Steve Tavare: It started with Mrs Dalloway

Steve Tavare, a regular participant, reflects on our Literature Study Days.

In September 2017 I signed up for a study day on Mrs Dalloway run by Literature Cambridge at Stapleford Granary. Since my late teens and early twenties, a working lifetime away, I had read very few of the classics of English literature. Not only was I looking for a new challenge but I also wanted to find and develop a love of literature from the past. It was while reading Mrs Dalloway for the third time, during the weeks before the course, that I started to understand the novel and its context and, to my surprise, at times to feel a sense of exhilaration in response to its language. If the course hadn't been looming, I know I would have given up long before.

So with some trepidation, I went along to the Study Day and it could not have gone better. The lectures and seminar were wide-ranging; they without doubt enhanced my own appreciation of the book and moreover gave me a clearer insight into Virginia Woolf's remarkable achievement.

Since then, I have attended all but one of Literature Cambridge's study days. For the first time in my life I have started to get the hang of Shakespeare and now delight in reading the plays. The Study Days on King Lear, Macbeth and Hamlet relied for their success on Shakespeare specialists who are very good at communicating with an audience whose familiarity with Shakespeare's works can be very varied.

The lecturers are there to give advice, too. I asked Alison Hennegan about the way to read The Waves, perhaps Virginia Woolf's most complex book. She replied that I should read aloud to myself with emphasis. Simple but excellent advice.

And I shouldn't forget to say that poetry is very much part of what Literature Cambridge has to offer. This has included on different occasions: an introduction to poetry, nature poetry, and war poetry. Ewan Jones's reading of the long poem, Maud, was a highlight of the Tennyson Study Day.

In January 2020 we studied Toni Morrison's powerful novel, Beloved. My preparation beforehand was helped greatly by listening to the audiobook read by Toni Morrison herself. The lectures and discussions were fascinating. Part of the pleasure of such an event is to meet with fellow enthusiasts.

So, finally, thanks to Trudi Tate for organising such a varied programme and for igniting my own enthusiasm for the classics of novels, drama and poetry.

Steve Tavare

Note: We now offer these study days, as well as a large variety of courses and seasons of lectures, live online via Zoom.