Art’s best friend
Last updated 05:13, Friday, 28 November 2008
Genette leapt inside, lying flat in the back, the door open. As the Land Rover lurched off in first gear a third bullet shot overhead.
I Felt Like an Adventure. Ben Verinder. The Memoir Club (£17.50)
“Genette was worried about Mary, sitting upright and vulnerable in the driver’s seat and Mary prayed that Genette wasn’t too much of an easy target. She swerved and spun the vehicle, trying to unlock the aim of their attackers.
“A fourth shot rang through the night.
“Neither woman knew if the other had been hit. Suddenly the vehicle juddered onto the main road and Mary sped onwards in search of help.
“A kilometre down the highway they met a lorry, packed tight with 25 men, all amazed to find two English girls alone in such deserted country in the dark.”
No, it’s not the latest Jack Higgins thriller or John Grisham blockbuster.
This is an extract from the biography of Mary Burkett, arguably the leading supporter, promoter and champion of arts and artists in Cumbria for the past five decades.
The cast list of the book is star-studded: LS Lowry, Freya Stark and Kurt Schwitters. Stalin’s daughter, Percy Kelly, Sheila Fell, Jenny Cowern, Alfred Wainwright and many others.
But this glittering list is matched by the life-story itself – I Felt Like an Adventure is the story of an extraordinary woman.
She was just a young girl when she first showed her natural boldness and spirit of adventure.
It was a combination that stood her in good stead for childhood and teenage years spent in Durham, Northern Ireland and the South of France. Adult travels would lead to adventures in Persia.
She came to Cumbria in 1955 as an art lecturer at a teacher-training college in Ambleside and stayed, helping to promote and nurture a wide range of arts in the county privately and through her stewardship of Kendal’s Abbot Hall art gallery.
Now 84, the artist, traveller and author lives rather more quietly now in Isel Hall, near Cockermouth, but is still a key figure in Cumbria’s arts scene.
Ben Verinder first met Mary Burkett in 1997 and wrote features for The Cumberland News on her.
He explained: “I was in the south and got a phone call from Mary asking if I could give a friend of hers a lift up to Cumbria from Cornwall.
“I couldn’t, as I was travelling by train and a couple of weeks later I found out that friend was Stalin’s daughter – Svetlana Alliluyeva.”
Ben decided to investigate the life and times of Mary a little more closely and the result was 30-odd visits and boxes of notepads and tape recordings.
“She is spectacularly skilled – and lucky to have met and grown friendships with some amazing people.
“She herself is an amazing person,” said Ben.
“In practical and theoretical ways she has been a remarkable supporter of Cumbrian artists, including writing about them and literally giving some of them a place to live.”
Writing the book took 10 years in all, though that includes a two-year gap and several changes of jobs for Ben.
He moved into public relations as a software marketing and PR director and now works in London as head of media and PR for further education colleges such as West Lakes, Barrow, Carlisle and Kendal Colleges.
While the raw material of Mary’s life story is pure gold, the recreation of moments in time and scene-setting by Ben lift it above other biographies.
He cheerfully admits he learned a huge amount from Mary and in researching the book – not least the history of Persia, the role of Kurt Schwitters in modern art, and also the artistic talent to be found in Cumbria. “I was absolutely unaware how rich Cumbria was in artistic endeavour, skill and beauty.”
I Felt Like an Adventure is available from Bookends, Carlisle, www.bookscumbria or direct from The Memoir Club www.thememoirclub.co.uk (0191 373 5660).
