Maria North and, below, artwork of the four sisters on the cover of Sibling Rhymery

Four sisters, four years and a book of poetry

LONG-TERM Islington resident Maria North and her three sisters – of a “certain age” – have finished a poetic journey through the alphabet that started by accident. Their book, Sibling Rhymery – the culmination of four years of email exchange between four sisters, in verse – was published this week. Brought up in Lincolnshire, the sisters landed in different places with different names: Christine Watkins in Winterton, Marian Spencer in Halifax, Terri Valrosa in Sydney, Australia, and Maria in Islington.

The literary experiment began when a poem written by Marian for a primary school magazine was unearthed and exchanged between the sisters as they kept contact. “After that we just started zapping little verses back and forth to each other,” says Maria. “Then came the idea to go from A to Z, taking turns to pick a theme and each writing a poem on it. We were amazed when we got to C.” And now the collection is complete, with poems ranging from Bacchus to Genetics, and from the Occult to Under­garments.

Maria credits their father, a northern steel worker who left school at around 13, with their love of words. “He had a particular facility with using language creatively,” she says. “When I grew up and started reading the classics, I realised he had been quoting them all my life.”  The book, which the siblings describe as “gritty, witty, thought-provoking and occasionally deliberately ridiculous”, includes two limericks, a haiku, a sonnet, parodies of Shakespeare, Gilbert and Sullivan and the occasional Christmas song.

Here is Holloway Road, featured fittingly in a verse of Maria’s, “The Journey of Imagination”:

I could’ve travelled with her
if I’d let myself go,
let my mind stretch that far –
but no.
I got on the bus up the Holloway Road,
and went back to Normal.

• Sibling Rhymery is available now direct from the Tyrrell sisters’ website (www.siblingrhymery.com) and will be available at Amazon from December 12.

Ten years making art at the Factory

At the Islington Arts Factory MakeArt exhibition: Helena, Hosanna  and Daniel Genanaw

THE Mayor of Islington joined young artists, parents and supporters at the Islington Arts Factory last Friday to celebrate their 10th MakeArt exhibition. A year’s worth of ambitious artwork showcasing the Factory’s 4 to 19-year-old students filled the galleries, including a fire-breathing dragon and a graveyard of dead artists. Islington Arts Factory is a celebrated creative hub in the community, offering affordable art classes for young people. “There is so much on offer here,” says Eleanor Pearce, director of visual art. “I’ve known kids since they were four and watched them steadily climb the stages.” Eleanor grew up in Crouch End and first encountered the Factory when she attended a teenage art class age 11. After a few years of youthful exploration, she was invited back to do some teaching. “I sort of ended up running the department,” she says. “I really just want to offer young people exactly what I got.” l The MakeArt exhibition is open until December 22 at the Islington Arts Factory, 2 Pankhurst Road, N7 0SF. www.islingtonartsfactory.org

Web wonders at Stuart Low Trust

Pictured at the website launch: Alan Thomas from the British Medical Journal; Hannah Kalmonowitz from the Stuart Low Trust; Maud Eyzat of Macquarie Investment Bank; Virginia Low, Chair of Trustees; Kate Giblin of Macquarie; Islington mayor Kat Fletcher and John Keane, artist and patron

THE Stuart Low Trust (SLT) celebrated the launch of their new website last Thursday at their annual tea fundraiser in Angel. The British Medical Journal, who named SLT their small charity of the year in 2014, have for the past six months been developing the website with Macquarie Investment Bank – recent winners of Voluntary Action Islington’s Employee Volunteer of the Year Award.

“I’ve been happy to take a backseat,” says SLT chief executive Hannah Kalmanowitz, who is hoping the collaboration will allow the charity’s work to reach wider audiences.

The services provided by the Trust are a lifeline for many local people experiencing social isolation or mental distress, especially the Friday Evenings Events, which even run on Christmas Day.

The founding chair of trustees, Virginia Low, never imagined the organisation would get this far. “It was only ever meant to be a collaborative project, to bring people together really,” she says. “I’m so proud of what’s taken place”. Explore the  website at www.slt.org.uk/