What lies ahead?

Our first Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday 26th January. We were delighted to welcome as our guest speaker Professor Kelvin Everest, one of the UK’s leading authorities on Shelley, and author of the recently published book., Keats and Shelley: Winds of Light. He delivered a fascinating insight into the international influence and relevance of Shelley, describing Shelley as a great lyric poet and the leading radical political thinker in English poetry; a combination which makes him a truly inspirational figure.

We were also thrilled to be joined by our project patron, Julian Sands, the well known actor and Shelley enthusiast.

At our meeting our Chair, David Hide, reviewed the successes of the last year, most noticeably the world’s first Shelleython and outlined our plans for 2022, the bi-centenary of Shelley's death.

We have an exciting and busy year ahead. We are planning a series of fundraising events to include: a gala dinner, an evening of radical poems, a poetry competition and a poetry-inspired quiz night. However, top billing goes to our patron, who has promised to bring his one person show, Keats, Shelley, Ghosts and Lovers, fresh from the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival, to Horsham, later this year.

If you would like to help us make the Shelley200 Festival a great success, email Shelleymemorialproject@btinternet.com. We would be delighted to hear from you, so please get in touch!

Donations to our project can be made via the link at the top of the page. If you know of a local business or organisation who might like to sponsor our festival or donate to the project , please get in touch.