SHEEPY TALES

The book 'Sheepy Tales' by Barbara Hind has just been published. The book has been funded by the Arts Council and costs £10.00 plus £2.50 P&P UK mainland. Contact details for orders: barbara_hind@hotmail.com

©Barbara Hind

Barbara Hind has been sponsored by the Arts Council, New Perspectives, Hinckley Borough Council and the Sheepy and District Community Arts Group to capture in words and pictures the essence of rural life in the 5 villages of The Sheepy Group. She has photographed many local people, both younger and older and interviewed them to distill their memories and also to paint a picture of life in the villages in the early 21st Century.

Book Launch

Sheepy Tales, the new book of colour photographs bringing to life the people and places of Sheepy Magna, Twycross, Sibson, Ratcliffe Culey and Orton-on-the-Hill is being launched at Ratcliffe Culey Church on Friday 24 June from 7.00pm onwards.

Sheepy Tales follows on from the photographic exhibition by international photographer Barbara Hind which was on view last autumn in Ratcliffe and Orton Churches before going on to major venues in Hinckley. The photographs are accompanied by fascinating personal reflections of local people talking about the villages past and present.

Sheepy Tales is selling at £10 per copy and books will also be available after the launch from Annette Reed on 01827 881082 and Rita Poulson on 01827 880203.

Quotes

“Sheepy Tales is neither sentimental nor ideological. It is a record of rural change, but not one that romanticises the past in favour of the present, of one small part of Leicestershire, unique to, and representative only of, itself.

Whether they are old or young or neither, whether their whole lives have been defined by this place or it has only recently begun to influence how they see themselves, the people who speak through these pages are never less than themselves. And so the stories they choose to tell are complex, actual and, often, ambivalent. Those who walk in them are real. They speak Esperanto, sing music hall, breed chimpanzees and dig mines, as well as having the more expected occupations of English villagers. The past is not distant here, even when those who people it – monks and farmers and squires – are known only through tales handed down.” François Matarasso

“This book is the result of a true collaboration between an artist and a community. The photographer Barbara Hind, Annette Reid the Vicar of the Sheepy group of Churches and the local community have worked together to create a book that reflects the past, present and looks to the future of rural life in this part of Leicestershire.” Jan Overfield

Barbara Hind

About Barbara Hind: Barbara is a visiting lecturer in the UK and abroad and is attached to the Department of Anthropology at the National University of Mongolia. Her work has been shown at many venues including the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and The Walk Gallery in London with British artist Richard Long.

During the last three years she has exhibited in Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, India, Germany and the UK. Commissions include the Grand National Panel at the Museum of Liverpool Life, and the Bhuddist banner for the Multi-faith Centre, University of Derby.

Her work is held in many international private and national collections. She has published three books of photographs: "Going Home: continuity and change in modern Mongolia", "Nottinghamshire Mounted Police" and "Touching Lives" - a sensitive portrayal of a hospice in India.

Last updated: 17/6/05
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