Wildlife

BY  SUSIE WILD   ⋅  APRIL 29, 2010  ⋅   POST A COMMENT Claire Martin Various venues, Mumbles, Swansea Fri 30 April – Mon 3 May 2010 The sun has been shining, and more reasons to be cheerful, May is almost here. Which means two things people – bank holidays! Stuck for something to do this coming long weekend? Why don’t you head down to the lovely Mumbles village, the pretty side of Swansea Bay, and get down to some jazz and blues by the seaside? The four-day Admiral Mostly Blues & Jazz Festival has got itself a name for entertaining the masses with local legends such as guitar maestro Brian Breeze, and the wonderful gypsy jazz of The Amigos to national and international show stoppers. Launched in 2005, the high-quality musical weekend kick starts the summer season at a variety of venues beside the bay, all in walking distance. This year’s bill, a mixture of free and ticketed events, looks sure to get you dancing happy. Let me talk you through… Friday  ...

Happy Birthday Shakespeare – he loved the 24 hour poetry marathon held in his honour. Cough, cough, splutter!  Apologies ladies, I fear I am feeling a tad worse for wear after my  24 hour poetry marathon fundraiser  on the weekend. It turns out that staying up for 40 hours and performing rather a lot doesn’t have the best impact on your throat. Luckily I lasted throughout the wonderfully heartwarming event – no major hitches, poets from across Wales, visitors and cheerleading well-wishers throughout the early hours – and I have to say a big ‘THANK YOU!’ to all who helped: you rock, people  As well as playing organiser, compère, stage manager, sound monkey and performer, I also made it on to BBC Radio Wales. You can l isten again here… 21 minutes and 52 seconds in . It was lovely to see so many watching from the cosy sofas. The event was a fundraiser for  the Hay Poetry Jamboree , the fringe poetry festival in Hay-on-Wye on 3/4/5 June 2010. Donations are welcom...

April 2010 We made it! 24 hours of poetry (I think I was ‘awake’ for about 40 hours in all, and no dead poets. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Thanks to all who came along! You can listen again to my interview on  BBC Radio Wales (21 minutes and 52 seconds in) . We were raising money for the  Hay Poetry Jamboree . I am shattered but shall write more soon. Until then you can catch me reading a story at Telling Tales in Cardiff on Sunday 2 May (2pm, Cardiff Arms Cafe, Westgate Street, FREE)  and then I’ll be reading poems at Milgi, also in Cardiff, with the Big Fuss residency from 7pm that evening. Enjoy the sunshine! Susie Q x

I heart Laugharne The fourth  Laugharne Weekend  may well be the last, so the rumour mill goes, but please  say it ain’t so  as despite the threat of train strikes and snow storms the Welsh festival still managed to fill me with sun-soaked joy.  This is how it went… FRIDAY After hitching a lift with Prince Charming to the pretty West Walian town that inspired Dylan Thomas’  Under Milk Wood  and claiming my weekend festival wristband, I headed off to see funnyman  Dan Rhodes , accompanied by Matt Thorne as the ex-Brit School performance poet of the moment  Laura Dockrill  had cancelled. While I was disappointed not to be treated to  her vocal pyrotechnics , it was still a great pleasure to hear this year’s E.M.FORSTER winner  read from his excellently gruesome new novel  Little Hands Clapping  (Canongate)  set in a suicide museum. The museum featured the expected celebrity suicides including Sylvia Plath, ...