Online embodied learning workshop with Tracey Warr, Denys Blacker, and Tew Bunnag. 19.00-21.30 (Spanish time) Fri 21 May and 11.00-18.00 (Spanish time) Sat 22 May. 60 euros. Register info@gresolart.com Tew Bunnag on Taiji and being fully present; Denys Blacker on improvisation, intuition, and mutual presence; Tracey Warr on close encounters with our immediate surroundings to…
Ecological transition and art schools
I am a guest on the IHME Art, Science and Ecology podcast series talking with Hanna Johansson, Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts at Helsinki University about ecological transition and art schools, Dartington’s learning programme and community, and my own artwork focused around water and rivers. You can find the podcast on Helsinki Open…
Full Attention – Zoom Workshop
Full Attention. Zoom Workshop 21-22 May. Be fully present, mutually present, and hyper present with Tew Bunnag, Denys Blacker and Tracey Warr Download the details here.
Rambling vine
I am a guest on Alison Morton’s writing blog today, talking about how living in France inspires and affects my writing. ‘I fell in love with the pace of village life, which gives me focus to write.’ ‘My writing is inspired by material culture—objects in museums, archaeology, illustrated manuscripts—and by sensory experiences of places.’ ‘I…
Second career novelist
Three years ago I was launching my fourth historical novel set in early medieval Europe, The Drowned Court and M.K. Tod interviewed me about being a second career novelist. We talked about my journey from being a contemporary art curator and critic, to an art history academic, to a historical novelist and how I used…
Ecology of Words
The HIAP (Helsinki International Artists Programme) 2017 Yearbook has just been published online. You can download the pdf here. The yearbook includes a summary of my Ecology of Words Workshop which took words on adventures around the Finnish island of Suomenlinna. Other artists and writers featured in the yearbook include Jussi Parikka, Riikka Pelo, Jenni…
Struck gold!
A review of my latest historical novel The Anarchy has just been published. The Anarchy is the final book in the Conquest trilogy on the turbulent life of the 12th century Welsh noblewoman Nest ferch Rhys. “When Warr delved into Welsh history and discovered Nest, she must have known she’d struck gold.” Historical Novels Review Nest was the daughter of the…
Going Underground
Extensive medieval tunnels have just been found near Tintern Abbey. Many medieval castles had escape tunnels for when the castle was under siege. Manorbier Castle in Wales has an escape tunnel entered through the well. I used this detail from Manorbier and my experience of spending 12 hours in an old lead mine in Cumbria…
Surviving Vikings, rodents, and war
In my most recent lecture for MA Poetics of Imagination at Dartington Arts School, I considered the production of medieval books. I hope some of the students are now busy making their own writing surfaces, inks and pigments. To survive into the 21st century these medieval books had to run the gauntlet of flood, fire, war,…
Of things I’d rather keep in silence I must sing
I’m currently preparing a teaching session for MA Poetics of Imagination at Dartington Arts School on the troubadours and trobairitz, which put me in mind of a wonderful writing residency I had a few years ago in the beautiful medieval village of Saint-Cirq-Lapopie in France. In 2016, I collaborated with artist Tania Candiani on an…
