Off the Shelf Festival of Words, Sheffield 2019: It's All a Fiction Readers' Afternoon

'Off the Shelf ' Sheffield Festival - illustration by Phlegm
whose obviously still associated with the art scene in this city
and well known here and nationally for his street art murals.

Our city of Sheffield's annual literature festival is taking place over the next month organised by the two universities, Museums Sheffield and supported by the Arts Council, England.  There's always a creative programme of events and I try to get to some of them including the Readers' Day.  For the second year this particular event was held in Firth Court, one of the main buildings of the University of Sheffield.  Mr P dropped me off at Weston Park Museum and as I had time to spare I went in to view one of the art exhibitions - more about that another time.  Then I walked down the hill through the park to Firth Hall.

The six guest authors this year were all new to me although they have a following by many in the audience.  However, it's always interesting to hear about the process of writing a novel, what inspires someone to write about a subject. As it says in the Festival of Words booklet describing the writers' work, the subjects and themes included "love, loss and letting go" Do Not Feed the Bear, "homelessness" How to Find Home, "a dark thriller debut" Impossible Causes, "families and relationships" We Don't Die of Love, "an hilarious comic novel" Diary of a Somebody and "an epic, timely story of brotherly love" The End of Time.  There was the chance to ask questions and meet the writers afterwards.  The discussion was led by someone from Radio Sheffield who always takes the chair on these occasions.  There were refreshments in between the two sessions so it was a chance to relax, talk to other book lovers as well chat informally to the participating fiction writers. I bought the book How to Find Home and as we were given a book bag with a freebie book I shall have some more thought-provoking reading on my To Be Read pile.

Hathersage, Derbyshire

It's a while since we actually stopped and spent time in Hathersage as we usually pass through on our way to other places in Derbyshire.  However, it's been on my list for a return visit for quite a while because of the connection this village has with Charlotte Bronte and her novel, Jane Eyre, as she visited in 1845 to stay with her best friend, Ellen Nussey, who lived in the vicarage.  During this time she took note of her surroundings and later used them in her novel, Jane Eyre, which I read when I was about eleven. It had quite an impression on me and, in time, I became fascinated by the Brontes, their lifestyle and their novels. Now that we have moved to Yorkshire I would like to visit Howarth Vicarage where the Brontes lived in West Yorkshire.  Hathersage is nearer to where we live and so we went there at the weekend and I took a couple of short walks in different parts of the village with a coffee break in between.

The Vicarage.  I don't know why it's for sale?

Charlotte Bronte's close friend at school was Ellen Nussey and her brother, Henry, was vicar of Hathersage from 1845 to 1847.  In fact he had once proposed to Charlotte and she had turned him down and in the Summer of 1845 he married another.  Ellen asked Charlotte to come and help her prepare the vicarage for the newly married couple whilst they were on honeymoon and she stayed for three weeks in June and July.  She took walks in the countryside and visited many of the houses in the area.

I find it fascinating to think that Charlotte would have seen the same sights in her day as she walked around Hathersage village.

Charlotte would certainly have spent time in the parish church of St. Michael and All Angels and noted the Eyre family memorial brasses on the south wall of the sanctuary.  The Eyres were a prominent local family and Robert Eyre is said to have built seven houses for each of his seven sons  - he had thirteen children - including his own North Lees Hall.  This house is probably the model for Thornfield in Jane Eyre.

                                              
                 

                   Some of the Eyre Family's memorial brasses

This has nothing to do with Charlotte Bronte, but I must mention the grave in the churchyard which is the reason why some visitors come to the church.

View from the churchyard of the village below

Charlotte and sometimes Ellen would have walked down to the village from the vicarage, but walks in the countryside and onto the moors would have been in the opposite direction uphill.  A long walk would have taken them across Stanage Moors as far as the stage coach route from Sheffield to Manchester over Moscar Moor. (Moscar is actually nearer to where we live and merges into Strines Moor in Bradfield Dale although the present day Sheffield-Manchester road has been laid further away from the original stage coach track which must now be buried under the heather).

This is Moscar Moor from our side of Stanage Edge.  As you can see these moors can be quite desolate expanses of land similar to those so beloved of the Brontes in their own locality around Haworth which I hope to see one day.

After refreshments in a tea room we walked by the Hood Brook to see the site of one of the needle mills in the village, an industry that would have been familiar to Charlotte that is also mentioned in the novel.

Some of the courtyards and narrow streets that would have been the homes of the needle mill workers. There are many other features around the village and locality, not to mention the names of villagers, that Charlotte Bronte had absorbed in her mind and later used in her writing.  

We left Hathersage passing The George Hotel where the stage coach would have stopped and where Charlotte would have taken another for her return journey back to Haworth.   

Arts and Books

October is the time for the annual literary festival in the city.  I usually go to some of the daytime events or an evening event if it's a speaker that appeals and I went along to the Book Swap in the Winter Garden supported by Oxfam.  I took six books and swapped them with six others that happened to be there at that particular time and that I felt I might enjoy.  You never know what will be available and I would rather browse in a library or charity shop than buy new unless it's something that I really would like to read when newly published in hardback.  It's rather ironic that some of my interests, reading, the visual arts and blogging, depends on good eyesight when that's not the case.  I'm so grateful that my unstable condition hasn't got worse in the last year and new prescription glasses have made me feel more confident when out walking.

After a time in the Winter Garden I went to a meeting organised by a group that is campaigning for more of the the city's art collections and services to be more widely available to all, especially in connection with providing art appreciation events and educational support to young people, despite the economic cuts that have meant limited hours of opening or even threatened closure for some city venues.

Anyway, here are some more images from last Saturday in and around the Winter Garden and in the next week or two I shall probably be looking back at times in the last year that I haven't included on my blog, especially as I find it difficult to take satisfactory photos when the light is poor on dull days and I feel less inclined to do so.  Although this blog is supposed to be a record of recent events - and it's good to celebrate that - there are other experiences that I want to blog about and so I hope you will join me and enjoy some more aspects of my life, past and present.

 

Drumming up interest

As well as the Book Swap there was

a reading with drama for children and students

also read their own work.

What's this?

A new mobile made of thin steel with motifs and words.

I think the work depicts some of the industrial buildings

in the city.  

It was difficult to photograph. I've used an editing programme

 to get a better idea of some of the detail

 and will go back to find out more about this piece of art work.

Some of the detail on seating and street art in Tudor Square

Tudor Square on a sunny Autumn day 2012