The wonderful Roger McGough, looking at the
world through jade-tinted glasses. Photo: AP
A star-studded evening at the Writing Together reception at the Royal Festival Hall yesterday. The organisation, which works to establish links between writers and schools, had gathered an assortment of authors, teachers and journalists to celebrate both a highly successful year and the launch of a book on how to get the most out of writer-school partnerships.
The book, Our Thoughts Are Bees: Writers Working With Schools, is the result of a collaboration between award-winning poets Mandy Coe and Jean Sprackland, both of whom have worked extensively with children; the title comes from a poem written by one of the classes Mandy worked with (read it in full below). It was given a ringing endorsement by Andrew Motion, who spoke at the end of the reception ("and not just" he promised us "because Jean is a dear friend of mine") – and, more importantly by my teacher friend Emma, whose verdict was "extremely useful". It's basically a clear, step-by-step guide to arranging, structuring and following up on writers' visits; to find out more or order a copy, go here.
The star turn of the evening, though, was undoubtedly the effervescent Roger McGough, resplendent in sky-blue shirt and trademark coloured specs.
He presented the Writer-Teacher Partnership Award (to poet Andy Croft and teacher Fay Murray from The Meadows School in County Durham), and went on to read from his autobiography, Said and Done, due out in November. If the extract is anything to go by, it promises to be achingly funny. He began topically with a story about a "challenging" school visit, but segued into a superb anecdote which involved him knocking on strangers' doors in the late 70s to find somewhere to watch his band The Scaffold's debut performance on the BBC. Great stuff.
The Mind Poem
Thinking is a beautiful use of a mind. our thoughts are bees buzzing in the hive of our head.
The bees visit flowers then return with ideas, stories of butterflies, dogs, cats, rabbits and grass.
Our blood runs like honey, sticky with thoughts.
Year Five, Kingsway Primary School, Wallasey
