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All posts by Rob Illingworth
Works in Kent Libraries & Archives to promote the Archive & Local History collections
The Kent Factor Find!
17 November 2009 In Writing in Kent since 1900 an essay commissioned for the Kent Literature Festival 1986, Michael Baldwin jokes that there is a temptation to rate the "Kentishness" of fiction through "the prevalence of hop-poles, orchards and oasts...my own Kent, and... Read more or Comment
The Men of Kent March On Find!
29 October 2009 John Blanford was a soldier poet, inspired by the Kent countryside, who wrote a poem titled Penshurst. Given the themes that the Kent Reading Detectives have explored, I thought that this was another gift. Apart from the text... Read more or Comment
One True Crime Find!
15 October 2009 "-I've got a first edition of The Colossus, I said. Knicked it from Tonbridge Library...-Knick some poems for me, Maxine said. I promised I'd be in the glass case at Tunbridge Wells reference library that very evening." This is an... Read more or Comment (2 comments)
Why Pick Lydden? Find!
15 October 2009 I couldn't resist recording Honor Wyatt & George Ellidge's Why pick on us? as a find. Their son is Robert Wyatt whose music I have been listening to since my teens. At 47, George Ellidge was diagnosed with multiple... Read more or Comment
Dover- Life's a Beach Find!
9 October 2009 To my surprise, I've come across another 1st world war poet & novelist with strong Kent connections. Richard Aldington was born in Portsmouth, but spent a significant part of his youth in Dover. "I hate that town," he... Read more or Comment
The ideal home Find!
5 October 2009 Victor Canning was a prolific author of thrillers & humorous novels. One of the latter is Mr Finchley Takes the Road. We don't have a copy of this book in Kent Libraries & Archives, but it is available as a... Read more or Comment (1 comments)
Penshurst is the Place Find!
29 September 2009 For generations, poets have been inspired by the literary and historical legacy of Penshurst Place. Robert Southey captured the essence of this inspiration in his poem. For a Tablet at Penshurst. http://www.poetry-love-poems.com/southey/for-a-tablet-at-penshurst.php He also makes a suggestion: ...if such... Read more or Comment (2 comments)
To Penshurst
24 September 2009 http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/penshurst.htm I don't think that I have the cheek to claim the poem "To Penshurst" by Ben Jonson as a "find." One or two other folks have found it already. But it is worth emphasising that this is a poem that... Read more or Comment
The Downfall of a Reading Detective Find!
22 September 2009 To the memory of Mrs Lefroy was the title of a poem by Jane Austen, who became one of the most celebrated authors of all time. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-memory-of-mrs-lefroy-who-died-dec-r-16-my/ It is also the title of a poem by Samuel Egerton... Read more or Comment
If You're Going to Snodland... Find!
11 September 2009 In sleuthing for literary connections to the Tonbridge & Malling district of Kent, we have made an unlikely find. The poet Thom Gunn was born in Gravesend, Kent, but he lived in California for over 40 years. Understandably, he is... Read more or Comment (4 comments)
Cat Lovers
10 September 2009 Keiren Phelan from the Arts Council SE attended our Reading Detectives session on 03/09 & steered us towards a poetic association between Christopher Smart & Wendy Cope. Christopher Smart was born in Shipbourne in 1722, moved to East Barming... Read more or Comment
The Kent Tramp Trail Find!
10 September 2009 Rupert Croft-Cooke's Tonbridge autobiography, The Altar in the Loft, led me on a trail of detection. He mentions an encounter with the writer Bart Kennedy, "a burly man with a deep voice and the unkempt look considered proper for writers... Read more or Comment
The Altar in the Loft Find!
2 September 2009 All the local history collections in Kent Libraries & Archives include fictional works. This could be fiction written by authors with local connections, or fiction that evokes local places. Often, the fiction sections of the local history collections are overlooked. So, for me, Reading Detectives... Read more or Comment
Finds
Recent posts
- Denton Welch
- 45 London Road Sevenoaks
- To Penshurst
- Kent Finale!
- Mon 21 Sep 10.30 am DETECTIVE EVENT AT CENTRE FOR KENTISH STUDIES, MAIDSTONE
- Cat Lovers
- W H Davies
- Silence on the home front as my hard drive has died
- Jeffery Farnol
- Denton Welch, a look back to simpler times
- What Jane Austen really looked like !
- Life in the Country: With Quotations by Jane Austen and Silhouettes by Her Nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh
- First Meeting for Kent
- Jane Austen - Monster Mash Up
- Launch of Kent's Reading Detectives Team on 12 August
- Jane Austen Heritage Link
- Reading Detectives are starting soon in Kent
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