Woking Writers Circle

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Tag: Greg Freeman

  • ‘Marples Must Go!’ is WWC member Greg Freeman’s first full poetry collection

    ‘Marples Must Go!’ is WWC member Greg Freeman’s first full poetry collection

    Woking Writers Circle member Greg Freeman has brought out his first full poetry collection. Marples Must Go! is already available from Guildford publisher Dempsey & Windle, under their Vole Books imprint, although the official publication date is 1 September. Greg said: “I always hoped to have published a full poetry collection by the time I turned 70. I am very pleased and relieved to have managed it with just over a year to spare!” But what is the collection about – and what on earth does the title mean?

    A mysterious slogan on a bridge across the M1 that remained there for decades denounced a 1960s transport minister who had a finger in the pie of motorway building, and also oversaw Beeching’s vandalism of Britain’s railways. His name was Ernest Marples. Greg’s wry and bemused poems meander around this and other subjects such as free school milk, Juke Box Jury, Space Patrol, and the curious appeal of Andy Williams, as well as the first proper sentence of a two-year-old child: ‘Jack see Mrs Thatcher.’ As the years go by, he finds himself remembering the cartoon comic heroes of Beano and Dandy, picturing what might have happened to them in later life, and wondering plaintively: ‘Why can’t life still be hilarious?’ The collection also includes a sequence of poems about the Sean Henry sculptures in Woking titled ‘All The Lonely People’.

    Greg’s poems have attracted praise from poets such as Brian Bilston, the hugely popular ‘poet laureate’ of Twitter, who said: “In Marples Must Go! Greg Freeman pulls off the difficult trick of writing poetry that is both funny and thoughtful, poignant and personal. With topics stretching from the Beatles to Brexit, from childhood comics to Covid jabs, this collection constitutes a wonderful poetic romp through the history of modern Britain.”

    Greg will be launching his collection at Write Out Loud Woking on Zoom next month, and at a special online publisher’s launch with Dempsey & Windle in October.

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  • Lightbox literary festival to become the Woking literary festival in 2019

    Lightbox literary festival to become the Woking literary festival in 2019

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    The Lightbox literary festival is to significantly expand in size and will be renamed the Woking literary festival from 2019, after two successful years and a recent cash injection from Woking council. The festival was launched in 2017 and will run over 10 days at the Lightbox gallery and museum in Woking.

    Two Woking Writers Circle members, Catherine Rogan and Greg Freeman, were involved in the 2017 festival, Catherine interviewing author Nicola May and Greg compering three hours of open mic poetry plus special guest poets. Greg was back at the Lightbox festival earlier this year, compering four hours of poetry on behalf of Write Out Loud Woking, an open mic poetry night which now meets each month at the Lightbox. In its press release the Lightbox said that “the festival’s hugely successful collaboration with Write Out Loud Woking continues to bring performance poetry and the spoken word to audiences across Surrey”.

    The 2019 festival will run from 23 April to 2 May. Louise Musgrove, festivald  director, said: “We have had a wonderful first two years, with great authors and big attendances, and are looking to expand on that with the ambition to become an important festival in the literary calendar. In the past we have approached authors ourselves and asked if they’d like to attend but we are hoping that publishers will want to pitch their authors, both well-known and up and coming, to us in future. After all, we sell a lot of tickets and a lot of books. All attending authors will be paid a fee and travel expenses will be covered. We’ll also give them some nice grub while they are here.”