscape of art and others to the tangible world of tide and change, while others exist only as images reflected in a darker glass. Finola’s latest eclectic work has brought reviews from respected leading poets:
Susan Skinner: Finola Holiday presents the people or the objects in her poems with an eye for enchantment and an ear for rhythm that combine to give her poems an appealing vision.”
Stella Davis: They are stand-alone good, and clearly the work of a poet who knows what she is doing! A good strong voice with things to say and a confident sense of form in which to express them.
CAN IT BE SIXTEEN YEARS SINCE HILARY MANTEL PAID US A VISIT IN BILLERICAY
Tonight on our regular BBC 4 radio programme Front Row and mention, yet again, of books, films and authors. The work of Hilary Mantel was discussed, particularly her best-selling book Wolf Hall which our Billericay BookTalk group also coincidentally discussed today. Here is Hilary in 2009 at Billericay where we shared a lovely evening talking books, reading and writing, and of course, the Essex Book Festival. Looking forward to this year's events during the summer. Will keep you posted.
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE REMEMBERS OUR WONDERFUL POET FLEUR ADCOCK
The Royal Society of Literature members will remember our British poet Fleur Adcock on Wednesday 19 February at the London Library. Sadly she died in November 2024, but her poetry lives on.
Wonderful to meet her and other respected poets at an ALCS evening gathering a few years ago. Here she is with Sir Derek Alcott and Wendy Cope at the House of Lords. We enjoyed a super evening.
In remembrance of Fleur, the RSL is hosting a discussion of her writing and legacy with a panel of speakers including Neil Astley, Wendy Cope and Lorraine Mariner, chaired by Rachel Long, and interspersed with recordings of the poet reading her own work. This event, developed in
partnership with the London Library, will mark Adcock’s 91st birthday.
LATEST INFORMATION ON OUR FUN WALK TRUST EVENT DESTINED FOR THIS SEPTEMBER
FUN WALK PRESS RELEASE
February 4th 2024
Registration Opens for
2025 Fun Walk
The Trustees of The Fun Walk Trust
are inviting local charities and community groups to register for this year’s
Fun Walk which will take place through September. Supporters can do their walk
individually or organisations can host an event on any day during the month, to
raise money for their project or good cause. The event is free to enter, and
support is provided including posters, finisher’s certificates and sponsorship
forms so participants can focus on fund raising.
The Fun Walk’s BONUS POT is
supported by donations from local businesses and individuals, and last year
provided a 30% bonus to each participating charity/community group in addition
to the monies they raised in sponsorship. Last year’s donors included Brown
& Carroll (London), Sanctuary Housing, Greater Anglia, Tunnelcraft, Butyl
Products Group, IFE Global Logistics, Mr Barrie Stone and others.
John Baron, Chair of Trustees,
said:
“With the generous help of our
Bonus Pot donors, The Fun Walk Trust raised over £100,000 last year for local
charities and good causes, bringing the total raised to over £1,635,000 since
2002. Participating in the Fun Walk is a wonderful way to boost unrestricted
funding and support their initiatives. Any non-profit organisation which
benefits the community may apply to take part. We encourage all to spread the
word.”
Author, freelance columnist. Latest book Amberley published BRENTWOOD IN 50 BUILDINGS is on Amazon & bookshops. Published work appears in Britain,USA and other overseas press & on-line. Following Freelance Writer of The Year award (Writing Magazine) my work has appeared in 81 titles and my FOLKLORE OF ESSEX contributed to Channel 5’s film COUNTY SECRETS. THE WOMAN WRITER was published by the History Press. This book outlines the history of the SWWJ’s 1894 foundation and includes our pioneering members in journalism, literature & poetry. Joyce Grenfell, former SWWJ President enjoys a special chapter. My books were reviewed in The Times and other dailies. As SWWJ’s archivist. I'm working on new historical research, contributing to on-line press, see my downloadable Kindle books. Also Facebook,Twitter & Amazon @sylviaakent & film/audio clips added. BARKING & DAGENHAM FROM OLD PHOTOGRAPHS and BRENTWOOD IN 50 BUILDINGS. I won an SWWJ scholarship and became a Fellow of the Society,winning the John Walter Salver two years consecutively. I am now President of Brentwood Writers Circle, broadcasting on PhoenixFM, BBC Essex &other radio stations.
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