From Secrets Corner — An Evening with Dean Parkin

'Suffolk's Unofficial Poet Laureate' and Lowestoft's own Dean Parkin promises an entertaining evening of poems, stories, photos and film, all close to heart and home.

Reading from his new collection, 'From Secrets Corner', Dean celebrates local places and people from Carlton Colville, the village he grew up in, and Lowestoft where he worked and which he has written about extensively. Dean's hometown is the focus of history books co-written with Jack Rose in the 1990s, his sell-out touring theatre show, 'Pearls from The Grit' (2018-19), the recent and hugely popular video poems (including 'Spread a Little Kirkleyness'), and this year's 'High Street Histories' second series of picture podcasts with Ivan Bunn.

The evening will feature 'Jeremy Day', a poem/drama for three voices about the loss of a friend in childhood, when Dean will be joined by professional actors Sally-Ann Burnett and Hilary Greatorex. Plus a special screening of 'Little Cote' (2023), the short film Dean wrote and directed about the lives of Ronnie and Val Bennett on their Carlton Colville farm.

When I first heard Dean's poems I was hooked straight away. They epitomise life in Suffolk — past, present and future. Lesley Dolphin, long-time BBC Radio Suffolk presenter

'From Secrets Corner' by Dean Parkin (The Garlic Press, 2024), £12