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.
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Category: get involved
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.
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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.
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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Call for responses: how Riddley Walker speaks to you
Riddley Walker was first published in 1980. Forty years on, we celebrate the legacy of this cult novel and consider how it continues to speak to and resonate with us.
Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit is a collaborative project of talks, screenings and creative responses to the novel. The project will host an online ‘sum poasyum’ on 24th October 2020. We invite interested participants to share their thoughts about the book in the form of a short audio or video recording, to be featured on the project website for public access and highlighted in the programme.
Responses can be a consideration of how reading Riddley Walker has influenced your creative or academic practice, how it has affected your way of seeing or understanding the world, or a personal reflection on your experience of reading and rereading the book.
Please submit your response in the following form:
- An audio recording of up to 5 minutes in a single mp3 file, maximum 5MB, OR
- A video recording of up to 5 minutes in a single mp4 file, maximum 50MB
- An accompanying image if you wish (of yourself, your copy of the book or a scene or object that evokes your relationship to the book) as a single jpeg file, maximum 5MB (ideal size 20488 pixels horizontal x 5000 pixels vertical)
- Your name, title, institutional affiliation where relevant, and one social media account that you would like included with your response. These should be submitted as you wish them to appear on the website. Please include this information with your files.
Please use WeTransfer to submit your audio file and image to andrewmbutler42@gmail.com by 30th September 2020
Sum Tyms Bytin Sum Tyms Bit is a collaborative project created by Canterbury Christ Church University, The University of Kent and Feral Practice, in association with The Canterbury Festival: visit https://blogs.canterbury.ac.uk/sumtymsbit to find out more.
For any queries about this project, please contact sonia.overall@canterbury.ac.uk.
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