SWINDON SEEN – through fact and fiction, past and present.
Swindon is built on a rich bedrock of culture. Its past informs its present. Its writers, then and now, have stories to tell.
Embedded in Swindon’s railway heritage is the story of Alfred Williams, an uneducated factory worker with a passion for learning and writing. In his new novel, The Palace of My Imagination, local writer John Cullimore explores the life of the Hammerman Poet and the turbulent times through which he lived.
Those times and earlier ones are more widely explored in Made in Swindon: a social history 1840 – 1940, edited by Philip Garrahan, a collection of pieces by six experienced local historians. They capture the spirit of Swindon not only through its pivotal social institutions but also through its art and culture. It moves Swindon’s heritage beyond nostalgia to a place of critical acclaim.
From an agricultural rather than an industrial background comes another of Swindon’s celebrated sons. Nature writer Richard Jefferies, and his important messages for today, are celebrated by Mike Pringle through Our Nature: a collection of words and images by a host of nature-loving writers and artists.
