Christopher Hampton reviews Collected Poems 1967-2006 by Anne Beresford Katabasis (London). 2006. £14.95. pbk. 350 pages. ISBN 0904872424 reviews When my friend Gerard Benson, a Quaker, agreed to accompany me on the Bradford Peace Trail, I believed it would be a journey of discovery and so it proved.
Bradford was declared a City of Peace in 1997, on the occasion of the Hindu Marathon, an International Peace Run, which has inspired more than 700 peace sites around the world. In Centenary Square a plaque reminds us of the 108,000 people killed by the dropping of bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the many thousands who died later of radiation sickness. Such devastation, unparalleled in human history, ought to be a warning to all of us, as our government considers replacing Trident. In the Memorial Gardens there’s a dedication to those soldiers from Bradford who served in the first World War, and nearby, fresh flowers had been laid in memory of PC Sharon Beshenivsky, a recent victim of gun crime in the city.
Another plaque remembers the victims of the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984 when thousands of people died from contamination by poisonous gas and many thousands more remain seriously sick. In the City Garden, a fountain is surrounded by an enchanting mosaic made from pebbles, forming fish, dolphins and other sea creatures.
It was raining hard, so we stopped at the Mechanics’ Institute Library for shelter and a warming cup of coffee.
This gave me the chance to read a collection of newspaper cuttings which charts the work of Florence White, an early feminist. Ms White set up and campaigned tirelessly for the National Spinster’s Pension Association. By 1936 she had travelled over 40,000 miles in aid of her cause and in 1939 she presented an umbrella to Neville Chamberlain (perhaps in expectation of a visit by him to Bradford?). In 1942, Florence White campaigned for housing for women widowed by the war.
Leaving the library and out in the rain once more, we found a plaque dedicated to John Nelson, stone-mason and Methodist, who, in 1744 had been locked in a dungeon for preaching his beliefs. Such is the march of time, this site is now occupied by a shop offering ‘Tattoos and Body Piercing’.
The Peace Museum was not open that day, but at the District Council Office we met the Museum’s curator, who told us about its outreach work and travelling exhibitions.
These include, ‘My Country is The Whole World,’ by women peacemakers, ‘Champions of Peace,’ about the Nobel Peace Prize, and a history of twentieth century Peace Movements, ‘A Vision Shared.’ Negotiations are underway for the establishment of a Peace Museum in Leeds which would amalgamate the collections of the Bradford Peace Museum and the Leeds Armoury. An interesting concept.
Outside Bradford University, I was bowled over by a stunning sculpture, ‘Reconciliation.’ Writing of the work, its maker, Josephina de Vasconcellos, said it was conceived in the aftermath of War and depicts a woman and man reunited, and also the reconciliation of fighting nations. Another sculpture, by Chris Hoggart, housed in the J.B.Priestley Library, has the word ‘Peace’ inscribed on its base in 53 languages, and is dedicated to his brother, David Hoggart, founder of the Commonweal Library. This library was established in 1975 as a resource for the newly created School of Peace Studies, and it is also open to the public. Here, we saw two of the original designs for the famous symbol of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND. It was moving to find some of the present generation of students, studying, seated in armchairs below these historic images. The library is an inspiration. On its reassuringly solid wooden shelves is a collection of books by the world’s greatest thinkers, pacifists and historians. (I counted over ninety volumes in the collected works of Gandhi). We have to believe that a significant number of students who have worked in such an environment will go out into the world to become our peacemakers of the future. I left Bradford knowing that, in following the tracks of so many people who believe, passionately, that peace and human harmony will one day be achieved, I had made a momentous journey.
On her trip Cicely Herbert took the photograph for the back cover image for this issue of Sofia. It is a detail from a banner created by women of BIASAN (Bradford Immigration and Asylum Support and Advice Network).
Each woman used her own handprint.
Cicely Herbert is one of the trio who founded and continue to run Poems on the Underground. Her poetry collection In Hospital, together with theVictorian poetW.E.Henley,was published by Katabasis in 1992.
On her trip Cicely Herbert took the photograph for the back cover image for this issue of Sofia. It is a detail from a banner created by women of BIASAN (Bradford Immigration and Asylum Support and Advice Network).