Greenbelt

The Helpston link

I know very little about Iain Sinclair. I'd seen his book London Orbital and clocked that he was a walker/writer. I knew John Davies was a fan. So safe in this ignorance I trundled along to the new Festival Bowl venue to hear what he had to say.

Within a couple of minutes I'd summoned Emma by text. Ian had started talking about the poet John Clare and his relationship to the city and the country, in particular the village of Helpston. Of course Helpston is also where Emma grew up, and where - in the church where Clare is buried - we were married.

Later on I was fortunate enough to catch a performance by someone else who grew up nearby on the edge of the fens. Susan Enan's Performance Café set was a lovely delicate moment, but perhaps not appreciated by the masses who had arrived an hour early for the next act or were sheltering from the rain. Hopefully she won over a few new fans though.