Have seen our video taking you all around the Pewsey Vale or the one of 'The Blind Photographer', a poem written by Ewen Cameron (Lord Cameron of Dillington)? Both videos were narrated by a local Pewsey Vale resident, Andrew Rae, who also writes poetry and has had a career in acting. Andrew has now launched a collection of his own poems in a book called 'Transcendence', published by Austin Macauley Publishers.
The launch took place on 12th November at Wilcot and was very well attended. Andrew introduced us to his background and then performed some readings from the book which were really beautiful.
The poems try to catch those fleeting moments when one is aware of something extra beyond the simple impressions of the senses. They have their origin in solitary walks in the African Bush, full of dangerous animals and snakes. Near home, he found inspiration in the Scottish Highlands and here in Wiltshire. The book moves on to poems inspired by the magic of ancient church buildings, where people have brought their joys and sorrows over centuries, and then to meditation and prayer, and finally the sadness of lockdown.
Andrew was born in Birmingham during the Second World War, spending weekends at his grandparents' Staffordshire farm. His family moved to South Africa when he was 8 years old. Andrew studied at university in South Africa and then spent 10 years at Cambridge studying quantum physics and mathematics. He is now an Anglican, but when he was younger, he was greatly influenced by Zen Buddhism and Zen meditation.
Andrew has recently set up a charity, in memory of his father, supporting ecological education and research in South Africa - the John Rae Trust. The Trust owns the Buffelskloof Herbarium for the identification of plants. It also provides field station facilities and and access to the nature reserve to researchers and students of natural sciences. Some of the proceeds from book sales are going to the Trust.
You can buy Andrew's book from Amazon (as a book or a Kindle - please leave a review!) and from the White Horse Bookshop in Marlborough.