Life in a beautiful Banburyshire village captured in poetry and illustrations

Life in a beautiful Banburyshire village has been captured by a poet - and a local artist.

In June 2019, poet Heather Wastie arrived with notebook and pen in Cropredy.

She chatted to people in the pubs, the churchyard and the street, at the summer fête and the short mat bowls club, wrote about skeletons, quirky street names, the re-enactment of the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, the Oxford Canal, love - and, of course, the annual Fairport Convention music festival.

She came across Louise Regan’s art and said she was 'immediately attracted to it'.

Together they created an illustrated poetry collection about life in the village in a book titled, To the Future, Love Cropredy.

Louise Regan has called Cropredy home for nearly two decades now.

“Producing the illustrations for this book has been a joy,” she said.

“I hope, in my drawings, I have captured the essence of our lovely little Oxfordshire village which is so welcoming and brimming with life.”

Louise says her favourite poem to illustrate was Skeletons in the Garden, Calverton House, adding: “It’s a humorous tale so I didn’t want to make the skeletons look too macabre.”

She also particularly enjoyed drawing the view from her boat to go alongside Heather’s poem about the Oxford Canal.

Heather said: “I’m so grateful to the residents of Cropredy for giving me such a warm welcome and to Louise for agreeing to illustrate my poems.

"As a special thank you, we produced a limited edition especially for Cropredy residents.

We launched it with a small local event in August on the weekend when the Fairport Festival would normally have taken place.”

The limited edition copies are almost sold out now but they can still be found in the shop and, once they are open, the Mulberry Café and Church Lane Gallery in Banbury.

The official first edition, published by Lapal Publications, is available now from http://www.lapalpublications.co.ukLouise and Heather made a film to go with the book which is available to watch here - https://youtu.be/Aaf0uEx1mgs