EMBA time

Best of luck to Notts writers Matt Sisson and Kim Slater. Both are on the shortlist for this year's East Midlands Book Award for their outstanding debut books. The winner will be announced on Tuesday at Bromley House Library.

The Gedling Book Festival

The Gedling Book Festival 2015 (supported by Gedling Borough Council, New Writers UK and Waterstones Nottingham) comes to Arnold’s Arnot Hill House in June (12-14). An event for readers and writers, featuring over twenty talks and workshops.

Where: Arnot Hill House, Arnot Hill Park, Arnold, Nottingham NG5 6LU

Cost: Free to attend. No booking required.

 

Friday 12^th June

10am Mayor of Gedling Borough Council.

10.30am Historical novelist David Ebsworth talks about the women on the Napoleonic battlefields.

11.30am Alison Moore discusses the transition from her Booker nominated debut to her second novel He Wants.

 

12.30pm. From Authonomy to Scrivener, John Baird looks at some of the best websites and software for writers. Read Dawn of the Unread guest post.

2.00pm Join the crime writer Stephen Booth for his talk entitled ‘Bring in the bodies!’

3.00pm Discover how Eve Makis has written historical fiction through human stories. Read NottsLit review of The Spice Box Letters.

Saturday 13^th June

Children’s Day

10.10am, 10.30am and 3.00pm Storytelling for children with Julie Malone, Rob Hann and Steve Taylor.

Writing workshops with Steve Bowkett running at various times throughout the day.

11.10am Tales from the TARDIS with David J Howe, contributor to over thirty titles about Dr Who.

12.20pm Best literary character, children’s costume award.

12.30pm Adventures of a visiting author, with children’s author Steve Bowkett.

1.30pm A spooky creative writing workshop for children with Sam Stone.

 

2.30pm Launch of the New Writers UK creative writing competition.

4.00pm Katy Perry tribute.

Sunday 14^th June

Non-Fiction Day

10.30am The truth is out there somewhere, says Dr Nick Thom in his talk on writing about ancient history.

11.15am Ex-con Frankie Owens talks about life in prison and how he came to write a book about it.

12.15pm Frank Earp looks at the A to Z of Curious Nottinghamshire.

12.45pm Joe Earp examined Nottingham from old photographs.

2.00pm Rock ‘n’ roll star Vince Eager talks about his life, career and book.

 

3.00pm Professor Alison Milbank discusses J R R Tolkien.

 

More at www.newwritersuk.co.uk

Lowdham Book Festival, this June

The Lowdham Book Festival is in its 16^th year.

Taking place during Independent Bookshop Week, this year’s festival (June 19-28) is typically rammed with events, taking place in the village and beyond. In chronological order here are some of the literary highlights:

Beatrix Potter on her Wedding Day, with Julia Damassa

Fri 19^th June, 12.15-1pm, Southwell Minster

Meet Beatrix Potter aged 47 on her wedding day in 1913, as she returns to her beloved Hill Top to say goodbye. Written and performed by local author and storyteller, Julia Damassa, "After Miss Potter" is a poignant bridging of fact and fiction, capturing the essence of one of our finest literary icons. FREE event

You Say Potato... with David and Ben Crystal

Sunday 21st June, 2–4pm, Village Hall

David and Ben Crystal guide us through the eccentricities of our native dialects. Witty, authoritative and full of fascinating facts, their book You Say Potato is a celebration of the myriad ways in which English is spoken, and how our accents speak louder than words. David will also talk about his new book The Disappearing Dictionary, which collects quirky English words before they disappear for ever. Tickets: £7 Full, £6 concessions, £5 Festival Friends

An Afternoon with Eve Makis

Wednesday 24th June, 2–4pm, Southwell Road Community Building

Eve will talk about her latest book The Spice Box Letters. Read the NottsLit review.

Tickets: £7 Full, £6 Concessions, £5 Festival Friends, Includes tea and pastries

All Day Book Fair

Saturday 27th June, 10am–5pm, Main Street, Lowdham

Free. No tickets required.

The bookfair is spread over the Village Hall, a marquee behind the hall and assorted gazebos. It features publishers, charities, book trade organisations, booksellers with new and second-hand books and cards. There are displays of old-fashioned letterpress printing equipment. Free author talks and talks about books will go on throughout the day. There will be books for children and adults, bargain books and books signed by all the authors appearing during the festival.

The final Saturday at the Lowdham Book Festival is always a date for the diary. Shakespeare’s England, Newstead Abbey, forensic science, poetry and children’s books will be discussed, and lots more, including the public launch of Nottingham's Big City Read & Write at 2pm; Have you read THESE SEVEN Nottingham writers? Join Brick (cartoonist), Shreya Sen Handley, John Harvey, Alison Moore, Paula Rawsthorne and Megan Taylor (with a mystery guest presenting Alan Sillitoe) will be at the Methodist Chapel.

Read the full programme of events HERE

Frederick Clements, a Nottingham writer.

Nottingham’s Yvonne Wright has turned to crowdfunder.co.uk to raise the £1,808 needed to create a biography of Frederick Clements. Frederick Who? You might ask. And that would be the reason for this book, to revive interest in the talented Nottingham writer/illustrator of the late 19^th Century, and to celebrate his life and work.

Largely unknown today, Clements wrote and illustrated a two volume piece of work (he had intended to produce a third volume but never finished it). His subscribers included high profile local businessmen of the day.

This project is a labour of love for Yvonne who hopes the people of Nottingham (and beyond) will get to know Clements, a fellow citizen, albeit one that died almost a hundred years ago.

More on Crowdfunder.co.uk

Twitter: @yvonnewright29

 

 

In Review, The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis

Reviewed, The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis

Fans of Victoria Hislop’s prose or Khaled Hosseini’s storytelling will love The Spice Box Letters, for Eve Makis’s latest novel is remarkable. It deserves to be an international bestseller and I have no doubt it will pick up an award or three. Beautifully written with inventive structure, compelling characters, historical horrors and natural humour, it’s a rich feast.

During the First World War the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire were subjected to holocaust. This ‘Armenian Genocide’ of massacre, torture, abduction, rape and starvation, resulted in much of the Armenian population being deported. Mariam was one such exile, separated from her beloved brother, and, later, her first love. After Mariam dies, her granddaughter Katerina inherits a wooden spice box containing letters and a journal. Having these translated, Katerina learns of Mariam’s childhood and, in making her own journey, discovers her family’s tragic backstory. Katerina (present) and Mariam (past) are both joined by the book’s best character, Gabriel (great uncle/brother), who doesn’t take centre stage until well into the novel.

The many settings, partly defined by their cuisine, are vividly depicted and the family superbly represent this often neglected period of history (and location). It’s an engaging read that takes risks with its structure. The novel is a spice box of secrets, lined with emotion, and full of a history that rests on love. Outside the box is a present of hope, romance, and, in the case of Gabriel and his immediate family, dark and full humour.

If Nottinghamshire’s authors had a league table, Makis would now be in the Champions League places. The switching viewpoints, time periods and setting work perfectly. It’s easy to keep up with all the love and loss.

We would not be here without our ancestors and in knowing our past, and taking pride in one’s heritage, we can learn to respect other cultures. All this whilst understanding the value of family, blood or adopted, and that it must follow new directions. Prepare to cry.

Shelves, the latest Dawn of the Unread

The new Dawn of the Unread is right up NottsLit's street.

It's the turn of Stanley Middleton to get the Dawn of the Unread treatment in their latest edition, which has David Belbin look back at his time with Nottingham's only Booker winning novelist.

This isn't just about Stan's life and work, it's a look at several writers with a connection to the city. From those still widely read (Graham Greene, J M Barrie) to the out of print (Cecil Roberts) and reissued (Dorothy Whipple), the comic depicts many of our literary lights and shows how our contemporary writers are standing on their shoulders.

The art comes from Ella Joyce, daughter of the late Graham Joyce who was due to work on the project. The graphics successfully bring to life venues and figures from our heritage. Fab.

The Link

Henry Kirke White

His poetry was admired by Byron, Southey, Wordsworth and Browning, but Henry Kirke White’s genius is a story of what might have been.  



Henry Kirke White 1785-1806



In 1785 Henry Kirk (he later added the 'e') White was born near Nottingham’s Old Market Square. The son of a local butcher, Henry was a bright lad and started school aged three, soon becoming a voracious reader. He later wrote a poem about his time there at Mrs Grassington's school:

 

First at the form, my task for ever true

A little favourite rapidly I grew.

And oft she stroked my head with fond delight

Held me a pattern to the dunce’s sight.



 


Henry's father's butcher's was in the Shambles, Henry's birthplace, opposite the Flying Horse Hotel.
Henry's mother, better educated than his father, opened a girls’ school in the late 18^th century.

A writer at six, young Henry went off to the Nottingham Academy studying English, Latin and Greek.

Taken out of school by his father, Henry was made to work at the family butcher's and his education fell to a Mr Shipley who was amazed by the boy’s talents. The youngest member of the Nottingham Philosophical Society, Henry began to teach himself law, chemistry, astronomy, electricity, mechanics and drawing. He was also a proficient musician, composer and carpenter whilst attending city schools.

By 1798 he was a prolific writer of poetry and reader in the classics and modern literature. He had also become a stocking-weaver in the hosiery trade, Nottingham’s main industry, and, on his mother’s side, a family practice. Henry hated the drudgery and complained to his mother that he simply couldn’t finish his apprenticeship spinning and folding stockings. He even wrote to the editors of the 'Nottingham Journal' describing his concern for the state of the town's female lace workers. Henry was allowed to join a Middle Pavement law firm as an apprenticed to an attorney. Their office was in Rose Yard, now called King John's Chambers, Bridlesmith Gate.  



Henry's parents lived at 17 High Pavement



He worked long hours, writing poetry in his free time (including lunchtime and while walking), but his poor hearing ruled out a law career.

During a month's leave of absence due to ill health Henry was taken by his mother to stay in a cottage in Wilford. He wrote poems in Saint Wilfrid’s churchyard. 

Here would I wish to sleep, this is the spot
Which I have long marked out to lay my bones in.
Sadly they are not.

The Homes and Haunts of Henry Kirke White (pub 1908) by John T. Godfrey and James Ward devotes 27 pages to Wilford, and 35 to Clifton.

At fifteen Henry gave a talk to a Nottingham literary society on the poet Thomas Chatterton. He wanted to join the group but was rejected for being too young. They relented when his poems began to appear in the 'Monthly Mirror' and the 'Monthly Preceptor'. A string of prizes later, in 1803, he published poetry that included ‘The Fair Maid of Clifton’ and 'Clifton Grove'. This led to Henry becoming the protégé of the future poet laureate Robert Southey who encouraged him to go to St John's College Cambridge, with the intention of a career in the church, but Henry's tuberculosis had other ideas.



Clifton Grove

He did go to Saint John’s and despite his deafness and illness being a handicap he did well, establishing himself as one of the foremost classical scholars and being named man of his year. 

The tuberculosis, with its insomnia and palpitations, was shattering his nerves and, after a fit, he was bled and blistered as treatment.

I would not have my corpse cemented down

With brick and stone, defrauding the poor earthworm

Of its predestined dues.

The plaque inside the Exchange Arcade, Cheapside, Council House. Reads:

'HERE ON THIS SITE STOOD THE BIRTH

 -PLACE OF HENRY KIRKE WHITE

 POET – – BORN MARCH 31ST 1785

 DIED AT CAMBRIDGE OCT 19TH 1806'

Henry died at St John’s in 1806, aged twenty-one.

His letters and unpublished papers were put inside a box which Southey collected from Henry’s brother. Coleridge, there when the box was opened, was astonished by the writing, much of it done before Henry was thirteen. There were papers on law, divinity, electricity, languages, numerous poems and a planned History of Nottingham.

In 1807 Southey edited the collection and wrote an account Henry’s life - 'The Remains of Kirke White' - ensuring that a posthumous edition of his work was published to great success.

Henry Kirke White was remembered at a centenary banquet in 1906 at which Professor F Granger of University College said that Kirke White and his contemporaries, Gilbert Wakefield, Richard Parkes Bonington and Marshall Hall, were the most eminent persons Nottingham had ever produced, thus making it a “centre of genius and learning”.

Sadly his poetry is little read these days but his hymn ‘Oft in danger, oft in woe’ is still sung.

p.s. Next time you're at Bromley House Library look for Henry's picture.