This lovely set of photos was taken just pre-lockdown by local photographer and student Ruby Craig, who’d come into the Viva office on a work placement. She was fabulous, and photographed a number of features for the April issue of the long-running local listings and features magazine – an issue which, sadly, was never to see the light of day. History, and Covid, took over – and now Viva Lewes and Viva Brighton have both, permanently, had to close their doors. 
So Frogmore has kindly offered to host these photos. The subject is Needlewriters poets (though this is not the whole collective) and we four are all also Frogmore poets and reviewers. (I – Charlotte Gann – also happened to be the outgoing editor of Viva Lewes!). Needlewriters – a cooperative of local writers – continues to host quarterly reading events in Lewes, or at least we hope to again, from January 2021.
For the planned feature we also asked each poet: ‘What is a word you love, and why?’ Here were their – our – responses.
Robin Houghton: “Box’: short, punchy, practical and a bit funny.’
Robin Houghton, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020
Janet Sutherland: ‘My word is ‘penultimate’, because there’s something magical in being able to pin down the last-but-one.’
Janet Sutherland, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020
Jeremy Page: “Crepuscular’, because it so perfectly evokes my favourite times of day.’
Jeremy Page, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020
Charlotte Gann: “Elbow’. It looks great (in many typefaces), sounds good – and combines five of my favourite letters.’
Charlotte Gann, photographed by Ruby Craig, 2020
Ruby Craig can be found on Instagram @rubystyling
CG