St James’ Church at Stanstead Abbotts resounded to a magical evening of poetry and music this December as folk gathered in this ancient setting to enjoy Winter Poems by Candlelight, a collection of poems put together for us by Nicky Parker. Four readers, Stuart Handysides, Anton Kadouchkine, Nicky Parker and Michael Smith, under the expert direction of Michael Ashman, treated us to a magical evening in which poetry seemed to emerge from every corner of the church. The evening

On Saturday, December 3rd, the 13th century church of St James at Stansteadbury, Stanstead Abbotts was the perfect setting for a performance of the Mediaeval alliterative poem ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’. The event was a sellout - with more than 200 guests raising substantial funds for the church's upkeep. The atmosphere on the night was perfect - due in no small part to the efforts made by members of the Friends of St James' Church. The audience had to follow a path l