Hello Swindonians. It’s been a while since you’ve been able to access the shop and information desk in the central library on Regent Circus. That sad state of affairs is of course thanks to us being in the grip of a pandemic. But I bring you tidings of great joy. No – a son isn’t born unto us but we do now have a Covid compliant library shop.
A Swindon author who published her first book a mere two years ago, is launching a fourth – and it’s the one she’s always wanted to write.
Angela Atkinson, who pens the popular blog Born Again Swindonian, is passionate about the town. And her fourth book is a further tribute to her adoptive home. She’s holding an official launch on Saturday August 8, from the town’s Museum of Computing. The event is part online and part face-to-face, to allow for lockdown restrictions.
Last year, when writing Swindon in 50 Buildings, I simply had to include Thomas Turner’s villas on Drove Road.
Since the book came out I’ve had a mind to write a bit more on here about Thomas Turner Swindon brick-maker and his brick-making enterprise. But I never quite got round to it. Then not long back I saw a super blog by Swindon historian Frances Bevan so figured – why reinvent the wheel? I may as well feature that with some of my own photographs.
Big Hitters: Swindon Museum & Art Gallery.
Swindon Museum and Art Gallery has announced the launch of a virtual exhibition. You can view it through ArtUK, the online home of the nation’s public art collections.
Entitled ‘Big Hitters’, the works in the exhibition are the choices of the committee of the Friends of Swindon Museum and Art Gallery. They work to draw attention to some of the most important pieces in Swindon’s modern, British art collection.
This year, 2020, has another marker on it other than that created by Covid-19. For it’s also the 200thanniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. Thus, the WHO (the World Health Organisation) has designated 2020 as the first ever year of the nurse and the midwife. Cause enough for celebration on its own then. And it makes a good excuse to talk again about healthcare history and Swindon – it being a story not that well told. Still. And when it is told it tends not to be accurate.
There’s been a lot of book talk on Born Again Swindonian of late. Well – we’re a very literary lot here in Swindon don’t y’know.
Swindon Theatre Group Get Covid-19 Grant: Revolution Performing Arts – a company that provides classes to children and young people across Swindon gets a grant from the Arts Council England’s Covid 19 Emergency Fund.
Having done 5 Swindon books to Read Now a few weeks back, here we have 5 More Swindon books.
I could go on almost ad infinitum with this as there are many Swindon books! But I’ll keep it to these two posts. But with a ‘See Also’ at the bottom of this one.
So, as with the first post, in no particular order here we go with 5 More Swindon Books worthy of your attention. Both during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.
Richard Wintle, known to many Swindonians as the man photographing Swindon’s history through the decades, is putting his retirement to good use. As you’d expect for a press photographer, Richard has a VAST archive of photographs. And he’s put some of them into a book: A Picture Is Only the Start of The Story.
So, we’re in the grip of the Coronavirus pandemic and at best are faced with a prolonged period of social distancing. Or at worst lockdown as we have at the time of reading.
So here’s five of the MANY Swindon books out there, fiction and non-fiction, written by Swindonians, with which to pass some fruitful time.
If you haven’t got them on your bookshelves now (and you might but not have read them) then head to the shop in Swindon central library as soon as you can. That said, some of the books included are available on mail order.
Swindon Spring Festival update. Organisers of the Swindon Spring Festival take seriously the present Coronavirus situation and their responsibilities to festival followers. And, of course, the public at large, and the importance of heeding Government advice.
So yesterday afternoon, I spent the most delightful time at Eastcott community centre, in readiness for the unveiling of the James ‘Raggy’ Powell plaque.
Eastcott community centre is truly one of Swindon’s gems. Not only is it a place and site with tons of historical and social history, it’s a thriving and well-run community centre.
