#peter coyte

"Mrs Death Misses Death is a rousing call to arms, and a celebration of loving this life and our short time here . . . Because we all know a lot of dead people now."

Mrs Death Misses Death is a new fiction and poetry by Salena Godden with songs and soundtrack by composer and musician Peter Coyte - Live on stage together, this work has been shared only twice, at sold-out shows at the Last Word Festival, Roundhouse and Blah's Big Weekend at the Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol. This autumn 2018 we see more from this new project at The Cheltenham Literary Festival, this Friday 12th October, #cheltlitfest

*** Earlier this year in April 2018, I was invited by Neu Reekie to stay in Bill Drummond's Curfew Tower, Cushendall, Co. Antrim, Ireland, to spend the month working on a first draft of this book. This was where the last chapters were written, walking along those dramatic rugged cliffs with Mrs Death whispering into my ear, overlooking the green Irish sea. This book has been composed on the lips - written as spoken - with the use of sound recordings to trigger the writing.

The BBC have been following this work-in-progress throughout 2018. The documentary about Mrs Death is scheduled for broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on December 2nd 2018.

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"The traditional death figure as a homeless, broken old black woman is surprisingly and refreshingly revolutionary. The trip-hoppy tones of Mrs Death Misses Death ... lush and haunting." For Books' Sake

"Macabre, mesmerising and deeply moving. Another tour de force from the pen of Salena Godden. Mrs Death Misses Death is a must for those of us that know a lot of dead people now." Oliva Spleen

"I found it moving, funny and deeply refreshing. And you will too!" John Nicholson, director, Peepolykus

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Read more about this work so far at Waiting For Godden: http://www.salenagodden.co.uk/…/special-autumn-shows-mrs-de…

Special live performance: Friday October 12th, 9pm Cheltenham Festivals - Booking essential!   https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/…/salena-godden-mrs-de…/

Archive clip:

short clip from the 'Seaside On The Rocks' documentary, authored and presented by Salena Godden for Channel 4 TV (2004) - it was part of the 'Made In Britain' series.

The music is by SaltPeter, Peter Coyte and Salena Godden's band. 'Seaside On The Rocks' explored the deterioration of Hastings and the decline of the British seaside town, particularly South East coastal towns. In a way this was the beginning of the research for this book, in many ways this was the beginning of wanting to tell this beautiful story my own way...

Automatic Writing Circle is designed to explore the almost biological aspects of primitive music making, based on the notion of music as sonic communication. The techniques of Ecosonic improvisations involve relationships between people, sound, movement and emotion. The performers draw on the intense expressivity that lies at the heart of emotional vocal utterance. The immediacy of the body defines player-instrument relationship and methods of sound production, while minimizing cognitive mediation of culturally acquired musical imperatives.

Sea Point Days  : Documentary Directed by Francois Verster, South Africa

"the film deals partly with racial, social, religious and power relations, identity and perceptions in the not-so-new South Africa as experienced or displayed in a transformed public space. It  looks at how these are experienced and negotiated by a white person like myself – or, significantly, the elderly white inhabitants of the area. Over the production period, it became very clear that the film would look not only at the rising black South African middle class (and at the possibility of a multiracial society) but also at how white people are negotiating feelings of responsibility and guilt about past and present, and how they are conceiving their own future in the country."