Bridport singer PJ Harvey donates work to Dorset Museum
She's visited the site to hand it over
Dorset singer-songwriter PJ Harvey has donated pieces of her work to the county's Museum.
The Mercury Music Prize winner and Brit Award nominated artist has published a narrative poem Orlam, written in Dorset dialect.
She's given the Museum a hand-corrected proof of the book, the published version that she's signed with 'I'm so proud to be a local!', and an exclusive signed photograph of PJ wearing traditional Dorset buttons.
Harvey took inspiration from the work of 19th century Dorset dialect poet and co-founder of Dorset Museum, William Barnes, to write Orlam.
During a visit to the Museum, a number of items from their William Barnes collection were shown to Harvey and her mother Eva.
Orlam has been described as ‘a beautiful and profound narrative poem set in a magic realist version of the West Country’.
Dorset Museum hopes to display the items gifted by Harvey in the near future.
Elizabeth Selby, Interim Director of Dorset Museum, said:
“We are thrilled and honoured that PJ Harvey has chosen to gift the Museum these wonderful items ahead of the publication of Orlam. Harvey’s award-winning career, which spans over 30 years, has been extraordinary and wide-ranging - her achievements and creative output are something of which Dorset can be proud.
"She follows in a long tradition of writers including William Barnes, Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Townsend Warner whose work is shaped by Dorset, and who are represented in the Museum’s collections. It is only fitting that these items should be deposited here.”