Every word is at home

[j4]

Thursday, 17th November: Poetry and prose reading in aid of the Ferrar House Appeal, Little Gidding. Andrew Motion (Poet Laureate) and friends. 8.30 pm in Clare College Chapel. This event is free of charge - all welcome. Please email krl22@cam.ac.uk for more details.

Owen and I visited Little Gidding earlier this year, though I'm not sure I ever wrote it up here. It was a hazy summer day, far from the midwinter spring of Eliot's poem, and the church was quietly beautiful, full of dust-motes and other people's memories; set in gardens all overgrown (but not unkempt) it looked like a stone warmed in the sun, a stone that might fit in the palm of your hand if you could bear to take it from its nest of long grasses overlooked by cherry trees.

The lady from Ferrars House was happy not only to show us round but also to provide us with afternoon tea, home-made cake and scones, all free of charge. We talked quietly, and the only sounds other than our voices were the sounds of insects and leaves. And, like good middle-class travellers, we took nothing but photographs, and left nothing but footprints, and in the end we were not too much changed.

Comments

[emperor]

Forgive me for asking, but how are they going to raise money by holding a free event?

[j4.livejournal.com]

Er, I'm assuming they're going to ask for donations!

[emperor]

Is this actually a good revenue-model, I wonder? I'm reminded of the cathedrals who said "we asked for donations, but the average person left 12p, so we had to start charging". Maybe they're hoping an evening of stunning poetry will open peoples wallets up lots...

[j4.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should clarify: I didn't organise this event, I'm just passing the information on because I thought some people might be interested. I don't have access to the charity's accounts, though I suspect unless they're staggeringly stupid (in which case they'd have probably already gone bankrupt by now) they wouldn't bother booking a big name like Andrew Motion unless they were pretty sure they could recoup the costs of the event and still make a profit. Unless he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart, in which case the overheads are practically zero, so any donations will go straight into the coffers.

I suspect if they charged more than about a quid for it, nobody would go -- not least because most people won't even have heard of the Appeal. OTOH, if they use the event as a chance to talk about it and 'sell' it to people, they probably stand a chance of getting more donations.

[emperor]

Oh, I appreciate you're nothing to do with this event, I was just thinking aloud all over your LJ; I should probably engage brain a little more first in future...

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

I am interested, and I thank you very much for passing this information on.

Boo, hiss, it's in the wrong town.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure you could find somewhere to (a) eat, and (b) stay, if you neeeded it.

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow is a school night.