Add MS 88998/2/74

32 communications from Chris Torrance.

• (1). [Pontneathvaughan], 11 July 2005 (postmark). Autograph letter (1 sheet), with envelope.
• (2). [Pontneathvaughan], 13 September 2005. Autograph folding card, with envelope.
• (3). [Pontneathvaughan], 16 November 2005 (postmark). Autograph letter (2 sheets), with envelope. Torrance is writing 'Rori' - 'my surf goth fantasy centred on Vaynor Church'.
• (4). [Pontneathvaughan], 11 January 2006 (postmark). Autograph letter (4 sheets), with envelope.
• (5). [Pontneathvaughan], 15 February 2006 (postmark). Autograph letter (3 sheets), with envelope.
• (6). [Pontneathvaughan], 1 April 2006 (postmark). Autograph folding card, with envelope.
• (7). [Pontneathvaughan], 'Mayday 2006'. Autograph letter (2 sheets).
• (8). [Pontneathvaughan], 'Midsummer' [2006 - year added by Harwood in pencil]. Autograph letter (2 sheets). 'Richard Downing is co-ordinating a 60s memory jolt about the Carshalton years so I've been working that territory. Then I have to move on to finalising a TMD [The Magic Door] volume called PATH, representing about a decade's worth of work.'
• (9). [Pontneathvaughan], 12 August 2006 (postmark). Autograph folding card, with envelope. 'Richard Downing visiting in September... /& Will Rowe has been in touch - finalising his book on us ... who will read it, I wonder.'
• (10). [Pontneathvaughan], 26 October 2006 (postmark). Autograph folding card, with envelope. 'I read the last section of my extravaganza 'Rori' to Jeremy & Kim when they visited ... the ending is still disappointing. Monsoon has driven me back to type[write]r: have accumulated 100pp of nearly book-ready material. Editing stuff down.'
• (11). [Pontneathvaughan], 25 January 2007. Autograph letter (1 sheet), with envelope. Date indicated on the second page of the letter, suggesting letter commenced on 24 January (or earlier). 'Just recently I've been writing stuff for a Carshalton Chapter newsletter run by Richard Downing - very short stories, & some other stuff - & I made a 2007 NY res. to work on short prose this year & just let poems arrive if they wish to do so, rather than striving to do something new all the time.'
• (12). Pontneathvaughan, 16 May 2007. Typed letter (2 sheets). Letter originally enclosing (not present) two short prose pieces ('On My Bike' and 'Fame'). Letter refers to an event at The Noah's Ark, Norbury, described by Michael Moorcock in Iain Sinclair (ed.), London: City of Disappearances (2006), p. 376, describing the launch of a mimeographed collection by Torrance, Diary of an Assassin, attended by Harwood. 'I have to say, I cannot find a firm memory of this event, & neither can Bill [Wyatt], who remembers events of the 60s pretty well. Do you recall such a gig?'
• (13). Pontneathvaughan, 27 May 2007. Typed letter (2 sheets). 'Hot events on my website - I'm now in contact with someone who wants to become my publisher! So I have to fix up the latest volumes of THE MAGIC DOOR; with the possibility of my COLLECTED being published in the not-too-distant future.' Meanwhile, Iain Sinclair has written to Torrance stating that Moorcock's reference to the 'launch' of Torrance's poems at Noah's Ark was 'a fictional ploy, a myth'.
• (14). [Pontneathvaughan], 20 August 2007. Autograph folding card. 'I now have a growing pile of stuff that I hope will become a book [Path] to be published by Heaventree (Simon Turner).'
• (15). [Pontneathvaughan], 11 December 2007 (postmark). Autograph folding card, with envelope. 'Heaventree have accepted my book PATH but it won't be out til Autumn 2008.'
• (16). Pontneathvaughan, 31 August 2008. Bespoke folding poem-card (Torrance, 'Hare Pie') enclosing autograph letter (1 sheet).
• (17). [Pontneathvaughan], 12 October 2008. Autograph postcard. 'Still looking for that autumn bounce in the writing dept. Finding it difficult to get stuck into the files, with all the scribbled-over drafts in them.'
• (18). [Pontneathvaughan], 8 February 2009. Autograph postcard. 'I have withdrawn "Path" from Heaventree & am seeking another publisher. I'm reading at Hay Fest this year; & at the 3rd BTV Poetry & Jazz Fest on 1st Aug'.
• (19). [Pontneathvaughan, Spring 2009]. Undated autograph folding card, referring to being written in the spring, and to the death of poet Don Bodie (2009): Torrance recalls 'Don writing poems for the mag on my kitchen table at 203 Carshalton Road'.
• (20). [Pontneathvaughan, June 2009]. Autograph folding card, 'hoping to get this in the post in time for your 70th birthday'. Good reading at the Hay Festival.
• (21). [Pontneathvaughan], 27 September 2009. Autograph folding card, with envelope. Refers to reading with Harwood on 24 October: 'I'd like to read at least one, if not two, of those early poems of yours that exerted a strong pull on me as I was writing GREEN ORANGE PURPLE RED. The 2 poems I have in mind are "angel rustling in the dry ditch" [...] & "for D.S.H"'.
• (22). [Pontneathvaughan], 5 June 2010 (postmark). Autograph postcard, with envelope. 'Happy birthday on 6/6 ... on that date I'll have been here 40 years!!'
• (23). Pontneathvaughan, 31 January 2011. Autograph folding card. 'Biggest gig ever upcoming - with Chris Vine as HEATPOETS at Chapter, Cardiff on 23 Feb. Wish us well!'
• (24). [Pontneathvaughan], 3 December 2011. Autograph folding card. 'The full text of RORI shoud be in my big book PATH, to be published by Sam Ward, Skysill Press, sometime next year.' Torrance has been writing an autobiographical piece for Geraldine Monk (ed.), Cusp (2012).
• (25). Pontneathvaughan, 'Julibee 2012'. Autograph folding card. 'I did my prose for the CUSP Shearsman anthol., but they cut it right down, leaving all the best bits out! & I lost heart really - the piece is a ghost.'
• (26). Pontneathvaughan, March 2013 (postmark). Undated autograph folding card, with envelope.
• (27). [Pontneathvaughan], 26 May 2013. Autograph folding card. 'Readings really take it out of me. The planning, rehearsing. The nerves. The bad dreams. I turn up, but can't find my texts in the briefcase.'
• (28). Pontneathvaughan, 8 December 2013 (postmark). Autograph letter (1 sheet), with envelope. 'Have you done a gig at the Test Centre yet? I hadn't been to London for about 20 years, so it was an adventure.'
• (29). [Pontneathvaughan], March 2014. Autograph folding card.
• (30). [Pontneathvaughan], 3 June 2014 (postmark). Autograph folding card, with envelope. 'I'm sure you'll write poems again.'
• (31). Pontneathvaughan, 6 July 2014. Autograph letter (2 sheets). Describes being invited to read at a local memorial service.
• (32). [Pontneathvaughan, December 2014]. Undated autograph folding card, with envelope. 'In December I read in Dylan Thomas's lovingly restored house [...].'