NOVELIST, POET AND DRAMATIST

Situated in the Consecrated/West Section of Jesmond Old Cemetery.

Julia Darling.

Julia’s friend, Mr Tim Dalling, informed us of the lovely person that she was and pointed us in the direction of her work and the following brief details are taken from her website.

Julia Rose Darling was born on 21 August 1956 at 8 College Street, Winchester – the house that Jane Austen died in. Her parents were John Ramsay Darling, a Science Teacher at Winchester College and Patricia Rosemary, who was a Nurse and a Quaker. Julia attended Winchester High School for Girls, later studying at Falmouth School of Art and moved to Newcastle in 1980. Here she began her writing career as a poet, publishing a collection entitled ‘Small Beauties’ in 1988 and working with a performance group called ‘The Poetry Virgins’. Unfortunately, amidst this success, in 1994, Julia was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of just 38. She was able to write about her illness, including in the play, ‘Eating the Elephant’, in which four female characters are all dealing with cancer diagnoses. Julia herself wrote “I always thought that the four characters were parts of me, all in conflict, but trying to find common ground’.

After being awarded a distinction on her MA in Poetry Studies at Newcastle University in 2002, Julia was appointed an Associate Royal Literary Fund Fellow of Literature and Health at the University. Her room in the Percy Building was directly opposite the Royal Victoria Infirmary, where she received treatment for her advanced breast cancer. Julia called this time “the most creative year I have ever had”, becoming one of the U.K.’s most important and passionate advocates of the importance of creativity in healthcare. She thought poetry was something which should involve doctors, healthcare professionals and their patients. Julia began to explore her own experience through writing and her poetry books, with ‘Sudden Collapses in Public Places’ and ‘Apology for Absence’ becoming her own eloquent testimonies to living a life with a life-threatening illness.

On 13 October 1984, Julia married Ivan Paul Sears, a Trade Unionist. They had two daughters. in 1990, they divorced and Julia began living with Beverley Anne Robinson.

Julia Darling – local hero.

In the month Julia died, ‘The Poetry Cure’ described as a ‘significant anthology on the subject of illness’, edited by Julia and Cynthia Fuller, was published. Poignantly, Julia’s introduction included the words, ‘I believe that poetry can help make you better. Poetry is essential, not a frill or a nicety. It comes to all of us when we need it. As soon as we are in any kind of crisis, or anguish, that is when we reach out for poetry, or find ourselves writing a poem for the first time’. Ruth Padel wrote that ‘this beautiful and humane anthology should be in the waiting room of every hospital ward’.

Julia died on 13 April 2005 in her beloved, adopted city of Newcastle upon Tyne, having already chosen her plot in Jesmond Old Cemetery. The inscription on her gravestone reads, ‘Mother & Writer; she electrified the ordinary; we all matter, we are all indelible; miraculous here’ – all words taken from her poems.

Julia also wrote a poem about Jesmond Old Cemetery, which we absolutely love:

OLD JEZZY

I went to old Jesmond Graveyard
to find my plot, to mark a place.
Doug from Bereavement showed me a spot
green and reflective, under a willow.
He apologised for the trimming of the weeds,
he liked it messy, overgrown,
but the government had made stipulations
for health and safety, things must be neat,
in case of gravestones squashing children,
so raggy old Jezzy was having a clean up.
But you know, said Doug, death isn’t tidy.
It’s a plague of knotweed, a bed of nettles,
a path through thistles, that’s how it should be.