Literary Weekend
The next (18th) Literary Weekend will take place at the Winchester Royal Hotel, Winchester, 16th-18th October 2026
The sub-committee is putting together an exciting programme of Ransome- related talks with speakers from within and outwith TARS. If you would like to speak (either a cameo or a full talk) you’d be very welcome. Please contact Peter Wright as soon as possible, either by email: peterwright180@btinternet.com, or by phoning him on 0121 443 2910.
Further details, the full programme and booking form will be available in Signals.
The 17 th TARS Literary Weekend was held on 19 th – 21 st April 2024 at the The Crown Hotel – Harrogate (home of the GA)
The 16th Literary Weekend was held 1-3rd April 2022 in Oxford, at St Edmund Hall, otherwise known as Teddy Hall.
On the Friday evening three much loved and well-known Tars gave cameo talks. Margaret Ratcliffe told us about Cyril Ransome’s time in Oxford, Andrew Jones researched money and finance in the “12” whilst Mary Pritchard asked the question, “Did Gibber go to Oxford?” It’s surely worth coming to the weekend to hear the answer to that question alone!
On theSaturday, Dr. Mike Bender, author of the Amazon publication Sunlight and Shadows, expanded upon his re-interpretation of Ransome and the hidden themes in his novels. Following this, Dr Penny Bradshaw from the University of Cumbria spoke about children’s literature inspired by the Lake District; which led nicely into Danny Rurlander, author of Spylark, (chosen as the first TARS book club read) which is set on Lake Windermere. In part inspired by Swallow and Amazons, Danny talked about the book and his love for Ransome.
Saturday afternoon is, as usual, was left for us to explore the many and varied delights of Oxford. There was the usual Saturday evening Gala Dinner, followed by an after-dinner speaker.
On Sunday we had an equally Ransome-inspired programme, starting with Professor Sally Bushell, from Lancaster University. Her recent book Reading and Mapping Fiction explores spatialising literary texts and includes references to Ransome’s work and the iconic Stephen Spurrier map, which she expanded upon. David Wood OBE – is an actor, author, director and producer best known to TARS as the script writer of the 1974 Swallows and Amazons film. He told us about this and several further scripts he wrote for other Ransome books along with his experience meeting Ransome’s wife, Evgenia! We concluded with Ivan Cutting – the Artistic Director of the East Angles Theatre Company whose recent play Red Skies imagines a meeting between the Ransome’s, Arthur and Evgenia, and an inquisitive George Orwell. He talked about this and his experience of staging and touring East Anglia with, We Didn’t Men to go to Sea.
********* ************* ***********
The Literary Weekend transcripts for the 15 Weekends held between 1991 and 2019 have been indexed. Below is a link to an explanatory page, plus links to separate Volumes, Speaker & Subject indexes.
Literary Weekend Volumes Index from 1991
Literary Weekend Speakers from 1991
Literary Weekend Subjects from 1991
Alliance of Literary Societies
In 2024, TARS hosted the ALS AGM in the Lake District.