Festival shines a light on Virginia Woolf

What started as a conversation over a bottle of wine a couple of years ago has resulted in a festival for readers and writers celebrating the work of Virginia Woolf and using some of her themes as a focus for discussion and creative writing. The To the Lighthouse Festival – a series of Woolf-themed events, ranging from walking tours and workshops to films and plays – is taking place over two weeks (24 September to 8 October) with the University and Colleges providing a number of venues in and around Cambridge.

Dr Melanie Taylor, Fellow and Admissions Tutor at Corpus Christi College, and Helen Taylor, Literature Officer for Cambridgeshire County Council, along with a steering committee drawn from colleges and arts organisations, devised the To the Lighthouse Festival to draw attention to the work of Woolf and to involve local communities. Earlier this year Cambridgeshire book groups were encouraged to read To the Lighthouse, a novel first published in 1927, and school and college students were invited to take part in a two-week writing challenge on the theme of ‘A space of my own’.

“We were really impressed by the quality of the response and are looking forward to announcing the winners on 3 October,” said Dr Taylor. “The winning entries will be posted on our website and there will be a presentation of prizes by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy on 8 October.”

Carol Ann Duffy is also giving a reading from her new collection The Bees on the day of its publication, and the last day of the festival, 7October. The venture is being supported by a number of other eminent literary figures, including the critic and academic Dame Gillian Beer and the celebrated biographer Frances Spalding, who jointly launched the festival last Saturday.

Novelist Ali Smith will be talking about ‘Spirals of Influence’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum on 1 October, and Woolf scholars Professor Susan Sellers (author of the novel Vanessa and Virginia) and Jane Goldman will be talking about To the Lighthouse and inviting questions at the Central Library on 4 October. Susan Sellers be giving a fiction writing workshop on 1 October at the Central Library, and the following day, Helen Taylor will be giving a workshop on ‘Writing from Paintings’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

“We devised the programme to be as broad as possible to give a flavour of the era in which Virginia Woolf and her contemporaries lived and worked. The festival also marks the 70^th anniversary of Woolf’s death,” said Dr Melanie Taylor. “To the Lighthouse is probably the novel that is most readily associated with Woolf, which is why we selected it as the festival’s focus, but I came to her work through her novel Orlando and her life-writing. Whether I am reading her novels, letters or essays, I am always struck by the sharpness of her observations of the world, which are often infectious, her wit, and the subtlety of her form.

“First encounters with Woolf’s writing can be a challenge; certainly when I first read To the Lighthouse it took me a number of attempts before I learned how to read her. It’s a similar experience to watching experimental film or theatre; readers and viewers often bring a certain set of expectations to a narrative, and it can be difficult to let these go and ‘read’ or ‘see’ differently. With Woolf, I found that reading her work out loud allowed me to relax into the rhythms and patterns of her writing. I hope that this festival will bring many new readers to Woolf, as well as drawing people back to her work who, perhaps, like me, struggled with their initial experience.”

Helen Taylor said: “We have over 120 people from Cambridgeshire book groups reading To the Lighthouse and an enthusiastic online book group (open to everyone) on our website. As well as crossing art forms, this festival has also made Woolf accessible to all sections of the Cambridge community through partnerships with the university, schools, Anglia Ruskin University, museums, the local authority, Heffers bookshop and the Cambridge film consortium.  Making connections is the theme throughout the festival.”

Performances include screening of the films Mrs Dalloway on 29 September and To the Lighthouse 2 October, both at the Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge, and a performance of the play Vanessa and Virginia on 5 and 6 October (the second performance is a matinee for schools only) at Robinson College.

Woolf had strong connections with Cambridge – her brothers Adrian and Thoby both studied at the University as did many of the friends who made up what has become known as the Bloomsbury Group.

The Fitzwilliam Museum is displaying Woolf’s manuscript for A Room of One’s Own for two weeks only to accompany a free lunchtime talk by David Bradshaw on 27 September. On the same day, two walking tours led by Claire Nicholson will give participants the chance to see first editions of Woolf’s work at the Fitzwilliam Museum and Newnham College, as well as Dadie Rylands’ rooms at King’s College, which was the location for a lunch party described in A Room of One’s Own and has doors and fireplaces painted by Dora Carrington.

Claire Nicholson will also be giving a talk on the Bloomsbury Group in the idyllic surroundings of the Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester on 3 October: the garden is famous for its links with writers and artists including Rupert Brooke and Augustus John.

All events are open to all. Tickets can be purchased through the ADC Theatre https://www.adcticketing.com/