Sunday 3 July is the150 anniversary of Gensing Gardens, bought for the town in 1872. The site was originally known as Gensing Wood. Like other gardens of the period it featured a carriage drive, but was made distinct by the presence of subtropical plants. 

Gensing Gardens came into its own in lockdown when families sought refuge in its greenery, and maintained some sense of community playing table-tennis and holding picnics. 

Last winter, A Town Explores a Book planted five apple trees as part of their celebration of this year’s featured book, The Diddakoi, by Rumer Godden. In April, Jake Bowers’ statue of Kizzy Lovell, the main character in the book, was temporarily on display, and it is hoped that the statue will be granted planning permission to be installed in the gardens permanently.

A Town Explores a Book has been awarded grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Foreshore Trust to run workshops in the park throughout the school summer holidays, and will be publishing a map of the park celebrating its 150+ trees.

On Sunday 3 July, at 3pm, local residents and those who use and love the park are invited to meet at the mini apple orchard by Charles Road to wish Gensing Gardens a happy birthday. This will also be the inaugural meeting of Friends of Gensing Gardens – a community group set up to help look after the park and plan its future.

Newly elected Gensing Ward Councillor, Amanda Jobson, says: “I’ve been talking to residents about what they would like in Gensing Gardens. Ideas so far have included a composting scheme and a bike pod for people who live in nearby flats. I’ll be there on Sunday 3 July and look forward to hearing more of your suggestions.”

A Town Explores A Book originated in 2017 when ExploreTheArch Theatre Company joined creative businesses and community organisations in St Leonards-on-Sea to develop a festival led by readers which provided a platform for voices not usually heard in similar events.

The festival is not so much a literary event as a complete community arts festival covering 18 days in the school spring holiday and celebrating a wide variety of creative responses to various themes in the chosen writing. Previous years have focused on heritage works including Edward Lear’s poetry and H G Well’s The Time Machine. This year we are exploring Rumer Godden’s The Diddakoi on its 50th anniversary of publication in 1972. The Diddakoi is the powerful story of an orphan of Romany heritage called Kizzy, who faces persecution, grief and loss of lifestyle in a hostile, close-knit village community. A key event this year will be when we mark – for the first time in the town – International Romany Day on Friday 8 April at Electro Studios Studio Space. 

Young adult author Patrice Lawrence cites The Diddakoi as the book that articulated how she felt as a child of colour growing up in Sussex. Patrice is judging the festival’s creative writing competition for 7-14 year olds themed around kindness. She’s joined by fellow young adult writer, Catherine Johnson, and a panel including coordinator Hannah Collisson, festival mentee Lily Bowers, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery’s learning officer Foteini Athanasiadou and this year’s festival ambassador, Jean Lancaster.

A 1976 children’s television series, Kizzy was based on the award-winning children’s novel. One viewer, Nicolette Howard, remembers it well. “I didn’t come across the book, but that series was my defining childhood television experience. It made such an impact on me.” In the narrative, Admiral Twiss is criticised by the village
for hosting mixed race child of Romany heritage, Kizzy, and her great- great grandmother in his orchard. Admiral Twiss respectfully refers to Kizzy’s carer as Mrs Lovell unlike the majority of villagers.

An exhibition by various community artists at the Southwater Area Community Centre will respond to Rumer Godden’s protagonist Kizzy who is placed in foster care after Mrs Lovell’s death. The exhibition is titled DisPLACED and Nick Hill the coordinator, has steered its focus on the experiences of people being displaced in the community. The art exhibition marks the Southwater Area Community Centre’s twentieth year. Other festival events at this venue include manager Cath Tajima Powell’s free breakfast book readings for families from Monday 4-Friday 8 April, 9-10am with breakfast.

Here are some of the other highlights of the festival:

Unveiling in Gensing Gardens

Dan Allum and Jake Bowers from the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller communities are opening the festival on Friday 1 April in a series of events across the town. Jake’s sculpture of Kizzy will be unveiled in Gensing Gardens at 4pm along with outdoor art installations generated by an extensive schools festival workshop programme that artists have delivered over the last month, engaging 2000 children. This is funded by the festival’s Crowd Funder, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery funding, Chalk Cliff Trust, East Sussex Community Foundation, Arts Council England and Heritage Lottery Funding for the marking of #GensingGardens150 throughout the year.

The private view of Southwater’s community art exhibition follows on from the park event at 5-7pm.

Opening Night Bavard Bar

In the key ticketed event on Friday 1 April, Tim B’vard hosts speakers from the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller communities, Dan Allum, Jess Bailey and Jake Bowers at Kino Teatr.. It is a slightly different format to the usual Bavard evening, a unique opportunity to experience previously unheard stories. Matt Armstrong, musician of Romany heritage, with Jude Cowan Montague will weave music through this evening, platforming voices in a community fundamentally impacted by the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill set to become law at the end of April 2022.

Neighbourhood Art Trail

Hastings and Bexhill Mencap’s Active Arts team is leading a neighbourhood art trail along with the Seaview and Arts on Prescription communities plus individuals working with Mark Daniels and Erica Smith at Hattons Yard. This project is called Model Makers, inspired by Godden’s unconventional character, Admiral Twiss, a war veteran with a passion for making models. Conjuring the 1970s cereal packet and glue creativity that pervaded 70s TV children’s programmes, the models will comprise a neighbourhood art trail throughout St Leonards on Sea.

Chapter Readings

I’ll be chairing the festival’s free Let’s talk About This Book event on Saturday 2 April 5-7pm also at Southwater Centre. It features Rumer Godden’s nephew, Simon Foster, and the two writers and journalists of Romany Heritage, Dan Allum and Jake Bowers. Dan Allum, from Cambridgeshire, who has previously abridged The Diddakoi for Radio 4 extra, will also be reading excepts from the book in Teddy Tinker’s free chapter reading events on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 April at 3pm.

Themed menus

Through the festival’s eighteen days, 1-18 April, St Leonards on Sea’s eateries and creative businesses will be offering themed menus, art in cafes and the window displays that have become of the best loved aspects of the festival. The Zoom Artists collective are exhibiting in Oscar’s on the Square and Teddy Tinker’s window display celebrates a specific transient community that birthed with advent of canals in England– the team are designing their shop window display around ‘bargeware’ to recognise those who have lived and travelled on barges and live in houseboats today.

Easter events.

New for the 2022 Festival is a Kings Road Street party and Peddler’s Parade on Easter Saturday 16 April.

Also running over the final Easter weekend, Thursday 14 – Monday 18 April, performers Yasmin Aishah and Hannah Collisson present a new exper-iential theatre performance at ExploreTheArch’s venue, Archer Lodge. This is a promenade outdoor performance to the performers’ created garden hideouts based on their childhood experience. Like Godden’s protagonist, Kizzy, they seek magical personal spaces to reflect on the known and unknown of relatives, residences and ritual from their mixed race heritage. 

Further information

• Go to atownexploresabook.com/whatson for details of events or visit the main website atownexploresabook.com

• Opening Night Kino – tickets £12 www.ticketsource.co.uk/kinoteatr/t-mgvkag

• Entries for the creative writing competition will be accepted up to 31 March. Short list and prize winners announced on Easter Sunday 17 April on the website where young writers can submit their entries.

• Festival programmes available from creative businesses and the Station Ticket Office in St Leonards on Sea.

Since the novel was published, the demarcation between the nomadic and the settled has become less clear than ever. Many Roma no longer travel but guard their traditions. Many New Travellers are second or third generation and were born on the road.

CREDIT: Jules Earl

In this exhibition ─ running from 2-18 April at Electro Studios ─ Hungarian Roma photographer Béla Váradi and New Traveller Jules Earl investigate how their own wider communities continue to preserve identity, culture and community. Unconsidered by most, Romany and traveller peoples and cultures are woven into the fabric of our society beyond caravan holidays and ‘gypsy fashion’, as they have been for centuries.

Béla Váradi worked as a journalist in Hungary and was a founding member of RadioC, Europe’s first Roma radio station. Moving to the UK in 2011 in the wake of the Orbán government’s crackdown on independent journalism, Váradi turned to photography, working on projects about immigration, Roma journalism, and minority representations. His recent coverage of a BLM protest in London was nominated in the professional Photojournalism category at the Fine Art Photography Awards 2021 and widely published.

Jules Earl has lived on the road for over 20 years in the UK working as an HGV driver, site manager, waste analysis technician and photographer. Her knowledge of, and access to, disparate and sometimes hidden groups enable a personal and direct focus on travellers’ roles as integrated members of the wider community as well as their own.

• A free gallery event at 5 Seaside Road, St Leonards will be held on Friday 8 April in solidarity with International Romani Day. 

Esme Fisher

The initiative is the idea of 25-year-old St Leonards visual artist, Esme Fisher. Supported with work by her peers, she introduces themes in the book that the festival outdoor artist team and the photography team, both funded by Arts Council England, are exploring in #ATownExplores
ABook22.

The free publication is available from The Bookkeeper Bookshop at 1a Kings Road and other creative businesses in St Leonards on Sea, and at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery. The mini zine offers multiple entry points to a book that will be explored in myriad ways in the festival running 1-18 April 2022 through the school spring holiday in St Leonards on Sea.

Esme Fisher has been funded by an Artist Digital fringe award in the 2021 AltPitch Arts and Technology Festival and mentored by graphic designer and the festival’s Community Engagement Coordinator, Erica Smith.

The great joy in 1970s households was the cereal packet. Vouchers and gifts could be found inside them, and when you had finished munching their edible contents, there was nothing better to do than cut them up to make models. That’s why artist Mark Daniels has seized on the opportunity to get involved with the ATownExploresABook22 Art Trail inspired by Rumer Godden’s 1972 novel, The Diddakoi.

Every Monday in March, Mark will lead drop-in sessions from 11am-2pm at Hattons Yard. The sessions are for anyone who wants to regain that childhood feeling of joy and total absorption you get from making miniatures. The models will be part of the Festival Art Trail and will be displayed in windows, in trees and on fences all over St Leonards between 1-18 April. You are encouraged to make a model of anything that takes your fancy, but if you are in need of inspiration, there will be some pre-prepared pieces so you can easily make a boat or a horse or waggon.

Everyone is welcome to drop in on the day, but we’d love to know if you are coming so we can plan ahead. Materials will be provided, but please bring your own cereal packets and scissors if you can! Hattons Yard is a lovely, friendly space and is well ventilated. We would love to see you there!

If you aren’t able to make the sessions but want to get involved, you are welcome to make models at home and display them during the festival. Last year’s Owl Trail was a huge success with over 150 home-made owls on display across St Leonards. We’d love this year’s festival trail to be bigger and better – so get model making and encourage your neighbours to start cutting up their cereal packets too!

Mark’s passion for models has inspired a personal collection of churches made from matchsticks by dedicated crafters from previous generations. He loves that model making is highlighted in Rumer Godden’s Whitbread Prize winning novel. The book contains a whole village of characters, and it is Admiral Twiss, with his passion for model making, that lies at the heart of this festival craft project. 

The Admiral, a war veteran, is a retiring personality, content to make models of boats and buildings. He shuns the responsibilities associated with his perceived role as squire of a Sussex village and attracts criticism for hosting a gyspy family in his orchard and respecting their traditions. He doesn’t ‘fit the mould’, so quietly forges a life true to himself.

Three St Leonards-on-Sea community groups are at the centre of this community project. Led by Ann Bloomfield, Hastings and Bexhill Mencap’s Active Arts artists will be working with artist Juliette Dodd. The Seaview makers will be working with Storytime’s Lily Guttierez and artists from Arts on Prescription with Tara Reddy and her team of creatives. 

• To attend the Model Makers Mondays workshops, please contact Erica Smith at communityprojects@explorethearch.com