News and Forthcoming Events 2011

Our postal address has changed. It is now:
The Mount, Buckhorn Weston, Gillingham, Dorset, SP8 5HT.

It is with regret that we have to report the death of Richard Adeney on 16 December 2010 at the age of 90; he has been unwell for most of the past year.

The obituaries which are currently appearing pay tribute to his musicianship and to his quality and courage as an individual. We are very pleased that Brimstone Press was given the opportunity to help Richard turn his typescript into a finished book, and that Flute has - rightly - won almost universal praise from the critics who have reviewed it. Please visit our Author and Books pages for more information and for an extract; it was for passages like this that the critic John Amis commented that "he gives a better idea than I've come across anywhere else of what it feels like to play in an orchestra."

John Dewey's Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Fyodor Tyutchev, has aroused considerable interest among academics and enthusiasts, from USA to Russia, with several reviews in the offing. It has already received an excellent review in the Literary Review, concluding: "This book is not only the first life of Tyutchev in English, it is by far the best and the most complete anywhere, including Russia. Dewey’s scholarship is meticulous and there isn’t a previous biography or study he doesn’t mention, draw on or debate. The volume is handsomely illustrated and reads easily. John Dewey himself is a thoughtful critic."

Natalya Golitsyna, in an interview with the author broadcast on Radio Free Europe's Russian Service, said: “Mirror of the Soul: A Life of the Poet Fyodor Tyutchev, by the well-known translator and literary scholar John Dewey, has been published by the British publishing house Brimstone Press. Mr Dewey's book is not only a detailed biography of Tyutchev; brilliant analysis of the lyric verse is interspersed with penetrating commentaries on his political writings. [...] On the basis of an extensive range of documentary material, John Dewey has succeeded in demonstrating the duality, contradictions and complexity of a man whom Afanasy Fet called: 'one of the greatest lyric poets to have existed on this earth'.”

Sebastian Hayes gave a lecture on "Rimbaud and the Paris Commune 1871" at the Marx Memorial Library in London, drawing on his Rimbaud Revisited & Une Saison en Enfer. The lecture has been published in Praxis Number 152, and can be read at arimbaud.com.

Events Archive

Events 2010  |  Events 2009  |  Events 2008  |  Events 2007  

Brimstone Events 2010

Congratulations to RJ Hansford and Sylvia Oldroyd, who were placed first and second in the Earlyworks Press 2009 Web Poetry Competition.

On Wed 20 Jan, at 7.30pm, Sebastian Hayes gave a storytelling performance of “The Island of Gulls” at the Poetry Café, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9BX. In this haunting tale of a beautiful girl born with the webbed feet of a gull, Sebastian Hayes gave us a powerful image of mankind's divided nature. The tale is printed in his collection of folk tales, The Foundling and Other Tales, and he has performed it successfully at 'Willow', East Stour, and in the Earthouse at the Ancient Technology Centre, Wimborne.

On Wed 27 Jan, at 7.30pm, at the same venue, Brimstone author John Dewey read his translations from the poetry of the Russian Romantic poet Fyodor Tyutchev and spoke about him. Sebastian Hayes read his translations of the poems of Belle Epoque French poet, Anna de Noailles, and Sarah Lawson read translations from the Mexican poet Manuel Ulacia.

Chris Irven and Help for Heroes

Having watched a TV documentary about the rehabilitation of 2 soldiers wounded in Afghanistan (they had lost an arm and 3 legs between them), Brimstone author Chris Irven decided to raise money for the charity Help for Heroes supporting rehabilitation at Selly Oak Hospital and Headley Court. His plan was to cycle 2,000 miles alone and unsupported. He bought a new and virtually indestructible bike, loaded it with essentials for the journey including a survival bag for sleeping rough if need be, and set out at the end of April 2010. He rode from Gillingham to Land’s End, then to John O’ Groats, and on the way home called in to see some of the soldiers being rehabilitated at Headley Court where he had once been treated in his Army days. He reached Gillingham one month and 2,038 miles after setting out, 7% lighter. It was his fourth such ‘pilgrimage’ and the second longest – and at 75 years old, the hardest so far. To date, he’s raised £23,000 for Help for Heroes. His complete story, ‘Giving Something Back’, will shortly be posted on chrisirven.wordpress.com and any donations would be much appreciated on justgiving.com/Chris-Irven.

Brimstone Events 2009

Continuing our link with Higher Green Farm Arts, Brimstone Press participated in their exhibition at Shaftesbury Arts Centre from 16 to 28 February. This was a wide-ranging and popular exhibition of paintings, photographs, ceramics and jewellery.

Saturday 21 February at the Shaftesbury Arts Centre saw the launch of A Box of Chocolates, a collection of short stories from a competition set and judged by celebrated author Fay Weldon - who kindly devoted much of her evening to signing copies of the book. Proceeds from the book will go towards funding the recent extension at the Arts Centre. Brimstone Press, publisher of the book and one of the sponsors of the event, attended to publicise our books and our services.

Read more on news and past events in 2009.

Brimstone Events 2008

Brimstone Press participated in Dorset Art Weeks 2008 in a mixed exhibition at the newly opened Higher Green Farm Arts gallery and workshops at Twyford, near Shaftesbury. Since then we have become part of the wide range of exhibitors whose work is on show in the gallery and shop at Twyford. For further details of the activities hosted at Higher Green Farm Arts please see their website, www.highergreenfarmarts.co.uk. Brimstone Press publications can be purchased there and the gallery is open most days - though it is advisable to telephone 01747 812593 to check on opening times.

Brimstone Press manned a tent at the Dare2 Festival at Tollard Royal (July 12 – 13) and Brimstone author, Sebastian Hayes, gave a Storytelling Performance on each of the days and sang his song The Fugitive (see personal website www.sebastianhayes.co.uk) at the ‘Open Mic’ event. This ‘mini Glastonbury’ festival had an amazing variety of stands, shows and events to cater for all ages and inclinations, ranging from Latin American dance to Circus Skills, Stone Balancing, Football, Clay Making — you name it, Dare2 had it. We look forward to participating in this year’s festival and many thanks to Paddy Seymour for hosting the festival on her family’s land and organizing the week-end (no mean feat).

On Sun 20 July, 2008, in the Earthouse at the Dorset Ancient Technology Centre, Cranborne, Sebastian Hayes gave a rousing performance of his tale The Island of Gulls. It was enthusiastically received by a capacity audience in this, the area’s leading storytelling venue. Medieval musicians and an axe-wielding Viking added atmosphere to a memorable event.
(The story, under the alternative title Amouetta, appears in the Brimstone publication The Foundling and Other Stories).

Brimstone Events 2007

We are pleased to welcome several new members to Brimstone Press, Pam Kelly, Mary Wood, Christopher Irven, the Breach Common Group and Sylvia Oldroyd.

Pam Kelly and Mary Wood received rave reviews in the Blackmore Vale Magazine for their books of poetry, On the Edge and Day Return respectively, for which we compliment them.

Chris Sledge joined our Board of Directors during this year. Chris, the author of the Brimstone title, Internal Memorandum, a novel about life in the corporate world, brings to us, apart from his literary skills, a lifetime’s experience in business and we are very lucky to have him amongst us. One of Chris’s first moves was to get us registered as a Limited Company — you can’t be too careful these days. The Blackmore Vale Magazine printed, in May, a piece about Chris Sledge and his book, Internal Memorandum.

We now span a large and growing field which includes Poetry (Keith Walton, Pam Kelly, Mary Wood, Sylvia Oldroyd), Novel (Keith Walton, Chris Sledge), Drama (Arnold Hinchliffe, Sebastian Hayes), Travel (David Grierson), Philosophy and Religion (Chris Irven, Sebastian Hayes) and Art (Breach Common Group).

Brimstone Directors and Authors have also been hosting and organising a number of local events.

In collaboration with the Slade Gallery in Gillingham, Brimstone co-organised and hosted a joint exhibition with eleven local artists chosen by us (25 May — 10 June). Brimstone Press's work was well publicised and the full range of our titles was available for sale throughout the duration of the exhibition. The event included a private view and a readings evening. We are aiming to set up a similar joint art/literature exhibition as part of Dorset Art Weeks 2008.

Sebastian Hayes, Brimstone Company Secretary, (under his real name Robert Mules) organised a musical evening on 20 June entitled “Gateway to Summer” in the picturesque grounds of Shaftesbury Abbey and in so doing managed to raise some money for the Shaftesbury Westminster Hospital. Many thanks to all the local persons who helped to make this a memorable evening including Keith Davies of the Abbey Trust who was invaluable in helping us with the organisation, the Shaftesbury Silver Band, the U3A Circle Dance Group led by Pam Kelly, the Westminster Nurses who prepared sandwiches and the Bell Street Café which put some of their delicious puddings up for sale. Only the weather left something to be desired but this, sadly, is a typical hazard of outdoor events in this country !

On 13 August Mary Wood launched her first collection of poems Day Return with a Public Reading at one of the regular literary evenings organised by David Caddy (editor of Tears in the Fence magazine) at Huckleberry’s Bookshop, Blandford. Sebastian Hayes and Keith Walton also read from their work.

Brimstone Press participated in the initial launch events of Creative Dorset. This is a Government funded initiative designed to promote economic activity in the creative industries in the county. As a result, we were invited to speak at a seminar entitled "Write to Survive" which was held at Poundbury on 26 September. We shall continue to stay involved with this initiative.

On 30 Sept there was a Private View of Breach: The Art of Commons at Shaftesbury Arts Centre. The exhibition is the response of four artists — a poet, a painter, a photographer and a prose writer — to a Dorset Common over a six month period from the shortest day of the year to the longest. Catherine Simmonds, Rachel Sargent, Justin Orwin and Keith Walton were all there to host a well-attended evening. The exhibition continued to 14 September. It then transferred to Salisbury College (7—21 November) and Gillingham School (21 Nov — 21 Dec), the first outside exhibition to be hung in the new theatre's gallery.

Pam Kelly was asked to judge the Mere Literary Festival’s 2007 Poetry Competition (Local Prize) on Sunday, 14 October, and, apart from her appreciations of the poems she selected, she delivered a stirring speech about the importance of poetry in our lives which was very well received. Her own books of poetry, as well as other Brimstone Press publications, were on show at the Festival and Brimstone Press representatives were available to answer questions about self-publishing and online marketing of books.