We struggled through rain and flooded roads to Iken on Saturday 16^th July, 2011 for an afternoon and evening of poetry with Christopher Reid, organised by Fred Ellis for Suffolk Poetry society.

The afternoon was a workshop about sound in poetry. Christopher Reid used examples from an anthology he had produced – “Sounds Good”. We thought about repeated sounds and their effect, alliteration, assonance, and sound used to keep a sense of movement in a poem.

We found Christopher friendly with an easy manner which disguised his expertise and long experience in the poetry world. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Hull University, has been a poetry editor for Faber and Faber for eight years, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Not to mention his own publications. One of his most recent collections – “Scatterings” won the Costa Book Prize in 2009, and has very recently been read on Radio 4.

After the workshop, and when the rain stopped, we enjoyed a barbecue in this beautiful setting with a view over fields stretching down to the River Alde, gleaming mud flats as the tide went out and a lovely evening. This was followed by readings by Christopher, first from a very new work which is being set to music by Colin Matthews – “Airs and Ditties of No Man’s Land.” Set in WW1. Then from “Scatterings” and “The Song of Lunch”. The atmosphere was relaxed and our poet was happy for people to comment and ask questions, and to discuss his work with us.

This was altogether a lovely occasion, with good discussion, in a beautiful setting.