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Drinking the river dry...

Sylvia Vetta meets artist, dramatist and poet Dwina Gibb

Photographs: Simon Williams

he loss of her husband it was her artwork that brought them of Dwina’s life and is the origin of her Robin Gibb in May 2012 together. She is not only an artist but dark humour and her lively dialogue. is still raw for Dwina is also, a poet, author and dramatist. “I was brought up in the middle of Gibb, but the births Her first dramatic production Last what is called the ‘Troubles’ but it felt T of her first grandson Confessions of Scallywag played to sold like a war zone. I was aware of the out audiences at the Mill at Sonning for darkness and the fear,” she said. Maxwell Robin two years ago and a seven weeks in 2014. Sally Taylor, the “My second school was the Collegiate second grandchild Theodore this year director of the theatre, described it as Grammar School in Enniskillen. The have helped take the edge off her ‘Charley’s Aunt meets Father Ted’. school bus was diverted when a roadside grief. Dwina’s interests are varied. She bomb blew up a convoy of British The Bee Gees sold more than 220 is a collector of objects and sculpture soldiers and left a huge hole in the road. million records worldwide, making related to mythology. She replaced We never knew when there would be a them one of the world’s best-selling an old tennis court in the grounds bomb among civilians, and as a child, music artists of all time. Only Elvis of her house in Thame, with a stone this was horrifying. Presley, The Beatles, Michael circle and in the centre has grown “My Uncle Ernie played the trombone Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul an oak tree from an acorn. in the local silver band and he expected McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees. The circle has been used for special to be with them at the November 1987 Dwina told me a lovely story about marriage blessings, name-giving and Remembrance Day Parade in Enniskillen. how, while driving through a remote memorials. She is vegetarian and enjoys He was called away by the Bishop of part of Rajasthan, she felt thirsty all religious or spiritual practices that Clogher who asked him to play The and pulled off at a small roadside encourage peace and happiness in the Last Post in his diocese – so my uncle café . As she walked in through world, and particularly likes the yoga and survived the bombing.” the door she heard the sound of meditation in the studies of the Brahma Ten civilians and a police officer were Robin singing ‘I Started a Joke’. Kumaris. She is also the Patroness of the killed and 63 were injured in what has She said: “Robin was singing to me in Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. come to be known as The Poppy Day the middle of a vast desert. It was such I wondered what strand of her life Massacre. a beautiful experience and I realised how would determine what she decided to Dwina said: “A young girl who lived their songs had reached every corner of take to our desert island. near us was injured and was in hospital the world.’ The place of her birth, County Tyrone for two years so the conflict felt close. Like Robin, Dwina is creative and in Northern Ireland has informed much Lots of people became witty and used 8 Oxfordshire Limited Edition October 2015 oxfordtimes.co.uk Castaway

Dwina in the stone circle she created in the garden of her home “Robin was singing to me in the middle of a vast desert. It was such a beautiful experience and I realised how their songs had reached every corner of the world.’

Dwina with bear sculpture by Michael Robin Gibb’s Cooper headstone humour as a small light of hope. One fairy tales and mythology began. Many years later, when Robin was the of my choices for the island is George “My Aunty May had some illustrated subject of the BBC’s family history series Frederick Watts’ serene painting of versions of Grimm’s fairy tales and Who Do You Think You Are? we went to Hope. She is depicted sitting on a globe, other traditional stories. In her copy of Eccles Town Hall to research his great blindfolded, clutching a wooden lyre with Cinderella, one of the ugly sisters cut grandmother and great grandfather. I only one string left intact.” off her toes to make her foot fit into noticed some children’s artwork on the “Edwin, my dad, bought me my first the glass slipper. A little bird shows the wall and realised that my paintings had paintbox, and from that moment on, I prince the drops of blood. It was pretty once hung there,” Dwina said. painted portraits and landscapes. One gruesome stuff.” The teenage Dwina was an admirer of of the first paintings I sold was of the Dwina told me how a Catholic friend Lindsay de Paul, the singer songwriter racehorse Arkle. I loved drawing horses described to her the magical mythological and cartoonist. and swans. For many years I admired a stories of pre-Christian Ireland. “I “She had trained at Hornsey College painting of a swan on a mirror that hung wanted to learn Irish so that I could read of Art and I set my sights on studying in our home. I had never seen my father them. I asked my school if I could learn there, too. After a working holiday in paint, but after our father’s passing the language.” London, I knew that I wanted to leave I discovered that he had painted the It was a sign of the times that instead Northern Ireland. But there was a swan,” Dwina added. of encouraging Dwina’s interest they problem. Northern Irish students were “My mother, Sarah Jane, who all suspended her from school for a week only allowed to apply to art colleges in her life has been called Sadie, was accusing her of being ‘subversive’. England after being turned down by two good at drawing, and she was the Dwina knew that she wanted to be in Ireland. My art CV looked impressive storyteller in the family. She made an artist. She had begun entering and I took my A-Levels at 17 but I did up wonderful stories for me and art competitions as a child and won not want to go to Belfast School of Art,” my sister, Thelma and my brother almost every one she entered. Her said Dwina. Raymond. Thelma and Raymond have first exhibition came when she won a “I deliberately made a portfolio of stayed in County Tyrone. I am the children’s art competition aged just 14. crude awful paintings. It was the hardest only one who had wings on my feet.” But she did not actually get to see it. thing to do. The head of department who Sarah passed on her gift to Dwina “It was held in the town hall at Eccles interviewed me saw on my record that who began writing stories and poetry and I could not afford to travel there. I had won first prize for art in County when she was nine years old. It My aunt who lived in Gloucester went Tyrone and he guessed what I was doing. was then that her fascination for to see it and sent me some photographs. Continued on page 11 October 2015 Oxfordshire Limited Edition 9 oxfordtimes.co.uk Castaway

Right: Dwina with an unusual Italian accordion. Dwina said: “Robin used it to compose I Gotta Get a Message To You.” Robin’s Lifetime Achievement Grammy award is in the foreground

From page 9 I went red in the face but he turned a with a view to putting some of my for some of Robin’s later lyrics. She said: blind eye. paintings on the wall of the new house he “When I met him he was writing with “Having achieved one rejection, I intended to buy. The actress Sarah Miles Barry most of the songs for Barbara applied to Dublin. The application form was a friend of mine and Robin wanted Streisand’s album Guilty. He invited me arrived and it was all in Irish! Two to meet her. I put them in touch with to Miami. He was working on “I am a rejections meant that I could apply each other and they went out on a date. woman in love’. One week I was working to Hornsey where I showed my best At Sarah’s place he saw some more of for him and the next I was a woman in work and was accepted. After Hornsey my drawings. So it all came back to me love. That song has special meaning for I studied textile design at Cat Hill in again,” Dwina said. me. We inspired each other.” Cockfosters.” “At that time Robin was living with We talked about Robin and Dwina’s In the early 1970s after finishing his twin brother Maurice. He asked to house in Miami where they famously at art college, Dwina set up her own meet me with my portfolio to discuss a hosted Tony and Cherie Blair and which business in Shepherdess Walk, Islington. commission. We discovered that we had they later sold. She designed and made children’s bean the same birthday – December 22. We Dwina said: “The house in Miami had bags and chairs in novelty shapes such as also shared a similar sense of humour. quite a history. President Kennedy spent telephones, apples and pears. A shared wit helped to sustain a long one of his last nights there before he She said: “I sold them through partnership.” was shot. Churchill painted there. Robin Time Out , but in my free time I was “He thought I had a good artistic eye admired Churchill’s daring. heavily into the Women’s Movement, and asked me to help him viewing houses “We have been inside Chequers,” she and campaigning for peace in Ireland. following his divorce. He was looking at recalled. “Another possibility for the Most weekends I was on some kind of London mansions but I thought it would island is the painting we saw there. demonstration. be a miserable experience living alone in It is by Frans Snyders based on the “I met May Hobbs who had brought the such large houses. I chose a little cottage Aesop fable where a mouse frees a night cleaners out on strike for equal pay for him in Barnes. At the time, I had no trapped lion by gnawing at the ropes. in 1972. We went together to Manchester idea that it would become my home too. Churchill painted a rat over the little to support the women workers who were When I moved in with him, he carved our mouse. It was restored, but a photograph holding a sit in for equal pay at a factory initials in a heart on the door post. He of Winston’s alteration is on display manufacturing electrical parts. Even their did that on every house we ever lived in.” beside it. We have a photograph husbands did not support their desire for Their son, Robin John (RJ) was born in signed by Winston given to us by the equal pay for equal work. 1983 and they looked for a larger house photographer Christopher Barham.” “John Lennon sent a bunch of to accommodate him and Robin’s children I wondered how Dwina felt about roses. May thanked him, saying: from his first marriage. In 1985, after Robin’s many adoring fans. ‘Roses won’t pay for the sit in’. He they moved to the beautiful Prebendal “You get used to it. I was never a responded by sending her a cheque. House in Thame. Robin and Dwina jealous person and Robin’s popularity Rowntrees and Cadbury’s also gave married at the registry office in Wheatley. meant that we travelled the world,” Dwina the women financial support.” Dwina said, ‘When we arrived the said. “Most fans were kind and loyal. I asked Dwina how she met Robin. registrar had laid out 100 chairs. She The odd one gets obsessed or overcome She explained: “I had not seen my expected crowds. She looked disappointed with emotion. When we were living in cousin Ken for a number of years. He when there was just Robin and I with Ken Barnes, a young girl came down from came to see me in Plumstead where I and his wife as witnesses. Manchester and pitched a tent on our was living at the time. He arrived in a “We wanted a very quiet occasion. We lawn. My cousin was able to track down Yellow Rolls Royce. I thought he must be had even forgotten about rings and ended her parents. She left behind her interior doing rather well. But it was Robin’s car up giving each other the ancient rings we decorating books with instructions on and Ken was working as his bodyguard. were wearing. We spent our honeymoon how we should decorate our house. She He was interested in my work and in Somerset staying in Wells and visiting had a very artistic eye, so I do hope she after lunch I gave him some drawings. Cheddar Gorge. We went to Wookey Hole used that talent later. He happened to be on his way to the – where there is a paper mill – and made “Some fans never marry but try airport to pick up Robin who noticed the headed notepaper for our house. I still to live your life. Their whole life is drawings and asked who had made them. have it.” the adoration of the idol like virginal “Robin asked to see more of my work Dwina may have been the inspiration Continued on page 13 October 2015 Oxfordshire Limited Edition 11 oxfordtimes.co.uk Castaway

From page 11 Dwina with a piece devotees. They all love the music of ancient pottery and the sound of the voices and which dates from 600BC, given to her harmonies so much. I have seen and by an archaeologist felt how the music touches the soul.” friend The closest Dwina came to becoming a fan herself came after meeting the poet Seamus Heaney. “In my twenties, I met him at a poetry workshop at the Yeats Society in Sligo. This was when he was less well known − before he received all the honours abroad. He said he loved my poem Mullaghmore and made me repeat it to the class. He particularly admired ‘pinched hoof prints’. I noticed that no one had offered him a drink all day and I asked him if he would like a cup of coffee. ‘You know’, he said ‘I’m dying of the dreuth (thirst).’ I made him two cups and wrote a secret poem to him. I had observed him standing on a bridge in Sligo. I visualised him as ‘Pouring thoughts into a nameless river and I would gladly drink it dry.’ The river was nameless because I couldn’t remember which river flowed through Sligo. I slipped my poem under my own handmade doily on an improvised tray, a biscuit tin lid, and presented it to him, flowing spring 200 feet below us and another three weeks with him. In his then ran away.” it could provide 600 gallons an hour. last days he wanted to watch comedies, Dwina made a delightful sketch of We know where it is should there be a Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, the future Nobel Prize-winning poet drought.” Norman Wisdom and Jack Black’s and that is another of her possibilities “An archaeologist friend took me Gulliver’s Travels - anything comedic.” for our desert island. She has a on digs and gave me this cup found in Robin died aged 62 in May 2013. lifelong interest in Irish history and Austria which dates from 600BC. RJ Dwina and her son lovingly put social politics and is also an admirer showed me how it would have been used. together the album 50 St Catherine’s of the poetry of WB Yeats. He worked it out age six. That’s another Drive which contains Robin’s last songs. “I co-founded the Yeats Club which possibility for the island.” Dwina still lives in the 13th century organises poetry competitions and As well as her art, poetry and novels, mansion near Thame which had been the published a journal called Celtic Dawn.” another of Dwina’s delights is Irish couple’s home since 1985. She has spent Celtic mythology has been the inspired dialogue. In 2003 she created the last two years working on a grave inspiration for her novels so far. The The Gabby Aggies a series of humorous stone for her husband with stonemason, Seers and Cormac: the King Making. I dialogues between Mrs P and Mabel Martin Cook. asked whether that was the source of her who provide a commentary on all kinds Dwina said: “Robin loved roses and spirituality. of events putting the world to rights. carried a stone from the tomb of St “My Methodist grandmother was a big Following a performance on Manx Radio Cecilia, the patron saint of music.” The influence of me and she taught me to she was invited to do a one-woman show symbolic stone is now in place. read the Bible and to pray. When I was in New York. I had to ask her that if she can eight I had an amazing vision of a tree Robin’s twin brother Maurice died only take one thing to the island what of light with silver and gold leaves going in 2003 and Robin felt the loss deeply. would it be? She said, “Robin’s love back into the ground. It was as if I was He himself was diagnosed with cancer was this house. He loved walking in the being shown the cycle of life,” Dwina in 2011. While Robin was undergoing garden with his Irish wolf hounds. I said. chemotherapy, Robin and RJ wrote don’t suppose I can take the house and “I studied the Tree of Life in the score for The Titanic Requiem contents? ” Qabalah and in Druidry and in ancient to commemorate the centenary of I could see that it would be hard for civilisations but I felt it was symbolic. the sinking of the Titanic. her to leave behind all the works of art I began to believe in reincarnation Dwina said: “If he had recovered Robin she has bought or made herself, the and became interested in aspects of intended to go down to the seabed to souvenirs of her travels with Robin, his Buddhism, early Christianity and Indian explore the wreck. The Titanic Requiem awards for a lifetime in music and his religions. I found out about yoga and was Robin’s requiem. It was very special. musical instruments. meditation and I love the calm and He kept working and working on it with “If I can’t take the house then I will contentment it gives me.” RJ right to the end.” need lots of paper and pencils so that I On one of her many trips to India, Robin fell into a coma two days before can write,” she said. LE Dwina became involved in supporting he was due to attend the premier of the outreach programmes and water projects. work at the Central Hall, Westminster in • The first of a series of concerts of The She said: “The strange thing is that April 2012. Titanic Requiem began in Taranto Italy when I came home I was thinking about Dwina said: “We played all kinds of in September. It will be coming to the UK water divining. When he was little RJ music to try and get him out of the coma. later. For more information go to www. had talked about an underground well We played Bee Gees music but it was robingibb.com. For more information about being here. We brought in a diviner the Confutatis from The Titanic Requiem Dwina’s books and plays visit the wesbite and he proved RJ right. There is a fast which brought him out. And gave us www.dwinagibb.co.uk

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