THE internationally acclaimed Forest of Dean-born playwright and author Dennis Potter remains an enigma.

His emergence as a hugely talented writer coincided with the time when the Forest was on the cusp of great change — the pit hooters were sounding the death knell of mining, the chapels were slowly choking and a way of life disintegrating.

In the early 1960s, Potter returned to Berry Hill and his roots and reported it as he saw it. It was raw.

His early works such as the television documentary Land Between Two Rivers and the book The Changing Forest challenged the mindset of Forest folk — and landed Potter in hot water, often with those he most admired.

His works strongly divided local opinion and, for weeks, filled the correspondence columns of the local paper. It was, Potter later admitted, a “rough handling.”

“His audience was not quite ready for it,” suggests Jason Griffiths, a University of Gloucestershire lecturer and a Potter devotee who has spent years studying the playwright’s work. He concludes that by the time of his death in 1994, both writer and audience had developed a more sympathetic and sophisticated understanding of each other.

Mr Griffiths will explore Potter’s huge range of work in a talk entitled Potter in Place to be given to members of the Forest of Dean Local History Society at a meeting in the Assembly Rooms at St Briavels this Friday evening (7.30pm).

It could be argued, says Mr Griffiths, that the strength of local reaction prompted a significant shift in Potter’s career direction bringing a move from documentary work to television drama.

Mr Griffiths says he believes that in many instances Potter was criticising himself rather than the community.

“What I want to do is flesh out Potter’s relationship with the Forest and what it meant to him,” he says.

Mr Griffiths was part of the team behind the successful Forest Voices festival, celebrating Dennis Potter and the Forest of Dean. He worked with the partnership involved in bringing Potter’s papers to the Forest and there is now a permanent exhibition to the playwright at Soudley’s Dean Heritage Centre. He also set up and runs pottermatters.co.uk and @DPottermatters.

Visitors are welcome to Friday’s meeting.