Memories of inspirational people including the legend that was Roger Bannister.
As it is such a wet and miserable day, I’ve been sorting through old loose photographs attempting to put them in some order. I came across this pic from the FOKL (Friends of Kennington Library) Fundraising Gala Night –a launch of the first Oxford Castaway book. I was privileged to interview 120 inspirational people from Town Gown and County. Some of them came to Kennington for this launch. The first launch was in the Ashmolean Cast Gallery where the legendary Roger Bannister gave the closing speech.
Two Kennington castaways in the top picture-Air Commodore Bob Martin and Charles Swaisland are no longer with us but Philip Hind , Professor James Leonard and Prof John Dewey still enrich village life. The broadcaster Bill Heine came to many FOKL events but he too is no longer with us.
The artist Weimin He (in the pic) illustrated the cover and has attended and has sketched at many FOKL events ncluding the wonderful Peggy Seeger when she came to another gala night I organised.
Peggy is also an Oxtopian castaway.
Weimin’s calligraphy and Peggy’s!
The series could have gone on forever but Newsquest stop employing freelancers so my twenty years of writing for the Oxford Times ended. While it lasted it the castaway events were warm, fun and friendly like this one in Antiques on High.
If you are interested in the series, documentary film maker Zoe Broughton filmed this illustrated lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NvrzUnGE50
Here are a couple of collages of some of the other Oxford castaways .
The features were turned into three books filled with fabulous photographs and inspirational life stories.
Wow! Philip Pullman and I had the same response to questions.
It’s the wonderful Oxford Arts Week. On Tuesday, I was on a panel in Littlemore church exploring the creative process. This evening, I attended the annual Arts Week Forum which had a distinguished panel including Sir Philip Pullman.
Imagine my delight to discover that I had answered a question in a similar way to him! Asked about how I begin, I explained that some writers know what will be in every chapter but I’m not like that. I have a vision, an idea of the end but mostly I create the principle characters and let them take me on journey.
Philip described how he created the character of Lyra and imagined her in a room where she was not meant to be, hiding and overhearing something she was not meant to hear. Then he let her lead him.
On my panel, some talked of the magic of creation. While Philip did not dismiss that idea, he said ‘The magic comes because you put in the hard graft.’ He stressed that writing is mostly about putting in the time and the effort and the discipline.
The previous evening, I had described an interview I did with Colin Dexter the creator of Inspector Morse. Colin began by saying ‘Education has dominated my being, indeed, my first books were educational not crime fiction. I was Senior Classics Teacher at Corby Grammar School when deafness struck and blighted my life. After that I came here, in 1966, to work as Senior Assistant Secretary at the University of Oxford Delegacy in Ewert House where I continued to work until I retired in 1988.’
I realised that meant he had written his first seven novels in his spare time after the day job and wondered how he did it? Colin joked that after supper, listening to the Archers and a pint of good ale at the local, if he wrote one page a day that was 365 a year and a book written i.e. the hard graft!
With Coli Dexter at an Oxford Castaways Oxtopian event .
Cosmic Cats: A World First for World Book Day? Connecting children across continents. Purrrfectly Pawsome
Cosmic Cats: A World First ? Charming feature on BBC South Today covering the school’s launch .
Click on the link below to see it.
Here’s how you buy a copy
Cosmic Cats brings together stories written by children in my village and in Mumias. Reading and telling stories, creates empathy and understanding. New residents of Kennington may not realise that for fifty years, through KOA, Kennington was the only village in the UK, possibly in the world, which fundraised every year for overseas projects. It was done through events that villagers loved, like the fete, fun run, pop -up shop and children’s concert. Well here’s another FIRST for our village. St Swithun’s CE Primary School and Mumias Primary School in west Kenya have come together to produce this anthology of stories written by pupils. St Swithun’s CofE Primary School, Kennington (Oxon) and the Nasio Trust are proud to announce the launch of ‘Cosmic Cats’, an anthology of stories written by children from Kennington, Oxfordshire and Mumias, Kenya. The book celebrates the collaboration between the two communities to help set-up the first community library in the west Kenya district of Mumias/Musanda.
Cosmic Cats was launched at St Swithun’s School on the 6th of March, 2024 and included a virtual interaction with the children from Kenya. The internationally loved children’s illustrator Korky Paul gave a presentation and well known children’s author, Julia Golding, thanked the authors individually. The public launch and book sales will be from 11-12 am on 9th of March in Kennington Village Centre.OX15PG.
Winnie’s cat ,Wilbur, has endorsed Cosmic Cats as Purrrr-fectly pawsome!
Cosmic Cats Nasio Trust: Feature on BBC South Today
The library will be built by the Nasio Trust led by, Nancy Mudenyo Hunt, the co-author of Not so Black and White .Cosmic Cats will be the first book to be put on display in the Musanda library when it opens in 2025. This has been possible thanks to our long term association with the Nasio Trust. In Musanda, there is a spirulina factory built thanks to KOA. St Swithun’s School took part in the Spirulina Cookbook too. All proceeds from sales £8 will go towards the Nasio library. Cosmic Cats will be the first book in the library so the children will know their library, like Kennington library, welcomes them.
Feel the force of fifty children’s voices. Recognise the bravery of turning an empty page into a living story and celebrate how art and story-telling brings together young people who live continents apart. Cosmic Cats connects Mumias Township Primary School (Kenya) and St Swithuns CofE Primary School (England).
Aged seven, I discovered libraries and a love of reading and writing but the idea that a working-class girl from Luton could become an author was as crazy as eating the straw boater with which my birthplace was associated. Middle class parents can afford to buy books for their children. Lack of access to books for children without them, is a handicap for upward mobility. That is why I asked the illustrator Korky Paul to lead our 400 yard Pied Procession to save our library from closure and it changed the leader of the County Councils mind. Our library is still open and supported by the County Council but it is a community library so the Friends( FOKL) have to raise £4,000 per annum to keep it open. Please support your library . You may not need it but lots of people young and old do.
March 6 School’s launch: Mumias authors
St Swithun’s Authors
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Head Teacher Mrs Knighton talking to Mumias School authors
Korky Paul with Mrs Knighton and I and his rendering of Cosmic Cat! The children had a purrrfectly pawsome time!
Excellent news about the fab Proof Social but Kennington is NOT a SUBURB but is the site of a world championship
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24256468.oxford-bakery-named-among-best-bakeries-britain/
Excellent news but I object to my village being called a SUBURB by the Oxford Mail! Oxford would love it to be but Kennington has always resisted the take over. My whodunit, Current of Death is inspired by the VILLAGE where I live. In my foreword I describe it thus,
‘It’s an independent sort of place somewhat dwarfed by its famous neighbours. To the north lies academic Oxford with its dreaming spires overshadowing the town with its multicultural east and Cowley car factory where Harry King, the protagonist of my novel Sculpting the Elephant, grew up. Abingdon, which claims to be the longest inhabited town in England, is a few miles south of Kennington. Being overlooked means that villagers have got on with their lives without obvious interference.’
Proof Social Bakery is a perfect fit for the independent culture of the VILLAGE of Kennington. That is why Proof Social appears in Current of Death and why I had a launch there. Round and About magazine covered it and got it right!
It is also the location of a World Championship!!! See below. Proof Social will serve coffee there this year!
Afterwards some of the kind people who attended went with me on a walk to some of the sites in the book . 
Chris Patten – last night’s moving farewell Chancellor’s event and why I appreciate his generosity of spirit .
In February, Chris Patten announced that he will retire as Chancellor of Oxford University. https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-02-05-lord-patten-barnes-announces-his-retirement-chancellor-university-oxford So the Chancellor’s event last night was an interview with him. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2024/march-18/chancellors-lecture-from-china-to-the-middle-east-and-ukraine-a-world-in-turmoil
I was moved for many reasons by last night’s interview. He was asked to give advice to young people. I’m summarising it as .
The Three C’s
Be Curious
Be Courteous
Have Courage
He added, ‘Don’t do something just for the money.’ Chris Patten has lived by those values. I’m not a Conservative but remembering the likes of him and Rab Butler, who was Chris Patten’s inspiration, and John Major and Michael Heseltine, who gave tribute to him, I long to return to their example of good manners in political life. Rab Butler’s advice to Chris Patten was to place more value on ‘generosity than efficiency’.
Chris Patten showed generosity towards me, a freelance writer, by allowing me to cast him away on Oxtopia for The Oxford Times . He squeezed 30 minutes for me into a hectic schedule. I wrote up his early life to the point where he lost his seat in Bath and asked him to approve that, so in our 30 minutes we could concentrate on China and Oxford.
He said the years in Hong Kong were the best five years of his life. Last night he described how the city he loves is in handcuffs. I share his interest in China. When I interviewed him , I was writing Brushstrokes in Time . In 2014, China had been changing for the better but just as civility and rationality in British politics has gone down the pan , a dark cloud of oppression looms over China. Brushstrokes in Time was based on real events inspired by the life of the Stars Artist Qu Leilei who I interviewed every month for three years. My novel ended with hope. In these dark times, the chancellor has a refreshing quality – a sense of humour.
This quote is from my memoir Food of Love Cooking up a Life across Gender, Class and Race.
‘When I interviewed Chris Patten, the Chancellor of Oxford University, I asked him, ‘What would he, when a student at Oxford, have said if told he’d one day become the Chancellor?’ He shrugged and said that he would’ve suggested the speaker was high on marijuana!
If middle-class Lord Patten of Barnes’s future was so unexpected, how much more so was mine? Women were second-class citizens and working-class women were at the bottom of the pile.
Here is his castaway feature : Chris patten
What does the world hold in store for us in 2025? Three quarters of the world’s population is now led by leaders who think of themselves as demi-gods. Who would have predicted that even the Netherlands would have joined that club? Global warming is the most important issue facing humanity but the likes of Putin, Trump and Netanyahu care not a jot about that issue. So the question is
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Chris Patten says he will continue to write. I would love him to write on that issue because he has a grounding in history, unique in depth life experiences and the wisdom , generosity and open mindedness to make a fine job of it. He also has access to the world’s best brains.
WOW! Michael Rosen has endorsed Cosmic Cats – a project of love in a hate filled time .
The former children ’s laureate , Michael Rosen has endorsed Cosmic Cats on his Facebook and Twitter accounts . Feel the force of fifty children’s voices. Recognise the bravery of turning an empty page into a living story and celebrate how art and story-telling brings together young people who live continents apart.
Cosmic Cats is live on Amazon Kindle now.
The anthology contains stories by 24 children from Mumias school in west Kenya & 24 from St Swithun’s Primary School in my village of Kennington in Oxfordshire. Cosmic Cats celebrates the collaboration between the two communities to create the first community library in the west Kenya district in Musanda next to the Nasio Trust’s Health Centre.
Cosmic Cats will be its first book so the children will know they belong there. We’re launching it with a zoom connecting the schools for World Book Day. African born illustrator, Korky Paul, designed it for me and I’ve paid the publishing costs so the sales will go to https://www.thenasiotrust.org/towards the library.
I was privileged to interview Michael, when I wrote for The Oxford Times. I cast him away on Oxtopia so his story is in Oxford Castaways 2. Click here to read Michael’s story written by me. Michael Rosen
I also quoted him in a chapter about saving libraries on Food of Love Cooking up a Life across Gender Class and Race – my memoir endorsed by journalist Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Professor of History Rana Mitter and the poet, Sudeep Sen.
Michael Rosen, the famous children’s author, was the curator of stories at the Story Museum when I cast him away on Oxtopia. He told me that the evidence from everywhere in the world is that children who read for pleasure, do well academically. They find a lifelong friend in books. My story is evidence of the role they play in social mobility for kids whose parents can’t afford to buy books.
I wouldn’t have passed my 11+ and enjoyed the life I’ve had without access to Luton Central Library. That’s why I’m passionate about libraries and so are Michael and Korky! The role of libraries in upward mobility is much under estimated #worldbookday #libraries
To buy copies of Oxford Castaways 2
Go to
http://www.oxfordfolio.co.uk
and click on the cover image.