Rosemary Tonks was a feted poet, trenchant reviewer and literary socialite. And then she 'disappeared'. Following her death last month, Neil Astley traces her extraordinary storyThe "disappearance" of the poet Rosemary Tonks in the 1970s was one of the literary world's most tantalising mysteries. Bizarre theories abounded as to her whereabouts if she was still alive. As the poet Brian Patten put it in a BBC radio feature about her in 2009, she "evaporated into air like the Cheshire cat". One contributor imagined her living in Cuba, "smoking cigars in a doorway". Other commentators over the years have made her into a nun; consigned her to a sect; had her communing with the ghost of Charles Baudelaire; or put her in a shed at the bottom of someone's garden. For some reason, these mythmakers always required her to be living in poverty.Having tried to visit her myself, 10 years ago, I knew all these theories to be far from the truth. But out of respect for her declared wish, maintained by her family, that she should be left in peace, I kept her address and situation secret. Tonks died last month at the age of 85 (all the existing records had her as four years younger). She had indeed been living as a near-recluse but out of choice, quite comfortable in her circumstances. Even so, she remained restless in spirit, defiantly independent and quite alone in her continuing search for God, for she was ever alert to the "brainwashing", manipulative tendencies in the religious... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-05-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Tue, 18/10/2011 - 08:00 Fantasy childrens author Catherine Fisher will be officially named Wales first Young Peoples Poet Laureate later today (18th October). The Newport writer will be given the title by Literature Wales, which was established in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Thu, 13/10/2011 - 08:50 Jeremy Robson has secured world rights to a book that features the previously unpublished notebooks of Bram Stoker as one of Robson's launch titles for his new imprint at Biteback. Robson bought the rights directly from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 11/08/2011 - 09:00 Poet Laureate Carol-Ann Duffy is selecting the third volume of The Twelves Poems of Christmas, which is out this autumn. Duffy will also write the introduction to the titles, which is priced £4.95 and published in October... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Melissa Broder, Penguin Group publicity manager, who works on titles from the Berkley, NAL, Riverhead, and Perigee imprints, just signed a contract for her own second book, Meat Heart. The books she works on for Penguin are mostly women's fiction and nonfiction, but her own books are poetry.... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Administrators have announced the closure of 16 more Borders bookshops, leading to a loss of more than 500 jobs. Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald
[ The Sydney Morning Herald | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 30/03/2011 - 11:55 The number of literature organisations receiving regular Arts Council England (ACE) funding is falling from 58 to 53, as ACE revealed its new national portfolio of arts organisations today [30th March]. The total number... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Wed, 23/02/2011 - 08:56 An unpublished and previously unknown Enid Blyton novel is believed to have turned up in an archive of the late children's author's work, reports the BBC. Mr Tumpy's Caravan is a 180-page fantasy story about a magical... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Costa Book of the Year prize-winner, Jo Shapcott, explains her delight that poetry has been recognised by Costa two years running. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2011-01-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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