A friend once asked me how I came up with ideas for my writing. I found it diffcult to answer as I had not considered why or how I thought of things to write as they just came to me, seemingly at random. Of course we are the product of all that we were when we were born and everything that has happened to us since. It isn’t only about being interested in the world, both big and small, but in storing away the incidental overheard conversations in the back of our minds then, without notice they come forward and there is the start of a poem or a story. I ended up by saying to my friend that if you are interestd in a subject then your enthusiasm will translate to the reader.
If we write for ourselves then perhaps all we may hope is that some others will join us on the journey.
Denny Bradbury
It is often when I am taking my regular walk with my faithful dog in the morning that inspiration comes to me in a flash. Yesterday I was wandering in a nearby field when I was aware of a body of swooping birds up and flying in reasonably tight formation. They were very low and I could almost feel the wind from their collective wings. But it was the sound they made that inspired me, it sounded like the soft rustle of silk. So taken was I by this image that I immediately went home and started a long rather rambling poem. Whether it ever sees the light of day is another matter, it depends how it evolves but whether it does or not I think the sound of those birds, flying, sweeping across the field, seemingly so united in their quest will stay with me for its beauty. At that moment I felt part of a much greater world than the merely human.
When I first thought of writing about Borvo he was going to be another in a list of short stories about the magic of water and how we often feel a deep need to be by it. Seaside, river, waterfall or lake all seem to offer a link to nature and inner calm, perhaps even a feeling of belonging to something greater than we will ever be able to express adequately. The young Borvo felt this and so when I began the process of writing his story he took over and in the end he led me on a journey that was greater than I first had in mind. I knew where he was going but for a while didn’t know how he was going to get there. The inspiration was enhanced by an early visit to Shaftesbury Abbey while I was a student as Bristol University. The place spoke to me and so, years later, when Borvo came to me it seemed natural to make it part of his story.
Ever since I was introduced to her writing I have been intrigued by Mother Julian’s life style as an anchorite and also by the wisdom within her texts. Her most famously quoted saying is of course, ‘All shall be well, all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well.’ That seems to me to be our modern interpretation on a more difficult theme. One translation gives a more subtle and consequently more difficult offering, she feels that god has told her, ‘I will make all things well, I shall make all things well, I may make all things well; and you shall see for yourself that all things shall be well.’ However we have to stretch for the deeper understanding I feel that there is an optimism in the whole passage that gives comfort through some darker times.
Denny Bradbury Books 