The Houses Along the Wall

by Karen Hayes

Overview

Poetry. The poems in THE HOUSES ALONG THE WALL create a fictional history for sixteen of the houses along the Parrog near Newport, Pembrokeshire. From a man who quits drinking to marry his love, the life of ferryman Jack Price, Belgian immigrants, the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh and Ondara House to a poem about a final resting place outside St Mary's Church, Newport. Together these poems celebrate a disappearing Welsh community through wonderful atmospheric poems which paint an authentic picture of life and scenery along the Parrog coastline. Two of the poems, "In His Cups" and "The Last House on the River," were set to music and performed by Roddy Williams at the Wigmore Hall for its At Lunch season in 2014, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907320781
Publisher:	Holland Park Press
Publication date:	09/20/2018
Pages:	50
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Karen Hayes spent the early part of her working life as an actor and musician and later artistic director of the Bristol- based theatre collective Public Parts. From theatre she moved towards lyric and libretto writing and poetry and found herself creating verbatim texts with marginalised groups, most particularly with people living with dementia. I Had an Angel, written with composer John O'Hara, was produced live and also as an opera film for WNO. The Bargee's Wife, also written with John O'Hara, was produced as a community opera for the 3 Choirs Festival as was their song cycle "I Can Hear You Waiting." Most recently she created a libretto for an oratorio with composer Thomas Johnson, The Street of Bugles, which was performed at the 3 Choirs Festival. She was Charles Causley poet-in-residence at Cypress Well in 2016. In 2017, her poem "The Belgians" won the Foreign Voices competition.