It's time for the 1950s:
1950
And So to Rome (1950) by Cecil Roberts
An inveterate traveller, Cecil Roberts came to Italy in this
year, aged 58, and lived for many years in the Grand Hotel in Rome. And So to
Rome is one of his history slash travel works, in the same style as his
previous And So to Bath (1940) and And So to America (1946). According to its
blurb And So to Rome is a vivid portrayal of 2,000 years of life in the most
astonishing city in the history of mankind. Roberts, who edited of The
Nottingham Journal from 1920 to 1925, was awarded the Italian Gold Medal in
1966.
Beeston held a photo exhibition to mark the centenary of the
Public Libraries Act. The Public Libraries Act of 1850 made it possible for
public funds to be used to support public town libraries. It was left to those
holding the local purse strings to decide if public money should be used for
such a purpose. The people of Nottingham petitioned for a public library but
none was forthcoming at the time. Eventually the act created our enduring
national institution that provides universal free access to information and
literature, as was indicative of the moral, social and educative concerns of
the time. 
1951
The Vixen's Cub (1951) by Katharine Morris
Between 1933 and 1958 Katharine 'Mollie' Morris published
five novels set in Nottinghamshire villages. Nottingham born Katharine Morris
moved to a small country house in Bleasby and by the age of twenty-three had
written the first of her gentle stories of life in the English countryside.
Morris became involved in PEN during the 1930s, the human rights organisation
originally for ‘Poets, Essayists and Novelists', and by the ‘50s she was at her
most productive. The Vixen's Cub was published by Macdonald of London.
He no longer saw the tree or the water, only this woman who
was his mother. (from The Vixen’s Cub)
In 1951 a short story called Mountain Jungle won a prize at the Nottingham Writers' Club. The author was a 21-year-old Alan Sillitoe.
1952
The Gentle Falcon (1952) by Hilda Lewis
The Gentle Falcon is a fictionalised biography of the child
bride who married Richard II. Narrated by young Isabella Clinton, a close
companion of the Queen, the book was published by Oxford University Press in
1952 and adapted for television two years later with Glen Alyn as the adult
Isabella and Victoria Nolan playing her as a child. Hilda Lewis’ historical
novel had special appeal to younger readers. There are excellent illustrations
throughout from fellow Nottinghamian and renowned artist Evelyn Gibbs creator
of the Midlands Group of Artists.
Some men brought home gold from the wars and some fine
jewels, my father used to say, but he brought back the rarest jewel of them all
- his bride. (from The Gentle Falcon)
It was in 1952 that Agatha Christie attended the opening of
what would become the longest running theatrical production. Christie’s The
Mousetrap was performed for the first time in Nottingham’s Theatre Royal. The
first Detective Sergeant Trotter was played by a young Richard Attenborough.
The production opened here because Nottingham was regarded as a lucky city to
launch new plays. 
1953
Nottingham, Settlement to City (1953) by Duncan Gray
Duncan Gray, a local librarian between 1935-1953, traces the
history of Nottingham from the Anglo-Saxon settlement, on the site of the Lace
Market, to the modern city of the mid-twentieth century. Detailed and
well-illustrated, Nottingham Settlement to City is a companion volume to Gray’s
Nottingham through 500 years.
We do not know anything about Mr. Snot excepting that he
gave his name to the earlier form of Nottingham, which was Snotingaham – the
Ham or Home of the people of Snot. (from Nottingham Settlement to City) 
There was a major exhibition in Nottingham in 1953. Independent television companies arrived here with their ideas to pitch and pilot new shows. Held at Nottingham's Albert Hall, the mostly light performances featured celebrities who also gave interviews. One of the game shows piloted set out to find the most happily married couple in Nottingham, with Eamonn Andrews as the host.
1954
Food in England (1954) by Dorothy Hartley
Dorothy Hartley (1893–1985) was a social historian, skilled
illustrator, and prominent author. She attended Nottingham Art School and later
returned there as a teacher. Her books cover six centuries of English history
but she’s best known as the author of Food in England. Still in print it’s been
described by Delia Smith as, ‘A classic book without a worthy successor – a
must for any keen English cook.’
In 1954 Michael Eaton was born in Sherwood. From his
grandfather he inherited the complete works of Charles Dickens, and later
adapted Dickens for theatre and radio. An award-winning dramatist Eaton is the
writer behind the TV drama-documentaries Why Lockerbie, Shoot to Kill and
Shipman, and original dramas including Signs and Wonders and Flowers Of The
Forest. He has written several plays for Nottingham Playhouse including Charlie
Peace – His Amazing Life and Astounding Legend and was Visiting Professor in
the School of Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University.
1955
Country Dance (1955) by Katharine Morris
Country Dance is another of Morris’ light stories of the
English countryside. The locations are alive with nature providing an enriching
influence on the characters as they respond to the season and their cycles of
life. After her first novel was rejected, Morris sought advice from the eminent
writer Lionel Britton, who urged her to base her next work on something she
really knew about. From then on, village life and nature provided her with the
inspiration she needed.
Novelist Eric Malpass (1910-1996) was a household name in
Germany (and across Europe), regularly topping the bestseller lists with his
humorous and witty descriptions of rural England and family life. Malpass
worked in Long Eaton for Barclays Bank for four decades. Encouraged by winning
the Observer Short Story Competition in 1955 he left the bank to try to make it
as a writer and his first novel followed two years later, winning Palma d'Oro
in Italy for the best humorous novel of the year. He also wrote historical
fiction as well as a trilogy of novels about Shakespeare, and other books
including a novel based on the life of Notts-born Thomas Cranmer. Malpass lived
close to his roots in the Midlands for all but the last few years of his life.
He was President of the Nottingham Writers' Club.
1956
The Hosanna Man (1956) by Philip Callow
Philip Callow’s debut novel is set in Nottingham and the
Hyson Green area. Full of strong working-class, self-educated bohemians, its
style is influenced by Lawrence, of whom Callow was a great admired and later
wrote a biography Son and Lover. The autobiographical story has its protagonist
Louis mixing with a range of well-defined characters. A Nottingham bookseller
claimed one such character was based on him, and threatened to sue for libel
for depicting him as someone who peddles under-the-counter pornography. Under
this threat the novel was withdrawn and remaining copies were pulped. Thanks to
Nottingham’s Shoestring Press, The Hosanna Man is now back in print.
In 1956 Willis Hall (1929-2005) spent eleven days at sea on
a trawler to gain first-hand knowledge of the life of fishermen for his story
Harvest of Sea. Hall was an English playwright and radio and television writer
whose writing drew on his working-class roots. His is best-known for his stage
adaptation of Billy Liar co-written with the book's author Keith Waterhouse.
Hall penned the play The Long And The Short And The Tall set in British Malaya.
After returning from Malaya he directed the then unknown John Dexter in a
Nottingham YMCA production of Antigone. Hall moved from Nottingham to London in
1959.
1957
Penny Lace (1957) by Hilda Lewis
Nicholas Penny works his way up from the factory floor to a
master in this gritty story of lace in the late Victorian Nottingham of which
it is mostly set. Perhaps the best novel about our lace industry Penny Lace is
insightful and authentically descriptive. Mr Penny’s uneasy relationships with
his colleagues and competitors add conflict to the strong storyline. Driven by
hatred he adopts new methods of working that can undercut his rivals, one such
man is to become Penny's father-in-law.
Penny Lace was republished by Bromley House Editions in
2010. 
Nottingham Playhouse announced Val May as their new artistic
director in 1957. He joined the Playhouse at an important time in its history
as building work had already started on its new home. May was one of the
busiest and most versatile directors of his generation, forging links between
regional theatre and the West End. His productions included 11 premieres
between ’57 and ’61. From here he revived Richard II at the London Old Vic and
his Nottingham production of Celebration, an early Waterhouse-Hall kitchen-sink
regional comedy, was later seen in London at the Duchess.
1958
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) by Alan Sillitoe
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was written over seven
years: some of the chapters originating from short stories, sketches and poems,
all focusing on working class Nottingham and the Seaton family. Sillitoe
portrayed ordinary people as he knew them and, in this book more than any
other, he found his true voice. For twenty-two-year-old Arthur Seaton, a
factory worker at Raleigh in Nottingham, life is one long battle with
authority. After work is done Arthur becomes a hard-drinking, hard-fighting,
hedonist, happy to bed married women and stuff the consequences. But following
every Saturday night is a Sunday morning. Seaton aims to cheat the world before
it can cheat him. He is unlikable and fascinating: as one reviewer put it, he
‘has the charm of a naughty dog’.
Alan Sillitoe’s debut became an instant classic. Critics
said Sillitoe’s voice was more authentic than D H Lawrence's but he never much
valued the opinions of critics. He did, however, value the success of this
novel which shifted over a million copies and brought him security which
allowed a freedom to write throughout his life.
For it was Saturday night, the best and bingiest glad-time
of the week, one of the fifty-two holidays in the slow-turning Big Wheel of the
year, a violent preamble to a prostrate Sabbath. (from Saturday Night and
Sunday Morning)
Nottingham’s Empire Theatre closed in this year. Many famous
names treaded the boards here including Charlie Chaplin, Houdini, Lily
Langtree, Arthur Askey, Tommy Trinder, Vera Lynn, Phillis Dixy, Laurel &
Hardy, Buddy Holly, Billy Cotton & His Band, Eddie Calvert, Morecambe &
Wise, Julie Andrews and Des O'Connor. It was at The Empire in 1954 that Ken
Dodd made his first professional performance. In its later years weekly striptease
shows appeared on the bill. The Theatre was closed by the Moss Empires chain in
the June of ’58 with assurances that it would later re-open. Instead, the
building was demolished.
1959
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1959) by Alan Sillitoe
This collection begins with the title story, a powerful work
focusing on Smith, a working-class lad in Borstal. Back home his use for
running might have been to get away from the police but he’s now on the road to
bringing glory to the institution he finds himself in – or so his governor and
gaffer think. Smith has other ideas. A rebel whose only honesty is to himself,
Smith uses running as a time to think and reflect on his situation. At the
heart of this story is the contempt the young man has for established
authority. The Sunday Express said that ‘this story should be required reading
for do-gooders and do-badders alike’.
You might think it a bit rare, having long-distance
cross-country runners in Borstal, thinking that the first think a long-distance
cross-country runner would do when they set him loose in the fields and woods
would be to run as far away from the place as he could get on a bellyfull of
Borstal slum-gullion – but you’re wrong, and I’ll tell you why. (from The
Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner)
In 1959 a twenty-three-year-old Brian Blessed performed at
Nottingham Playhouse in Two For The See Saw. A year earlier Blessed had met
Agatha Christie here while he was working on the set of Spider’s Web. Blessed
recently recalled the occasion, ‘I’d just left drama school, I built the sets and
all kinds of things, and one day I was on my own in the theatre and silhouetted
against the doorway which led onto the street was this tall women. She told me
“You can call me Clarissa, my favourite name”.’ (Clarissa was Christie’s middle
name) Blessed added, ‘I spent a fortnight with Christie and she helped me with
the play… And she took me all over Nottingham.’
Meanwhile at our Theatre Royal; one-time Nottingham resident
Willis Hall's play The Long And The Short And The Tall arrived at the theatre
and starred a then little-known Cockney actor called Michael Caine. Caine had
been Peter O’Toole’s understudy when the play had been in the West End but
Caine took over for the national tour after O’Toole left to make Lawrence of
Arabia.
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