HIP LOCAL LIT NEWS
Teaching Mr Lear A Feast of Words
Local Syrian women write their own book.
By Felicity Stephen
How to decipher a book of ‘nonsense’ written 150 years ago in a language not your first? Ok, then how about finding a way to respond to illustrated alphabets and curious creatures such as Mr & Mrs Spikky Sparrow?
Instead of nonsense poetry and recipes, a group of Arabic-speaking women who are learning English responded to last year’s A Town Explores a Book – Edward Lear’s Nonsense Songs… – by writing their own book: Teaching Mr Lear, A Feast of Words (with just a pinch of nonsense). The result is a delightful 50-page collection of drawings, heritage tales, poems, illustrated recipes (delectable ones!) and stories.
In this collection, the women have chosen to share some of their thoughts and feelings about leaving Syria and resettling in East Sussex; in this respect, there is a sadness that is expressed in the most heartfelt, poignant way – for example, in the memory of drinking coffee by the Norias (giant waterwheels) of Hama, in a poem about refugees, and in remembering the disintegration of a beautiful and richly culturally diverse land.
Thanks is conveyed, for resettlement support.
There’s also humour – a story of an unlikely friendship in The Elephant and the Ant, a cartoon response to Google – and metamorphosis in a poem entitled A New Style. Each page is illustrated by the women themselves, and by one of their children in a morality tale, The Rabbit and the Elephant.
The book’s content was prompted by the work of Mr Lear; it then took flight in a series of online workshops (during a period of lockdown), with the support of a lovely and enthusiastic interpreter, so that the imaginations of the authors unfolded through conversation, shared ideas, written word and drawing.
In the words of the authors themselves about the creation of the book: “Taking part is a great experience”, “It’s a confidence boost”, and “Expressing some feelings makes this an important project”.
As editor, I have learnt a lot in the process of working with the authors; how the book got from rough draft to print… well, to tell would be to reveal too much about going about things (initially) in the completely wrong way! Fortunately, Erica Smith (thank you) – a Hastings Creative – gave me a helpful prompt about how to salvage the situation.
• The published version is available for £5.99 plus p&p from [email protected] or at Printed Matter, 185 Queens Road, Hastings, TN34 1RG.
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