Voices From the Mill

Yesterday I visited Marple Library (Stockport MBC) to hand over the first prize for the Flashback Fiction short story which we have been running as part of Pages Ago. The winner was Joyce Reed who is a writer of poetry and short stories with some previous success in competitions. You can see some of her earlier work on her own website as well as her winning story on our own Promotions page.

Chatting to Joyce yesterday I discovered that although already experienced in writing as well as running the annual Marple Writing Competition, which attracts 100s of entries from around the world, she had found time to attend the Marple Festival/Pages Ago workshop led by Jo Bell held in September. It was at this workshop she found out about and was inspired to enter, Flashback Fiction. So well done to Jo too for inspiring a worthy winner.

If you read Joyce's story you will see that it is very short and the language is pure poetry. Patricia Duncker, an established writer and academic who judged the short-listed entries said that in short, short fiction every word needs to count. Certainly from all the entries received, Joyce's story stood out for its imaginative and thoughtful language which brings the historical context to life.

You can read this story as well as the runner up and the winners in the under-16 age group on our Promotions page.

Looking back

With rumours that publishers are currently less willing than they used to be to take a risk on new writers, it is perhaps no coincidence that the new year will see the reissue of the works of 2 formerly best-selling historical authors.

Jean M Auel's The Clan of the Cave Bear was first published in the UK in 1980. Her story, set before the Ice Age, speculates on the possibility of interaction between Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon people. The story opens with an earthquake which orphans a 5 year old child who is found and cared for by the eponymous Neanderthal clan.

4 other titles have followed in the Earth's Children series , which will all be reissued early in 2011, heralding the publication of the 6th and final new volume The Land of Painted Caves in March.
This will conclude the story of Ayla, her mate Jondalar, and their little daughter, Jonayla.

Jean M. Auel's books are reputed to be tremendously well researched and have a loyal fanbase. The series so far has sold tens of millions copies world wide and the 3rd title in the series The Mammoth Hunters (1985) was the first hardcover title ever to achieve a 1st printing of more than a million. I wonder how many are planned for no 6?

Plans have also reached me of a reprint of Mary Stewart's backlist, coming from Hodder. Mary Stewart, now well into her nineties isn't publishing a new title, but her backlist definitely deserves to reach new readers. Her Merlin and Arthurian series, as well as those set in 15th Century Scotland certainly enthused me to read historical fiction more than many another writer.

No Redemption- remembering the miners' strike

I helped with an event last night which took place at the Working Class History Library in Salford. That's a very interesting venue if you haven't been there already. Just ring the doorbell and someone will let you in (during their opening hours). Currently has a special Michael Foot exhibition on.

Last night's event was to promote a book of photos taken during the Miners' Strike in 1984/5 in Easington (Co.Durham) by Keith Pattison. He thought it would be good if they could be published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the strike, as many hadn't been seen before. His publisher suggested David Peace, author of GB 84, a novel about the strike, would be an appropriate person to write the introduction. David was keen to be involved and suggested a return trip to Easington on Election Day (May 2010) where they carried out interviews with people who had been directly involved in the strike.

The resulting book, No Redemption (Flambard Press 2010) is impressive, as was last night's presentation which included a short film and readings by David Peace along with actress Maxine Peake.

David spoke passionately about his motivations for writing GB 84, as well as for getting involved in No Redemption. Keith and David both seemed pleased that the publication of No Redemption was providing opportunities for remembering such a key period in our relatively recent past, at a time when communities and life as we know it seem once more to be politically threatened.

The annexe of the Library was packed for the event which had been sponsored and organised by Unison as part of their "In Touch with Roots" campaign. This campaign is remembering key campaigns in Trade Union history and fits well with our own library "Pages Ago " promotion. Frank Hunt, the regional secretary of Unison spoke with conviction about the continuing value of Trade Unions and singled out libraries as a service which must be fought for.

Sweetens bookshop from Bolton sold lots of copies of No Redemption as well as a range of titles by David Peace, and both signed copies and chatted for some time after the formal talking was done.

Tatton Park- family book day

Tatton Park's Tenants' Hall was the venue for a day of family activities last weekend. The whole day offered opportunities to have a go at writing and drawing history- historical characters and stories.

That Poetry Bloke, Craig Bradley warmed up the audience and got them thinking about words; illustrator Matt Buckingham described the processes involved in illustrating childrens' history books as well as doing a Rolf Harris act and creating some instant characters; storyteller Amy Douglas mesmerised with her tellings of traditional folk tales; author Jim Eldridge got the audience to create an instant history story- this one a wartime story about the only bomb to fall on Stockport in WW2. Alongside all this children could draw, make badges and find out about how people wrote through the centuries with the help of Janet Bradshaw.

Comments on the day included: Great event! Something for all the children. We loved the storytelling & the badge-making. We’ve gone home with lots of great ideas. I loved the drawing & the story was really good and Really enjoyable for adults & kids

Historical Readers Day raises the temperature

Almost 100 keen readers packed a very warm room in the Mechanics'Institute, Manchester, eager to take part in the Pages Ago Historical Readers Day, programmed in partnership with Manchester Literature Festival and the Historical Novels Society. The audience was a happy mix of readers and writers- some with an expert interest in historical fiction and some attending a readers' event for the first time.

Alison Weir gave a keynote speech, in which she outlined her writing career, explaining how she now alternates writing biography with a linked fiction. Over the course of this talk she covered some of the key debates which dominate the territory- does historical fiction "dumb history down"? how much imagination is it OK to use? How do you fill in gaps in knowledge credibly?

This led seemlessly into a panel debate facilitated by Jerome de Groot. Describing the panel of Alison Weir, Douglas Jackson, Robyn Young, Maria McCann and Sarah Dunant as the "dream team" he asked them each to talk from their perspective about the renewed and very current popularity of historical fiction. A question about historical romance led to an impassioned conversation about researching sexual behaviour in the past. There is what we are told happened and what we can learn from pictures , but much harder to know is what actually went on.

It is what actually happened to ordinary people which is of most interest to most authors of contemporary historical fiction and everything has to be credible within what is known about the period. Passions ran high as each writer talked enthusiastically about their own work.

Following this very inspirational discussion everyone dipersed to lunch then into separate workshop sessions with the individual writers. These were intended to give participants opportunities to find out more about writers and their work. Our "celebrity" panel were joined by 4 other published writers who led workshops on specific aspects of historical writing; Adele Geras spoke on writing history for young people, Mary Sharratt talked about being inspired by place, Sarah Mallory talked on research for historical romance and Andrew Martin covered creating atmosphere.

People bought books, had them signed, met the writers as well as friends. The atmosphere was lively and the impression of an enjoyable and spirited day lingered in the room .

Mounting Excitement

Two busy weekends are approaching.

Lots of Pages Ago activity around the North West currently. Library staff are so busy delivering events, they aren't finding the time to tell me very much about them. I'll see if I can get some feedback in to post here very soon.

In the meantime, those of you with children aged 7-11yrs should note our Pages Ago Family Day taking place at Tatton Park on Saturday 23rd October. There will be lots of reading and writing-related activity taking place in the Tenants' Hall with NW Library staff on hand to encourage participation.

Children will find out about researching, illustrating and writing about historical characters and events. They will have the chance to make up poetry, listen to stories and browse books. Parents will also enjoy all this I'm sure and be able to take part in our quiz.

Normal Park entry charges apply, with no additional costs for the Big Family Book Day.

Don't forget the Pages Ago Readers' Day and the Bernard Cornwell Book Launch both taking place on Saturday 16th October. Book your tickets now. Details at Manchester Literature Festival

Looking forward to....

Time is marching on and there are lots of good things coming up over the next few weeks. This is just a selection:

19th Sept Jane Eagland talks about her cross-over novel Wildthorn in Bolton Council's Smithills Hall.

24th Sept Mary Sharratt runs a creative writing workshop in Blackburn's Museum, using some of their artefacts as inspiration.

Tameside libraries have a whole programme of historical activities going on, including on 28th Sept academic and historical fiction expert Jerome de Groot leads a readers discussion of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels in Tameside's Hyde Library

16th October- a historical readers' day at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester. An opportunity to hear, talk to and meet a host of writers- Sarah Dunant, Alison Weir, Douglas Jackson, Robyn Young, Maria McCann, Adele Geras, Andrew Martin, Mary Sharratt, Sarah Mallory - and who knows who else will be in the audience?

Then in the evening a unique opportunity to hear Bernard Cornwell launch his latest book The Fort Details of how to book for both these can be found on the Manchester Literature Festival website.

If you have stamina and want to make a weekend of it, the next day the Historical Novel Society annual conference is at the same venue.

23rd October, one week on and we host a big Family event at Tatton Park. This is a day full of activities for children all focused on the history of writing and hopefully inspiring participants to read and write more.

26th October and more to go to in Cheshire East as archaeologist Stephen Dean presents an illustrated talk in Macclesfield Library about the now famous anglo-saxon Staffordshire Hoard.

The Flashback Fiction writing competition runs to October 31st and Pages Ago events run on to the end of November.

I hope to write up something about all these events as they happen, but I do hope to see lots of other people at them as well.