‘THE GRETA’

 It is traditional to start these blogs with an apology, usually along the lines of ‘sorry it has taken me so long to write another since the last one’ (February 2011, seeing as you ask) and leaving my one and only blog reader out there, untouched, in the wilderness for the best part of a year. But instead of bemoaning and apologising for my lack of website industry I would much prefer to celebrate the imminent arrival (on October 21^st this year) of a new book, the fourth in the River Greta Writer series of all things Lakeland and following on from ‘Ivver Sen’ (a reprint of that particular book being a distinct possibility in 2013), ‘Joss’ ‘Jack’s Yak’ and, now, wait for it . . . ‘The Greta.’

Yes, I have finally cut to the chase and put a name to the potential title of my next book. And it is, as you may already have guessed, a book about the River Greta at tropical Keswick. The river has flowed through this area from the time when glaciers shaped our land and created the Lake District, the most wonderful piece of self-contained scenery on Planet Earth.

I must admit to being currently a shade obsessive about this particular book. It is occupying most of my waking moments and plenty of those when I am under the sleepy influence of laudanum or, on a good day, a liberal dose of Kendal Black Drop; purely, of course, in the interests of getting a feel for one wild child S.T. Coleridge as he doped himself to oblivion – and beyond – while living at Greta Hall (hence connections with the River Greta that ran beneath the house’s windows and where a more sober, steadfast Southey sought inspiration on its banks and Coleridge"s daughter, Sara, who grew into an amazing woman, almost drowned as a two year old after falling in the river from a makeshift wooden bridge).

I’m only kidding (hallucinating) about my opium intake but, yes, Greta Hall and the Lake poets and their entourage who lived there do feature in a part of the book as do many aspects of the life of Keswick and area over the years that the river has flowed through the life of the town. In addition to the history boys, and I go back to the year dot, ‘The Greta’ embraces a rich variety of Greta-related subjects including the people who live and have lived and worked by the river, the characters / anglers who have fished it and poached it and also its wildlife, tributaries, bridges and much more besides.

This is a river that I have known all of my life and which has played a fantastic but possibly understated role (do we take it for granted?) in the life of the town over the centuries. It has also run through my life, just as surely as the blood in my veins.

The book is highly personalised because I spent my childhood at Low Briery, once a bobbin mill where my dad worked (now a caravan site) and where our terraced mill house was quite literally on the banks of the river. For many years I laboured under the misapprehension that I was, in fact, a fish. So it’s all very close and personal and, having lived in Keswick all my life, my appreciation of the river is right up there, irrespective of its at times destructive floods.

World famous photographer – well, okay, in the vicinity of Helton – Val Corbett is taking images of the Greta and its environs for the book, having produced immense work for all three previous RGW titles. Her work for ‘The Greta’, as ever, is exceptionally good and does not appear to have suffered one jot from a month or two spent languishing on the beach in Goa with her environmentally sound husband, Tony, alias ‘The Tone.’ On the subject of India Val writes: “India was brilliant. Though I have a phrase, ‘can"t decide whether it’s awfully wonderful or wonderfully awful’. The Himalayan walking, with our own two guides, own porters was possibly the best thing I"ve ever done. Lovely sunny days, frozen nights but hot water bottles and bed tea helped. We were the only people doing our trip in December, and saw no western faces or signs of Christmas for 12 days. Easy walking on tracks between the different villages where we stayed. Then Goa - Christmas on the beach. Relatively boring, I"m not good at being a sloth on a sun bed, however much I love the sun, but lots of lovely swimming and very good, very cheap food.”

Thanks Val.

Back here in cold Keswick where a swim in the River Greta at this time of year is not recommended (although Val does go in for wild swimming in tarns in the depth of winter!) . . . in writing a book I always set myself a deadline (must be the years of journalism in magazines and newspapers that conditioned me) and my self-imposed deadline for the ‘The Greta’ is Sunday evening, October 21, because that is the date when the book is launched on an unsuspecting world at The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.

Val and I will be giving an illustrated talk about the book in the Main House and the book launch will also coincide with the formal opening of an art and photographic exhibition, also entitled ‘The Greta’ which will be staged in the Circle Gallery at the theatre until November 26^th. The exhibition will feature Val’s photographic work for the book and also many other images and paintings of the river and its environs. So all in all it’s going to be quite a ‘do’ and to complete the event there will be a book signing (in close proximity to the bar) and, I hope, with assistance from the lovely people at Keswick bookshop Bookends.

The launch event is being held in association with Keswick Museum and Art Gallery and the people there (take a bow Tricia, Pat, Nicky, Audrey and Charlotte, the latter being the new curator) have been very helpful to me in providing a wealth of research material and also images from their extensive archive. Not to mention the tea and biscuits. Incidentally the museum and art gallery is going to be subject to a major improvement this Autumn.

In closing, where does the name Greta come from? There are a couple of theories, one (expounded by the Lakes poets) related to grief and lamenting and the making of much noise; it is, after all, a pleasingly loud river. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it: “Greta, or rather Grieta, is exactly the Cocytus of the Greeks  - the word literally rendered in modern English is ‘The Loud Lamenter’ – to Griet in the Cumbrian dialect signifying to roar aloud for grief or pain : and it does roar with a vengeance.”

There is a simpler definition – that it comes from the Old Norse ‘grjot a’ meaning rocky river.

So that’s ‘The Greta’. And at the time of writing this blog (how I hate that word) there was much still to research and write so I’d better get moving. The river waits for no man and, if you are not careful, there is eve ry chance that you may get swept along in its current; as I, undoubtedly, have done for the best part of a lifetime. 

I hope to see you on Sunday, October 21^st for a rendezvous with a river.

 Oh, and don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you feel moved to do so . . .

keithr@rivergretawriter.co.uk