As part of Amble’s annual Puffin Festival, which takes place this Bank Holiday weekend, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th May 2024, I’ll be reading poems of inshore fishing and the sea at the Cock and Bull micro-pub in Amble Town Square, NE65 0DQ, on Sunday 26th May from 1-2pm. My presentation is called The Long Line, and features some brief background on Northumberland’s fishing history and culture.
Once a coal port rather than a fishing harbour, Amble is now Northumberland’s biggest fishing port. For more about local inshore fishing traditions, please see this talk which I gave for Leeds University Centre for Endangered Languages, Cultures and Ecosystems in 2021.
As part of The Long Line I’ll also read a few new poems from my forthcoming collection, Rhizodont, which will be published by Bloodaxe Books next month. There will be a launch event for the new book in Barter Books, Alnwick, on Monday June 24th at 7.30pm, featuring Neil Astley, Editor of Bloodaxe Books. More information to follow.
I have a deep fondness for Amble. It’s reputation as ‘the friendliest port’ is well-deserved. It’s the town where I first began to write about fishing, as part of a residency in four local schools in 1990. I made friendships with fishing families at that time which have lasted down the generations. Lines from my work are featured on two plaques in the Town Square (below – I wish I could remember the artist’s name). I always have fun when I’m in the town. Amble is a great place to enjoy seafood, and the Puffin Festival includes events for all age groups, spread across a variety of locations. These range from a craft fair, guided nature walks, bird watching, local history talks, to water sports, live music and arts events. One to look out for is Rooted, at the Dovecote Centre, NE65 0DX, an exhibition of new work from 18 different artists centred on their relationship to the landscape and environment. You can see the full programme of events HERE.
Words from my poem ‘The Sea Inside’ in Amble Town Square
The Puffin Festival has been inspired by the colony of approximately 30,000 puffins that nest on the RSPB seabird sanctuary of Coquet Island, just a mile off Amble. Coquet Island has been an RSPB nature reserve since 1970 and is also the sole UK nesting colony of roseate terns. There are at least 12,000 puffin burrows on the Island, and you can see a live camera link to one of them HERE.
To listen to The Bird Roads, the series of six short poetry and sound podcasts which I made in 2021-2 with wildlife audio artist Geoff Sample for the Amble Bord Waalk Sculpture Trail, please download the excellent Amble Bord Waalk App – more information HERE. These podcasts feature poems about many local bird species, all of which are now included in Rhizodont. For some reason, puffins are not among them. I saw countless puffins while out on fishing cobles when I was younger. I love the way they scoot across the water taking off to fly, their colourful beaks full of gleaming sand eels. It’s surely time I wrote a poem about them, too.
Photo credit: Melissa McMasters
katrinaporteous.co.uk 