Artist Julieann Worrall Hood and researcher Paul March-Russell will be discussing Paul’s research and his interest in Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker. They will also be discussing how Julieann will respond to the novel, with a Family Art Making Day in 2021, using found materials to create proposals for a new monument to Riddley Walker, set in the East Kent landscape.
Mini Sidebar
Post from category:
Thanks!
There is still the SaveAs Writers competition results tonight and Distance Drift: future archaeology walk tomorrow.

A big thanks from Andrew M. Butler, Feral Practice, Paul March-Russell and Sonia Overall to all our speakers and film makers for giving of their time so generously.
The readers’ response films can be found at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZppYa7puXqMCPK3X7g5MQ89ozc41OtD7.
***
Thanks to Canterbury Christ Church University — especially Simon Starr and Duncan McIver — and The University of Kent, The Russell Hoban Estate, The Arthur C. Clarke Award, The Science Fiction Foundation, The Canterbury Festival, Festival CHAT 2020, and the Beinecke Library, Yale University.
Keep checking here for future events — film screenings, walks and further talks. the Riddley Walker sculpture workshop has been postponed due to the second lockdown, but Paul March-Russell will be discussing the project and his research with Julieann Worrall Hood.
We can be contacted on sum.tyms.bit@gmail.com and welcome feedback.
- October, 24
- 250
- Events, get involved
- More
Film Screening: ‘Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit’
Thursday 15th October at 6pm, at Folkestone Harbour Station, on Platform 1
Feral Practice‘s film Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit is being screened as part of Folkestone Fringe’s socially-distanced launch for the second iteration of Festival of Looking on Thursday 15th October at 6pm, at Folkestone Harbour Station, on Platform 1.

This year, as we contend with unnerving and momentous changes happening across the world, we are asking ourselves many questions. During the period of lockdown, our homes and neighbourhoods have become our world and many people have suddenly developed a new relationship with their immediate surroundings. In What’s happening, exactly? we are exploring the state of the town today, from its rich material fabric to its vital but unsettled relationship with water, as well as addressing wider and critical issues occurring around the world such as Isolation and Racism.
Order of events
18:00 Arrive
18:10 Welcome by Diane Dever
18:20 Introduction to the Festival by Georgie Scott
18:30 Reading from ‘Rare Albion, Too – The Story of Folkstown’ by Christopher Houghton Budd
18:50 Film Screening ‘Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit’ by Feral Practice
19:10 Artist Q+A
19:30 Close
If you are unable to attend on Thursday because you are sheltering they will be live streaming the launch on their Facebook page ––>>
The full programme is here —>>
The talks and workshops, including Walk Write are online, and will be available on watch again on their Facebook page and the website.
They also have the MySquare town tour with a specially designed journal and creative pack for you to explore some what3words geo-located sites.
Any queries please email olivia@folkestonefringecom
Session One: Emily Guerry, The Legend of St Eustace
To request the link to view this event, please click here. This will be sent to you shortly before the Sum Poasyum. The full schedule can be found here.
SESSION ONE – 11am SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER 2020
11.00 Introduction and welcome
c.11.05 Emily Guerry, The Legend of St Eustace
An online talk on the legend of the saint featured in the Canterbury Cathedral mural that first inspired Russell Hoban to write Riddley Walker. Dr Emily Guerry is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval European History at the University of Kent.
- October, 12
- 420
- Events, Uncategorised
- More
Session Three: Discussion, Talk and Performance
Session Two: Animal Apocalypses: Dogs and other animals
The pandemic has meant that we are taking our day with Riddley Walker online – to request the link to view these events, please click here. This will be sent to you shortly before the Sum Poasyum. The full schedule can be found here
SESSION TWO – 12PM SATURDAY 24 OCTOBER 2020
Animal Apocalypses: Dogs and other animals
This panel, organised by the Kent Animal Humanities Network (University of Kent), explores the representation of dogs, and other forms of animality, with reference to Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker. It features short talks by three experts in animal studies, Prof. Karen Jones, Dr. Angelos Evangelou, and Prof. Charlotte Sleigh, followed by a discussion. It will be chaired by Dr. Kaori Nagai.
Prof. Karen Jones, “Dog Tales and the Apocalypse”
Dr. Angelos Evangelou, “Dogs and Border-Crossing”
Prof. Charlotte Sleigh: “‘It aint us but yet its in us’: Riddley Walker and the beast within”
Excited about all things animal, the Kent Animal Humanities Network is an interdisciplinary research network centred in the Schools of English and History at the University of Kent. Since their first conference ‘Cosmopolitan Animals’ in 2012, they have been working together to foster collaboration and exchange among animal studies scholars.
- October, 12
- 317
- Events, Uncategorised
- More
Distance Drift: future archaeology walk
Sunday 25th October 2020, 10am, Twitter
The pandemic has meant that we are taking our day with Riddley Walker online – to request the link to view the events on 24 October 2020, please click here. This will be sent to you shortly before the Sum Poasyum. Sunday’s event takes place on Twitter and wherever you are…
Distance Drift: future archaeology walk
Walk wherever you are, indoors or out, with fellow Riddley fans. Sum Tyms Bitin Sum Tyms Bit joins forces with Festival CHAT 2020, a celebration of contemporary and historical archaeology, to explore the here and now through the lens of Riddley’s world. Follow Sonia Overall @soniaoverall and #DistanceDrift on Twitter to receive playful prompts and connect with other walkers.
- October, 11
- 303
- Events, get involved
- More
Session Four: Dominic Power and Festival Read Book Club
The pandemic has meant that we are taking our day with Riddley Walker online – to request the link to view these events, please click here. This will be sent to you shortly before the Sum Poasyum. The full schedule can be found here
SESSION FOUR – 15.45 OCTOBER 2020
15.45 Dominic Power, interview with Paul March-Russell (30 mins)
Dominic Power writes for radio and the stage. His dramatization of Riddley Walker was transmitted on BBC Radio 4 in 1996 and, in a slightly longer version, on BBC Radio 3. Dominic was Associate Director and Text Editor for Bristol’s Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory theatre company, from 2001-2017, preparing performance editions throughout this period. Other works for theatre include Tales of the Undead (Hen and Chicken Theatre, Bristol/Croydon Warehouse Theatre 1991) and a new edition of Tartuffe, co-written with Andrew Hilton (The Tobacco Factory Theatre, Bristol 2017)
Dominic was head of Screen Arts at The National Film and Television School from 1999 until 2016 and was also co-editor of the journal The New Soundtrack (Edinburgh University Press).
c.16.15 Festival Read Book Club (30 mins)
With Dominic Power, Paul March-Russell, Sonia Overall and Peter Vujakovic.
How does Riddley Walker speak to us now? Join a panel of Riddley enthusiasts to discuss the novel’s continuing resonance and relevance. What does Riddley Walker tell us about East Kent, now and in the future? Bring your questions, responses and contributions to share in the panel chat space.
Riddley Walker is the Festival Read for 2020. Get your copy of the book at the special Festival Read price of £8 (RRP £10.99) from the Canterbury Christ Church University Bookshop, situated on the North Holmes Road campus.
Dr Paul March-Russell is Editor of Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction and the commissioning editor for SF Storyworlds and has been a judge for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Paul’s expertise in speculative fiction is combined with research in the role of storytelling and the poetics of landscape, ecocriticism and critical theory.
Dr Sonia Overall is a writer, psychogeographer and Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, where she runs the MA in Creative Writing. Her publications include the East Kent novel The Realm of Shells and the poetry collection The Art of Walking. Her book on psychogeographical pilgrimage Heavy Time, and walking-writing manual walk write (repeat), are due for publication in 2021. Sonia is the founder of the Women Who Walk network of walking artists and academics.
Dominic Power writes for radio and the stage. His dramatization of Riddley Walker was transmitted on BBC Radio 4 in 1996 and, in a slightly longer version, on BBC Radio 3.
Professor Peter Vujakovic is Emeritus Professor of Geography, with research interests in landscape, cultural geography, cartography, geopolitics, and biogeography at Canterbury Christ Church University. He conceived and developed the university’s ‘Bioversity Initiative’.
c.16.45 Sign-off and Thanks (5-10 mins)
***
These events are part of Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit – a programme of talks, creative responses and interventions inspired by Russell Hoban’s cult novel Riddley Walker, on the 40th anniversary of publication.
Riddley Walker, first published in 1980, is the Festival Read for 2020. Set in post-apocalyptic East Kent, written in a futuristic Kentish dialect, and with Canterbury at its heart, where better to host a celebration of Riddley Walker’s legacy?
Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit is a collaboration between Dr Andrew M. Butler, Dr Sonia Overall, Dr Paul March-Russell, and Feral Practice, with the support of Canterbury Christ Church University and The University of Kent. With thanks to The Russell Hoban Estate, The Arthur C. Clarke Award, The Science Fiction Foundation, The Canterbury Festival and Festival CHAT 2020. Russell Hoban’s illustrations are used with the kind permission of the Beinecke Library, Yale University.
- October, 11
- 368
- Events, get involved
- More
POSTApocalypse: SaveAs Writers competition longlists announced
This year’s SaveAs Writers International prose and poetry competitions took on a post-apocalyptic theme in honour of our Riddley Walker celebrations. Entries were received from around the globe, with longlisted writers from the UK, Ireland, Australia, France and the USA.
- October, 11
- 324
- Competitions, get involved
- More
Schedule — here click!
Sum Poasyum!
Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit was an online ‘sum poasyum’ or programme of talks, screenings and creative responses inspired by the novel, Riddley Walker, the 1980 cult novel by Russell Hoban.
The events took place on 24 October 2020. Recordings are now available.
- October, 7
- 1286
- Booking, Events, Films, Uncategorised
- More