Richard
Turning a vanished print run into a performance
Richard writes dark, folk-horror poetry and ballads, starting with the self-published The Bryde of Melksham Woode.
Our student @Richard Temple’s journey into the Make Happen community began with a twist worthy of his own writing. Just before starting the course, he self-published “*The Bryde of Melksham Woode”, a dark, Jacobean-era folk-horror ballad created in collaboration with illustrator Maxine Green. Intended for a launch at the Morecambe Poetry Festival*, the entire limited-edition print run vanished in transit - leaving Richard onstage with no books to sell and a dilemma that could have derailed his debut!
Instead of retreating, he improvised. Richard wrote and performed a humorous meta-poem - The Ballad of “The Bryde of Melksham Woode” - turning the chaos into comedy and sharing the frustrations of dealing with lost parcels and customer service. What barely registered at Morecambe unexpectedly caught fire at open-mic nights across the region, where audiences embraced the absurdity of his situation. The momentum led to an invitation from the Coracle Europe Fringe Festival to host a proper launch - ironically, for a book that still declared itself “for the Morecambe Poetry Festival” on its cover.
Embracing the Makehappeneur ethos of discomfortability, being out there, and evolving in the wild, Richard turned mishap into opportunity. His unconventional launch resulted in the book being stocked at Goldstone Books in Carmarthen and earned him multiple hosting gigs over the festival weekend. Within six weeks, he recouped his publishing costs - and then came the final plot twist: the long-lost parcel resurfaced at a stranger’s house in Morecambe. Now, with twice as many copies as planned, Richard stands as a testament to the power of rolling with the punches and sharing your work boldly, no matter how wild the path becomes! 👏
