Norfolk Literary Events/News

Are you a novelist based in the East of England? Want to get professional? If you could benefit from a year's worth of development and support then please apply for the Escalator Literature Fiction Competition.

The ten winners will get a package including: one-to-one mentoring from professional writers (including Tobias Hill and Katherine McMahon); support applying for a grant; professional development workshops; introductions to agents and publishers and more.

Visit Writer's Centre Norwich to find out more and to apply online today or telephone 01603 877177.

 

Gresham's School in Holt will be running its inaugural literary festival from 17th-19th February and will be hosting authors such as Richard Mabey, Patrick 'Butterfly Man' Barkham and the well known children's author Saci Lloyd. Tickets are available from the Auden Theatre Box Office on 01263 713444. More information about the event can be found here.

Launched on the 27th November 2010 - it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the novelist's death. It was commissioned by the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Trust and was edited by Bradbury's son Dominic and by Andrew Cowan and Giles Foden from the UEA. Click here to visit the site.

My collection of poems - Gedney Drove End - has been shortlisted by Professor Jean Boase-Beier of the UEA for this year's East Anglian Book Awards.

The other two shortlisted books in the poetry section are Bridge by Laura Elliott and Yes by Caroline Gilfillan. The awards ceremony will take place at the Assembly Rooms in Norwich on 20th October.

The competition is supported by the EDP, the Norwich Writers' Centre, Jarrold and CUE East. The overall winner will be awarded £250.

To buy a copy of Gedney Drove End (price £4.99) please click here.

Dad's Army scriptwriters Jimmy Perry and David Croft will be on-hand to witness the unveiling of a new statue of Captain Mainwaring in Thetford on Saturday, June 19. The statue, which was made by the sculptor Sean Hedges-Quinn, shows Mainwaring in a seated position wearing his Home Guard uniform and holding his baton across his legs.

The statue will be located next to the River Little Ouse - halfway between the Bell and Anchor hotels in the town centre. (The cast and crew used to stay in the hotels while filming the series.) Bill Pertwee, who played the obnoxious Warden Hodges, will also be present at the unveiling ceremony.

Many of the external shots in the series were filmed in Thetford - making use of local landmarks such as the Guildhall, Nether Row and St Mary the Less Church. The town is proud of its links with the series and now boasts a 'Dad's Army Museum' (Cage Lane) and a 'Dad's Army Trail' complete with accompanying leaflet.

Wymondham's first ever literary festival will take place this year on the weekend of Friday 17th - Sunday 19th September.

A number of Norfolk-based writers will be appearing including: Martin Figura, Moniza Alvi, Nathan Hamilton, George Szirtes, Henry Sutton, Helen Ivory and Anthony and Ann Thwaite.

Most of the events will take place at the Wymondham Arts Centre which is located in the medieval Becket's Chapel. There will be readings, writing workshops, music, conversation and activities for children.

A full programme of events will be available at the end of June from The Book Fountain, 2 Wharton's Court, Wymondham, NR18 0UQ, Tel: 01953 603663 or by emailing wymondhamwords@hotmail.co.uk (please put 'programme' in the subject line).

The book is designed by East Publishing and is published by Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust (HEART). It also includes 12 of my own photographs - see: Norwich Churches Flickr set.

St Peter Hungate in Princes Street.

The book will cost £12.95 and will be on sale at: Jarrolds, Norwich Tourist Information Centre, Norwich Cathedral Shop and Colman’s Mustard Shop & Museum. For more information visit www.heritagecity.org or call 01603 305575.
 

Now in its third year, the East Anglian Book Awards aim to celebrate the best writing from the region (Norfolk, Suffolk and the Fens). This year the awards are supported by the Norwich Writers' Centre and CUE East. There will be seven categories: fiction, poetry, nature and places, art and photography, history and tradition, biography and memoir and guidebook and travel.

Books need to have been published between August 1, 2009 and July 31, 2010. The judges this year will include: Keith Skipper, Professor Jean Boase-Beier, Ian Collins and Ann Thwaite.

To enter, send two copies to Keiron Pim at the EDP, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE. For more information call 01603 772431 or email: keiron.pim@archant.co.uk.

The overall winner will receive £250.

In May this year, local journalist Steve Silk will be publishing a book about the Wherryman's Way. The WW runs from Norwich to Yarmouth - meandering its way through the heart of the beautiful (and often overlooked) southern Broads. If you've ever wanted to know more about Bramerton, Surlingham, Coldham Hall, Rockland or Reedham then this is the book for you. The book is packed with information about the old ferries, the old naturalists and wildfowlers (such as Jimmy 'Old Scientific' Fuller) and also includes more circular walks in the area.

The book, which is published by Halsgrove, is the result of over five years of meticulous research by Steve. I met up with Steve recently at Whitlingham Broad and managed to get this photograph of him close to the route.

Steve Silk at Whitlingham Broad

Steve currently lives in Loddon with his wife and two daughters. For more information about the forthcoming book - check out his excellent blog.

 

The winner of this year's award was Matthew Rice - an author and artist - who divides his time between Oxford and Blakeney. His book Building Norfolk is a celebration of the county's architectural heritage and features many of his own watercolour paintings. Rice's wife Emma described the work as a 'love letter to Norfolk'.

2009 marks the 25th Anniversary of The Rialto - a consistently high quality, Norfolk-based poetry magazine. The magazine was founded in 1984 by Michael Mackmin (now the sole editor) and John Wakeman.

To mark the anniversary, the team at The Rialto will be producing an anthology featuring work by the many distinguished (and emerging) poets who have appeared in the magazine over the years.

More information about the anthology will be available soon at The Rialto website.

Copies of the magazine can be obtained via the Inpress site.

This year's event will take place on May 8th, 9th and 10th and will feature poets and writers such as Hugo Williams, Fleur Adcock and Louis de Bernières. The festival, which is now in its 12th year, provides a great opportunity to hear both local and national poets reading their own work. Most of the events are held in The Maltings on Staithe Street. More information can be found on the festival website:

Wells-next-the-Sea Poetry Festival

2009 marks the bicentenary of the death of the radical writer Thomas Paine. Paine was born in Thetford in 1737 and was educated at Thetford Grammar School. There are are series of events planned (in and around the town) to celebrate the occasion. Full details are available here.

 

The EDP, Jarrold and the New Writing Partnership (soon to be known as 'Wrters' Centre Norwich') are running a competition to find the best recent East Anglian Book. There will be a prize of £250 for the winner. The judges are looking for books with a strong regional content that were published between August 1, 2008 and July 31, 2009. The deadline for entries is 31, July 2009.

To enter, send four copies of your book to Keiron Pim at the Eastern Daily Press, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE. For more information call 01603 772431.

The competition judges are: Keiron Pim, Caroline Jarrold, Andrew Cowan and Chris Gribble.

 

The Wymondham-based poet has recently published a collection of three Norfolk libretti entitled Shuck, Hick, Tiffey. These lyrics have been set to music by Ken Crandell. George has kindly agreed that Tiffey Song can appear on this site. It's a delightful lyric about the 'titty-totty little river' that runs through his home town.

Shuck, Hick,Tiffey is published by The Gatehouse Press.

The 'Bard of Burnham' will be appearing at the Holt Bookshop on October 17th from 5.30-7pm to talk about his new children's book Waterslain Angels. The story is set in 1950s Norfolk in the fictional village of Waterslain (aka Burnham Overy Staithe) and concerns two children who are searching for a wooden angel's wing.

For more information about the gig call 01263 715858.

 

Will be held at the UEA from September 5 to the 7, 2008. Speakers will include Will Self (whose work was influenced by Sebald) and Anthea Bell who translated much of Sebald's work from the original German.

Conference guests will also have the opportunity to visit Suffolk landmarks such as Lowestoft pier and Somerleyton Hall which appeared in Sebald's work.

For more information about the conference call 01603 507728 or visit www.uea.ac.uk/lit.

For more information about Sebald's Norfolk connections see Framingham Earl and Poringland.

2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the great Norfolk humourist Sidney Grapes - author of the delightful Boy John Letters. It has been suggested that a 'Sidney Grapes Society' should be established to help promote interest in the man and his work.

At present there is an oak-panelled clergy vestry in St. Nicholas' Church dedicated to Sidney Grapes - but the church is usually locked and there is no other memorial to him in his home village of Potter Heigham.

If anyone's interested in helping to establish a society or to promote Sid's links with Potter Heigham, please contact Keith Skipper via the Friends of Norfolk Dialect website or myself at Literary Norfolk. If you would like to make a comment about the possible formation of S.G.A.S., please use our Guestbook.

Aunt Agatha, she say: "That earn't wot yow look at, tha's wat yow see when yow do look."

On July 26 and 27th The Friends of Thetford Dad's Army Museum will be holding celebrations in the town to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1st series of the ever popular sitcom - first shown in 1968.

The BBC will also be filming a special 40th anniversary salute to Dad's Army which will be hosted by Jonathan Ross.

For more information about the events in Thetford contact Corinne Fulford on 07802701911.

This year, the InPrint Group (collection of artists and poets) aim to create works of art and poetry relating to the 15th Century Paston Letters - centred on the village of Paston in North Norfolk. These should result in more than one exhibition, several workshops and a hand-made book in collaboration with the Paston Heritage Society. See the group's website for more information www.inprintartsandpoetry.co.uk or visit their studio at the old Bally Factory on Hall Road, Norwich.

Message from Vernon Moyse:

'The Poetry Society have encouraged me to try and establish what they 
call a "Poetry Stanza", a group for joining together to read and write 
poetry and to undertake such other activities as members desire. The 
society have sent me details of members living in the PE post code 
district, but this includes very few Norfolk people!

It would be particularly good to get Norfolk writers contributing samples 
of their work or links to their own sites. My own work is published in 
full via a link to my web site - see: www.poetrynorfolk.net.

I am happy to support people by entering text and designing links and 
have included a blog by which I can publish your comments and 
suggestions.'

Please contact Vernon directly at vernsblog@btinternet.com if you're interested.

On Monday 17th June, leading writers such as Giles Foden, author of The Last King of Scotland and politicians, including Norwich North MP Ian Gibson, will be examining the current threat to the planet, and what the creative imagination can contribute to the debate. Norwich Playhouse, from 8pm onwards. The cost of the event is £12, £10 concessions. Tel: 01603 598598 for tickets.