News Archive

Evening of Events Marking Stan Barstow’s Life and Work

 Public Screening of ’A Kind of Loving’  followed by a book-signing and
informal Q & A session with writer Stan Barstow

 Saturday the 21 June from 7.30 pm
Pontardawe Arts Centre
 £5 full and £3 concessionary rate

Pontardawe Arts Centre and Academi will host an evening of events on 21 June, 2008 celebrating new Academi Fellow Stan Barstow’s 80th birthday. This programme will be open to the public and all are welcome.

Fiction writer, dramatist and recent Welsh BATFA winner Stan Barstow changed the face of British fiction with his groundbreaking novel A Kind of Loving (Michael Joseph, 1960). Considered by many to be one of the pioneers of the 1960s school of northern English literary realism, Stan moved to south Wales from Yorkshire later in his career. His work has been National Curriculum set-texts for decades and A Kind of Loving (Michael Joseph, 1960) was adapted for film in 1962. Another novel Joby (Michael Joseph, 1964) was televised by Yorkshire Television in 1975. Stan has published eleven novels, three books of short stories, numerous television scripts and material for the theatre and radio.

Scheduled for the evening of Saturday 21 June 2008, the programme will commence at 7.30 with an introduction by Stan himself. Representing Academi, the national agency for the promotion of literature in Wales, Peter Finch and Ifor Thomas will formally mark Stan’s recent acceptance of Academi Fellowship. The 1962 motion picture of A Kind of Loving, directed by John Schlesinger, will then be screened in Pontardawe Art Centre’s auditorium. After the screening Stan will be available to answer questions and sign personal copies of his books. 

Tickets should be purchased prior to the evening from the Pontardawe Arts Centre Box Office. The cost for entry is £5 full and £3 concessionary rate. Film Club members can attend free of charge. Please telephone 01792 863722 and press option 1. The Box Office is open from 12 noon - 8pm Monday to Fridays, and from 2pm - 8pm on Saturdays.

For further information on the programme of events, please visit the Pontardawe Arts Centre website at www.npt.gov.uk/theatres. If you have any specific queries about the evening, please contact Angie Dickinson, Manager on 01792 863722 (press option 4) or Bronwen Price by email at bronwen@academi.org.  

To visit the listing on the events pages of the Academi website please click here. To read more about Stan Barstow please click here.

Their regular cinema showings provide the opportunity to enjoy the latest blockbusters as well as the less mainstream art house movies provided by thier residential film society.

Pontardawe Arts Centre is in receipt of core funding from the Arts Council of Wales to support the artistic programme.