Join writer Catrina Davies 'in the kitchen' at Seven Fables to celebrate her most recent publication, Once Upon a Raven's Nest.
This beautifully written book is an account of an epoch of change; of the earth and of a human life; that of a working-class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor – locals may recognise the man whose life the book is based on, park ranger and 'good ol' country boy, Ralphie - Hedley Ralph Collard.
'Once Upon a Raven's Nest is a genuinely captivating tale of rural-lore - told through the thrilling narrative of one man's life; a good ol' country boy, a right character whose scraps and scrapes litter the pages.
Chainsaws and tractors and torn love affairs fill the book, as Tommy's story is laid bare in a series of episodes and fractured snapshots carefully scattered within a timescale of environmental decline. There is a tough, brutal beauty here in Davies' depiction of the ways of the British countryside but love, and delight and the best of humanity, too' - James Canton
Those of you who live locally may recognise that 'good ol' country boy as Ralphie, Hedley Ralph Collard...
Once Upon a Raven's Nest is an account of an epoch of change; of the earth and of a human life. It is the story of a working class man, one Thomas Hedley of Exmoor, and of the planet during the period of its great acceleration towards the current climate emergency.
Born in 1955 to a rural, working class family in Somerset, Thomas refused to conform. His fierce independence, recklessness and contrariness led not only to scrapes and self-inflicted dangers but to a life enriched by the love of women. Catrina Davies came to know him in his last years and has given his life and times in his own words, creating a rich, pungent language in a knowing, poetic and poignant voice.
We learn of his accumulation of engines, tools and guns, the complexity of his connection to nature, the animals he loved and his desire to hunt them. He recounts the terrible consequences of his fatal attraction to risk and machinery which led to his being paralysed for the last years of his life, confined to a wheelchair, hopelessly dependent but still watching, noticing, recording, loving the world.
It's only when you add up all those small things that you get a sum so fraught with heartache you can't even start to reckon on how much you've lost.
In Davies's miraculous retelling of Thomas Hedley's life it is as if a world has been remembered rather than written. Once Upon A Raven's Nest is an unforgettable history of a life that is almost lost and an account of the destruction man has wrought on the earth in the time that Hedley worked the land.
Cost: Free - no need to book*
*Booking is advised for the afternoon walk and talk at 2pm
About the author: Catrina Davies is a writer, singer-songwriter and DJ based in Cornwall, where she lives and works in a tin shed, an experience she describes in her second book Homesick or Why I Live in a Shed Quercus, 2019, which was longlisted for the Baille Gifford Prize.
Her first book The Ribbons Are For Fearlessness is a memoir about busking from Norway to Portugal with her cello. It’s published in the UK by Summersdale and in the US by Skyhorse and translated into Spanish, German, Norwegian, Korean and Chinese.
The Ribbons EP is a collection of songs she wrote on the road, recorded in a granite pigshed near Land’s End with the help of Richard Blackborow (frontman of cult eighties band BOB), Stephen Childs (Squeeze/Quantic Soul Orchestra), Lucy Shaw (Squeeze/Oy Va Voy) and Jake Painter (LaRoux/Culture Club). .
Essays about living in a shed are published in Dark Mountain 8: Techne and The Stinging Fly issue 37, Volume 2.
Her story has been featured in Vogue, Red, Daily Express, Surfer’s Path, and numerous other publications and her songs have been played on NTS and the BBC.
Accessibility Statement: A relatively small venue with access via two steps