My guest today is the artist, poet and gardener, Will Gould.

I met Will at last year’s Canterbury Poetry City as he was painting a poem along the length of the High Street using river water. On a more day to day basis, however, his practice runs in parallel with the creative development of the historic garden at St John’s Jerusalem, Dartford, Kent where he has been working since 2000. Will initially studied environmental science following this up with a degree in fine art, developing a practice creating sculptural installations in the landscape, using organic materials and minimal intervention. He now works in a wide range of media, bringing together landscape and the built environment.

Will blogs at Green Thoughts where you can read some of his poetry.

And here are Will’s five sentences…

When you were small, you wanted to … go fishing and play football but I had to stay in and practice playing the violin. We used to visit my dad’s family on the NE Coast of Scotland and the first thing that I wanted to be was a fisherman. Then I wanted to be a mouth doctor as a result of a fondness for Ribena and consequent frequent dental visits.
I never wanted to be a gardener and artist, they’re just the things that I like to do.

The one thing you can never resist is … Kentish cherries in season

You may not say it aloud but… I’m quite happy to write it down

The last time you went ‘WOOP’ with excitement was … when I booked a ticket to go to the End of the Road festival.

Your five favourite words are …. Esox lucius. Legato, Tibouchina, Wildebeest, Scrofipascus

And two more questions…

Favourite writing place in Kent:

The end of Deal Pier was the place that I began to try to write down what it felt like to be somewhere. It has a two tier staging so you can watch the fisherman down below and from high on long legs you can look back to the steep beach and hauled up boats.

A book about Kent or by a Kent writer you would recommend:

Green Thoughts by Sir Stephen Tallents is a lovely, personal, ramble through his experiences living in the property where I now garden. I often feel a connection with place and the past when doing something as mundane as lighting a fire or pulling reedmace from the moat.

**

Thanks, Will. I’m not going to admit how many of your favourite words I had to look up … (scrofipascus, scrofipascum, scrofipasca) … but there’s nothing I love better than pottering around in the dictionary, so here’s a thank you for coming on here…