Bob Devereux entertaining at last year’s September Festival
St Ives may be lauded for its art, but it has a way with words, too, and this will be under the spotlight when the annual Literature Festival returns from May 9-16.
The event is curated by cultural polymath Bob Devereux, best known as an artist and poet.
Bob said: “I have been actively involved in the creative life of St Ives since my arrival in Cornwall in 1966 at the age of 25. I have been a deckchair man, compered folk clubs, toured as a performance poet, and run a stall in the Sloop craft market selling my paintings and my first wife’s etchings.
“I have been privileged to collaborate with fine musicians and song writers, including Jim Hughes, Clive Palmer of the Incredible String Band and COB [Clive’s Original Band], Tom Hall of the Ratcliffe Stout Band, and the incredible guitarist Adrian O’Reilly.”
The week will see Bob — who is 80 later this year, and who has been running the festival since 2008 — reminiscing in conversation with actor and artist Kenneth Price. Popular singer songwriter Pete Berryman will launch a new album, Distant Shore, and playwright Pauline Sheppard changes disciplines to read from her debut novel, Through The Granite Mirror. And Canadian Bill Arnott is always a popular draw, a poet, musician and storyteller from Vancouver, where he is director of the Federation of West Columbia Writers.
There will also be a week-long exhibition in the Arts Club’s Agnes Naylor Room, featuring paintings, prints, ceramics, jewellery, and sculpture. All pieces will include words in some way.
