Train operator, Northern has linked up with Manchester Literature Festival in an exciting partnership which celebrates the literary heritage of the north.
Award-winning poet Helen Mort has written a poem inspired by a journey along the Manchester Victoria to Hebden Bridge line.
The event was showcased earlier this month at a launch event on a Northern train in which Helen read the sections which showcased Victoria, Moston,Mills Hill, Castelton,Rochdale, Smithy Bridge, Littleborough,Wallsden, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge.
;
Of Moston she writes,
Dear Cottonopolis, dear town
of moss and bog. I like your empty
benches and your bramble-twine. I like
your leaves of peeling paint. You look
like the teacher I never had –
flint eyes, cloud-coloured hair.
Stay with me, Moston. Tell me
something I don’t know.
Cathy Bolton from Manchester Literature Festival said:
“Now in its 13th year, MLF brings the world’s leading authors to Manchester, providing an opportunity for people to meet their literary heroes and discover new ones. With many of our guests travelling to events by rail we are delighted to be working with Northern on this exciting project, celebrating the landscapes of Manchester and the Calder Valley which have inspired an array of world re-known writers from Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Burgess to Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, and continue to shape some of our most promising writers of today.”
