The HighlandLIT Festive meal and open mic took place on 17th December at the Beaufort Hotel in Inverness. After enjoying the food, drink and chat, we listened to ten people reading their work. The standard both of the writing and the presentations was superb, and the session was conducted with his usual aplomb by HighlandLIT Chair, Dr Paul Shanks. He encouraged those reading by highlighting the strengths of each piece.
There was no set theme for the readings, but some related to Christmas. There was Drew Hillier’s amusing tale read in a Hillierian Cockney accent about a dubious character who offered Free Hugs at Christmas. Sam Steele read three amusing poems. The Biggest Decorations recalled childhood memories; When the Yuletide rushes over describes that time when everything is ready and ‘a calm descends on Christmas Eve’; What’s your special time of year? reaches a surprising conclusion about Boxing Day. Then there were two fine ‘Advent poems’ from Colm Black. Midnight Mass, and Hail Mary written just after Colm had read Mary Oliver’s Pulitzer prize-winning collection American Primitive. His poem compared Mary Oliver with Mary, mother of Jesus, both encouraging an attitude of ‘making room in [our hearts] for the unimaginable.’
There was a delicate poem by Paul Shanks, Elevenses - about watching crows at a smoking shelter, and the sparrows returning after their departure.
And there were stories: an intriguing science fiction piece from S.J. Groenewegen set on a planet with two moons, Luna Major and Luna Minor. Caroline Robinson gave us Babel’s Tower, about kids in the countryside building a tower named after the one in the Sunday School story, an offering flavoured with Caroline’s unique laconic brilliance.
There was Lilian Ross’s fantasy piece Dinner in a Jiffy about a woman who has been stood up by a date wreaking revenge in an unusual, but highly appropriate and cathartic manner. Andrew Dawson read another anecdote from his father’s autobiographical My friend Harry’s bedtime book , in which Harry, assigned to Inverness from London in 1969 describes the idiosyncrasies as he sees them of the Highlanders, and of the newspaper businesses he has been sent north to knock into good financial shape.
Iris Perrin read a charming and witty story from her collection Wee love stories by Iris. In Kisses two older ladies, widows, friends since childhood, observe and overhear a young couple in a passionate clinch in the bucketing rain at a bus stop without a shelter. They compare their own experiences of loving in the age of their youth, so distant, so different.
And how else could a festive HighlandLIT open mic end but with macabre tales from the gifted Malcolm Timperley. In the first, the rather forgetful narrator describes his confused recollections of that ramshackle house in town, the one with the haunted aura - yes, that one - and the strange, elusive owner, and the graves they found in the garden and the corpses they found in the graves – and gradually we realise whose voice we are hearing. The second story was a micro fiction written in response to a competition to compose a ghost story in 100 or 200 words. Malcolm’s Away Day was one of ten best entries – and these are shortly to be published as an e-book. A summer visit to a stately home; 28 people on the bus; guidance to avoid the mausoleum where work is being done and there have been some unfortunate incidents; the trip home. How long before they realise that a 29th seat is occupied? Brilliant stuff as always Malcolm!
In conclusion, Paul thanked everyone who had participated, and reminded us that there won’t be a January HighlandLIT meeting because the last two January events had to be cancelled due to snow. We will meet again in February, when the AGM will be followed by a joint event with SHIPS – the Scottish Highlands and Islands Poetry Society. Look out for full information about the programme for the months ahead!
Finally, thanks are due to the manager and staff at the Beaufort Hotel for looking after us, to Drew Hillier, who liaised with the hotel to ensure that the event ran as smoothly as it did, and to the ever-resourceful Cathy Carr who managed the microphone technology and kindly took photographs.
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