Fears for Aspley Library

Nottingham City Council is planning to close three libraries. One of those under threat is Aspley Library in "the most deprived ward in the city", according to the council.

Derrick Buttress wrote about growing up in the area in his first volume of autobiography ‘Broxtowe Boy’ (2004). Buttress found much comfort in Aspley Public Library’s junior library which, on first sight of, he "felt like yelling in joy”.

"I entered the room and felt like yelling for joy. I had never seen so many books in one place, and all for children. Even the smell was beguiling. It would take me for ever to read them all, and the prospect was wonderful. The room was brightly lit and furnished with round tables the colour of honey. Around them there were child-sized chairs with upholstered seats - the luxury!" Derrick Buttress

The lantern, 1937 - ?

Aspley Library built 1937

Laying the foundation stone

Summer school, Aspley Library 1983

The Library still has weekly after-school clubs for children and a large children's area. 

Sign the Petition and Save our Libraries Save Nottingham Libraries - Action Network

Basford, Aspley, and Radford/Lenton Libraries are all under threat of closure by Nottingham City Council. The areas where these threatened libraries are situated are not affluent areas, and they need libraries even more than most. 

Basford Library

Radford/Lenton Library

Please follow @SaveNottmLib on Twitter and help save our libraries. 

Visit Save Nottingham Libraries

Book Launches in April

This April - Book Launches

Book Launch: David Belbin’s Death in the Family

Saturday April 2nd, 2.00pm

Venue: Basford Library, NG6 OAR

Buy the book

David Belbin’s fourth Nottingham-based Bone and Cane crime novel.

1.45pm: Refreshments

2.00pm: Memoirist Graham Caveney will introduce the event and interview David, who will also read from the new novel and take questions from the audience.

Set during the 2001 General Election, Death in the Family is about the unexplained death of an Asian dentist and has scenes set in and near Basford. Nick Cane is suspected of murder whilst Sarah Bone MP seems set to lose her seat. An Investigative journalist is determined to get to the bottom of the connection between the two.

A Free event.

Book online with Eventbrite. 

 

Book Launch: Cathy Grindrod’s Surrender

Tuesday April 19^th, 7.00pm

Venue: St Martin’s Church in Bilborough, NG8 3BH

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Pre-order the book

Cathy Grindrod's book of poetry will be launched in a beautiful setting where Cathy has been teaching writing (and where murals by the Nottingham artist Evelyn Gibbs have recently been recovered).

In Surrender, Cathy explores how we connect and disconnect in the ‘Great Game’ of life – with the past, place, work, nature, the animal world and ultimately, with others – in an exploration of what it means to be human.

Refreshments provided

Cost: 0 - £12

Book online with Eventbrite. 

Book Launch: Andrew Graves’s Not Dancing with Ingrid Pitt

Tuesday April 26^th, 7.30pm – 9.30pm

Venue: West Bridgford Library

Buy the book

Not Dancing with Ingrid Pitt is an honest and personal collection of poetry, capturing missed opportunities, those unstructured moments and nostalgic, half recalled memories which skulk at the periphery of an increasingly confusing current world state. Graves circumnavigates his modern worries and presents his own uniquely crafted narratives which utilise estranged family members, eccentric strangers and forgotten Hollywood cast-offs in his fascinating line up of unconventional protagonists.

A Free event

Book online with Eventbrite. 

Book Launch: Christian Weaver’s The Law in 60 Seconds

Wednesday 27th April, 5.00pm – 7.00pm

Venue: Lecture Theatre 2, Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University, NG1 4BU

Buy the book

Join Christian Weaver in conversation, for the launch of his new book The Law in 60 Seconds, in which the author, a lawyer, brings together everything you need to know to claim your space in the world. Whether you are arguing with your landlord, looking for a refund, going to a protest or being harassed, this essential guide illuminates the full power of the law, and arms you with your rights. The event will be followed by drinks and canapés.

A Free event

Book online here. 

 

Book launch: Graham Caveney’s On Agoraphobia

Thursday, 28th April, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

Venue: Antenna, 9A Beck St, NG1 1EQ

Pre-order the book

Bar available prior to the event and at the break.

7.00pm Graham Caveney will be interviewed by Colin Wright, Associate Professor of Critical Theory at the Univeristy of Nottingham and a practicing psychoanalyst.

When Graham was in his early twenties he began to suffer from what was eventually diagnosed as agoraphobia. What followed were decades of managing his condition and learning to live within the narrow limits it imposed on his life: no motorways, no dual carriageways, no shopping centres, limited time outdoors.

On Agoraphobia looks at what it means to go through life with an anxiety disorder that evades easy definition.

Eventbrite booking details will be available via Five Leaves Bookshop’s events’ page. Booking essential.

 

Advance Notice

Book Launch: John Baird’s Follow the Moon and Stars

Thursday May 5^th, 7.00pm – 8.45pm

Venue: West Bridgford Library, NG2 6AT

Buy the book

7.00pm: Bar available

7.30pm: Hannah Trevarthen, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature’s new Director, will introduce the author John Baird for an illustrated talk on Nottinghamshire’s literary heritage and his new book Follow the Moon and Stars – a literary journey through Nottinghamshire.

8.15pm: John Baird will be joined by Patrick Limb, Chair Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, for a Q&A session.

John will deliver an illustrated talk as he tracks down some of the writers, past and present, through the places they lived, worked, wrote about and were inspired by. Amongst the pubs, churches, grand houses and theatres are more unlikely destinations to have influenced our authors, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, booksellers, publishers and historians.

Discount will be available on the night, on this book and on other books by Nottinghamshire writers.

A Free event

Eventbrite booking details. More info here.

I will blog more about this event with a new post next month.

NUCoL ANNOUNCES NEW DIRECTOR

Hannah Trevarthen is named the new Director of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature.

 She joins from English PEN, one of the world’s oldest human rights organisations, where she has worked as their Events and Partnerships Manager since 2015, leading their year round programme of high-profile events and prizes. 

"I’m honoured to be joining the Nottingham City of Literature team and to lead the organisation's next chapter.  I have long been an admirer of NUCoL and its commitment to nurturing talent, championing Nottingham’s rich and dynamic cultural sector and heritage, and celebrating the transformative power of words. As someone who grew up in the East Midlands, this appointment is extra special to me and I greatly look forward to working with partners across the City and the UK along with the UNESCO Creative Cities Network to build on and strengthen NUCoL’s mission."

Between 2019 and 2021, Hannah led Common Currency, English PEN’s centenary celebration, a multi-partner project funded by Arts Council England working with literature and cultural organisations nationally and internationally.  Highlights included commissioning a new digital piece from Ai Weiwei which was projected on the Southbank Centre. Previous to this, she spent four years as Assistant Programmer at Edinburgh International Book Festival. Hannah holds an MA in Cultural Policy and Management from Sheffield Hallam University, and is an associate trustee for Sheffield Museums. She brings with her strong experience of working internationally, building local and national partnerships, creative programming and championing new talent.  

In taking up the role, she will be steering the organisation into our application to become an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) later this year. She will also be responsible for the strategy of Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature on a local, national and international level, with a commitment to develop and strengthen our mission in Building Better Futures With Words.

NUCOL Chair Patrick Limb said:  To welcome Hannah as our new Director is a moment of real excitement for Nottingham, as a UNESCO City of Literature.  Hannah's appointment is a marker both of her ambition and ours, standing as NUCoL does on the threshold of applying to become a National Portfolio holder supported by Arts Council England. She brings a great commitment to innovation and inclusion, having worked in international, national and local contexts at renowned organisations, latterly English PEN and the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The Board, the team and our core partners – each of whom participated in a competitive recruitment process – very much look forward to supporting Hannah in her work, confident that her dynamism will best enable us to turn present challenges into future opportunities. She will be a great asset not only in fulfilling our mission of building better futures with words but also to our City.

Welcome to Nottingham Hannah.

Handle with Care

 Handle with Care: Travels with My Family (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Delightful stories that'll take you places without having to move an inch!

Shreya Sen-Handley's Handle with Care is a blithe and zippy travelogue that chronicles her adventures around the globe. In tow, most of the time, is the 'quirky clan' comprising her British husband, their two children, and their dog.

Here are tales of the world beyond south Kolkata and Sherwood Forest - places they call home. From much-loved Indian locales like Rajasthan and Kerala to bustling international capitals like New York and Paris, from English idylls like Dorset and Haworth to the sleepy pleasures of Corfu - the journeys are described in vivid detail, seasoned with humour, and sprinkled with wise trip-tips. No matter how gruelling the trek, you weather the storms well, and while you're about it, have tons of fun, food and epiphanies. Mishaps or not, one learns, there is always magic to find.

Shreya Sen-Handley is the author of Memoirs of My Body (2017), which won the Best Nonfiction Book of the year at the NWS Writing Awards 2018, and the short-story collection Strange (2019). A Welsh National Opera librettist and the first South Asian woman to write international opera, she has collaborated with WNO on their film series Creating Change in 2020, and a 200-performer multicultural opera Migrations touring Britain in 2022. Her play Quiet was staged in London by Tara Theatre in 2021. Her short stories and poetry, published, broadcast, and shortlisted for prizes in India, Britain and Australia, also spearheaded a British national campaign against hate crimes in 2020. Shreya teaches creative writing at various institutions, including the University of Cambridge. She is also a columnist and illustrator. 

She lives with her husband, two children, and a dog, in Sherwood Forest.

Furthermoor - Out Now!

Enter a world as vast and dark as your imagination, in this unforgettable coming-of-age story about courage, friendship and finding your voice.

The real world is a hostile place for twelve-year-old Bren, his schooldays stalked by vicious bully, Shaun, and his family life fractured at home. Ever since his sister Evie died in an accident, Bren’s only safe space is Furthermoor, an imagined world of mechanised trees and clockwork animals, where Evie is still alive. In Furthermoor, no one can hurt Bren…until the mysterious Featherly arrives. Now Bren is forced to confront his deepest fears and decide if his place in the real world is worth fighting for. Enter a world as vast and dark as your imagination, in this unforgettable coming-of-age story about courage, friendship and finding your voice.

Copies available from all good bookshops, like this one 

Darren Simpson lives in Nottingham with his wife and two mischievous boys, and spends most of his time pretending he knows what he's doing. After not quite making it as a drummer in a rock band, Darren turned to writing and discovered that it's a fun way not only to escape reality, but also to explore and confront it in unusual ways. He can usually be found lost in his headphones or eating cake mix with a spoon.