Land Revisited – Poets and Photos

I wrote about photographer Fay Godwin recently: her exhibition of photographs at the National Media Museum in Bradford has much in common with the ideas about landscape Jacquetta Hawkes expressed in A Land and in poetry and film.  In today’s Guardian, Margaret Drabble writes about Godwin’s life, links with authors, and her concerns about the ways landscape is harmed and restricted.  The exhibition is up until 27 March so there is still plenty of time to catch up with it!  Entry is free.

Jacquetta and Bradford

The Jacquetta Hawkes Archive came to the University of Bradford in 2003, when we were delighted to add it to Special Collections.  Jacquetta Hawkes had an obvious connection with the city via her second husband, J.B. Priestley, who grew up in Bradford and used it as the inspiration for many of his finest novels and plays. This image shows her alongside Priestley’s son, Tom, unveiling a plaque at one of JBP’s childhood homes in Bradford, 34 Mannheim Road.

But the connection between her Archive and Bradford  goes beyond the simple fact of her marriage.  Priestley’s Archive was already the most important and best-used archive in Special Collections.  It soon became clear to us that the two archives slot together to illuminate each other: although the Priestleys maintained their separate careers, they co-wrote books, travelled and entertained together, and shared a secretary.  Jacquetta’s profession and interests also tie in with our research and teaching at Bradford.  She was an archaeologist by profession and passion, and championed social and political causes, particularly nuclear disarmament in the late 1950s, hence the cross-over with our Archaeology and Peace Studies departments.