The first reading of the ‘Writing Mesopotamia’ programme at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, took place yesterday (Sunday 17 March). Heavy snow from about 9.00am until 11.30am gave us a bit of a scare and we thought we might have to cancel it, but luckily, it eased up and the Ancient Near East Gallery rang to the musical and moving voice of exiled Iraqi poet, Adnan al Sayegh sing/ reading his poetry in Arabic, with English translations read by myself and Joe Brady. Joe is a student on the Oxford University MSt. and he also read (ringingly) extracts from The Epic of Gilgamesh.

There will be further readings by Adnan, myself and Joe on Sunday 28 April.

There should be details on the Ashmolean website and I’ll post some more here in advance.

At the end of the reading, my granddaughter, Abigail, came to share the limelight with me!