Little Gidding
Saturday 7 July and Sunday 8 July 2012
Note: all timings are approximate and may be subject to change. The details of speakers and talks are confirmed, but may be subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances.
Saturday 7 July 2012
| 2.00pm | ‘Ash Wednesday’: a reading Peter Cochran and Jenny Sargent read ‘Ash Wednesday’ |
| 2.40pm | Poetry and religion: did faith make Eliot a better poet? Talk and discussion between Richard Harries and Hugh Black-Hawkins followed by questions. Lord Harries of Pentifieth was until his retirement Bishop of Oxford, and is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio Four’s Thought for the Day Hugh Black-Hawkins taught English for many years, introducing youngsters to the delights of Eliot; he is the Chairman of the TS Eliot Society. |
| 3.30pm | Afternoon tea |
| 4.15pm | Annual Little Gidding Lecture of the T S Eliot Society Unreal cities & timeless landscapes: Eliot’s poetic debt to Hope Mirrlees’s Paris Sandeep Parmar Sandeep Parmar is a visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge, specializing in modernist women writers such as Mina Loy and Hope Mirrlees. She edited The Collected Poems of Hope Mirrlees for Carcanet Press (2011). |
| 5.15pm | MY FAVOURITE ELIOT Festival-goers are invited to read a short piece or extract from the works of T S Eliot. (It would be helpful if you could notify us if you are interested in contributing to this. Please email eliotfestival@littlegidding.org.uk). |
| 6.00 for 6.15pm | Supper Supper in the garden at Ferrar House with its delightful views of Little Gidding Church and south over the Huntingdonshire countryside. |
| 7.15pm | EVENING CONCERT Music to Inspire a Poet The Bingham String Quartet will perform Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor, one of the composer’s great late string quartets, and described by T S Eliot as the inspiration for his own series of poetic Quartets. Fuller programme details available soon. |
| 8.45pm | End of Saturday’s programme. |
Sunday 8 July 2012
On Sunday the Festival will be joined by members of the T S Eliot International Summer School taking place at the University of London.
| 11.30am | Welcome drinks |
| 12 noon | ‘Little Gidding’ Poets Paul Muldoon, Daljit Nagra and Bernard O’Donoghue read ‘Little Gidding’ A moment always much anticipated at the Festival each year is the reading of ‘Little Gidding’ on the lawn in front of Little Gidding Church. We are delighted to have a trio of poets to share in this moment this year. |
| 12.30pm | Lunch |
| 1.45pm | Publishing update Professor Ronald Schuchard and others give the latest details of the publication of the complete works. |
| 2.15pm | On Reading ‘Little Gidding’ at Little Gidding Paul Muldoon, Daljit Nagra, Bernard O’Donoghue and others discuss what the poem means to them. |
| 3.00pm | Annual Little Gidding Lecture of the International Summer School Professor Paul Muldoon The Love Song of T Stearns Eliot Paul Muldoon is Professor in the Humanities at Princeton. Born in Northern Ireland he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford between 1999 and 2004, and is Chair of the Poetry Society (UK). |
| 4.00pm | Afternoon Tea |
| 4.30pm | Festival Choral Evensong in Little Gidding Church |
| 5.15pm | End of Festival programme |
The T S Eliot Festival is organized by the Friends of Little Gidding and the T S Eliot Society, with financial support from Old Possum’s Practical Trust.