Thursday 17 May 2012
wolvercote green, wio, reviewing the past, john wain, waterman's arms
This was the view across Wolvercote Green from the entrance to the Plough on Tuesday night.
I'd gone there to attend the Writers in Oxford (WiO) AGM--the first I'd been to since standing down as chair in 2010.
It was lovely to see old friends, catch up on what the society is doing and chat about writing and this and that. The evening brought back memories and added to the sense I have at the moment of reviewing the past, somehow. Not sure why I am doing it--I can't help it, I guess--but I am aware that this is what is happening.
Oxford is in any case so full of overlapping memories and connections. John Wain, the novelist and Oxford Professor of Poetry, lived on Wolvercote Green for many years and he regularly used to walk down the canal that runs past the village to the Thames and on to Osney, where he would drink at one of his favourite pubs, The Waterman's Arms (now, the Punter...though the water running by is really too deep for punting). The pub features in my novel The Lock (as the Narrow Boat) and was one of the key settings in John Wain's wonderful Where the Rivers Meet trilogy. It was John's son Will who published The Lock under his Smaller Sky Books imprint in 2001 (ebook) and 2003 (paperback). Memories, connections...
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