We devoted most of our final Bicentenary Workshop afternoon to a presentation of Bath writer Stella Townson’s episodic prose diary, Cafe Days in Bath. We were delighted that Stella could join us to see how inspired we had been by her work, not only to create a performance script for nine readers, but to produce a collaborative slideshow of members’ photographs of Bath. These had first been shown in the Lonsdale room during Bath Heritage Week in September where they had in turn prompted a set of ‘found’ poems, edited from on-the-spot responses by the audience. On 2nd November, readings from Stella’s mesmerising prose diary were interleaved with readings of these new poems, supported by a selection of the slides. The Bicentenary Workshop group readers were MIRANDA PENDER, ANN CULLIS, ANN PRESTON, JOHN BULL, MARK PENDER, DIANA HILL, AMA BOLTON, ANITA BREEZE and MARILYN FRANCIS . The photographers were MARILYN FRANCIS, INGRID JOHANNESSON, GEORGE PRESTON, VERONA BASS, SUE BOYLE and GEOFFREY BREEZE. Stella Townson’s Cafe Days in Bath was introduced by ALAN DAVIES.

A selection of the Bath photographs can be found by clicking here. This event was so successful that we are planning to open the prose diary + photo poem template to the Stanza 25 participants and to offer a new performance piece during Bath Heritage Week next year. One of the photo poems can be accessed here.