Three writing competitions to celebrate the anniversary of the death in 1924 of the prolific Victorian novelist and short story writer Sabine Baring-Gould <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabine_Baring-Gould>. These competitions are being hosted by Tavistock Subscription Library <https://tavistocksublib.slls.online/>, which the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBI2TCvWiXU> used while living in his family home Lewtrenchard <https://www.lewtrenchard.co.uk/>. He was also very much involved with the local primary school <https://www.lewtrenchard.devon.sch.uk/>.
Sabine Baring-Gould not only wrote novels, collected myths and legends for example, ‘The Book of Were-Wolves’ <https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5324> and a book on Iceland and its sagas <https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/733602>, but he also wrote three enduringly popular hymns. He collected folk songs and was an amateur archaeologist.
His chilling Gothic tale ‘Margery of Quether’ (1884) is set near Heathfield close to Tavistock. It opens on Christmas Eve when the main character has to ring the church bells at <https://brentorchurch.org.uk/> (first mentioned in 1193) and described by Dr James Younge, in c. 1680 as “Brent Tarr is a church on a very High hill I believe nearest heaven of any church in England…”. Some academics now believe that ‘Margery of Quether’ was the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’ (1897).
Sabine Baring-Gould had very little formal education and and yet he is known to have published over 1,200 novels, short stories and articles and this remarkable writer’s own love story may have been the inspiration behind Bernard Shaw’s <https://villagevoices.co.uk/my-fair-lady/> Eliza in his play <Pygmalion>.
For competition entries please use the following email address: <tavistock.subslib@gmail.com>
Competition 1 – Adult Short Story Competition
SBG24 18+ Short Story competition__ details v.2 (1)
Competition 2 – Under 18s – Short Story and drawing Competition
SBG24 U18 Short Story competition details v.2 (1)
Competition 3 – Adult Poetry Competition
SBG24 18+ Poetry competition__ details v.2 (1)
Rebecca Tope has written a comprehensive biography of Sabine Baring-/Gould’s if you would like to find out more see: http://www.rebeccatope.com/praxis-books/>
