The Feast of Pentecost and The Orange Prize- Celebrations!

How great to hear the news from Charlie, librarian at HMP Low Newton, that he has been interviewed by the Guardian newspaper about the Orange Prize for Fiction reading group at HMP Low Newton – the article should appear on Wednesday, (tomorrow) the day the winner is announced. So don’t forget to buy your copy and take a look.

Update – for a link to the article and fab picture http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun/03/prison-book-club

 The original idea was brainwave of Writer In Residence Wendy Robertson – and last year a very successful group which included, inmates, librarians, learning shop staff and governors read the short list and picked their winner, it  turned out to be the judges choice too -The Road Home – Rose Tremain.

 That Charlie has continued to nurture and develop this unique group is a cause for admiration and for celebration too! These things are not easy to do in prisons. It’s brilliant and I look forward to reading all about it.

 While I’m on the subject of celebration, this weekend Agde celebrated the Feast of Pentecost with its third annual ‘reconstruction historique’ – music, dance, a medieval fair, circus acts, battle enactments, plays – it was all happening Saturday through to Monday. Sometimes it was tricky knowing what century you were in!

The town was full of ladies in satin gowns with lace parasols, men in frilled shirts and ribbons, Napoleonic soldiers on horseback, milkmaids, pirates and courtiers wandering through the town.

 This morning  while drinking my cafe in The Plazza I saw a man in doublet and hose pop into the Tabac, now how surreal is that?

 The French love and celebrate their history and it seems they love dressing up too. Growing up with a mother who was a dressmaker: to the sound of the treadle, the dust of tailor’s chalk, the laying out of cloth – being spoken to through mouthfuls of pins and acting as tailor’s dummy – I spared a thought for the dressmakers of Agde and their daughters too.