“Hello
and welcome to my website. This has been created for me and is run by Paul Browne
of Arc23. I have a few exciting projects planned this year and also plan to do
a few live shows – probably in the Village Hall! Look forward to seeing you there”

– Virginia

11th July 2006

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the re-launch of the website – more additions to the site are on the way so keep visiting for updates.

Now for some good news and some bad news: The good news is that our very own message-board is finally back online and you can access it here: Virginia Astley Website Forum. The bad news is that the Guestbook will no longer be taking new entries. This is due to the feature being abused by spammers on a regular basis. As soon as we find an effective method to block our unwelcome guests, we’ll see about getting the Guestbook back online.

31st May 2006

As promised, after a long sabbatical, we’ve upgraded the website and although not all of our regular features are currently online, bear with us as these will be added to the site in due course.

One of our new features is a dedicated mailing list – sign up if you’d like to receive regular emails regarding news and updates. We also have a dedicated search engine for the website. There’s also a new Survey online: What future release by Virginia would you like to see?

Virginia has been very busy of late on a range of projects, so here’s an overview of what she’s been working on:

• The Words Between our Words: This is a mini-CD which features harp and spoken poetry and sees a collaboration between Virginia and her daughter Florence.
• The Stories of the Fields: A multi-media project which explores the idea of how fields were, at one point, given specific names and the stories behind that naming.
• The Woodlanders: Virginia has written a musical based on Thomas Hardy’s novel The Woodlanders. She is now trying to take this forward to being staged – possibly somewhere in the South-West early in 2007.

Virginia’s exploration into the world of poetry has been a keen interest for some time. She’s had some poetry published in poetry magazines and is looking at the possible publication of an illustrated book of poetry. Virginia had also been working on a draft of a novel, but has since shelved that idea for the time being.

There are some other ideas being mooted – including a possible Best Of album
– and we’ll flag up news on these projects in due course. Meanwhile, Virginia
now has a dedicated blog here: virginiaastley.blogspot.com
through which she is also selling copies of The Words
Between our Words

Virginia has also been given some exposure via the 2005 film Me
and You and Everyone We Know as the film soundtrack features A
Summer Long Since Passed. The film is currently available on DVD and a separate soundtrack has also been released.

In
other news, a planned Best Of album by Kate St John
has been delayed. All Saints Records
reports however that the album is definitely planned for release at some stage.
Meanwhile, Kate’s two solo albums Indescribable Night and Second
Sight are due to be reissued at some point in 2006.

Kate has also worked with Kathryn Williams doing arrangements for Kathryn’s next album due to be released this year. Kate was Musical Director at the Cork Opera House last year which again saw Kathryn Williams performing alongside Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy and June Tabor for the Daughters Of Albion show. The show was also performed at the Barbican here in London earlier this year. More info via www.katestjohn.co.uk.