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- New Living Traditions -

Walburgas - forgiving forgetting. Who St Walburga was, why I started sending cards on her day, and a bit about the book.

Glyn Watkins sewing a book behind beer bottles.

Walburgas forgetting - forgiving (ISBN 0-9548022-0-9) Contains 25 original poems and about the same number of pen and ink drawings. It has 36 pages, is saddle stapled, with card pages (130 gsm), a textured card cover, and is A5 size. It weighs just under 110 grms.
Bradwan is the trading name of the publishing company I have set up with a Business Link start-up grant. The book itself was printed in Bradford with aid of a Trident 'arts' grant. I got these grants because I live in one of the poorest parts of Britain's poorest city.
Walburgas is available to buy. After many battles and traumas the book was printed, launched and a small number are still available: so you will not have to visit me in at the Lynfield Mount Care Facility for the slightly angry and confused. At least you wont until the time I start thinking that the piles of unsold copies is getting bigger and inching closer as I sleep! Press the Buy button for details on how to help reduce my piles.
The following extract comes from the current edition.

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Introduction

"There is an ancient tradition of sending Walburga cards on the 25th February. It started in the 80's when I forgot to send a girlfriend a Valentine. Instead of sending a late one I got a Saints book and picked Walburga as Patron Saint of the forgetful, mainly because I liked the name. It turned out she was an Anglo-Saxon and sister of St Willibald and St Winnibald. She and her brothers helped convert the Germans to Christianity. She later became Abbess of one of the most important monasteries in central Europe: but, unlike Hildergard of Bingen, she never wrote tunes or descriptions of her libido, so modern fashion has passed her by."

From: The Bradwan Nationwide Cultural Guide to Preston, 'The City Gent', issue 98.

Most of the book comes from hand drawn and photocopied Walburga and Christmas cards made between 1982 and 1998. I made a very few of a tiny, hand made, version of this collection in 1996. When I was struck down with pneumonia in 2002/04, and was unable to work, I used some of the time to form a new collection using a Mac and a scanner: and created a hand made beta version of this book; which I printed, folded, trimmed, sewed, and glued myself

My maternal grandfather was technically illiterate, yet he ran a farm, a timber business, and made wheels and coffins for his village in Finnish Karelia. I remembered him when I set out to manufacture the book. Teaching myself bookbinding seemed like small fish compared to putting an iron tyre on a wooden wheel. Forming the company to publish this book was more complicated, but no more so than calculating volumes and prices of cut timber without knowing how to write formal numbers.

The externally printed edition contains the same poems and pictures as the hand-made one, but with eight additional pages.

Literary Influences

My biggest literary influence is J.L. Carr, whose example prompted my writing, drawing and publishing. I also owe a lot to the writings of J.B. Priestley. My poetry owes much to John Lillison and Rodney Spelvin (especially in his Purple Fan period): although I now belong wholeheartedly to the school of Alaric Gilpin.