Come along to the Talking Tent ‘In Conversation’ when we pitch up online for a relaxed informal gathering. Hosts Sarah Acton and Martin Maudsley will be joined by special guests to start the conversation before opening the ‘floor’ for contributions.
Do you have a special place, a fond memory, a story from times past?
Do you feel a connection to Dorset’s outstanding landscape and places?
Come along to the Talking Tent ‘In Conversation’ when we pitch up online for a relaxed informal gathering. Hosts Sarah Acton and Martin Maudsley will be joined by special guests to start the conversation before opening the ‘floor’ for contributions.
Nick Groom is an academic and writer. He is Professor of Literature in English at the University of Macau (while remaining an Honorary Professor at University of Exeter) and has written widely on literature, national and regional identities, and culture for academic and popular audiences. He has written a dozen books including a history of representations of the English environment, The Seasons: An Elegy for the Passing of the Year (Atlantic), 2013. It was the Book of the Week in the Guardian and a Book of the Year in the Observer, while in the Daily Mail Bel Mooney wrote that ‘It’s no exaggeration to say that this is a volume I have been waiting for all my life…. I love Nick Groom’s passionate plea for us to be aware of traditional connections between human lives, the seasons and the natural world’.
Nick Gray works for the Dorset Wildlife Trust as West Dorset Conservation Officer. Working with land owners and volunteers he has made an enormous contribution to the conservation and restoration of some very special habitats in West Dorset. Nick has run many guided walks for the AONB team – his intimate knowledge of plants, enthusiasm for plant folklore and wonderful plant anecdotes make his walks hugely enjoyable. We look forward to hearing is thoughts about Spring during this In Conversation!
You can find out more about our Talking Tent hosts here!
Talking Tent is part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty 60th anniversary activities, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, to celebrate and protect the places we love and find new ways to create connections within the living landscape in years to come.
Sixty years ago, a line was drawn around nearly half of Dorset’s landscape from the vales in the west, along the South Dorset Ridgeway, right across to Poole Harbour in the east. This line marked our Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), a designation which alongside our National Parks make up our finest countryside and landscapes protected in the national interest for future generations. During this time, Dorset has seen one of the greatest rates of change across the landscape for centuries: through a fast changing natural world and transformations across agricultural and land based industry together with communities and built development.
Talking Tent offers a space to weave together threads of thinking and conversations around how the living landscape holds personal memories and stories, as well as helping us frame future visions for the places where we live and work.
In 2021, Talking Tent hosts Martin Maudsley and Sarah Acton will be running a series of both online and small group in person activities around the county inviting you to share your experiences of the past, your connections to the present and your hopes and visions for the future.
Find out what else is going on in the Talking Tent and how you can get involved here
This event is FREE but booking is essential. Please book your place on our Eventbrite page where you will also find further information on location, times and access arrangements.
If you have further queries, please do contact Kate Townsend, Dorset AONB Project Support
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