Books From A City

Books From a City – a small selection of our finest

Novels set in Nottingham

Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence (1913)

'I tell you I've written a great book,’ said Lawrence to his publisher on sending a manuscript of Sons and Lovers, his compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations. Paul Morel, on becoming the centre of his disappointed and fiercely protective mother's world, is torn between his individual desires and family allegiances.

A Terrace in the Sun by Cecil Roberts (1951)

The book opens amid the fading luxury and glamour of the French coast but we soon head to Nottingham in what is Robert’s self-titled “Nottingham novel”, a semi-biographical account of his growing up and coming of age here. Somewhat lost and underrated, the book captures an early 20^th Century Nottingham.

Penny Lace by Hilda Lewis (1957)

Probably the best novel about our lace industry Penny Lace is insightful and authentically descriptive. Driven by resentment, Mr Penny adopts new methods of working that undercut his rivals, one such man being his own father-in-law.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe (1958)

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 can he cheat the world before it cheats him? 

Set in a fictionalised version of the city.

A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene (1936)

After returning to England, gun-for-hire Raven is paid in stolen notes. Bent of revenge the ruthless anti-hero pursues an agent who crosses him. A cat-and-mouse chase follows as a detective-sergeant tracks Raven to Nottwich (Nottingham). As the action takes place it appears to the reader that the killing Raven was hired for might have been intended to trigger war.

A Great Adventure by Muriel Hine (1942)

Set in the 1880s, A Great Adventure is based on Hine’s childhood in Nottingham. The story features her family home on the corner of Oxford Street and Regent Street (not far from the Playhouse); The Park is named The Chase, and as her characters navigate their way around Lacingham (Nottingham) their paths exactly match those of Nottingham at that time.

They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple (1943)

The Blakes are an ordinary family: Celia looks after the house and Thomas works at the family engineering business. This book begins when he meets Mr Knight - a crooked financier – and goes on to track the Blakes’ swift climb and fall. The story is set in Trentham (Nottingham).

Harris’s Requiem by Stanley Middleton (1960)

‘Beechnall is Nottingham, the whole thing,’ admitted Middleton, who ‘crossed Bulwell with Hucknall’ when devising the name. When Thomas Harris’s coal-miner father dies, Harris (a teacher/composer) decides to write a requiem for him which is also a thinly veiled attack on the powerful elite.

Notts Crime Fiction

Top Hard by Stephen Booth (1988)

In a world full of injustice, among people still haunted by memories of the miners' strike, Stones McClure is a man trying to put his old life behind him for good. But survival in this part of the world depends on the Top Hard Rule - you can't trust anyone these days.

Easy Meat by John Harvey (1996)

Nottingham’s finest detective, DI Charlie Resnick, comes into contact with Hannah Campbell with whom he finds himself falling unexpectedly and awkwardly in love. This case involves Nicky Snape, a teenage, long-time petty juvenile offender, who has been picked up for killing Eric Netherfield, only to turn up dead himself two days later.

Bone and Cane by David Belbin (2011)

It’s 1997 and Labour MP Sarah Bone celebrates a successful campaign to secure an appeal for a convicted murderer, but she soon discovers that he might be guilty after all. Driven to uncover the truth, she also has to fight the most important election of a generation, one she is expected to lose. This is the first in a series.

Dead Flowers by Nicola Monaghan (2020)

Hardened by ten years on the murder squad, DNA analyst Doctor Sian Love has seen it all. So when she finds human remains in the basement of her new home, she knows the drill. In a parallel narrative taking us back to the late 1960s we discover how it all came to be.

By Lost Nottingham Writers

The Sailor by JC Snaith (1916)

The story opens in a rough part of a textile town where Henry, a small boy, is crouched in desperate terror against the wall of a blind alley, while his drunken and terrible old aunt stands over him, heavy lash in hand, taunting the child before striking him. After escaping, Henry experiences an extraordinary life as a mariner.

Desert Saga by William Hatfield (1933)

Born Ernest Chapman (a son of Hyson Green), Hatfield’s most serious novel was Desert Saga, about an Aboriginal boy, one of the Arunta people. It portrays the various white invasions of their land and culture. After moving to Australia the author sympathetically studied Aboriginal languages and customs.

The Death of Mr. Lomas by Francis Vivian (1941)

When Mr. Lomas visits the Chief Constable of Burnham and describes his symptoms, Sir Wilfred Burrows believes that his visitor suffers from nothing more serious than nerves. Later that day Mr. Lomas's body is recovered from the water at Willow Lock; yet death is not by drowning. This is the first in a series. 

The Vixen’s Cub by Katharine Morris (1951)

Born in Lenton, buried in Bleasby, ‘Mollie’ Morris published five Notts set novels between 1933 and 1958. Her gentle stories of life in the English countryside include The Vixen's Cub, published by Macdonald of London. Morris became involved in PEN during the 1930s, the human rights organisation originally for ‘Poets, Essayists and Novelists’.  

Set in Notts - Children’s & YA books

A Princess Comes to Our Town by Rose Fyleman (1927)

Princess Finestra doesn’t want to marry the boring prince her mother and father, the Fairy King and Queen, have chosen for her. She wants to have adventures in real life, so her godmother arranges for her to be transported to Nottingham’s Market-place, where she meets the narrator of the story.

Bows Against the Barons by Geoffrey Trease (1934)

A young lad from Nottingham is made an outlaw for killing one of the king's deer. His fight against injustice is aided by the commoners’ great leader. Robin Hood and his band of rebels stand against the elite in this radical telling of the story.

Accidental Friends by Helena Pielichaty (2008)

Thrust together on the first day of term at college, four youngsters form an unlikely and uneasy alliance that eventually leads to friendship, and even love. A life-threatening, accident tests this friendship and loyalty to the extreme. Set in Newark.

Smart by Kim Slater (2014)

There's been a murder, but the police don't seem to care. It’s over to the detective skills of young Kieran Woods who is amazing at drawing but terrible at fitting in. Slater's outstanding debut is a moving and compelling novel with a loveable character at its heart.

Must-read Novels (by Notts writers)

The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler (1903)

Written between 1873 and 1884 and published posthumously, this is a semi-autobiographical account of a harsh upbringing and troubled adulthood that shines an iconoclastic light on the hypocrisy of a Victorian clerical family's domestic life and questions conventional values. Set in a fictionalised Notts.

Holiday by Stanley Middleton (1974)

The 1974 Booker Prize winning Holiday sees a grieving Edwin Fisher seek 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.

Fatherland by Robert Harris (1992)

The best-selling thriller writer began his move to fiction with Fatherland, a detective story/alternate history in which Nazi Germany won World War II. The protagonist is an officer of the Kripo, the criminal police, who is investigating the murder of a government official.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor (2002)

This incredible debut is a day in the life of an ordinary suburban British street, with the plot alternately following the lives of its various inhabitants. All but one person's viewpoint is described in the third person, and the narrative uses a flowing grammatical and poetic style which mimics their thought processes.