2019 Niall - Visionary Heads

Irish poet Niall McDevitt leads a wandering lecture through Felpham village, following the trail of its legendary resident, the poet and painter William Blake. The focus will be on one of Blake's many unique achievements in Sussex, the series of portraits he was commissioned to do for his patron William Hayley's library. 'Heads of the Poets' features typically idiosyncratic busts of world poets from Homer and Dante to Shakespeare. McDevitt will also highlight tensions in the relationship between Blake and the patron he regularly lambasted in verse.

"When Hayley finds out what you cannot do
That is the very thing he'll set you to."