Kindling delights!

celebrating the 10th year of ideas ...

One of my great delights in life is to organise the Kindling stage at the Wood Festival. This year was my 10th outing. The idea is to find interesting people who are willing to talk passionately about something - they get 30 minutes to talk, engage, perform … after which they will be unceremoniously turfed off stage!

The stage has grown over time from a small geodesic dome that could squeeze in 20 people to now a great space that can take 100. There is now a microphone (necessary even for me - and I have been mistaken for Brian Blessed once - but that is another story) and … the imagination of the person up there. No slides, no videos - just words and energy. Here is Howie Watkins (of Really Wild Show fame) creating a rainforest in the first year!

I tend to start thinking about who to have on next year during the festival - you bump into all sorts of wonderful people and start chatting - they get filed away!! Some don’t want to do it - some take some persuading (it was quite a coup to get George Monbiot a couple of years ago) - others surprise you with their enthusiasm - I would not have thought to ask the amazing comedian, author, broadcaster, Robin Ince … but … he said ‘why haven’t you invited me!’

I like to keep things local and of the 15 speakers (there was a double act), 9 came from my estate or close by! This year started gently - with my dear friend Lucie describing her work as a yoga therapist. Then something very different for me - I had a fairly drunken chat last year with Nathanael - he is very adept at Aikido and Jujitsu and I was intrigued as to how much was ‘real’ and how much was dance … so, we had a session on the physics of these martial arts - and many thanks to his long suffering son, Arlen, for being his ‘body’!

Jess Worth has been involved in some of the most creative campaigns against the oil industry I have ever seen - but she needed a change - and her change has resulted in Oxford’s most brilliant tour guide! Not only is she amazing at the usual stuff of a tour guide, but she has also developed a fascinating look at the radical side of the city - from martyrs to riots, she painted a very different picture of our city. Book a tour, you will not be disappointed.

Lucy Ayrton followed with a dynamic description of the process of getting the book, that is stuck inside you, out into the real world. She was followed by another old friend, George Roberts - now, George is a poet and I have had him on before, I think back at the start of the stage. His poetry is very … well, for an uneducated fool like myself it feels a little impenetrable at times. I had said as much to him. So he decided to solve that problem by performing four pieces with musical accompaniment - and it was stunning! It was one of the many things that happened that I would have loved to have recorded.

Next up, I got to chat with the genius of words that is Miriam Darlington - I first met her when I interviewed her about otters for my book, The Beauty in the Beast - she went on to write a beautiful book about owls and that is what we nattered about. I had to be strict, only 30 minutes … but we could have gone on for ages!

Chris Church talked about the important campaign to get the Thames cleaned up … and how the choices we make at the ballot box will determine whether I (and many others!) can get back in to swim. And finally for the Saturday we had Al Chisholm and Liz Goold talking about their work developing deliberative democracy. That might not sound like a party … but they did a great job at making us all wish for more and better when it comes to our ability to influence power.

After a lie down (though someone interrupted that lie down by tickling my toes … that does not make me happy!) Saturday night leapt into life. Music, food, beer, and some wonderful Ukrainian vodka, which when taken with Polish pickled cucumbers was the sweetest of drinks … and good company, really did put a good buzz on the evening.

Sunday morning was not as difficult as it could have been - I bowed out of the late night dancing and slept! A good job as it meant I picked up the opening chords of ‘my’ song … so I rushed to the stage, past the throng of children, and managed to capture a bit of Nick Cope, singing about Hedgehog Hugh!

The first talk in Kindling on Sunday had been a year in the plotting and was deeply personal to me as well.

Emily Tammam is another old friend - we did the circuit of toddler groups way back … and her daughter, Neve, was my friend. I have written about her - please read this. After Neve died, Emily used art and writing to process her grief and share her love - and she was brave enough to read a piece she had written especially for this stage.

I had assumed she was well versed in performance, so in control she seemed. I had no idea this was her first time doing anything like this. She NEEDS to write a book - or rather, I need her to and I am going to keep prodding until she does! Please see her other work, here on substack. There were many tears shed.

While we sat shiva for Neve (part of the mourning in the Jewish tradition) I met Dee … a friend of Emily’s and an expert on autism. This was over a year ago, but I booked her then! Her personal take on neurodivergence was both illuminating and very funny - she is talking as much from her own experience as she was academically … she is the founder of Autism Champions.

Dee’s talk was inspiring, but what really touched my heart was seeing her later, on her knees chatting to an 11 year old girl I know from the gang of kids in my park. The girl was in tears as she explained how scared she was of going to secondary school where they make you wear a uniform that hurts (she is very sensitive to scratchy clothing) and where she is not allowed to use ear defenders (her main tool to keep calm) - and Dee, she was so there for her, and I wish I had known someone as kind as her when I was a kid.

The third talk on Sunday was also related to Emily and Neve … Nabil is a consultant paediatric nephrologist … he looks after kids’ kidneys. And he has the great fortune to be married to Francesca - the nurse who looked after Neve. Nabil is Palestinian. Last year - at the festival - I asked if he would talk about his experiences working as a doctor in the occupied territories. He said yes … but so much has changed since then … I had to check if he was still happy.

It is clear that Nabil is every bit as wise and kind as he seemed to be - the talk he gave was powerful but empirical - there was no hyperbole - just facts about his experience. He talked about the obstacles to health care. And in particular for children with kidney failure. There is a deep wrong being done to people in the names of religion and politics. The sooner our shared humanity is remembered, the sooner children will stop dying in agony.

The next two talks were back to ‘my’ world as Steph talked on the relevance of Gilbert White and Joanna talked about her brilliant book, The Modern Bestiary. And then, it was all over apart from me!

I had booked in the last slot on the stage for me just in case someone had dropped out (it does happen!). Then I could have done my bit and just closed the stage earlier … but all went smoothly and I was worried that as people enjoyed the sunshine, I might be left with a small audience … fortunately no!!

My new book, Cull of the Wild is always going to be a tricky talk to give at a festival … and I had wondered how to start it … in fact it was only in the preceding talk I got it … and it was thanks to the update I wrote on here … I started talking about killing hedgehogs … that got some attention! I measure the success of these talks by the questions - and the conversations that happen afterwards. It is great to feel people thinking and being challenged!

And then I got to give Henry a cuddle - it was his 16th birthday!

Before I go … early bird tickets for Wood 2025 are on sale soon … and if you would like a taster of the Wood experience, they have started SeptemberSong as beautiful bookend to the festival season.

Thank you for reading - please share! And if you have the capacity to support my work on here I would be thrilled.