NottsLit: 20th Century Notts, 1970-1979

1900-02, 1903-05, 1906-08, 1909-11, 1912-14, 1915-17, 1918-20, 1921-23, 1924-26, 1927-29, 1930-32, 1933-35, 1936-38, 1939-41, 1942-44, 1945-47, 1948-50, 1951-53, 1954-56, 1957-59, 1960, 1961-63, 1964-66, 1967-69, 1970-72, 1973-75, 1976-78, 1979-81, 1982-84, 1985-87, 1988-1990, 1991-93, 1994-96, 1997-99

The 1970s: A Broadmarsh, a Booker and a Brian.

1970

Nottingham: A Biography by Geoffrey Trease (1970)

Nottingham born and bred Geoffrey Trease was one of our most prolific authors and an ideal narrator for the story of our city. The industry, the rebellion, the famous sons and daughters, it’s all here and told with all the readability Trease was known for. In addition to being one of the best books about Nottingham it contains plenty of local literary references.

You either look back in anger or you write con amore. Amore always came more naturally to me. (from Nottingham: A Biography)

Launching in 1970 the Nottingham Festival brought a range of events to the city, including a balloon race, a motorbike display team and a ‘mock battle’ which accidently blew up a water main. The large and costly summer festival took place every year until 1983 inclusive, providing arts and entertainment, and attracting many stars of music and screen to Nottingham in an effort to demonstrate our cultural and commercial dynamism.

Organisers of the 1970 festival called for real-life Robin Hoods to come over as VIP guests. They received more than 100 letters, one of which was from a four-year-old American girl whose parents had named Robin Hood in an effort to help her become popular and outgoing.

1971

Travels in Nihilon by Alan Sillitoe (1971)

Alan Sillitoe’s satirical novel is about a country founded on nihilism where honesty is outlawed and news is preceded by the statement ‘Here are the lies!’ Five writers/researchers are dispatched to Nihilon to compile a guidebook. Their attempts to gather information are thwarted by a disorienting environment in which nothing can be trusted. In a strange dystopian world of enforced anarchy, a revolt takes place only to result in a similar system of organised chaos. It’s a society founded on greed, selfishness and threat, and the setting for Sillitoe's dark comedy handled with a light touch, in which war is fought by older people who have less to lose.

Across the road, painted along one of the white buildings, and intended mainly for tourists leaving the country, was the cryptic but worrying legend: SELF-EXPRESSION PLUS SELF-INDULGENCE EQUALS NIHILISM. SIGNED: PRESIDENT NIL. (from Travels in Nihilon)

The year witness the end of the impressive Gaumont Cinema which closed after 23 years. Before that it had been the Hippodrome Variety Theatre, built in 1908 as a music hall. The three-floored building was a 2,500-seater on Wollaton Street/Goldsmith Street. The grand old building has since been demolished.

1972

Cold Gradations by Stanley Middleton (1972)

Middleton’s 1972 novel Cold Gradations began a key period of output for the prolific author according to Paul Binding, the novelist, critic, poet and cultural historian. This novel was also highlighted by Philip Davis as one of Middleton’s ‘major works’. The protagonist of Cold Gradations is a retired schoolmaster. The book’s ending is heart-breaking.

I assume the title comes from Samuel Johnson’s poem On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet which ends thus:

Then with no throbbing fiery pain,

No cold gradations of decay,

Death broke at once the vital chain,

And freed his soul the nearest way.

He was an elderly pedagogue, who’d taught history and literature and Latin, who had now paid the penalty for his bias. (from Cold Gradations)

1972 was a year of openings: A superb D. H. Lawrence exhibition opened at Nottingham Castle's Museum. Costing over £6,000 it featured a collection of documents, photographs, paintings, sketches, objects and other material from Lawrence’s early years in Eastwood, Nottingham, Croydon and elsewhere, taking us from his earliest recorded childhood to the First World War. His paintings took centre stage.

The formal opening of the Victoria Shopping Centre took place. The Viccy Centre housed the Victoria Centre Market – and still does - which had a book-stall that survives to this day in the form of Mary and Tony’s. Mary is the daughter of the original store owner.

Mushroom Bookshop opened on Arkwright Street in 1972. Anarchistic and independent the store later moved to Heathcote Street where it survived until 2000. In 1994 the shop was attacked by fifty fascists.

1973

Nancy of Nottingham by Audrey Coppard (1973)

Nancy and her brother are sent by their father to the big city of Nottingham after their mother dies. The young villagers are shocked at the poverty and struggle awaiting them in early 19th Century Nottingham as they adjust to life with their uncle and aunt. Nancy is subjected to the harsh workhouse laws and, near starvation, she must struggle to survive. She observes the hard times and unemployment as machines have taken over the traditional work of stocking-makers. Unrest leads to a brave response as machines are smashed under the leadership of the mysterious Captain Ludd. Coppard’s tale of poverty and injustice is also a successful coming-of-age story. The 144-page Nancy of Nottingham was published by Heinemann.

Rowland Emett, cartoonist for Punch magazine, artist and quirky inventor, designed and built an elaborate clock which first appeared in the Victoria Centre in this year. Emett is most famous for producing the car and inventions in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (story: Ian Fleming, screenplay: Roald Dahl). Emett's 23-foot water fountain is one of only two of his inventions that remain on permanent display in the UK.

1974

Holiday by Stanley Middleton (1974)

The 1974 Booker Prize was the first to be awarded to two novels jointly; Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist and Stanley Middleton’s Holiday. There had been some controversy as the judging panel included the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, the wife of one of the shortlisted authors, Kingsley Amis.

In Holiday, a grieving Edwin Fisher seeks understanding. The recently separated lecturer visits a seaside resort where he ponders the themes of life, death and broken relationships. Told through thoughts and flashbacks we enter the head of Fisher, a disgruntled, contemptuous and vulnerable man in need of security. “Everybody judges from the point of view of his own inadequacy,” reflects Fisher whose perspective shifts in unexpected ways.

At thirty-two Edwin Fisher admitted his emotional immaturity when he thought back to those days, in that he felt again the embarrassment, the shame, the yearning to be elsewhere or some other body, which had constantly nagged him miserable. (from Holiday)

Jim Lees of Nottingham set up the Robin Hood Society in 1974. Later dubbed 'the world's foremost authority on Robin Hood' by CBS Television, Lees would obsessively pursue the legendary outlaw for 40 years concluding that the real Robin was Robert de Kyme, born around 1210 at Bilborough. A researcher for the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves consulted Mr Lees - author of The Quest for Robin Hood (1987) - and offered him a walk-on part in the Costner movie.

Robin Hood Radio didn’t fare so well in this year, missing out to Radio Trent for the rights to begin broadcasting as Nottingham's commercial radio station.

1975

The Stones of Maggiare by Miranda Seymour (1975)

Before writing biographies, Miranda Seymour wrote fiction. Her first novel The Stones of Maggiare - described as 'gripping historical fiction' - came out in 1975. It’s a meticulously researched work, set in Renaissance Italy and based on the chronicles of the Sforza family. Seymour is a novelist, biographer and critic whose has been a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University. She lives in her family’s ancestral home in Nottinghamshire, Thrumpton Hall.

The (old) Broadmarsh Shopping Centre was opened by H.R.H, The Duke of Gloucester in 1975. This followed years of plans, promises and protestations (the first plans came out in 1949). Many people had wanted to save the historic area that by 1975 had become buried under concrete. The needless destruction of the ancient Drury Hill was a real blow to the city. Councillor Len Maynard had said: “I am very sorry to see Drury Hill go but a small alleyway should not inhibit the progress of a large scheme.” The medieval thoroughfare of Drury Hill could have been preserved and used as a tourist attraction. Instead, it’s lost forever. The 'new' Broadmarsh might become the home to a new Central Library, with ambitions to house the best children’s library in Britain.

1976

The Winter of the Birds by Helen Cresswell (1976)

Of the fifty-plus published stories written by Nottinghamshire’s Helen Cresswell, The Winter of the Birds is believed to have been her personal favourite. It’s a humorous tale with elements of the gothic and sci-fi genres. A young boy called Edward, wanting to become a hero, seizes upon an old man’s terrifying vision of birds. Edward’s hopes to save the day now seem to depend on these ‘terrible and purposeful’ steel birds that come in the night. As he teams up with his senior accomplice, Edward discovers the nature of true heroism.

…true valour is inside your head and not a matter of muscles… (from The Winter of the Birds)

It was in this year that Stephen Lowe became Stephen Lowe. The playwright took his mother's family name as his professional identity on joining Alan Ayckbourn's company as an actor and assistant manager. His true surname is Wright but to Stephen it “seemed a boring common name and I felt I clearly should have been called something more exotic.”

Richard Eyre, Artistic Director at the Nottingham Playhouse, commissioned Stephen Lowe to write a new play. That play was Touched and a year later it would win a George Devine award.

1977

Daughter of Darkness by Miranda Seymour (1977)

One of Nottinghamshire greatest biographers, Miranda Seymour, began her writing career with several works of fiction, including Daughter of Darkness. It's history at its most colourful. Murder and treachery have always clung to the name of Borgia, thanks to the scandalous rumours recorded by the chroniclers of the times. Their infamy has rubbed off on to those associated with them: Machiavelli's admiration for Cesare still blots his own reputation, and Guilia Farnese, the Pope's mistress, was nicknamed 'The Bride of Christ' by her contemporaries. Lucrezia, the willing victim of her ambitious and incestuous family, has been remembered as a debauched Salome.

Roy Catchpole absconded from borstal and became a thief. His life later changed for the better after he read an Agatha Christie novel. This sparked a love of reading that led him to the works of Shakespeare and, most significantly, the bible. Sporting stolen clobber, Catchpole turned himself in and spent the next 21 months in prison where he studied to enter the clergy. In 1977 he became the new minister at St. Paul's in Hyson Green.

Halfway through the video (below) you can watch Roy talk about the area and its people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=N31XdTjDfB4

1978

Two Brothers by Stanley Middleton (1978)

Two Brothers was one of the novels for which Stanley Middleton was most proud to have written. The brothers concerned are a quiet schoolmaster come poet, a man of curiosity and contemplation, and a culturally poorer, capitalistic businessman.

Provincial. Limitation of subject matter. Some flatness of language. Absence of the larger gestures. Awkwardness. But. But. But. Characterised by a deep sincerity, a single eye, an attachment to reality, a love of humanity and the townscapes of his Midland home... Poet of the Prosaic. (The poet Potter’s mock obituary of himself from Two Brothers)

In 1978 Frank Palmer was named Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards for his scoop on the year’s most sensational trial ‘the sex-in-chains case’ involving Joyce McKinney, kidnapper of a Mormon missionary with whom she was obsessed.

Palmer had previously achieved the rare feat of writing the front and back page leads for the Daily Express on the same day, this followed his interview with Matt Busby after the Munich Air disaster.

After taking early retirement in the ‘90s, Frank Palmer wrote two series of crime novels.

“He taught young journalists like me everything about good, old-fashioned journalism,” said Alastair Campbell of Frank Palmer. Campbell had worked with Palmer on the Daily Mirror.

1979

In a Strange Land by Stanley Middleton (1979)

One of Stanley Middleton’s finest works, In a Strange Land observes the absurdities of life and the weight of death. As in Harris’s Requiem the novel’s hero is both a teacher and a talented man-of-music whose everyday existence is taking its toll. Unfulfilled relationships and unwelcome requests provide the distractions in a life most challenging. Can an achieved ambition be enough to make a life worth living or is it merely an attempt to anchor the fleeting?

He did not ruin Bach; he phrased the rich notes sharp as glass, but he would not hang about. A big work was worth five minutes of his time, and that was all… (from In a Strange Land)

Godfrey Hounsfield was born near Newark a century ago. As a child he was fascinated by electrical gadgets and farming machinery. “This was all at the expense of my schooling at Magnus Grammar School in Newark,” he said, “where they tried hard to educate me but where I responded only to physics and mathematics with any ease and moderate enthusiasm.”

In 1979 Hounsfield received a Nobel Prize for his development of X-ray computer tomography (CT). This vital work is examined in a book by S. Bates, L. Beckmann, A. Thomas and R. Waltham, entitled Godfrey Hounsfield: Intuitive Genius of CT. It includes many recollections from Hounsfield's family, friends and colleagues.