Dr Ronald Blythe with Dr Frances Ward
4 March 2013
Dr Ronald Blythe was the castaway for Desert Island Poems that was co-hosted by SPS and Mosaic Poets of Colchester. Dr Frances Ward, Dean of St Edmondsbury, was the interviewer.
The venue was Christchurch, Ireton Road, Colchester, and was packed to overflowing.
The readers of the poems had been recruited from the various poetry cafés in Suffolk and also from the Mosaic poetry group.
Alan Bullard provided musical breaks from the piano.
The poems selected by Ronald Blythe, and the readers, were:
Poem | Poet | Reader | Café |
Ithaca | Constantine P. Cavafy | Cameron Hawke Smith | Sudbury Café Poets |
The Nightingale’s Nest | John Clare | Richard Whiting | Poetry Aloud, Bury St Edmunds |
An Arundel Tomb | Philip Larkin | Jenny Chantler | Poetry Aloud, Bury St Edmunds |
Miss Gee | W. H. Auden | Sheena Clover | Mosaic |
Cervières | Sidney Keyes | Elizabeth Norman | Sudbury Café Poets |
In the Beginning | Ronald Blythe | Richard Maslen | Pinky’s, Halesworth |
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d | Walt Whitman | Kaaren Whitney | New Words:Fresh Voices, Lowestoft |
Beeny Cliff | Thomas Hardy | Henrietta Maslen | Pinky’s, Halesworth |
Correspondence | R.S. Thomas | David Canning | Mosaic |

Ronald Blythe and Frances Ward were presented with flowers
Ronald Blythe and Frances Ward were presented with flowers

David Canning reading Correspondence by R. S. Thomas
David Canning reading Correspondence by R. S. Thomas

Henrietta Maslen reading Beeny Cliff by Thomas Hardy
Henrietta Maslen reading Beeny Cliff by Thomas Hardy

Kaaren Whitney read from When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloomed by Walt Whitman
Kaaren Whitney read from When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloomed by Walt Whitman

Richard Maslen reading In the Beginning by Ronald Blythe
Richard Maslen reading In the Beginning by Ronald Blythe

Elizabeth Norman reading Cervières by Sidney Keyes
Elizabeth Norman reading Cervières by Sidney Keyes

Jenny Chantler reading An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin
Jenny Chantler reading An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin

Richard Whiting reading The Nightingale’s Nest by John Clare
Richard Whiting reading The Nightingale’s Nest by John Clare

Cameron Hawke Smith reading Ithaca by Constantine P. Cavafy
Cameron Hawke Smith reading Ithaca by Constantine P. Cavafy
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