Patient:Soldier – “a profound celebration of life” (Hot Press Magazine)
Hello. Barra here, your ever keen radio producer for your fantastic Why Words Matter Radio show/podcast. Most of you will know about my play Patient:Soldier. For those of you who don’t, what started as a blog has turned into quite a little success story, selling out Seven Dials in London and doing the same on tour across Ireland last May.
Many of you mentioned how keen you were to see it and it’s back for a one night only performance in London this October the 11th at 6pm. (plenty of notice I hope)
Link for tickets: https://bloomsburyfestival.org.uk/whats-on/patient-soldier
It then travels again in 2027 so it’s a last chance scenario to grab it while you can. There’s a Q+A after with the cast and the real life characters portrayed.
It’s a full circle moment being invited back to perform this at Bloomsbury Festival 2026. The Festival was the one that gave the show it’s first backing and since then it’s gone from strength to strength, completely evolving as a piece now that it has an Olivier nominated Director and a West End Award Winning light designer.
Would love to see you there and thanks in advance for the support.
It’s a cracking evening out, a one person play and length wise, just over the hour mark, an important consideration if like me, frozen bum cheeks are an issue!
– Barra Fitzgibbon
Homer lives! / Instant Classics
I’ve spent the last six months writing poems inspired by Homer’s Odyssey (the wonderful Emily Wilson translation). It was a quiet creative occupation suddenly overwhelmed by tempests of publicity for Christopher Nolan’s film that I really must see. But my connection with Homer has been gentler and more poetic, as described in my essay just published in the Dublin Review of Books.
As a related recommendation to go with that, there’s a fascinating podcast ‘Instant Classics’ hosted by Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins who have also published a couple of my Odyssey poems in their Newsletter. There’s another in the DRB essay.
– John Simmons
Career Move
I’m moving away from working with corporate brands to working with outdoor organisations. I’ve spent 16 years helping brands find their voice but what many 26ers might not know is that before I became a writer I spent several years running outdoor businesses. Now I’m bringing both things together to help outdoor and nature-based brands find their voice, build the foundations for everything they write, and connect with the people who matter. So if any 26ers are working on an outdoor project that I can help with, or can connect me with a brand who might need my help, then I’d love to chat. You can reach me at hello@sarahfarley.co.uk.
I share a bit more about my background on the LinkedIn post where I announced it: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7485649933589647360
– Sarah Farley
It’s publication day for my new book, Knock Wood.
For the last few years, I’ve been walking the same three-mile circuit of woods and fields near my home. I take a notebook with me and write whatever seems to ask for attention – the way the light fall through the trees, the absence of cows in a familiar field, thoughts about my dad’s declining health. Often it’s simply whatever question happens to arise before disappearing again. Those small pieces have gradually become this book.
Knock Wood – subtitled “a book of attention” – isn’t a guide to mindfulness or a collection of nature writing. It’s simply a record of one person trying to pay attention to the life already in front of him – with as much honesty, curiosity and quiet humour as he can manage. The watercolours scattered through the book were made in the same spirit.
If you’ve ever longed to slow down a little, to notice more, or to find meaning in the ordinary, I hope it might be good company.
The book is being published by Hundred House Press, an independent poetry publisher based in the south east of the England. The press is a collective of writers and makers – including me and Dark Angel Tim Rich – who create work grounded in a spirit of connection. It’s the perfect home for my book and I’m honoured that Knock Wood is its first publication.
You can buy a copy from: www.hundredhousepress.co.uk
Here are a few comments from people who have read the book:
“An absorbing meditation on the way that daily habits, such as the simple act of walking a familiar route, shape us into who we are. This is a gentle yet strangely compulsive read, full of feeling and wonder, and I know 1 will return to it many times.”
“The sense it left me with was of a particular type of intimacy and tenderness. I felt that I was being invited along on the walks, and that I was witnessing something real happening.”
“I found it absolutely mesmerising, very beautiful and quite hypnotic. It’s the kind of thing that has the power to go in deep, to shift something within one.”
“It feels like a kind of talisman, a mantra, and a meditation on aging, letting go, clearing out, being still, paying attention, being in nature.”
– Neil Baker
Sketching Song
I run an opera company called Wild Arts. As with any performing company, we have folder upon digital folder of pictures of our productions. Rather than add to the pile, I approached wonderful artist and 26er Lydia Thornley to do something different – to join us for the day and sketch what she saw and heard:
It was a real delight and I recommend it heartily. You’ll see your show in a whole new light…
– Max Parfitt