For A Former MA Student of Creative Writing

For A Former MA Student of Creative Writing - Geri Lambert, R.I.P.

Geri Lambert – Former MA Student of Creative Writing at Kingston University

By Jo van der Borgh

On Tuesday 16^th November Geri Lambert passed away after a long battle with cancer at Guy’s Hospital. The last time I saw her was at the end of September with a mutual friend, Emma Strong. It was at the hospital and she was full of life, her hair curly from the chemo. It suited her. She spoke of her writing plans, the food she missed, the people she missed; her dear partner Trish and her mother. She generously told me I was born to be a mother, as I gave my little, then eight month son Oscar a tub of baby food he wasn’t enjoying at all! Emma had her little Eva with her and Geri was enjoying the makeshift nursery atmosphere.

I first met Geri when she bounded into the room where I sat on my own waiting for our first workshop with Todd Swift. Within moments I was told all about her background. How she had given up a lucrative career as a sales director to pursue this MA in creative writing and how she wanted to give her idea of being a writer a chance. I was told about her horses. They were very important too. The thing that struck me most was her immense zest for life and enthusiasm, something that never left her until her dying day. Even the texts she sent about the next op she was about to have were optimistic. She would never give up on anything. This was also true of her writing. When shortlisted by ITV for Alan Titchmarsh’s show last year for her book ‘The Donut Girls’, she already knew of the cancer, but she went on undeterred. ‘It’ll take me mind off it,’ she said jovially. She never was published, but she came so close, sparking interest from well known agent, Luigi Bonomi. Sadly, in the end, the operations and treatment had to come first.

Geri, another former MA student Guy de Ferrer and I spent a long weekend at my parents’ home in Kerry, Ireland about a month before she told us she had cancer. We workshopped, drank wine and ate lots of food with cream in it prepared by resident chef Guy. We went for walks on Ross beach. Guy turned his hand to poetry and Geri started a sit-com. Geri spoke a lot about Ireland and her Irish partner Trish. It was a great weekend. I’m glad we were all ignorant of her cancer then.

We all miss her dearly. The post-MA workshops, started by Justine Brown, most regularly attended by Geri, even though she had the longest commute to Kingston from Rottingdean on the Sussex coast, will never be the same again.

Rest in peace Geri Lambert, you are an inspiration to us all.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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