OUT NOW!

Out Now! A new book about Notts and its writers

Follow the Moon and Stars

Featuring:

Dave Ablitt, Kristina Adams, Catherine Aird, Naomi Alderman, Meena Alexander, Zayneb Allak, Maria Allen, David Almond, Hans Christian Andersen, Joe Andrews, Norman Angell, Maya Angelou, Jane Anger, Narvel Annable, Amanda Arbouin, Lee Arbouin, Michael Argyle, Simon Armitage, Catharine Arnold, Chris Arnot, WH Auden, Jane Austen, Vicki Bertram, John Betjeman, Christopher Bigsby, Jasbinder Bilan, Max Dalman Binns, Ottwell Binns, Max Blagg, William Blake, Edith Bland, Lawrence Block, Enid Blyton, Stephen Booth, William Booth, Anthony Boucher, David Bowie, Sydney Box, Elizabeth Baguley, Philip James Bailey, Robin Bailey, Thomas Bailey, Roy Bainton, Panya Banjoko, Alan Baker, Paul Baker, Hongwei Bao, Pat Barker, Linda Barnes, Emma Barnett, Andy Barrett, JM Barrie, John Beckett, David Belbin, Gary Bell, Jo Bell, Kathleen Bell, Marco Bellocchio, Alan Bennett, Arnold Bennett, Thomas Berdmore, Michael Bracewell, Malcolm Bradbury, Richard Bradford, Rebecca Bradley, Emily Brand, Ken Brand, Simon Brett, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, John Potter Briscoe, Cornelius Brown, Pitman Browne, Alan Brownjohn, Rosslyn Bruce, Ruth Bryan, Emrys Bryson, Rebecca S Buck, Adrian Buckner, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Gladys Bungay, Graham Caveney, Tony Challis, Jessie Chambers, Raymond Chandler, Charlie Chaplin, Thomas Chatterton, GK Chesterton, Noam Chomsky, Agatha Christie, Russell Christie, Winston Churchill, Sir John Clanvowe, John Clare, John Stuart Clark (Brick), Lynda Clark, John Cooper Clarke, Lilleth Clarke, Susanna Clarke, John Cleese, Colin Clews, Wayne Burrows, Samuel Butler, Derrick Buttress, AS Byatt, Lord Byron,  Bill Bryson, Philip Callow, John le Carré, Liz Carney-Marsh, Barbara Cartland, Ken Coates, Peter Cochran, Jonathan Coe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wilkie Collins, Stephan Collishaw, Arthur Conan Doyle, Chris Cook Cann, Paul Cookson, Helen Cooper, Wendy Cope, Noel Coward, Thomas Cranmer, Helen Cresswell, Andy Croft, Noel Dilke, Jo Dixon, Robert Dodsley, Maura Dooley, Joan Downer, Roddy Doyle, John Drinkwater, Melanie Duffill-Jeffs, Carol Ann Duffy, Maureen Duffy, Bob Dylan, Sue Dymoke, Michael Eaton, David Edgley, Rowena Edlin-White, David Edwards, George Eliot, TS Eliot, Janice Elliott, John Emerton, Rowland Emett, Jonathan Emmett, Richmal Crompton, Anthony Cropper, Gillian Cross, Helen Cross, Rebecca Cullen, Joan Easdale, Mary Ann Cursham, Simon Cutts, Sarah Dale, Charles Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, Alan Dawson (Jacques Morrell), Cecil Day Lewis (Nicholas Blake), Vivien Dayrell-Browning, Charles Deering, Daniel Defoe, Susie Dent, John Derry, Colin Dexter, Charles Dickens, Ruth Fainlight, Paul Farley, Christy Fearn, Elaine Feinstein, Marty Feldman, Jasper Fforde, Catherine Fisher, Robert Fisk, Ian Fleming, Alan Fletcher, Raymond Flynn, Ken Follett, EM Forster, Caroline Bell Foster, Kate Fox, Katherine Frank, Benjamin Franklin, Rich Goodson, Anne Goodwin, Nadine Gordimer, Frances Gore, Ray Gosling, Sue Grafton, James Graham, Gwen Grant, Andrew Graves, Robert Graves, Adrian Gray, Dulcie Gray, Zane Gray, Graham Greene, Germaine Greer, Norma Gregory, Frank Griffin, Elly Griffiths, Cathy Grindrod, Alan Guest, Stephen Haddelsey, Matt Haig, Madge Hales, John Foster Frazer, Michael Frayn, Sam Fuller, Neil Fulwood, Frances Fyfield, Rose Fyleman, Freddy Fynn, Faith Gakanje, Winifred Marshall Gales, Sheelagh Gallagher, Graeme Garden, Rosie Garner, Robert Garioch, Lenford Alphonso (Len) Garrison, Mark Gatiss, Abigail Gawthern, Evelyn Gibbs, Denis Gifford, Ann Gilbert, Sidney Giles, Eric Gill, Malcolm Gladwell, Elizabeth Glaister, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lise Gold, Spencer Timothy Hall, Duncan Hamilton, Sophie Hannah, Thomas Hardy, Joanne Harris, Robert Harris, Noel Harrower, Dorothy Hartley, Clare Hartwell, John Harvey, Nicki Hastie, William Hatfield (Ernest Chapman), Spike Hawkins, Lucinda Hawksley, Colin Haynes, Jaq Hazell, W Carew Hazlitt, Seamus Heaney, John Hegley, Thomas Helwys, Felicia Dorothea Hemans, Ernest Hemingway, Pippa Hennessy, Adrian Henri, George Henty, Robert Herrick, George Hickling (Rusticus), David (Stickman) Higgins, Patricia Highsmith, Tony Hillerman, Enid Hilton, Edward Hind, Muriel Florence Hine, Michael Hirst, Victoria Hislop, Merlin Holland, Stephen L Holland, Alan Hollinghurst, John Holmes, Michael Holroyd, Sam Hope, Mary Howitt, Richard Howitt, William Howitt, Michelle (Mother) Hubbard, Kathryn Hughes, Evan Hunter (Ed McBain), Lucy Hutchinson, Catherine Hutton, William Hutton, Aldous Huxley, Eric Idle, Washington Irving, William Ivory, Leonard Jacks, Kevin Jackson, Lisa Jackson, Mick Jackson, Sarah Jackson, Maxim Jakubowski, Clive James, Peter James, Alan Jenkins, Troy Jenkinson, Jerome K Jerome, Jane Jerram (Jane Elizabeth Holmes), Ruth L Johns, BS Johnson, Ben Jonson, Spencer Jordan, Graham Joyce, Rachel Joyce, Lucy Joynes, Alan Judd, Joshua Judson, Ken Kamoche, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, Siddharth Katragadda, Patrick Kavanagh, Campbell Kay, Jackie Kay, Joyce Lesley Keating, Francis King, Giselle Leeb, Paris Lees, Thomas Legendre, Clive Leivers, Dennis Lemon, Mark Lemon, Hilda Lewis, Maxine Linnell, Clare Littleford, David Livingstone, Noel Lloyd, Ralph Lloyd-Jones, Desmond King-Hele, Charles Kingsley, Mark Kinkead-Weekes, Carolyn Kirby, Naomi Klein, Laura Knight (Laura Johnson), Sarah (Rain) Kolawole, Caroline Lamb, LD Lapinski, Philip Larkin, Birger Larsen, DH Lawrence, TM Logan, Christopher Logue, Ivory Longley, Lady Ada Lovelace, Peter Lovesey, RD Low, Edward Joseph Lowe, Stephen Lowe, John Lucas, Pauline Lucas, George MacBeth, Fiona MacCarthy, Robert Macfarlane, Mhairi Macfarlane, Robert Machray, Compton Mackenzie, Henry Maddock, Rod Madocks, Maurice Magnus, Sarah Maguire, Eve Makis, Mufaro Makubika, Eric Malpass, David Mamet, Emma Mardlin, Ngaio Marsh, Adam Mars-Jones, GJ Martin, Andy Maslen, Lila Matsumoto, Somerset Maugham, Armistead Maupin, Xavier Mayne, Val McDermid, Gavin and Oskar McIntosh, Ian McMillan, Colum McCann, Nigel McCrery, Roger McGough, Jimmy McGovern, Pat McGrath, Jon McGregor, Lisa Mckenzie, Jenny McLeod, Hollie McNish, Jonathan Meades, Arthur Mee, Robert Mellors, Paul Mendez, Stanley Middleton, Arthur Miller, Claude Miller, Kei Miller, Thomas Miller, Robert Millhouse, Stuart Mills, AA Milne, John Milton, Adrian Mitchell, Naomi Mitchison, Leanne Moden, Deborah Moggach, Nicola Monaghan (Niki Valentine), Bill Moody, Alison Moore, Beth Moran, Caitlin Moran, Michael Morpurgo, Jackie Morris, Blake Morrison, Helen Mort, Peter Mortimer, Andrew H Morton, Walter Mosley, Kate Mosse, Andrew Motion, Julie Myerson, Daljit Nagra, Suniti Namjoshi, Trevor Negus, AS Neil (Aaliyah), E Nesbit, Maureen Newton, Trish Nicholson, Robert Nieri, Henry Normal, Ben Norris, Deirdre O’Byrne, Bill Oddie, Geoffrey Oldfield, Eliza S Oldham, Betty Maxine, Tom Pickard, Paul A Pickering, Helena Pielichaty, John Shadrach Piercy, Elizabeth Pigot, Kathy Pimlott, Dave Pitt, Nigel Planer, Samuel Plumb, Charles Plumbe, Alexander Pope, Peter Porter, Christopher Pressler, Martin Priestman, VS Pritchett, Alexander Pope, Beatrix Potter, George Powe, JB Priestley, James Prior (Kirke), James Orange, Baroness Orczy, Joe Orton, George Orwell, Philip Osment, Sally Outram, Thomas Paine, Frank (Baggy) Palmer, Sara Paretsky, Chris Parker, Thomas Parkyns, Martin Parnell, Brian Patten, Tom Paulin, Constance Penswick Smith, Gareth Peter, Nikolaus Pevsner, Nigel Pickard, Sheenagh Pugh, Ian Rankin, Onjali Raúf, Slavomir Rawicz, Paula Rawsthorne, Nicola Davison Reed, Ruth Rendell, Jean Rhys, Christopher Richardson, Peter Richardson, Séan Richardson, Lady Laura Ridding, Sylvia Riley (Carol Lake), Stella Rimington, Rosemary Robb, Cecil Roberts, Michèle Roberts, Celia Robertson, Thomas William Robertson, JB Robinson, Nicci Robinson (Robyn Nyx), Michael Rosen, Carrol Rowe, Jane Rule, AE Russell, Bertrand Russell, Frances Ryan, Manjit S Sahota, Thomas Sanders, George Saunders, John Brough Scott, Walter Scott, Tony ScuphamBilton, Thom Seddon, John Edward Bernard (Jack) Seely, Will Self, Shreya Sen-Handley, Dr Seuss, Dolly Sewell, Miranda Seymour, William Shakespeare, Sir Dodds Shaw, George Bernard Shaw, Mary Shelley, Percy B Shelley, Norman Sherry, Nevil Shute, Richard Silburn, Alan Sillitoe, Darren Simpson, Tony Simpson, Lemn Sissay, Di Slaney, Kim Slater (KL Slater), Ioney Smallhorne, Richard Smedley, Courtney Alexander Smith, Delia Smith, Freda Love Smith, Michael RD Smith, JC Snaith, Mahsunda Snaith, Mahendra Solanki, Robert Southey, Roderick Speer, Herbert Spencer, Bridie Squires, Michael Standen, Peter Stanford, Colin Stanley, Beth Steel, Debra Stephenson, Clare Stevens, Sharon RM Stevens, William Stevenson, Sue Thompson, Christopher Thomson, Robert Thoroton, Miriam Toews, JRR Tolkien, Claire Tomalin, Rebecca Tope, Barry Took, Geoffrey Trease, Anthony Trollope, Frances Trollope, Joanna Trollope, CJ Tudor, Gael Turnbull, Mark Twain, Barry Upton, Peter Ustinov, George Vason, Victoria Villasenor (Victoria Oldham), Francis Vivian (Arthur Ashley), Bram Stoker, Michael Stokes, Tom Stoppard (Tom Straussler), Richard Stott, Lytton Strachey, Lady Arbella Stuart, William Stukeley, Henry S Sutton, Jenny Swann, Julian Symons, Robert Tansey, Quentin Tarantino, Peter Tatchell, Bertrand Tavernier, Andrew Taylor, Megan Taylor, Alfred Tennyson, William Makepeace Thackeray, Frances Thimann, Sue Thomas, Marie Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, George Walker, James Walker, Peter Walker (Nicholas Rhea), Joan Wallace, John Waller, William Wallett, Hugh Walpole, Joanna Walsh, Minette Walters, Pemberton de Wanderer, Edward Ward, James Ward, Simon Ward, Rory Waterman, Gail Webb, Ernest Weekley, Matthew Welton, Angus Wells, Donald E Westlake, Jo Weston, Dorothy Whipple, Phil Whitaker, Cathy White, Henry Kirke White, Amanda Whittington, Oscar Wilde, Georgina Wilding, Leah Wilkins, Jo Willett, Alan Williams, Joanna Williams, Tennessee Williams, Leslie Williamson, Colin Wilson, Glenis Wilson, Godfrey Winn, Jackie Winter, Jeanette Winterson, PG Wodehouse, Nick Wood, Gregory Woods, Virginia Woolf, William Wordsworth, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Keith Wright, WB Yeats, Jackie Yelland, Kerry Young, Benjamin Zephaniah, Alice Zimmern, Ztan Zmith.

Read Follow the Moon and Stars to find out:

·        How a Nottingham woman inspired George Eliot’s Adam Bede

·        Why Philip Larkin always wore a DH Lawrence T-shirt when mowing the lawn.

·        Which James Bond novel features Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest.

·        Who took Agatha Christie for tea in Nottingham’s Arboretum.

·        Which Nottingham writer’s books were bombed by the Nazis.

·        Why Quentin Tarantino said that “Nottingham is a really cool city”.

·        Which Nottingham writer appears in an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

·        Why Charles Dickens was called to Ada Lovelace’s deathbed.

·        Who was known as Nottingham’s Robinson Crusoe.

·        How Alan Sillitoe met his wife in a Nottingham bookshop.

·        Who was Shakespeare’s Nottingham Knight.

·        Which Nottingham man was the first person to write a defence of universal religious freedom in English.

·        Which Nottingham man did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle write a poem about.

·        How a Nottingham man wrote the first scientific work on dentistry.

·        Where in Notts was the writer of "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" born.

·        Which Nottingham poet was the first Briton to explicitly write about evolution.

·        Which Nottingham writer takes credit for the Doctor Dolittle stories being published.

And much more...

Over 400 pages. Over 200 images. In paperback and hardback. Published by Five Leaves Publications and available now! 

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.

Kings of a Dead World by Jamie Mollart

 'Mollart's intriguing and timely premise is executed with verve - Kings of a Dead World is filmic in its scope.' Alison Moore

In a country of rising Covid carnage, and in a world of flooding and wild fires, it might feel like you’re living in a dystopian novel. Jamie Mollart’s new sci-fi book about a dying planet of dwindling resources may, strangely, prove to be the perfect form of escapism. It comes with a warning of what might happen, and of who and what is valued when it does.

Kings of a Dead World is set 50+ years in the future. People are living with restrictions, with little reward, and dissatisfaction is growing. After years of global warming, the solution to Earth’s limited resources is imposed sleep. This enforced hibernation has a sensible theory behind it, that by spending three months asleep for every one they are awake, humans can help manage resources.

Ben lives in a city, watching out for his elderly wife Rose who has a form of dementia. Their love story is at the heart of the novel. Theirs is a story told, in part, in flashback. To a time when mistakes were made. Ben being an example of how an individual’s decisions have a reaching impact. It’s these flashbacks that reveal how humankind ended up on the precipice of annihilation.

While Ben and the majority are sleeping, it’s up to janitors to look after them, trading resources for creds (the new world’s money). One such janitor is Peruzzi. As a janitor he’s part of an elite that aren’t required to endure the months of sleep. Each janitor has a location that they are responsible for, making sure the sleepers have enough to survive their next four weeks awake. It makes sense for the story to be told from both perspectives (Sleeper and Janitor) in two timelines, and through the younger rebellious Ben’s backstory.

As much as it’s a work of sci-fi, with AI and a Big Brother style monitoring system, plus a powerful version of Alexa (on speed) - it’s a novel about relationships. Our relationships with each other, with assumed ‘higher’ entities, and the planet. Ultimately, it’s about actions and responsibilities (personal and social). Sometimes the world seems overly recognisable, at others, too distant from the world we live in, but then that’s probably what 60 years hence would feel like, the highly familiar and the extremely foreign.

There’s ample action and twists, some humour and surprises. It is also dark, violent and unrelentingly tense. This is a dense book that’ll make you think and rethink. If you like sci-fi or dystopian novels you should definitely grab a copy.

Kings of a Dead World took Mollart five years to write. His editing process saw his 200,000 word manuscript cut in half. There’s evidence of the missing words in the depth of his characters – the author knows them well – and in the tight pot.

This is Mollart’s second published novel, following The Zoo. The author benefitted from Writing East Midlands’ mentoring scheme. He lives just over the Leicestershire but is a member of Nottingham Writers’ Studio.

 

Launch of Middleway Words online festival

NEW CHAPTER FOR MIDLANDS AUTHORS WITH LAUNCH OF MIDDLEWAY WORDS FREE ONLINE FESTIVAL

A new online Midlands Book Festival is to be established to celebrate the large number of lesser-known writers in the region – and to inspire a new generation to express their creativity.

Organised by members of the Society of Authors, Middleway Words will feature five days of free online events between September 5-11 2021, bringing together readers and writers to discuss and discover the many great books, covering a broad range of genres, which do not get huge displays in the major bookstores.

Ignaty Dyakov-Richmond, a co-chair of Society of Authors Warwickshire and co-founder of the Festival, said, “We have a long and proud tradition of great writing in the Midlands and there are so many excellent writers in the region who readers would love if only they were introduced to their work. With Middleway Words, we aim to bring them together.

“We are formulating an exciting programme of events which will have something for everyone who loves books. Not only will Middleway Words promote those who are already creating great work, we want it to provide helpful advice to inspire others to write.”

The festival will feature five days of events which will be available to view live, for free; these interviews and videos will be available on the Festival' YouTube channel.

It will begin on Sunday, September 5, with author-led panel discussion on how a book is born. Sessions aimed at adults and children on how to write fiction and poetry to appeal to readers of all ages will follow.

The closing panel, on Saturday, September 11, aims to introduce different types of writing, including script, translation, education and theatre narrative. 

In between, there will be two or three sessions a day on selected days, running at lunchtime and the early evening, in which regional authors will talk and answer questions about their books and the writing process. You can also expect talks from a literary agent, a publisher, a book-seller and a library about their roles in the book business.

Short videos from other authors speaking about their books will be aired prior to and during the Festival, giving readers plenty of chance to add new names to their reading list.

This week promises to add a new chapter to the Midlands tradition for producing great writing. 

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Notts Authors and Novels - online courses

 Two Courses Starting Soon

Nottinghamshire Authors (online Zoom course)

12th May to 2nd June 2021 (Must register by 5th May)

Wednesdays: 2pm - 3pm

For ages               19+

Group size           5 - 15

Cost       FREE - £9

This online course will introduce some of Nottinghamshire’s finest writers, from the quirky to the quintessential. Learners will discover the county’s remarkable literary history and the impact its writers have had on the world.

LINK to INSPIRE Website for details and booking: https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/skills-learning/community-learning/nottinghamshire-authors-online-course-community-learning-1400-1500/

 and a NEW course:

Nottinghamshire Novels (online Zoom course) 

14th May to 28th May 2021 (Must register by 7th May)

Fridays: 2pm - 3pm

For ages               19+

Group size           5 - 15

Cost       FREE - £6.75

This online course is a celebration of the best novels set in Nottinghamshire. From DH Lawrence and Alan Sillitoe to many lesser-known authors, a wide range of books will be discussed, introducing you to the stories inspired by the county. You'll also leave with a never before seen list of the "possibly" 100 best novels set in Notts. Now that's a reading pile!

Link to INSPIRE Website for more details and booking: https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/skills-learning/community-learning/nottinghamshire-novels-online-course-community-learning-1400-1500/

 

 

 

Literature & Creative Writing Courses 2021

 New Courses for the New Year - from Inspire

Literature, Poetry, Creative Writing, Wellbeing... 

All of the sessions are to be delivered on Zoom, with each course including an induction session. The classes will be taught to between 5 and 12 learners. 

Literature Courses

Sherwood Writers (4 sessions)

When: 10/01/21 – 10/02/21

Cost: Free

Age: 19+

Featuring writers and their association with the legendary Sherwood Forest area. The course will focus on different locations such as Newstead Abbey, Annesley Hall, Blidworth and Edwinstowe, and look at some of the stories, poetry and literature related to the writers of Sherwood. Details

Nottinghamshire Authors – Crime Writers (4 sessions)

When: 22/01/21 - 12/02/21, Fridays 2pm-3pm

Cost: Free - £9.00

Age: 19+

This online course will focus on Nottinghamshire’s crime writers, featuring bestselling authors, long-forgotten stars, and the pick of the county’s contemporary scene. Learners will also discover many of the greatest crime novels that have been set in Notts. Details 

Reading for Wellbeing (6 sessions)

When: 25/02/21 to 01/04/21, Thursdays 10.20am – 11.30am

Cost: Free - £13.50

Age: 19+

The aim of this course is to explore the idea that reading is good for you. It is not about telling anyone how or what to read but it is about examining and valuing the act of reading. Details 

Creative Writing Courses

Creative Writing - Step into Creative Writing (5 sessions)

When: 18/01/21 to 15/02/21, Mondays 10am - 11:30am.

Cost: Free - £16.88

Age: 19+

To introduce learners to different stimuli to get writing and to try out different styles of writing, including Different ways to start a piece of writing, Evoking atmosphere through setting, Creating an authentic ‘voice’, Character development, Narrative arc, and Ending a piece of writing. Details 

Creative Writing - Short Stories (5 sessions)

When: 18/01/21 to 15/02/21, Mondays 1pm – 2pm.

Cost: Free - £11.25

Age: 19+

This course aims to bring together writers of all abilities to introduce you to short story writing. For more experienced writers, we will look at refreshing and honing your writing skills. Throughout the course, advice and support will be provided about how to develop an idea and structure a short story. Details 

Creative Writing - Write a Novel (5 sessions)

When: 20/01/21 to 17/02/21, Wednesdays 5.30pm – 6.30pm.

Cost: Free - £11.25

Age: 19+

If you are interested in writing a novel, join us on this course and look at how to sustain your work and what you need to do to become published. This course is suitable for both beginners and more experienced writers. Details 

Creative Writing - Writing Your Life (4 sessions)

When: 21/01/21 to 11/02/21, Thursdays 10.20am-11.30am

Cost: Free - £9

Age: 19+

The principal aim of the course is for learners to develop the confidence and skills to record and reflect on their lives through writing. Details 

Creative Writing - Your Life Through a Lens (5 sessions)

When: 22/01/21 to 19/02/21, Fridays 10am – 12 noon

Cost: Free - £22.50

Age: 19+

Every life has a story worth sharing – the challenge is finding a fun way to tell it! Details 

Creative Writing - Writing for Wellbeing (5 sessions)

When: 23/01/21 to 20/02/21, Saturdays 10am – 12 noon

Cost: Free - £22.50

Age: 19+

After such an awful 2020, the aim of this course is to help you find a little more peace, a little more space, and a little more joy through writing creatively. Details 

Creative Writing - Further Steps into Creative Writing (6 sessions)

When: 22/02/21 to 29/03/21, Mondays 10am – 11.30am

Cost: Free - £20.25

Age: 19+

To challenge learners to step outside their comfort zones and create pieces of writing using different styles. Details 

Creative Writing - Crime Writing

When: 22/02/21 to 29/03/21 (6 sessions)

When: 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Mondays

Cost: Free - £13.50

Age: 19+

Engage in creative writing in this introduction to many aspects of writing crime fiction, including research, creating characters, dialogue, plotting and a sense of place. Details 

Creative Writing - Finding your Inspiration (6 sessions)

When: 25/02/21 to 01/04/21, Thursdays 6.30pm – 8pm

Cost: Free - £20.25

Age: 19+

Details 

 

Play Writing

Play Writing - Beginners (5 sessions)

When: 21/01/21 to 18/02/21, Thursdays 6.30pm – 8pm

Cost: Free - £16.88

Age: 19+

This course aims to provide useful introductory techniques for any aspiring playwright. On this 5-week course, learners will gain skills to help encourage and guide them to get started on writing their own play. Details 

Play Writing - Next Steps (6 sessions)

When: 25/02/21 to 01/04/21, Thursdays 6.30pm – 8pm

Cost: Free - £20.25

This course aims to provide the next steps for any aspiring playwright.  On this 6-week course, learners will gain a further understanding of the play writing process. We will cover the following topics. Details 

Poetry - Creative Writing

Creative Writing - A Poet and I Didn't Know It... (1 session)

When: 19/01/21, Tuesday 1pm – 3pm

Cost: Free - £4.50

Age: 19+

If you’ve ever wanted to have a go at writing poetry but weren’t sure where to start, this fun and informal session is for you. We will use objects and prompts to start some poems, as well as writing a ‘class poem’ with everyone’s contributions. Everyone is welcome, no experience of creative writing is needed. Details 

Creative Writing - Poetry for Beginners (2 sessions)

When: 26/01/21 to 02/02/21, Tuesdays 1.30pm – 3pm

Cost: Free - £6.75

Age: 19+

What are the aims of the course?  

To enable learners to feel confident about writing a poem, To equip learners with tools, resources and techniques for writing poetry, To support learners in turning an idea in to a strong piece of writing, To learn from the work of published poets, To remove the barriers to getting started on writing poetry. Details 

Creative Writing - Poetry in the Making (3 sessions)

When: 05/02/21 to 12/02/21, Fridays 6.30pm – 8pm

Cost: Free - £12.38

Age: 19+

This course is for people looking for some focused help to kickstart writing a number of poems. Taught by two Inspire tutors who are poets themselves, the course offers a retreat-style experience to focus on the process of making a poem. Details 

Creative Writing - Spring Poetry (1 session)

When: 23/03/21, Tuesday 10am – 12 noon

Cost: Free - £4.50

Age: 19+

Spring celebrates hope and renewal. Through time and across the world, Spring has inspired poets to capture that spirit of the new. Using some famous (and not so famous) examples of Spring poetry to start us off, this course aims to help you record what you notice and want to remember about this special time. The session is particularly suitable for beginners, but those who have some experience are welcome also. Details 

Some of 2020’s Best Books (with a Notts connection)

The Fall of the House of Byron: Scandal and Seduction in Georgian England by Emily Brand

Emily Brand’s research into the colourful eighteenth-century ancestry of the 6th Lord Byron has resulted in the publishing of a dramatic and scandal-filled family saga unfolding over three generations, setting the stage for the rise of the nation’s most revered (and on occasion reviled) Romantic poet. Following the lives of three siblings – a flirtatious countess desperately seeking true love, a villainous lord maligned as a murderer, and a navy hero with the century’s most remarkable tale of survival (the poet’s grandfather) – it offers an exciting and sweeping history of eighteenth-century Britain, through the eyes of a once notorious family now shrouded in legend.

More Non-Fiction:

Nottinghamshire (Pevsner’s Guide) by Clare Hartwell, Nikolaus Pevsner and Elizabeth Williamson.

A definitive guide to our buildings, this richly illustrated volume offers an enlightening introduction to the memorable and surprising structures of Notts. The county features the exquisite medieval churches of Newark, Worksop Priory, and Southwell Minster, whilst our country houses offer a fascinating range of architectural styles: Wollaton Hall shows Elizabethan architecture at its most fantastic, and Bunny Hall demonstrates the English Baroque at its most bizarre. Newstead Abbey, home of the poet Lord Byron, incorporates the haunting monastic ruins from a former Augustinian abbey. The city of Nottingham teems with Victorian and Edwardian commercial buildings, and is enlivened by a local tradition of first-rate Modernist architecture. 

Nottingham: The Postcard Collection by Alan Spree

Author Alan Spree has drawn on a remarkable selection of old postcards to give a pictorial record of life in Nottingham from the late nineteenth century to the early 1950s. Although much of Nottingham has changed over the years, many landmarks have remained and will be familiar today. The postcards show the changes to Nottingham’s fabric and its community adapting and changing over the course of this period.

Fiction:

The Catch by T M Logan

Ed finally meets his daughter's boyfriend for the first time. Smart, successful and handsome, Ryan appears to be a real catch. Then Abbie announces their plan to get married. There's just one problem. Ed thinks Ryan is lying to them. All of Ed's instincts tell him his daughter is in terrible danger - but no-one else can see it. With the wedding date approaching fast, Ed sets out to uncover Ryan's secrets, before it's too late… Another page-turner from Nottingham’s latest million selling novelist.  

Devil Gun by Steve Pickering

Set in the 19^th century, this tale of danger and friendship follows the life of a Denim Armstrong: from working on his father’s farm, to hardship at sea aboard the Endurance, to a life on the run from both British Navy (for mutiny) and the Pinkertons (for murder). The story takes us across the turbulent Atlantic and the treacherous landscape of the Wild West, where we witness revenge killings, showdowns and turns of fortune with memorable, and sometimes notorious, historical characters that shape Denim's destiny. Never predictable, this debut novel (available in hardback and paperback) is a good old fashioned adventure story. The author was educated at Birklands Secondary Modern School in Warsop.  

If I Never Met You by Mhari Macfarlane

Laurie and Jamie have the perfect office romance. Everyone can see they're head over heels. This must be true love. Only, they’re faking it all. When Laurie is dumped by her partner of eighteen years, she's blindsided. Not only does she feel humiliated, they still have to work together. So when she gets stuck in the lift with handsome colleague Jamie, they hatch a plan to stage the perfect romance. Revenge will be sweet... But this fauxmance is about to get complicated. You can't break your heart in a fake relationship - can you? Always funny, always emotional, Macfarlane’s novels are a treat.

Poetry:

Sweet Nothings by Rory Waterman

Rory Waterman, a Senior Lecturer in English at Nottingham Trent University, brings us a book of hopes and passions - quiet and lyrical at times, but also fiercely witty and bold. The poems sometimes come in sequences; always they are in dialogue with one another, responding, echoing - within and between the book's two sections. At times, the leitmotifs are apparently personal, exploring divisions and painful losses. But we also encounter the largely invented academic Dr Bob Pintle, an anti-hero of the modern university system. 

Alan Sillitoe - Selected Poems Chosen by Ruth Fainlight

Drawn from Alan Sillitoe’s eight volumes of poetry, this selection has been chosen by his wife, the poet Ruth Fainlight. Presented here are poems that present the world as Sillitoe saw it. Using a storyteller’s skill, he brought to life the people and places that captured his imagination and took him on a search for meaning. It’s a vision that is at the same time clear and precise, politically engaged, fiercely intelligent, and deeply personal. 

Get Over Yourself by Leanne Moden

A biographical delve into belonging, exclusion, and the relationship between self-awareness and self-delusion, the rejection of social norms, and the ways in which we accept and question implied cultural rules. The poems in this collection question received wisdom, playfully unravelling the awkward and the bizarre aspects of modern life. Leanne’s poetry is an exploration of human failures and resilience, the things that make us angry, and the things that make us laugh. There’s social commentary ('A Piece of the Pie'), humour ('Bad Kisser') and wisdom ('Call and Response') as Moden brings us her take on modern life. 

Herd Queen by Di Slaney

Di Slaney is a poet, publisher and animal sanctuary founder who lives in Nottinghamshire. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University and owns Candlestick Press. Since 2005, Di Slaney has been filling her ancient Nottinghamshire farmhouse and its land with more livestock than is sensible. Herd Queen’s heroines remember teenage trysts, do battle with the slings and arrows of ageing, collage a poem from Prince lyrics and dream of achieving Shirley Bassey-hood in their seventies. 

Loves Burn by Kevin Jackson

A queer activist, Kevin Jackson writes poetry that “dares us to care”. His new poetry collection is ‘Loves Burn’, a book that sets out its stall on love with a patient probing, a tender curiosity that seems to place the narrator in that place where poetry uniquely exists - on the edge. 

Honourable mention: 

Speak Up My Voice Anthology

Across prose, poetry and script, the young writers explore racism, homophobia, bodies and gendered violence, the climate crisis, and the principle of taking a stand. The contributions to this anthology encourage the reader to experience the fears and anxieties young people experience to powerful effect.