The theme of Saltaire Festival’s 2020 anthology, developed in partnership with Aire Rivers Trust, was Green Aire, and the writing demonstrates how people have valued the natural world, particularly the River Aire and its surroundings during a year of restricted movement.

The collection features all the best writers from this year’s poetry and prose writing competitions and celebrates the ways in which different authors addressed the Green Aire theme. It is a record of creativity in a unique and difficult year and a testament to the power of the arts to capture a prevailing mood, providing solace for both writers and readers. The collection provides food for thought and will reward revisits as circumstances alter over the years ahead.

The anthology would also make a great present for lovers of the area and for those who appreciate the natural environment.

To order click on the link below. The price is £7.50, with (UK) post and packing at £1.70 and free delivery to BD18 post-codes. Please enquire for post and packing overseas.

Whenever my father hung up the ‘Gone Fishing’ sign on the door of his corner shop in the village and grabbed his wax-coated khaki hat from the brass stand, everyone knew where to find him and me too. Small as I was, I stood alongside him, swamped in my borrowed waders, but grimly determined to catch a fish or die trying...