Pigs – where would we be without them? That question is brilliantly answered in Richard Lutwyche’s brilliant non-fiction book:  ‘The Pig: A Natural History’. Published by Princeton University Press and beautifully illustrated, it tells the story of this prolific, ubiquitous, smart and adaptable animal, from origin to domestication and beyond. It would make a great Christmas present and is being stocked in Octavia’s bookshop in Black Jack Street, Cirencester, for the next few weeks, as well as being available on Amazon.

Richard is also the author of this month’s Cirencester Scene short story – a darkly funny tale about death. It was inspired by a creative writing exercise based on a picture from the Italian Alps showing the body of a man preserved for around 5,000 years. You can find his story here.

Richard developed his writing skills through a career in marketing. He has had articles published in trade journals and magazines including Country Life, The Field and Country Living and edited The Ark magazine for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, a national charity, for over 10 years.

He has had four non-fiction books published – Rare Breed Pig Keeping (2003); Shetland Breeds (co-author), 2003; Pig Keeping (2010); Higgledy Piggledy (2010) – all of which hint at one of his main interests. He is proud of the fact that he won a lifetime achievement award at the BBC Food & Farming Awards for his work in conserving rare breeds.

Clare had a great evening at Ragged Foils Productions ‘Wrap Party’ at a noisy pub in Soho last week where she met the talented podcast creatives for 12 very different stories: the director, sound recordist, actors and other writers for Season One. Her piece ‘An Ordinary House’ is available here on the SE website.

Linda Dyson’s story ‘Happy Families’ is our story of the month for November – and is also being featured in this month’s Cirencester Scene. It will appeal to anyone who has ever braced themselves for a family get-together.

Linda joined Somewhere Else Writers in an attempt to get back into writing a novel started several years ago. Two of her short stories have been published in an anthology organised by the ‘Aspiring Writers’ group on Linked-in and a number of poems included in other collections. Her play ‘The Piano’ was broadcast on Corinium Radio earlier this year, and works for children have been performed at local schools. You can read Linda’s story by clicking on the ‘Story of the Month’ logo.

The poetry magazine ‘Black Bough Poetry’ has just published ‘Japanese Garden’ by Iris Anne Lewis. Described by editor Matthew M. C. Smith as excellent imagist, precise, sharp poetry, ‘Japanese Garden’ was first conceived by a visit to a Japanese-style garden in the grounds of Warwick University.

‘Black Bough Poetry’ publishes micro-poems from across the world. Only the most compressed, the most pristine, the most vivid, make the cut. It takes its name and its ethos from a two-line poem from Ezra Pound.

In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.

‘Japanese Garden’, is published in issue 3, page 10, of the magazine, which you can find here.

Clare Finnimore’s script ‘An Ordinary House’ has been accepted by Ragged Foils for their next Ragged Scratch Podcast.

Directed by Natalie Winter, the play is currently being rehearsed in London. ‘An Ordinary House’ explores the lives of those left behind when their sister and daughter goes to war. It will feature the voices of Amber Muldoon, Jamie Newall, Florence Olivea and Sharita Oomeer.

If you are in London on Friday October 4th, then it would be lovely to see you at the launch of the Camden Poetry Series anthology A Scream of Many Colours when Somewhere Else member Iris Anne Lewis will be one of the contributors reading their work.

Song for the Yazidi Women was originally published on the I am not a Silent Poet website and can be read here. Iris submitted the poem for the anthology back in December 2017. A few months later she heard the poem was accepted and the anthology was finally published this year.

The Camden Poetry Series is part of Camden and Lumen Poetry, a London poetry project in support of cold weather shelters. In A Scream of Many Colours poets were asked to respond to some of the violence and disasters that confront us when we switch on the radio or television. Published by Poetry Space, the Camden launch of the anthology will feature readings from several contributors. 

Proceeds from the evening goes towards cold weather shelters for the homeless and profits from the sale of the anthology will be donated to Médecins san Frontières.

The event includes an Open Mic and will take place at Trinity United Reform Church, 1 Buck St, Camden Town (1-2 mins. Camden Town tube.) 7.00 p.m. (doors open 6.30 p.m.) Entrance £5/£4 concession.