Update

 

My website has been 'migrated' from its previous platform, Moonfruit, to Wix, and this news update is my first attempt to use the editing tools Wix provides. So bear with me as I stumble onwards.

​

​

New Novel 

 

Not much to update here.  The complete novel is currently under consideration by Gollancz.  I'm not holding my breath, of course.   

 

Podcasts

 

Shaftesbury's 'This is Alfred', which can be found at: http://thisisalfred.com/, continues to broadcast my poems both on radio and on its continuing podcasts.  It has also broadcast six of my stories, with more to come.  You can find links to some of them by going to  https://thisisalfred.com/?s=richard+Foreman

You'll also find quite a few of the poems I've contributed there, though some are also here as

MP3s on the 'Wilful Misunderstandings' page (below the video links).

​

​

Beech Tree Lament

 

Here's a little project I got involved with shortly before last Christmas.  When building plans for a new Lidls in my home town of Shaftesbury were approved there was a commitment made to protect as many as possible of a row of Beech Trees planted along the A350 in 1980.  Unfortunately neither the contractors who laid a car park on one side of the row, nor those contracted by Dorset Council to construct an unconnected cycle lane on the other side quite got the correct message, roots were cut and more of the trees, thus endangered, were cut down than anyone was expecting.  As an occasional red rebel I was called upon to participate in a small action to mark our shared sadness at such an unnecessary loss  The video below marks the event, and I wrote and narrated a short poem (in the form used by Robert Graves in his translation of 'The Battle of the Trees') for the soundtrack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

​

My Mad Hatter Moment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping one’s website up to date is one of those never-ending jobs – and not one of my favourites to boot.  So I’m not going to apologise that I’m writing this up nearly 3 months later. 

 

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was conceived by Emily and James, hard-working proprietors of the Seasons Café in Shaftesbury.  I MC’d and read my Lewis Carroll parody story from ‘Wilful Misunderstandings’ and a bunch of poems and rhymes most of which were specially written for the event, while Connor Smith, Anne Louise Richards and others provided some excellent musical entertainment.  Here we all are in a group photo.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

The verse I read included a couple of direct parodies of well-known pieces in the Alice books.  Recently resigned Boris Johnson was the target of my ‘You are old, Father William…’ parody, which you can find on my Facebook Page, while I re-wrote ‘The Lobster Quadrille’ as ‘The Whale-Poo Quadrille’ based on a talk I’d been to some months before on the role of whales in marine ecology (for more on this see video below).

 

I sent a copy to Jocelyn Elson-Riggins who gave the talk.  She is a marine ecologist and a ‘whale-poo ambassador’, a role she shares with a number of others under the auspices of the Netherlands based Rugvin Foundation.  My rhyme appears to have been a hit with both Jocelyn and the Foundation, who will be using it in their educational work, I am told, and a musical version was requested.  I passed this on to Anne Louise who is working on it.  We then hope to record it, along with another video of me reading the piece to be accompanied by whale footage.  I look forward to announcing more on this in due course.

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bewilderment/Be-Wildered

 

This was the theme of this year’s Tears in the Fence Poetry festival early in September.  I was there, most of the time behind the tables of the book-stall, which did a roaring trade.  But I stepped out on Saturday night for an eight minute spot and read ‘A Shedload of Angels’ which appeared in issue 71 of the magazine and seemed to suit the theme (‘exploring the uncharted times we are living through with bewilderment, be-wildered and be wilder’).  You can read it in the ‘fiction’ section of this website.

 

I followed it up with a piece especially written for the festival – A Compendium of Bewildering Games.  Oh it’s good to be able to make people laugh in these troubled and troubling times.  Look out for it as soon as I find a suitable place to get it published.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​