Past Conferences: 2002

The Conference was held from Friday 16 August to Sunday 18 August 2002 at Millfield School.

Conference Report

Millfield is a modern co-educational boarding School which stands in 120 acres of delightfully wooded grounds on the edge of Street in Somerset. From the Conference room we could look out of the window and see a perfect view of Glastonbury Tor, on whose slopes there was an event on Saturday.

The Conference, marking as it did the thirtieth anniversary of the first Powys Society Conference in 1972, concentrated upon the works of John Cowper Powys and especially his masterpiece A Glastonbury Romance. Among the line-up of distinguished participants were the authors Margaret Drabble, Iain Sinclair, P.J. Kavanagh, Larry Mitchell , Colin Wilson and Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools who recently published a valuable review of JCP’s Maiden Castle.

Friday 16 August

Afternoon: arrival.
Informal Welcome Reception
Dinner
Welcoming speech by Chairman , Richard Perceval Graves
J. Lawrence Mitchell: ‘“And Death Shall Have no Dominion”: Theodore Powys and John Death’

Saturday 17 August

Breakfast
Colin Wilson: ‘To Live in Two Worlds’
Coffee
Iain Sinclair: ‘Powys, Place and the White Lines on the Hackney Marshes’
Lunch
Visit Glastonbury with readings on the Tor by Richard Perceval Graves
Dinner
Panel Discussion: ‘A Glastonbury Romance — its place in literature’ — Margaret Drabble, P.J. Kavanagh, Timothy Hyman (Chair)

Sunday 18 August

Breakfast
Chris Woodhead: ‘Wolf Solent: The Enduring Appeal’
Coffee
AGM
Members’ discussion: ‘Which Powys book should one read first?’
Lunch
2:30pm End of Conference