Ann Perrin

Finding my feet      -      life goes full circle      -       my book                                                            

                                                   

I update this blog regularly at least once a week, with news and views, pieces about making a new life in Brighton, visits to London – falling in love with Hockney, poetry,  or indulge in home spun philosophy. Most entries are mercifully short!

Please scroll down for reviews on my poetry collection ‘Don’t Throw Away the Daisies’ or read  Why bother with a blog   or see some of my weeny teeny filmic gems first.

Please  click on http://annperrin.wordpress.com/finding-my-feet-in-later-life/  for ongoing posts.

‘Don’t Throw Away the Daisies’  

John McCullough - Ann’s poetry covers the big topics of love and death with originality and satisfies the reader’s  heart as well as their head.  Take for instance  the title poem which is full of surprises yet also wonderfully poignant. The energy of her work leaves you feeling revitalized and seeing the world afresh’.

John McCullough is a local modern poet who teaches at Sussex University, his latest book is called  ‘The Frost Fairs’ is  available on Amazon.

‘Don’t Throw Away the Daisies’

Kiersty Boon – This collection of poems, fully illustrated by the author, is a wonderful journey from a magical childhood of puppets and seaside towns, through to the complexities and joys of everyday life. before coming full circle to enjoy fairy stories and the seaside with grandchildren. As well as personal thoughts on growing older.The delicacy of the difficult stages and memories experienced are offset with humorous anecdotes and magical tales for the young and old alike.

Kiersty Boon Author of ‘Writing on Chalk’

‘Don’t Throw Away the Daises’ 

Ann Perrin - I had that now or never feeling when I put  my poetry collection together the year before last.  One or two had been published in magazines ‘Writing News’  ’The Compact’ – or obscure anthologies, others I had written recently and some are light verse.

Available from the Open Arts Cafe and Serendipity in Rottingdean – signed  and gift wrapped £6.00 or from Lulu,  Amazon in b/w colour or as an eBook.

1. Click here for the  black and white version.

                                      

2. Click here for the  colour version.                                     

                                  

watercolour         –          oil  Robin                -           print 

Available as an eBook from Lulu

Or in print from Amazon.

Black and White Edition

Colour Edition

One of the pictures above is the Pier ballroom.   Our family did the puppetry for the feature film ‘Oh What a Lovely War’ in the 60s on its worn wooden boards, our marionettes being directed by the great Lord Attenborough no less.

I rushed down from London to sit in silence with hundreds of others when the West pier finally burned down.  More recently spent two days watching the clearance of the site see  ’The Dance of Destruction of the West Pier’  on youtube.  In 2010 I wrote   a poem  ’The Fall of the West Pier’ so it has been a sort of love affair.

Putting film over the poem was an experiment really but not bad!

‘The old dry stone wall’ one of the poems was once a picture book. 

It jumped over several  hurdles at the Oxford University Press,  but a year later an editor changed and they didn’t proceed! Devastated!

I don’t think it’s so much about who you know,  more about being committed to your ideas and being in the right place at the right time. Commonly known as luck!

Why bother with a blog?

Blogging is  brilliant, after all there is only so much knitting one can do in retirement and I don’t knit.

I thought of it as a sort of roller coaster into retirement especially as I hate both.

I have been advised to make my blog look professional which is really hard. I like proof readers and editors which I had for my book,  but here one is on ones own.

……. I am a Londoner, one time puppeteer, single parent, late start academic, teacher (mainly art) part-time just about everything.  I once  surprised myself by having an article published in the ‘Sunday Times’ supplement.  I took a photcopy of the cheque and framed it.   Later my play ‘Travelling Nowhere’ was performed at the Young Vic.

I moved with my long-term partner to the south coast four years ago.  I think we were heading for Hove but no sat nav and we are both  rubbish at map reading.

I joined writing groups to try and meet like minded people…. learned how to do standup comedy… mainly to cheer myself up after the traumas of my mother’s death, giving up work and moving house! (see post  ’Can oldies do stand up…and ‘Happy New Year)

Alan my partner taught himself how to play the banjo and started calling his violin a fiddle.

Alan’s new found fiddle skills – ‘A flurry of seagulls’ click on link below. A whole minute!

Or Alan on banjo,  younger son Paul on whistle and admiring goats. Another minute!

Other pages on this Blog (click on header) include two new pages.

POEMS & NOTES -  After I had published my book I was told that notes can be good, by no less than the knowledgeable poet Ian Duhig.   So this page is ‘after the horse has bolted’ really.

Note – don’t put your own poems on a  blog if you want to send them into competitions. On on the other hand comps are expensive and winning them is like a lottery. At least on your blog you might get a following and what is poetry for,  but to share?

LIGHT VERSE - they are what they are!   ‘The Bus Pass’, ‘The contents of my handbag’ and  ’My Poetic Pelvic floor.

YOUTUBE update – I’m a compulsive film maker,  most of my films are on youtube over 45. All edited and again usually short. One or two have won minor awards in small comps.

Monet’s Garden is just one of my favourites.

Virginia Woolf”s Garden is another.

PUPPETHOUSE MAYHEM   (header) is an update for puppethouse. http://www.puppethouse.co.uk/

A website about our marionette/puppet history from 1946 to the present day. It is simply my attempt ensure that  ’Ron and Joan Field’s Marionettes’ a company who  were very influential in their day,  continue to be  recognised for their contribution to the world of puppetry.

We often included scenes from Alice in Wonderland in our Marionette Variety Shows in the 40s 50s and 60s. The film that follows is a reconstruction of one of our performances, it took place partly in my garden in London and partly in the loft.  I had to leave the camera running to do some of the puppetry. My late mother and myself regarded it as a labour of love.

The puppet circus ditto.

Ann and Eccles at GSPS event 2011

Eccles insisted on pulling the cord for the Goon Show Plaque.

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Paul took up Punch and Judy something we have never done. See the Highlights from his show on the terraces in Rottingdean

And the best bit?….

Rottingdean Cafe Poets -   ‘Pop in and write a poem workshop’ at the Open Art Cafe Rottingdean – on the first Wednesday morning of every month – 10.30 to 12.30.

Buy a coffee to support venue and join in – fun –   no crits – plenty of  inspiration,  I never  mind if  I end up writing away on my own, but usually several people turn up, so why not you?  Its really for aspiring poets, so do come along and have a go? No prima donnas please.

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Best Wishes

                        Ann Perrin

Don’t forget to read my blog – you can subcribe by clicking on link on the left and get email notifications of new posts – my other blogs are  For Love of my Allotment – a small field with a leaky pond gets some tlc

http://forloveofmyallotment.wordpress.com/   

 …and Tips for coping with SAD   http://tipsforsadandserendipity.wordpress.com/

                          for those who get seasonal sadness. 

Posted in ann perrin | Tags: ann perrin, poetry