JUMBLE SALE - There will be a jumble sale at Orcop Hall on Saturday. Doors open at 2pm. All donations of goods would be most welcome. There will also be a raffle, cake stall and refreshments.

Proceeds are in aid of Orcop Hall and Orcop church.

For more details, call Julia Garlick on 01981 580515.

FRANCES HOROVITZ - On October 5 a veritable galaxy of poets, writers and performers will gather at the Church of St John the Baptist in Orcop to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the poet Frances Horovitz, who is buried in the churchyard there.

Gillian Clarke, the National Poet of Wales, will be joined by the poet and writer David Constantine, whose Tea at the Midland and Other Stories has just won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, the ceramic artist and writer Edmund de Waal, whose account of his family’s extraordinary history, The Hare with Amber Eyes, became a bestseller, and Glenn Storhaug, the poet and founder of the Five Seasons Press, whose beautifully-designed books, published in Herefordshire, are collected worldwide. Frances’ son Adam Horovitz is following his first book of poems, Turning, with a book on the Slad Valley that mingles childhood memories of his mother with youthful encounters with Laurie Lee. He will read with his father Michael Horovitz, the poet and founder of New Departures and the Poetry Olympics. Frances’ Collected Poems was edited by her second husband, the poet and writer Roger Garfitt. It has just come out in a new edition that includes a CD of a reading Frances gave in 1982. Roger will perform her work with Sue Harris on the hammered dulcimer and Frances’ niece Zoe Smith, who is head of ensemble performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, will play Vaughan Williams’ Prelude founded on the Welsh Hymn tune Rhosymedre on the organ.

The celebration will begin at 3pm and tickets will be £10 at the door.

All proceeds will go the church and tea and cakes will be provided by the parishioners.

Frances’ distinctive headstone was a gift from the blacksmith Sim Lawrence. He chose a local stone, taken from below the waterfall at Rowlestone Mill, which Frances often used as a writing retreat, and set into it a wrought iron cross of his own making. Over the years the inscription has weathered and the celebration will mark the installation of a new tablet bearing the inscription, set below the headstone and carved by Carrie Horwood in Forest of Dean sandstone. The tablet is the gift of Frances’ sister Olive Smith and her husband Alan, with contributions from Roger Garfitt and Adam Horovitz.