The Divinity School at the Bodleian library was the setting for the Clutag Press‘s 10th birthday party celebrations this evening. Several of Clutag’s authors from down the years convened to read excerpts of their work to a large public audience.
Andrew Motion was the star attraction, although you wouldn’t have known that from his unassuming manner. Motion read two items from his recent collection of war poems, Laurels and Donkeys, in honour of Armistice Day. The first related to Private Harry Patch, the last British veteran of the Trenches to die. The second was inspired by the death of Lt. Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan two and half years ago. Both were intensely moving without being melodramatic; and the audience showed its appreciation with sombre applause.
Other prominent authors read from their work published in Clutag’s Archipelago magazine.
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