Virginia Betts is a tutor, writer, poet, and actor from Suffolk. An eternal optimist and mid-life- creative-advocate, she’d like to point out that it’s never too late to live the dream. And with her next blog for you, some ink to inspire and ignite your creative fire.
What better way to banish the winter blues than getting right away from it all. That was the plan anyway. For Christmas, I’d given my husband the gift of time: two nights away with his lovely wife in a ‘Hobbit Hut’, at Oak Tree Escapes, in the middle of nowhere. (well, behind Eye Airfield Industrial Estate in Brome at any rate). The house was bulging at the seams with ‘stuff’, so this seemed the perfect gift to me, for a writer reaching busy burnout, and an overworked member of the NHS. It was a chance to go off-grid and reboot for the new year.
I’d ended the year on a bit of a creative high, involved in many projects. I’ve been attending the Creative INK forum once a month, with a bunch of incredible playwrights, developing short pieces of work for stage, radio or screen. It gave us a chance to share our work and see it performed, then re-draft and develop it. This was run by Ann and Rob Bryson, affiliated with Suffolk’s INK Festival, and supported by The University of Suffolk and Katie Ward, who runs The Wolsey Writers. What an amazing opportunity this has been to socialise with an eclectic and talented group of like-minded people. It is at this point I am going to take a sharp swerve in my story to mention an elephant in the room – Suffolk County Council’s proposed enormous cuts to local arts funding – and urge you to consider joining in with the many protests and petitions against this. Groups like INK, giving local people opportunities to meet and create; your local theatres and festivals; community projects and arts funded charities may be lost to us if we don’t raise our collective local voices! Take a look at how the arts affect your life and your town. You may be surprised. The cuts could be devastating to Suffolk’s thriving and influential arts scene but also to wider communities. Point made.
Local politics and soapbox aside, the end of the year looked good for my family and me, albeit exhausting. My second poetry collection, That Little Voice, is with the publisher as I write, the illustrations are done by the fabulous Lyn Stuart, and I’d started the New Year with an energetic interview on Rob Jelly’s BBC Upload show. I’d been published in the first anthology by The Suffolk Writer’s Group, A Tapestry of Poetry and I’ve become a contributor to the new Urban Pigs Press, whose first Charity Anthology Hunger will aid Suffolk based Families in Need (FIND). As well as that, I’d been involved in the Thomas Wolsey 550 celebrations in Suzanne Hawkes’ Thomas Wolsey: the Rise and Fall (Black and White Productions, contributing to a one-act play, and full-time tutoring. Despite the creative buzz, it had been a busy, and sometimes tough end to the year in other ways: full on medical training and work for my husband and at one point two new graduates in the house, wading through the post-ceremony mist, searching, a little deflated, for the perfect career. And we’d lost some important friends and family members in 2023. We all needed a rest.
We arrived at the glamp-site at 3pm on a Friday, before it was too cold and were welcomed by a homely pink-lit hut (‘think of it as a wooden tent’, says the literature), a bottle of bubbly and two fluffy robes for the hot tub. It would have been pricey were it not for the Wowcher deal, I’d spotted, but it definitely looked like the right decision. The cork had been popped and the hot tub was occupied by 5pm, and to follow, a fire pit and a portable BBQ were lit. It was time to unwind. Now, I have to say, I was impressed with the site’s ambience, all isolation and twinkling fairy-lights, but I did not bargain on the cold being quite so extreme. We did bring our own duvet as well as theirs and there was also a blanket and a tiny heater in the hut. But all I can say is if you camp in January bring two duvets! I purchased what I believe is called a Snoodie, (a cross between a blanket and a hoodie) and I was so glad I did! A perilous trip to the loo made for some great Captain Oates style ‘I may be some time’ comments… But we survived the night and the next day we went to explore the small town of Eye, where a previously undiscovered café, Caféye yielded an excellent breakfast. What a find!
I was right that getting away from it all does bring back some creative energy. I’d become very fired up by a short story I wrote for the Urban Pigs, called Dead Swan. A piece of Urban Grit, it had taken a departure from my usual gothic style and delivered some hard- hitting reality. That afternoon, wrapped in a blanket and fuelled by the firepit (and a little wine), I scrawled a bit more in the notebook I’d brought with me, and it began to take shape from one story into what will soon be my fourth book. Unfortunately, relaxing after being so wound into the everyday hustle of life has the unfortunate side-effect of suddenly inducing sleep. But at least I wrote something. I also read a lot – as Facilitator of the David Lloyd Book Club in Ipswich, two reads I’d point you too are Really Good, actually by Monica Heisey and The House in the Pines, an excellent and spooky debut by Ana Reyes.
Another couple joined the site on the second night, and we had some fun chatting around the fire and in the tub until the small hours. The get-away delivered exactly what it said on the tin, and if you are a recently turned 40 or 50 something busy person who just needs to slow down and catch your breath, I’d recommend it.
But it all went wrong on the Sunday. I woke up thinking I may have a slight hangover from the hedonistic weekend of allowing myself to do nothing guilt-free, and the heady scent of wine – and the chemicals in the steaming tub (which did warn of the possibility of dying your hair green!) But by the time I got home, I realised I was suffering from full-on ‘flu. I’m a firm believer you don’t ‘catch’ cold, so I may have had it coming on anyway, but I am sure wandering around in a swimsuit at midnight in minus 3 did not help…
However, I am here to tell you that you can be optimistic about nearly any situation. Obviously, I did need a rest. So, I allowed myself to give into being unwell. As I recovered over the next ten days, I used the bed-ridden opportunity to carry on with my book. I wrote over 30,000 words and so Burnt Lungs and Bitter Sweets, a dark and humorous tale of a gang of slightly shady Punks from 1977 to the present is well underway. There will be another supernatural collection coming mid-year too, but the characters of Burnt Lungs have leaped on to the page and I, and my test readers, are horrified and delighted in equal measure at their dreadful exploits.
But what words of wisdom can I impart for the month? Well, the experience of getting away reminded me of one of the first poems I ever read, picked at random from my grandmother’s bookshelf at the age of 4. It began, ‘What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stop and stare?’ and that is so true – now more than ever when we are glued to tech, do we need the time to pause and take in life before it flashes by. And in doing so, you can re-connect with people around you as well as maybe discovering your own creative talents. Just remember to take two blankets.
NEXT MONTH: A visit to London to see The Motive and the Cue, (with Mark Gatiss as Sir John Gielgud and Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton, directed by Sam Mendes), The Dial Lane Book Club read, and a detoxing ‘Dry February’ for a good cause.
Books for a great read this month: The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes (excellent supernatural and mystery beautifully written); Really good, actually, by Monica Heisey (a fictional thirty-something divorced woman’s no-holds barred stream of consciousness); Steve Jones’ autobiography, A Lonely Boy (what it was like to be a Sex Pistol – read if you dare!) In Search of Lost Glitter by Suffolk Writer, Sarah Nicholson (a gentle, exquisitely written account of her life after the loss of her husband, told in many stories, with wit and honesty) Parochial Pigs by Suffolk Writer James Jenkins (A tarantino-esque journey through violent gangland with a big helping of dark humour – on the Dial Lane Book Club read for February), Arcanum Fabulas by Bam Barrow (an impressive debut collection of strange and dark tales combining urban grit with the poetry of the Gothic) A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (four friends in the grip of success, addiction , wealth and pride – next on my list) See my website for full reviews of great books.
Love,
Virginia
Virginia has written numerous articles and fiction, as well as two books, The Camera Obscure and Tourist to the Sun, with a third and fourth coming soon.
Feel free to contact Virginia if you have a great creative suggestion, venue or activity!