The Eighth Edition of the Anthology is Published

The newly launched eighth edition of Anthology - the School’s annual collection of short stories and poetry, illustrated with pupils’ artwork - is like none of its predecessors. It was produced in Spring/Summer 2020 whilst King Edward’s School was in lockdown due to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. Pupils and staff were in isolation, urged to ‘Stay Home and Save Lives’, and so many of the activities and events that make up the rich and varied tapestry of King Edward’s School life were put on hold. 

But in this strange quarantine limbo, imagination and creativity flourished. Teachers devised new and creative ways to deliver remote lessons; pupils young and old found new ways to learn, and new ways to connect. And KES students also made use of the enforced quarantine to exercise their creativity in a myriad innovative ways – patchwork-quilt making, cake baking, bedroom decorating, computer building, pottery throwing, patio laying, paper marbling, flower pressing, tadpole rearing, jam making, cress growing, hair dying, fashion designing, You-tubing,  TikTok-ing,  engine tuning, song writing, landscape gardening, daydreaming … and writing, writing, writing!

Not just any writing either – our pupils in isolation have produced some of the most lyrical, heartfelt and thought-provoking prose and verse in the history of Anthology.  As our judge, the poet, author and celebrated journalist Imogen Russell Williams observed, ‘The environmental and political passion across the collection was hugely inspiring, as well as the deep-felt empathy for others.’ 

Imogen is no stranger to good writing; she reviews children’s fiction for The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and Metro and is regularly to be heard on Radio 4. She also works for the Andrew Nurnberg Literary Agency and reviews manuscripts for the Literary Consultancy, in addition to being a highly accomplished author in her own right. 

Her debut poetry anthology The Women Left Behind takes a collection of stranded women, drawn from mythology, drama, as well as adult and children’s fiction, and lends them voice.  There’s Dickens’ Louisa Gradgrind, Piggy’s Aunt from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the long-forgotten Rosaline from Romeo and Juliet and many more. Each speaks out of her own situation, some bemused and seemingly helpless, some distressed, some telling home truths and some with a wonderful sense of the absurd. Gloriously illustrated by Chris Riddell, this is a collection infused with tenderness, wit and rage; as Kate Wakeling observes: ‘with remarkable imagination, and compassion [Imogen] restores the silenced subjects of her poems with agency and dignity.’ 

The unique collection provided inspiration for the theme of our Poetry Competition - Unheard Voices - and the 2020  Short Story Competition - The Other Side of the Story. Both asked students to give voice to the voiceless, consider old stories from a new angles, to articulate the unspoken, give words to the unexpressed, to speak for those who are, as Imogen puts it, ‘Pinned in perpetual limbo like insects in amber, balked, denied or just fobbed off.’ 

Perhaps it was the extraordinary state of limbo in which the world found itself in 2020, or perhaps it was something in the theme that spoke to our pupils. Who knows? But certainly our young writers put pen to paper in unprecedented numbers, and with unprecedented levels of passion and urgency which positively spill off the page of this unique collection.

‘May you live in interesting times,’ is an oft-misused phrase which has come to take on particular resonance at the beginning of this new decade. Purported to be a curse of apocrphyal origin, it is underpinned by the assumption that it is preferable to live through ‘uninteresting times’ of stability and peace – and there are few who have lived through 2020 who would disagree. 

But perhaps living through extraordinary times does have some benefits. Thanks to the heroism and sacrifice of those who risked so much to keep us safe, lockdown afforded many of us time to reflect, time to reconnect, time to daydream, time to write and paint and draw and create. And flicking through the pages of the 2020 Anthology provides ample proof that interesting times produce beautiful, heartfelt, lyrical, impassioned, thought-provoking, gloriously interesting writing!  

Mrs Bruton, English & Drama Teacher.  Anthology Editor

Hot off the press, the latest Anthology is available to purchase at the cost of £5 via the School’s Gateway online payment system.