What’s Happened
It’s been a huge year for Pens of the Earth with the publication, launch and promotion of our first book Wild Seas, Wilder Cities which is sold to raise money for the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in this!
Book Launches
In October 2024 we launched Wild Seas, Wilder Cities at Portsmouth Guildhall. You can read about it here, with thanks to Jackie Green who reported on it.
In April 2025 Medina Books, IOW, hosted a book launch for Wild Seas, Wilder Cities compered by island poet Maggie Sawkins. We’re grateful to the IOW Naked Figleaf Collective who collaborated with us for this event, reading stories and poems from our collection, to guest speakers from the Island Seagrass Project and Jamie Marsh, director of Nature Recovery for the Isle Of Wight and Hampshire, and to Paul Armfield of Medina. It was a truly wonderful and inspirational evening.
Articles
As well as a number of local articles and radio interviews (thanks to everyone involved!) in advance of last year’s launch, we have the following national publications:
- Collective Voices by Rachel Birchley and Helen Salsbury.
- Review of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities in The London Magazine by Judy Waite.
Events
Thank you to everyone who has sold copies of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities through personal connections and at events you have been involved with – from sailing club talks through literary, spoken word and Portsmouth BookFest events. Also, thanks to Portsmouth Authors Collective for hosting our book on your market stalls.
Here are a few highlights:
- Pre-Christmas book signings at The Bookshop, Lee on the Solent. With thanks to Sarah Burrows and all at The Bookshop for your warm and friendly hosting; and to Sue Spiers and Christine Lawrence for joining Helen and Richard at this event; and to Sue for gifting a pamphlet of her poetry to the first ten purchasers of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities.
- Portsmouth BookFest, thanks go to:
- Alison Habens & Sue Spiers for the poetry in the park workshop ‘Solent and other Oceans’. Brilliantly led by published poets Alison and Sue, there were readings from our anthology Wild Seas, Wilder Cities, and great interactive exercises and prompts, exploring specific poetic forms and words, leading to the creation of new poems from the participants.
- Richard Williams for donating the ticket money he received for his open mike event to our seagrass restoration total.
- FatFace foundation/HIWWT World Seagrass Day Celebrations:
- A delightful and informative celebration of restoration activities in the sea, and of rewilding activities on the land which are also helping our marine environments to recover by prevent harmful run-off farming chemicals into our rivers and seas.
- Defend and Defy event, organised by Artful Scribe, 28th May, Mayflower Studios:
- Here’s what Artful Scribe had to say about this event: “Thank you so much to a really special audience … gathered to honour some remarkable people and their stories relating to the Twyford Down protests in the early 1990’s. It was a privilege to welcome Helen Beynon and Emma Must, alongside commissioned writers, Sam Christie, Jeni Bell, Carolyn Emett, and, reading on behalf of Pens of the Earth, Richard Salsbury.”
- It was a truly inspirational event. The micro-commission fee of £50 for Pens involvement will be going to the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project. We also sold more books at the event and met with October Books (Southampton), who are interested in stocking Wild Seas, Wilder Cities.
- Some interesting connections were revealed: the Twyford Down protests played a vital and influential role in the environmental movement and their legacy includes the ‘Reclaim the Streets’ initiative, which influenced the foundation of Pens of the Earth’s and our ‘Streets for People’ stories. Liveable/wilder cities is a concept we have come back to several times over the years. It’s a truly exciting and heart-lifting one.
- Pens collaboration with Stow Stories:
- It has been a real privilege to be involved with this sister-project which celebrates and explores our connections to place, each other and history. Growing out of a campaign to protect a small field called ‘Tinkler’s Meadow’, this creative community project is a beautiful, joyous celebration in words and art of all that connects us. The book and video feature the storytelling paintings of Lois Cordelia and the voices of the many people involved with this project.
- Pens of the Earth are the acknowledged editors of this book – with thanks to Pens editors Sue Shipp and Helen Salsbury. Content from Judith’s writings for Wild Seas, Wilder Cities appears within the book, as does an image of our cover.
- More info and links to the book and video are available here.
- Greening Denmead family fun day:
- Thanks to Wild Seas, Wilder Cities illustrators Janet and Peter Brown, who had a constant stream of visitors eager to draw hedgehogs, seals, seahorses and wildflowers and benefit from their friendly and expert guidance. We sold another nine copies of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities and made some new friends!
Marketing
Thank you to Jane Andreoli for her wonderful marketing expertise and dedication. As well as crafting and sending approach and post-visit follow-up emails, Jane joined Helen Salsbury on several marketing trips, including Portsmouth, Emsworth, Winchester and Chichester.
Notable successes include: Winchester Cathedral and Portsmouth Museums (books on sale at Portsmouth Museum & Art Gallery, Southsea Castle, The Hard information point & Portsmouth Natural History Museum – Cumberland House) and P&G Wells bookshop in Winchester.
The full list of our sales outlets can be viewed on our book page.
Fundraising, Finances and Book Sales
In total we have raised £4,028.79 for the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project through book and litter art sales, event ticket sales and donations (includes donations from Bob and Doris are Not Afraid, Spring 2023). Thank you all! Monies are continuing to come in during the current tax year, so we expect to exceed this.
Thank you to Jane Andreoli whose litter art sales before, during and after our launch raised a significant amount. And to everyone else for your events, donations and help with sales!
The financial records for the year 5th April 2024 to 2025 were independently verified by Denise Baugh.
Current book stock (on 24th June 2025) is as follows:
- Total books printed: 550
- Books sold: 406
- Books gifted to reviewers/outlets/libraries: 5
- Books out on ‘sale or return’: 65
- Books which remain in stock: 74
What’s Coming Next
Planting Words
We are part of the team putting together the ‘Planting Words: Writing for Sustainability’ day, on 22nd July, at the Sustainability Centre, South Downs.
Pens performances:
- 1.30pm – 2.30pm: Wild Seas, Wilder Cities Performances
Plans for this event are going well and tickets will be on sale shortly. The day will include talks, performances, and two workshops: one from Denise Baden of Green Stories and one from Toby Litt on ‘Avoiding the Hero’s Journey: How to Put Community at the Heart of your Stories’. Green Stories will be announcing their forthcoming ‘flash fiction’ competition on the theme of ‘epiphanies’ with the opportunity to learn more on the day.
Ongoing Events
Wild Seas, Wilder Cities has been selected as one of a shortlist of local books being considered by reading groups, on 10th July at a ‘Reading Group Party’ at Central Library. The event, funded by Portsmouth Creates, gives the reading groups chance to browse these books. At the end of the evening one book will be chosen which the library will purchase as a ‘reading group set’.
Thanks to The Bookshop, Lee-on-Solent who have invited us to take part in the Lee Literary Festival on 9th August. And to PAC who have offered to host our books again this year.
Wilder Voices Project, starting Autumn 2025
Following a successful bid to Portsmouth Creates we have £3,000 of funding for a Wilder Voices project. Our bid for the project was based on involving the people of Portsmouth in order to satisfy Portsmouth Creates’ criteria.
Our stated objective is: Bring the words of Wild Seas, Wilder Cities alive through individual recorded voices. Includes free spoken word workshop(s) and guidance.
We are offering the opportunity of recording to:
- 24 workshop attendees. ‘Spoken word for recording’ workshops are free and open to anyone in Portsmouth wishing to participate. The workshops will be taught by Christine Lawrence, who will also be providing support at the recording studio.
- All WSWC authors and poets who want to read their own work (with support where needed).
- Experienced spoken word performers and actors (or those just starting out and looking for experience) willing to volunteer their time to fill in any gaps.
Our ultimate aim is to release a Wild Seas, Wilder Cities audiobook in 2026. However, our estimates suggest we may need a small amount of additional funding to complete this. We have funding for 5 recording days, and 2 post-production days (and are currently in negotiation with our chosen recording studio).
As with the book, all proceeds from the audio book sales will go to the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project.