Moving on …

I now have a new blog. So please visit the new place and bookmark it for news. Click Romesh Gunesekera and be transported.

News about new publications will be there.

End of an Era

Sadly, my year at Somerset House is now over. Last week we had a farewell drinks at Tom’s Bar organised by Charlotte. It was great to see everyone from different parts of Somerset House and the Courtauld there, as well Pauline Melville on her way to France. Josie came back for it with her wonderful recreation of the building in paper as my leaving gift. In return I offered a discovery of  a poem after John Masefield’s  ’Sea-Fever’. I’ve always been reminded of the opening lines walking into the courtyard and seeing the Naval references and the sea gulls. I have put a copy of  the poem ‘Salt Room Fever’ up on a separate page, with apologies to Masefield.

I would like to thank everybody who has been involved in the many events we have had in connection with the residency, and all the friendly wonderful people in the different parts of Somerset House. Many thanks and au revoir.   

There will be one more post here to redirect  you to my next blog. But in the meantime, I must go down to the seas and sail across to …

Picture This – Second Evening

Another magical evening! Michael Morpurgo charmed us with a story in which a youngster encounters the greatest artist in the world. Cezanne, or was it actually Picasso? Then Margaret Drabble took us to her childhood and from there into the heart of Van Gogh. Then we moved with Andrew Motion into  the public and private worlds of Rousseau as he watches over  the gates of Paris. The evening  ended with a new poem by Andrew Motion in response to the painting. Wonderful!

Picture This – First Evening

A wonderful evening and a full house despite the tube strike on 4th October.  Amit Chaudhuri started out by explaining why he will be talking about a painting that was not his favourite but which he was becoming fascinated with and in the process illuminated not only Renoir the painter, but also Renoir the film maker. Ruth Padel then took us through the extraordinary narrative of the Flight from Egypt and gave us a  new poem inspired by the painting. Finally Ali Smith read a dazzling story of  discovering Cezanne and offered us arrows to the heart from Rilke. A very special evening.

Next week, we will have the second evening in the series  with Michael Morpurgo, Margaret Drabble and Andrew Motion. Already sold out. Then on the 14 October, the last of the 2010  Salons.

Picture This

On Saturday the Guardian published some wonderful pieces by Ali Smith, Amit Chaudhuri, Ruth Padel, Margaret Drabble and Andrew Motion on their favourite paintings at the Courtauld.  They will be talking about these in the gallery on the 4th and 13th of October. Book early!

Autumn Salon

The next Salon will be on 14 October. The topic will be ‘Fostering New Writing’. What helps new writers and new writing? How do competitions, publishing outlets, magazines or the internet help? What do you get from workshops, bookshops, an MA, a mentor, a publishers and an agent? We hope to bring together these different perspectives together and share ideas. The next Salon will also announce the winners of the Wasafiri New Writing competition.

A Flow of Words – Listen Again …

You can now download the stories and poems from the Deadhouse. See blogroll or go to http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/literature/1267.asp

Summer Salon

The Summer Salon last week was on Translations & Transformations. Many faces from the first Salon but lots of new people too. Fascinating discussion. See the new page under Salons for more and to join the discussion.  Also on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/39ehnm4 .

The next Salon on fostering new writing will be in mid-October.

A Flow of Words

Saturday 15 May was a historic day under the courtyard. For the first time since it was built 200 plus years ago, poems and stories were read out below the waterpipes making their mark on the buried stone. Pauline Melville read us a ghost story starting from Blackfriars Bridge; Mimi Khalvati read a sequence of poems that brought the images and sounds of the river into that subterranean world; Jamie brought Dickens there turning his prose into a poem and then took us an journey, following Dante’s gaze, from underground to the heavens ending with a poem on Uranus; finally I read the story of Richard Gladwell coming as a boy to work in Somerset House in the early nineteenth century and dreaming of escaping to sea, a precursor to my next novel. The audience was great and the atmosphere down in the Dead House wonderful.

The readings were repeated later in the afternoon and will be put on the website soon for others to hear. Listen and then go down there and remember them as the bells ring for the River Soundings installation.

Coming Up

On Saturday 15th May at 1400 we will have four writers responding with stories and poems to the Riversoundings exhibition. I will be joined by Mimi Khalvati, Jamie McKendrick and Pauline Melville. Booking advised at

http://tinyurl.com/2g2w6mw.

The next Somerset House Salon will be in mid-June. A summer salon on translations and transformations. Details to follow.