Mexico 70 There were rumours of decimalization at Manor House Junior school. It was the summer of 1970, of Esso World Cup coins – free with a tenner of four star. My Dad didn’t own a car. My best friend's name was Zolly. He had a Rediffusion colour TV. A yelping dog called Bugsy, his soft bosomed mum made me shy. And Rosa taught me to dance and swallow a pickled herring.
It is a mistake, probably, to seek consonance in the work of several poets whose contributions to Poetry Business’ latest anthology are nothing if not eclectic. Yet there are contiguous stylistic threads in this fine, slim volume, whose presence may or may not be a consequence of the judicious application of editorial inference.
Sunderland-born author, Terry Deary, appeared at Durham Book Festival on Saturday, 12 October, to discuss his first history book for adults, A History of Britain in Ten Enemies (available now). From the Ancient Romans to the Nazis, this new book explores the enemies that define a nation.
The inspiration of a TED talk, the exhilaration of a rock concert, and the education of a lecture – that was my evening with Rebecca F. Kuang at Durham Book Festival. From the moment she began her witty personal anecdotes, Kuang captivated a sold-out audience.
Uneasy pauses… Furtive glances... Pallid expressions… All elements of a killer crime fiction novel.
Collected Books on the Riverwalk was a charmingly cosy place to be on the final night of Durham Book Festival. Many of the audience members settling in for the Translation Slam opted to skirt around the seating arrangement and take in the bookshelves, or order themselves a warm drink before the event began in earnest.
This year, Durham Book Festival had the pleasure of welcoming to the Gala Theatre stage poets Jackie Kay and Romalyn Ante.
Leaving We have to leave the smell in the hall. We can’t pack the bumpy wallpaper Or the way the back door squeaks When you lean on it. We can’t take the neighbours, Or their cakes, Or the closeness of the church bells That ding dong their wedding song On sunny Saturdays. We have to leave the sunshine that Joins me on my pillow before school.
The history of Northern Ireland has long interested me. My mother was born in Belfast and we still have family living in the province. History lessons at both O and A level covered the topic and Seamus Heaney’s poetry, reflecting as it does on his life in rural Northern Ireland, seems to have regularly invaded my Lit. studies.
Kat Brown is an author, journalist and commentator whose book It's Not a Bloody Trend smashes the stereotypical idea of ADHD with scientific evidence, historical context and personal experience. Kat is also the author of No One Talks About This Stuff, a groundbreaking anthology sharing people’s untold experiences of infertility and baby loss.
I once knew a hairdresser of the old school, a 'short, back and sides' barber whose everyday valediction to newly cropped customers never varied - 'keep smiling!', he'd say as you left his upstairs shop.
Pornography for Pandas Yang Guang (Sunshine) raises himself on hind legs, reaches for the carrot, a little higher building muscle for the two-minute act to come, his enclosure dim lit, smooth jazz dreamy daubed with the urine of Tian Tian (Sweetie) when last in season – all this to get him in the mood his bodyweight in food each day for stamina and now, a forty-inch screen, erected beyon…
An artist-led independent publisher in Whitby has launched a limited edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as part of a wider revival and growing appetite for illustrated classics.
In an interview with Richard Owain Roberts,* Bill Broady recalls the unformed stylistic ambition of his teenage years with the kind of serendipity that propelled Harold Wilson from the doorstep of no.10 as a holidaying child to his later Prime Ministerial tenure.
The winners of the prestigious Creative Future Writers’ Awards (CFWA), the UK’s only national awards for all underrepresented writers, who traditionally lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, identity, health or social circumstance, were announced today.
Parta Quies Good-Night; ensured release, Imperishable peace, Have these for yours, While sea abides, and land, And earth’s foundations stand, And heaven endures. When earth’s foundations flee, Nor sky nor land nor sea At all is found, Content you, let them burn: It is not your concern; Sleep on, sleep sound. Parta Quies: ‘Rest is won’.
The Big Read 2024 schedule: Monday, September 23: Acomb Explore Library Front Street, Acomb YO24 3BZ Event Starts 11.30am Event Finishes 12.30pm The Harrogate Inn 1 Ripon Rd, Harrogate HG1 2SY Event Starts 2.30pm Event Finishes 3.30pm Bradford City Library Centenary Square, 9 Aldermanbury, Bradford BD1 1SD Event Starts 6.30pm Event Finishes 7.…
Being Present Not every night, but most, when I call, and you haven’t remembered what we’ve talked about, I go on loop to see the half-hour out: ‘So, did you listen to the footy?’ ‘No’ – surprise in your voice – ‘no, somehow I forgot.’ ‘What’s been on the radio? What was dinner?’ You rarely know the answers. Or the questions. Or that you’ve known the things that keep you there.
The book was sitting on the top of a filing cabinet, keeping itself to itself, when I picked it up almost mechanically, read the blurb and promptly asked if I could borrow it. You have to be alert to any opportunity when a new book presents itself and this psychological thriller proved worthy of my request. It’s a quick and compelling read which won’t send you to sleep.
If Katrina Naomi’s rich brocade of ‘sea’ poems is by no means the first collection to embrace a subject of such compelling intractability, then it is certainly the most extraordinary.
Modern Love It is summer, and we are in a house That is not ours, sitting at a table Enjoying minutes of a rented silence, The upstairs people gone. The pigeons lull To sleep the under-tens and invalids, The tree shakes out its shadows to the grass, The roses rove through the wilds of my neglect.
Skew Hill Sheffield My mother’s ashes scattered between flinty showers; a resolution at last of all that reaching out towards others.
The truly remarkable thing about Little Toller’s new anthology is the variegated manner of its focus.
The north’s longest-running literary festival, Ilkley Literature Festival, has announced its 2024 line-up. A plethora of poets, novelists, chefs, historians, politicians, children’s authors, biographers, journalists, and even the odd national treasure, descend on the spa town this autumn.
Over one long weekend [10-13 October a host of literary luminaries descend on Durham as the city’s annual book festival returns, celebrating the power of the written word. Produced by New Writing North, the Durham County Council event features an exclusive dramatic reading of Pat Barker’s new novel The Voyage Home in association with Live Theatre.
The Courtesan The sun of Venice in my hair’s preparing a gold where lustrously shall culminate all alchemy. My brows, which emulate her bridges, you can contemplate over the silent perilousness repairing of eyes which some communion secretly unites with her canals, so that the sea rises and ebbs and changes in them.
There’s no doubt about it, despite recent allegations Strictly Come Dancing brought a bit of glitz and glamour to Saturday nights, watched by millions - mostly, though not solely, women. And what’s wrong with watching couples waltz gracefully and elegantly round a dance floor, or jive energetically, or passionately embrace the drama of the tango?
Images of Spit 1 William Your White William is valueless for impact and power in school insults: its pristine unadhesive sud’s a slap in the face with a lace glove. 2 Gilbert The solid gold yolk of a fresh egg stands proud as sunrise on its plate, so should a hawked emerald Gilbert clump like shamrock on your victim’s mug.
Set in South Yorkshire and featuring a forty-something American expat (and her cat) trying to adjust to English life while also solving a murder mystery, Gianetta Murray’s Moved to Murder combines crime, comedy, and pathos with librarian trivia and interior design.
I have heard of, and understand the value of, writing something down as a form of catharsis. A means of being able to move on, without having to dwell on unhappy or unpleasant details while knowing that they are safe should you ever need to revisit them; The Binding takes that idea to a whole new level.