One-man show based on 19th-century journalist's diaries
Slightly tangential to newspaper poetry -- although Anthony Hewitson (1836-1912), the subject of the show, did publish 1-2 poems every week in his paper, the Preston Chronicle. His diaries also record meeting an amateur poet, whose work he occasionally published.
I have been transcribing Hewitson's diaries with his great-great niece, Margaret Dickinson, with a view to publishing a scholarly edition. They are the only known diaries of a 19th-century provincial journalist, and are held by the Lancashire Archives.
Hewitson went from printing apprentice to reporter and then to editor and publisher of his own paper. He was a local correspondent for The Times and the Manchester Guardian, and was also a loving father and husband. Some of the most moving passages of the diaries concern his children.
A first performance was timed to coincide with the centenary of Hewitson's death on 26 October 1912. That one sold out, so we're doing it again on January 18. See some of the very positive audience comments here.
‘The Hewitson Diaries: A journalist’s life in Victorian Preston’
Friday 18 January 2013 at 7.30pm
Theatre 1, the Media Factory, University of Central Lancashire, Preston
The performance is followed by a Q&A with Andrew Hobbs and Margaret Dickinson.
Admission by ticket only (£10), from Preston Visitor Information Centre, Lancaster Rd, tel: 01772 253731.