Hazel Press newsletter: Summer 2024
A tribute to Daphne Astor. New title published 1 August. See us at Primadonna festival
Goodbye Daphne
It’s with enormous sadness we bring you news that Daphne Astor, the founder of Hazel Press, has died. She had cancer.
Daphne was utterly dedicated to helping writers and poets create new work, guiding and inspiring them, often supporting them in their personal lives as well as their careers.
She was committed to finding ways of publishing books using more environmentally responsible and ethical processes. From the very beginning, all the Hazel books have been printed in the UK, on 100% recycled UK paper, using vegetable inks. Her continual questioning and research made Hazel the most environmentally aware publisher in the country.
Daphne’s legacy is one to honour and celebrate and Hazel Press is continuing as she wished. On 1 August we publish Greencombe, a poem sequence by Ella Duffy, and we are developing plans for next year, including a workshop week for new writers.
Greencombe: A poem in paths
On 1 August we publish Greencombe by Ella Duffy, a mediation on a woodland garden of mazy paths, tucked below the north slopes of Porlock Hill on Exmoor.
From November to February, the sun fails to reach over the hill and the garden waits in shadow. It faces the bay and a mercurial stretch of water described as a ‘sunless sea’ in Coleridge’s visionary poem ‘Kubla Khan’. In summer, the garden unfurls into an otherworldly sunny paradise.
Greencombe was developed by plantswoman Joan Loraine (1924–2016). When Joan arrived in 1966 there was only a thin layer of soil. Every autumn she gathered fallen leaves to make leaf mould, from which she made an enriching mulch to spread in the spring, a process that continues today.
The garden contains four National Plant Collections:
- Erythronium (small woodland and mountain lilies)
- Polystichum (the thumbs-up fern)
- Vaccinium (includes cranberry, blueberry and Exmoor’s whortleberry)
- Gaultheria (berries for bears)
Greencombe cover artist
Veteran 1960s' psychedelic artist and Devon farmer John Hurford has provided the images for the Greencombe cover from a triptych he painted of the plants in Greencombe Gardens. John made his name illustrating for Oz, Gandalf's Garden and International Times, as well as designing album covers. His work is crowded with highly detailed observations of the natural world.
Greencombe copies are available for pre-order here. (Orders will be posted after 1 August).
Greencombe and Hazel Press at Primadonna festival
We will be bringing advance copies of Greencombe to the UK’s best writing festival, Primadonna in Stowmarket next week (26-28th July).
Ella Duffy is appearing on a panel discussion ‘Writing the Climate Emergency’ alongside Sara Hudston from Hazel Press. Plus we will have a Hazel tent there all weekend. Drop in for discussions, readings and workshops.