One of the purposes of our blog is to help those in Coventry find out more about the cities with which we are twinned. However, we are equally interested in shining a light on our own city, for ourselves and for friends who live overseas. In this blog we get the thoughts of Zsófia, a welcome incomer to Coventry, who explains her journey of growing up in Hungary, studying in Austria and becoming a researcher at the local university. We have asked her to tell us what she makes of Coventry and how her experiences inform her interest in the arts. Questions cover:
Can you tell us about how you find yourself in Coventry? (this section starts the film)
What were your first impressions of Coventry? (this starts at 1 minute 33 seconds)
What do you think about the city centre? And what about our parks? (3 minutes)
Do you have any views on plans for developing Coventry? (3 minutes 58 seconds)
Coventry is a small city, how does it compare to other cities you know? (5 minutes 8 seconds)
Can you tell us about your interest in the arts? (8 minutes 24 seconds)
How does your experience of Coventry influence your writing? (11 minutes 58 seconds)
You can find examples of Zsófia’s writing at:
‘My Road to Damascus’ on Martyrs Close, War Memorial Park and the Lollards (Damaszkuszi utam) in Dicső, Zsolt & Liebhauser, János (Ed.): Átfénylik rajtuk. Antológia Mészöly Miklós 100. születésnapjára. Pesti Kalligram, 156-159.
‘Swanswell’ – a fictional retelling of a forbidden love story between the future Florence and Alfred Herbert in Tamási, Izabella (Ed.): Harcosok, vértanúk, boszorkányok.
‘Lady Godiva at the Friargate’ (Lady Godiva a Friargate) in Kalligram folyóirat, 2022 május, 30-35.
In this interview Zsófia mentions:
The Coventry Language Cafe – there is a meet-up page for this at https://www.meetup.com/the-coventry-language-cafe/
The German circle (this is for speakers of German) – details can be found at https://coventrygermancircle.wordpress.com and there is a constantly updated FB page at https://www.facebook.com/CoventryGermanCircle/. On a similar theme the Coventry Dresden Exchange FB page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/398897973625777/
The Springboard festival took place at the Criterion theatre – you can find more about this local theatre at https://criteriontheatre.co.uk
Trinity church web site is https://www.holytrinitycoventry.org.uk and details of the choir are found at https://www.holytrinitycoventry.org.uk/Groups/404418/Music_ministry.aspx
Zsófia also mentions Earlsdon and Hillfields as localities in Coventry. You can find out more about them via Wikipedia. Earlsdon has a community-led local newspaper – the Echo – at http://www.echonews.org.uk and Hillfields has a community radio station at https://www.hillzfm.co.uk. If interested in the longer view, the Historic Coventry blog has two interesting entries on Hillfields at https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/
Coventry Association for International Friendship 