My Day at the Nottingham Festival of Words

The Nottingham Festival of Words took over Nottingham Trent University’s Newton Building for the weekend. NottsLit went along on the Sunday. Here’s an account of my day:

The venue was impressive and immediately brought on nostalgic memories of university days. With a day pass stuck to my wrist I dashed to the first event, a performance from The Theatre Royal’s over 55s Creative Writing Group, or as they now wish to be called, The Royal Writers. What followed was an entertaining hour of prose, poetry and monologues. After an opening limerick, Robbie Rob sang the blues, complete with a chorus line:

‘I have a good life, completely absent of pain,

I have a good life, completely absent of pain,

If it carries on like this, will I ever sing the blues again?’

The variety and pace didn’t let up as we eavesdropped upon a teenage conversation, scripted by Chrissy Thornhill, with The Boyfriend. Shut Up! Innit.

The Frances Cornford poem, To a Fat Lady seen from the Train, is answered individually in the form of romance, poignancy and surprise, before another limerick, this one on the theory of relativity, brought us full circle: ‘…set out one day, in a relative way, and arrived the previous night.’

Act two was introduced by Ann Hill, who succinctly put it, ‘We all love words and that’s why we’re here.’ Marvelous. And, from the evidence of this, they all love performing, too.

Sue Pickles spoke of a hemorrhaging shed, a shed with indigestion, in an expertly constructed tale of four parts and numerous interjections – a piano away from Victoria Wood. Photography successfully accompanied many of these performances, not least when a huge spider made an appearance; Jenny Holliday informing us that it is an Australian arachnid, or, as the Aussie’s call it, a lawn bandit or an ambulance chaser.

The final act welcomed three more writers to the stage and began with some punchy role play, set amid a break in. Robbie Robb may have stolen act one but it was Pamela Senior that stole the hour. After an inspired comic turn she later delivered a deeply moving piece about dementia.

Chrissy Thornhill, Pamela Senior, Wendy Haynes, Particia Stoat, Ann Hill, Robbie Rob, Jenny Holliday, Barbara Watkins, Cathy Grinrod, Sue Pickles, Margaret Christopoulus

All of the work on show was produced under the guidance of Cathy Grindrod, the workshop leader. Cathy, a former Derbyshire Poet Laureate, clearly has a great relationship with the group and has helped them to showcase their talent.

I stayed in my seat for the next event, a talk from the crime writer Steven Dunne.

In 2008 the Derbyshire author self published his first crime novel, The Reaper. After gaining good reviews and generating respectable sales, he was approached by the publisher Headline. The Disciple quickly followed and now, Deity, his third novel to feature DI Damen Brook, is achieving critical acclaim.

Steven opened his talk at NTU with a series of slides, featuring him and his books like a parent might show off baby photos. There’s no doubt about it, this affable author is enjoying his success and he is, quite rightly, very proud of Deity. A part-time secondary school teacher, he explained how he called on his work experience to write about the difficult in-between years. Steven was interested in the process today’s youngsters go through when they lose their sense of invincibility and realise the world does not revolve on their terms.

A self confessed smug grin - and why not?

As the opening chapters of Deity were read out we heard what all the fuss was about. Four Derby College students go missing, an internet film purporting to show them committing mass suicide. If it's real, why did they kill themselves? If the suicides are faked, why the set up and where are the students? Intriguing stuff.

Questions were welcomed and there was even a rare opportunity to hear from an author’s partner. When asked about Steven's writing process his wife admitted that this was the most she’s heard him speak in weeks. Between writing and teaching there’s not much time for reading, explained Steven who, unlike most crime writers I know, doesn't read many contemporary crime novels. His main influences include Gore Vidal, Arthur Conan Doyle, Truman Capote and Joseph Heller, and he recently dispatched formulaic fiction into Room 101.

After the revealing Q&A there was even time to hear a world exclusive reading of Steven’s fourth novel in the series, The Unquiet Grave, with its tagline Even the dead need answers. With Deity doing so well and the new book set for a summer launch it’s easy to see why Steven’s living the dream.

After Steven’s talk I walked out to a busy lobby as five events all finished at 12 noon. It seemed that the Asian Writers’ poetry reading had been packed. The other events, not so. I applaud the festival for laying on so much choice but they were, perhaps, victims of their own success. With so much going on at the same time some events suffered. This was the case with my first afternoon visit, with four poetry activities kicking off at 1.30pm, the Rainbow Performance failed to get the audience it deserved.

The superb Lecture Theatre 5 hosted the Nottingham Sapphist Writers and Rainbow Writers in a collaborated to deliver an hour of performance poetry. The event aimed to showcase the best of Nottingham’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender writing.

The compère Russell Christie opened the bash with the confident assuredness of a seasoned performer. Without the use of a script or cue cards he spoke from memory, and he spoke from the heart, touching on his experience of life and love as a gay man.

Nicki Hastie from the Sapphist Writers used the festival’s themes of love and lace to compose a poem about connections. An engaging speaker, Nicki spoke of how we are all interlinked, much more so than a spurious Kevin Bacon inspired notion. Her wordplay remained fun whilst offering in-jokes and her account of childhood added depth. In opening herself up, Nicki showed the heart of a poet but if vulnerability was perceived, strength was certainly defined. The honesty continued with the poem, Land of Online Dating; her one and only attempt at online courtship was ripe for poetry.

Next of the Rainbow Writers was Tony Challis. He walked on with a black folder jammed with poems. I got the impression it was his version of Bob Monkhouse’s joke book, a life’s work jotted down for future referral. Tony picked out several short poems to read. The first of which, about a caterpillar, he introduced thus ‘it’s my silliest poem but people seem to like it.’ There was nothing silly about his take on Allen Ginsberg’s Sweet Boy Give Me Your Ass. A versatile poet, an elegant collection.

Hands, written and read by David Kershaw was a compassionate four parter. There was no emphasis on performance, no showing off, no playing to the crowd. It felt personal. Here was poetry that came from the soul.

From the off, Rachel Phillips announced that couples, regardless of their sexuality, all argue about the same four things: Money, Sex, Housework and Personal habits. Her cynical view of relationships continued with Recipe for Disaster. Fun and keenly observed, the poem inventively took the form of a recipe. Like all the poets before her, Rachel allowed the festival’s theme to permeate her poetry but in Prozac – a love story she exposed a different kind of relationship.

At various points Russell Christie returned to delight us. He sees poets as fisherman, castings out their words in the hope of catching love, the love of the audience. His bait included a response to the Mayor of San Francisco’s decision to close the gay bars during the 80s, in a reaction to AIDS. Russell’s time in the USA is recounted once more with Driving from Cleveland to Los Angeles. A chance meeting in a roadside bar – the hustle is on, and it’s not just pool balls! Information Fulfillment is, perhaps, his most personal piece with lines such as ‘I have hoarded the codes of my life and read them in my heart.’

An hour of frank prose, laced with sincerity and love.

left to right: Rachel Phillips, Nicki Hastie, Russell Christie, David Kershaw, Tony Challis

At the end of the Rainbow I headed to the EMBA panel.

Kathleen Bell, sitting in for John Lucas, began by explaining what the EMBA is. In case you didn’t know, it stands for East Midlands Book Award. Now in its third year, the EMBA is an independent, annual award, given to a writer of fiction, creative non-fiction or poetry, currently living in the East Midlands. It aims to promote the best literature coming out of the region and to reward exceptional work.

Joining Kathleen on the panel were two previous winners and a couple of shortlisted writers. In a kind of chronological order we meet Leicestershire’s Mark Goodwin, the first recipient of the award back in 2011. Mark read three poems, one of which was from Shod, the poetic adventure that was a surprise winner of that inaugural award. Active in the poetry scene for many years, Mark has worked in schools as well as for the mental health services and, as you’d expect, his delivery is polished. The poetry itself is vivid, clean and powerful. It has an element of controlled anger.

Paula Rawsthorne, shortlisted for the EMBA in 2012, was the next to read from her work. Her YA novel The Truth About Celia Frost, concerns a friendless, freaky kid who suffers from a disorder that leaves her in constant fear of bleeding to death. Paula’s reading leads up to a dramatic hook, with Celia about to come a cropper, before the book is closed. There was enough fear, tension and desperation in that sample chapter to grab the audience. A clever marketing ploy if ever there was one. A Liverpudlian, Paula now lives in Nottingham and praised the support of the Nottingham Writers’ Studio.

Shortlisted for his poetry book An Ordinary Dog, Nottingham’s Gregory Woods stood up and belted out three poems. It was a pleasure to hear the homo-phonic masterpiece I’d first heard at the festival’s launch night. Another gem previously aired that night at Antenna was Messages, an angry poem that seems to fit Greg’s attitude to love. ‘How I’d rejoice even to hear an insult in your voice.’ Acerbic and precise, the poems were passionately performed.

Winning the 2012 award was Anne Zoroudi, author of the Mysteries of the Greek Detective. The fifth book in her series (of seven), The Whispers of Nemesis, took the prize. The Derbyshire author’s story tells of desperate measures and long-kept secrets, of murder and immortality and of pride coming before the steepest of falls. Anne sees her books as morality tales and picks ‘metaphysical crime’ as her genre. This is no typical procedural detective story, partly due to the detective Hermes Diaktoros, and partly because of the book’s otherworldliness. The author might live in the Peak District but her heart is in the Greek islands and the country’s mythology seems to provide much of her inspiration.

The panelists ended with a brief Q and A, expressing a varied response to the density and profile of the region’s literary scene at which, as expected, Nottingham fared better than north Derbyshire. Another difference of note was in how the novelists and poets saw themselves. Somehow the EMBA have to compare the two’s technical merits.

Overall, it was a brilliant day. Between talks there was a free-to-attend book fair with local publishers, book shops, groups and children’s activities competing for attention. There was plenty of space for relaxing, chatting about books and enjoying refreshments, all in a nice atmosphere.  

The whole festival had been superbly promoted and I can only think that the disappointing attendances at some events were down to the huge variety on offer (although I did hear grumblings about the price). If it had been possibly to be in three places at once I would have also attended the Broadway for the Woody Guthrie do and tagged along on the Nottingham Literary Trail. Roll on next year.

Meanwhile, check out this summer’s Lowdham Book Festival June 21-29 and the Gedling Book Festival July 12-14.   

If you are interested in joining The Royal Writers, please contact David Longford, Education Manager for the Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall on 0115 9895531 or email him david.longford@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

For more information about Cathy Grindrod, visit www.cathygrindrod.co.uk

Steven Dunne’s website is www.stevendunne.co.uk

The Sapphist Writers are a network of lesbian and bisexual women in the East Midlands. Their next meeting is on March 11^th at Nottingham Women’s Centre. Please email sapphistwriters@yahoo.co.uk

The Rainbow Writers will next be meeting at Nottingham Writers’ Studio, 7.30pm, 21^st March.

The shortlist for this year’s EMBA will be announced at ‘States of Independence’ a free event celebrating indie publishing at De Montforth University on Sat March 16^th. The winners will be announced in June.