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Rumpus at Rockley Firs
Rehearsing my favourite ‘Rockley Firs’ for upcoming performance of folk operetta, 'Captain Swing and the Blacksmith' in Oxford , October...

Beatrice Parvin
Jul 223 min read


Crossing the Pyrenees at Dusk
Last month, I walked from Guildford to Gomshall across the North Downs. It was Remembrance Sunday, and before we began we visited a Tesco...

Beatrice Parvin
Dec 7, 20226 min read


Descent to the Underworld
Hallowe’en/Samhain approaches and the presence of the witch in our culture has never been so prevalent. Not because she is casting spells...

Beatrice Parvin
Oct 30, 20222 min read


Laundry Lists and Wattle Trees
When I wrote Captain Swing and the Blacksmith I was focused on the drama of the events of 1830 and did not cast my mind to the next...

Beatrice Parvin
Sep 20, 20225 min read


Captain Swing and the Blacksmith - ebook available!
'Parvin’s debut novel, though driven by an obsessive love, is no romance; and while a character finds redemption, it is no parable....

Beatrice Parvin
Aug 24, 20221 min read


South Downs Way - Winchester to East Meon
Waterloo to Winchester - blur of green hedges, time, azure skies of summer - four hundred years travelled in an hour. I was curious to...

Beatrice Parvin
Aug 5, 20224 min read


Landscape and Melody
An Experience of Translating Song to Prose. “It must live on, and because of its glorious ricketiness.” Umberto Eco[1] Captain Swing and...

Beatrice Parvin
Sep 23, 201915 min read


The Chalk and the Cheese
The month of May brought myself and the band to Wiltshire. Our first stop being Avebury which lies on high chalk grassland. I first spent...

Beatrice Parvin
Jun 24, 20191 min read


When Songs Collide 2
More plots from vengeful sweethearts and moonlight shenanigans…this is a first draft from student Georgia Lewis…who has caught the rhythm...

Beatrice Parvin
Apr 15, 20193 min read


When Songs Collide
When songs collide anything can happen…I think ‘The Housemaid’s Revenge’ is a ballad in the making – several students saw this as the...

Beatrice Parvin
Mar 22, 20192 min read


Enervating Wiles
There is nothing like a good folk song rhyme… poor old Georgie Barnwell is beguiled by the ‘enervating wiles’ of a certain lady to murder...

Beatrice Parvin
Mar 13, 20191 min read


Spadgewhistles and Goozegogs
Creating a Historical Voice with Dialect It is impossible to accurately replicate the voices of the distant past as we cannot hear them....

Beatrice Parvin
Mar 1, 20194 min read


Message in a Bottle
It was a real pleasure to be interviewed by two fellow travellers from the Creative Writing MFA Kingston. Sinead Keegan and Lisa Davison...

Beatrice Parvin
Feb 23, 20192 min read


Landscape and Melody
Oxfordshire – three days ago. I’m increasingly realising how these stark lines and bare trees, sentinel on low mounds, have shaped my...

Beatrice Parvin
Feb 21, 20191 min read


Our Secret History in Song
I’m very happy that this Creative Writing workshop at Wiltshire and Swindon History centre has been rescheduled to 16th March. I spent...

Beatrice Parvin
Feb 13, 20192 min read


Avebury blizzard forced new date!
Poor Avebury was without power and roads were cut off from the outside world on Friday 1st February…I arrived in Swindon in a snow storm,...

Beatrice Parvin
Feb 3, 20191 min read


Props assembled!
Yellow silk, threatening notes and feathered quills will be filling my suitcase for Avebury. After a brilliant rehearsal excited to...

Beatrice Parvin
Jan 28, 20191 min read


Interview by Naomi Clifford
I had a great afternoon with writer, Naomi Clifford, discussing the writing of the novel. We explored the relationship between song,...

Beatrice Parvin
Jan 17, 20191 min read
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