We can’t quite believe that we’re approaching the end of June already! The past six months have flown by for us at The Charles Causley Trust; we’ve been working on a range of events, our 2022 Festival of Arts and Literature, our new Summer of Literature (SOL) programme and multiple funding bids. The work we do could not be possible without the support of our funders, members, volunteers and all of those who donate to us at our events. We hope to continue to support artists, writers and creatives in and around Launceston and more broadly, while also developing opportunities for young people to get involved with arts, culture, heritage and literature – including (but not exclusive to) the fantastic works of Charles Causley!

So, let’s take a look back on the last six months …

January and February:

We kickstarted the new year with the launch of our Mother’s Boy weekend with Sunday Times bestselling author Patrick Gale. Mother’s Boy, which is based on the boyhood of Charles Causley and the life of his mother Laura, was celebrated in the very hometown of which it is set – Launceston. It was fabulous to engage with Charles in this way, in iconic spaces such as Cyprus Well (Charles Causley’s final home), Launceston Town Hall and the Eagle House Hotel.

Our artist resident Vahni Anthony Capildeo led a series of zoom workshops with local schools in Launceston at the start of the year. These were centred on the theme of home, which was later revealed to be the theme of our Young People’s Poetry competition.

In January we also launched our Apocalypse Lit series via our online literary blog, The Maker. The series asks writers and authors which books one should read at key milestones throughout their lives. Patrick Gale revealed his list of books to pick up in childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age, old age and at the end of our days. Our 2022 artist in residence Vahni Anthony Capildeo followed this on in February and amongst their list included Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary, Dante Alighieri’s Commedia and the Bible. Head to our blog to read both Vahni Anthony and Patrick’s Apocalypse Lit pieces.

March:

In March, we hosted our 3-day Mother’s Boy weekend in Launceston which featured an interview between Patrick Gale and BBC’S Petroc Trelawny, a book signing at the town hall, a coffee and cake morning at Cyprus Well, a student workshop and a performance from folksinger Jim Causley. For an insight into the events, see our post-event round up.

April/May:

In April we launched our Call for Content for The Maker’s May publication month. The theme ‘Untold Love Stories’ was inspired by the relationship between Charles Causley and his mother, depicted in Patrick Gale’s Mother’s Boy. You can read Anna Godwin’s poem ‘Silence’ in response to this theme via our blog.

May was a big month for the Maker because we also launched our Summer of Literature (SOL) programme! A 3-month celebration of literature, we began in June with Flash Fiction and will progress onto poetry in July and film/ arts in August. To get involved and make this your #summerofliterature, see our blog.

And amongst all of this activity, the Causley team were hard at work preparing for our 2022 Festival of Arts and Literature! Tickets for our festival are now on sale and you can read our full event programme, here.

We can’t wait for what else is in store in the next six months of this year!

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