Derby Book Festival - 2016 Launch

by Maryom

 Waterstones Derby was the setting last night for the launch of the second Derby Book Festival - to be held next June, 3rd to 11th.
The event opened informally with a chance to browse the store, say hello to friends who volunteered last year and to indulge in mince pies and mulled wine (it is almost Christmas after all). The audience was then addressed by Liz Fothergill, chair of the organising committee, who told us how delighted everyone had been with the success of last year's festival and announced some of the highlights of the coming year's.
The festival will be opened with two poetry events; Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate, will appear at the Cathedral, accompanied by her 'favourite court musician' John Sampson, while Derbyshire's Poet Laureate, Helen Mort will be performing her poetry at an event held at Deda.

Other highlights include an event celebrating the bicentennial of Charlotte Bronte's birth with Claire Harman, who has recently published a new biography of the author, and Tracey Chevalier, who has edited and contributed to a new collection of stories, Reader, I Married Him, inspired by Charlotte Bronte's most famous work, Jane Eyre.
As last year, events will take place in a variety of venues across the city, including some new ones. There will be writing workshops, story-telling sessions, a children's book trail and, of course, author appearances. To coincide with the Festival a book of short stories is being collated through the English-as-Second-Language course bringing together tales from Derby's immigrant community, focusing on their journey to the UK, leaving behind family, friends and homes, and the trauma and cultural shocks encountered both on the way and once arrived here.

Something I'm particularly excited about is the event with local novelist Jo Cannon, who was present last night to read an extract from her debut novel The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, set in the heatwave of 1976. Her book isn't published till January but you can download a first chapter sampler here.


The evening was closed by a few words from David Williams, representing major sponsor Geldards Law Firm; a humorous and entertaining address in which he stressed why it's important for us, as companies and individuals, to support cultural initiatives in the current economic climate.

2016's Derby Book Festival will be 3-11 June, and the full programme will be announced in April.

Derby Book Festival - author event - Stephen Booth and Anne Zouroudi

Another day, another book event - that's the joy of festivals! So on Sunday I was back at Derby Quad, in the same room where the previous day I'd seen Antonia Hodgson and SD Sykes talking about historical crime, this time to hear about contemporary crime novels from Stephen Booth and Anne Zouroudi.
Both authors have local connections but whereas Stephen Booth's long-running Cooper and Fry detective series is set in Derbyshire's Peak District, Anne Zouroudi has chosen the warmer location of Greece for her Mysteries of the Greek Detective series featuring the enigmatic Hermes Diaktoros.
Pointed in the right direction by the event's chair person, both authors told the audience how their series started out, developed and where it will go. Booth's Ben Cooper and Diane Fry first appeared as young detective constables - over 15 novels they've aged and been promoted but aren't quite keeping pace with 'real' time and could probably go on for ever. The Greek Detective series though was always envisioned as comprising seven stories representing the Seven Sins, and has now reached an end - another series based round the Ten Commandments is now being planned...
The topic of conversation managed at one point to get round to the vexed matter of e-books - are they good or bad, for reader, writers, and publishers? Both authors felt it gave them the opportunity to expand their readership, with huge numbers of books being downloaded during 'deal of the day' promotions, but that after initially discovering a new author readers might be going back to traditional 'real' books for further purchases.
This event had time for a Q+A session at the end - both authors were friendly and approachable, even when one audience member decided to leak a plot twist!
As an odd sort of birthday treat, I'd taken my neighbour along with me. She's an avid reader of crime thrillers but had only seen author events and book signings on TV's Murder She Wrote, and, knowing I go along to such things fairly frequently, she was intrigued to see what really happened. Well, no one died this time (sorry, Jessica Fletcher) but we did learn some useful tips for if we ever wanted to murder someone - and get away with it!



 

Derby Book Festival - author event - Antonia Hodgson and SD Sykes

In an ideal world, I would have spent most if not all of Saturday at Derby Book Festival but it wasn't possible - so I chose this 'double' event with Antonia Hodgson and SD Sykes, having read and enjoyed their highly original debut novels. Both authors write historical crime fiction set in periods which are comparatively ignored in 'popular' history; Antonia Hodgson's The Devil in the Marshalsea  is set in London in the 1720s, SD Sykes' Plagueland  in fourteenth century English countryside in the period immediately after the Black Death (the plague of the book's title).  As the authors explained, both periods were times of upheaval and lawlessness. 1720s London was a boom town with a rapidly growing population and no police force to keep it in order; a place where fortunes could be quickly made, and lost! Plagueland's setting on the other hand is an empty landscape in which the population has been halved by the dreadful plague sweeping through; an historical dystopian setting where the 'normal' way of life has been disrupted, no one is left to enforce the law, and labourers once tied to their lord's manor feel free to leave and seek better lives elsewhere. Eventually this led to a change in the social order and the end of feudalism, but meanwhile everyone had to struggle on as best they could.
As the authors talked about their writing and research I realised there were further similarities between the two books - both authors chose a male protagonist, for the simple reason that men were freer to go out and about, to do things and visit places that women couldn't. Both of these young men had been expected to have a career within the Church and both 'avoided' it; Tom Hawkins prefers living off his wits and gambling, which is how he ends up in the debtors' prison of the Marshalsea; Oswald de Lacy had been happy with his proposed life as a monk, but the death of his father and two elder brothers has forced him to assume the role of Lord of the Manor. Both of them then find themselves investigating murder; Tom as a deal to get out of jail; Oswald because there's no one else to take responsibility. Both novels were debuts, but Antonia's second novel The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins was published last week - 4th June 2015 - and there's a second Oswald de Lacy story, The Butcher Bird, planned for publication in autumn. I can't wait to read both of them!

Derby Book Festival - author event - Elly Griffiths

An enthusiastic crowd was at Waterstones Derby yesterday evening to welcome crime author Elly Griffiths, there to talk about her series of novels starring Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist. I've seen the author at a previous event where she shared the 'stage' with two other writers; last night she had it all to herself and proved to be a fluent, engaging speaker, comfortable standing alone in front of the crowd.
Elly started the event by telling us that that isn't really her name at all; it's actually Domenica De Rosa and under it she's published four books, all loosely connected by Italy, but when she turned to crime writing her agent suggested taking a different name and she chose her grandmother's - Ellen Griffiths.

She talked for about half an hour on a wide range of topics - where she gets her inspiration, advice for budding authors, anecdotes from other events, the Ruth Galloway series - its characters and Norfolk settings - and a new one starting with The Zig Zag Girl  - set in the 1950s and mixing crime and music hall magic acts - after which she answered questions from the audience. Sometimes at this point in an event the crowd can get all quiet and nervous, waiting for someone else to be the first to ask something - not so last night. Elly seemed really approachable, and chatted comfortably with her fans.

Shame to say, despite this being my second Elly Griffiths event, I haven't read any of her books - but last night has convinced me that I should; with such a lot of catching up to do with Ruth Galloway, I'm tempted to start with the new series and The Zig Zag Girl.

How to set up your own festival ..... Sian Hoyle from Derby Book Festival

 You've probably already seen me talking about a new book festival around this year - and it's not just any old book festival but one right here on my doorstep in Derby. It kicks off this coming weekend, so before it all gets underway I managed to catch the originators and brains behind the project - Sian Hoyle and Jenny Denton - for a quick chat ....


First, could you tell me briefly why you decided to set up a book festival here in Derby....
A glass of wine in QUAD has a lot to answer for!  We were chatting about what books we were reading (we’re both in book groups) and then got onto book festivals … and why didn’t Derby have one!  It seemed like a good idea and not too difficult to organise.  A few authors and venues over a weekend, somewhere to sell tickets …

...and how did you go about it?
We started by doing some research by talking to other Festival organisers who were very generous in their advice and time.  Then started to talk to potential partners in the city to see if they thought it was a good idea – QUAD, Déda, Derby Theatre, Derby City Council, Waterstones, the University of Derby.  And they all were very positive and supportive.

You can read all about how it happened in The Independent on Sunday:

Have you encountered any major problems in the planning?
There have been a few hiccups along the way and for every step forward we sometimes seemed to take one back.  That caused several sleepless nights.  Completing the funding applications was hard work and we were always worried about not receiving funding, but luckily these were largely successful.  Securing authors was relatively easy although it was a waiting game which was stressful. For a very long time there were only two of us and time was always an issue in terms of getting everything done.  We soon realised this was to be a five – even a seven – day a week job.  A real breakthrough moment was receiving the Arts Council funding and being able to employ Helen, who has been such an amazing organiser and has taken on some of the more difficult tasks like managing the ticketing, monitoring the finances, managing the sponsorship etc.  We really would not be having a Festival without her and the 60 strong team of volunteers who we hope will make every event go smoothly!   

Is there anything you'd do differently for another year?
Lots of things, but I think we need to see how it goes and then we are planning a thorough review.  There are also lots of things we’d definitely do again too.

Is there anything you'd like to have more (or less) of?
Money so we could pay for staff!  We don’t think it is sustainable to do it again having nearly all our planning meetings in the evenings and at weekends.  We will definitely be seeking more funding for 2016.  We’d also like to ensure we involve as many communities as we can in Derby and get more ideas from local people about what they want in the next Festival but hopefully the evaluation of this year’s event will give us that. 

Are you a regular visitor to other book festivals?
I’ve only been to two and they have both been in the last year as part of the research.  We now devour other festivals’ programmes to see what they’re planning.  Sadly time has prevented us from attending other festivals this year. 

How did you decide which authors and celebrities to ask along?
We had a wish list and went for those first – and were amazed when they started to say ‘yes’.  We weren’t very systematic about our approach.  It was more a question of – let’s ask so and so!  We’d find who the publisher and publicist were and then we’d send them a pitch.  There was a lot of luck involved. 

We also found out about local authors and approached them direct because we wanted the Festival to celebrate local writing as well as have the ‘big names’.  We decided early on that we wanted an event for schools and the only author we approached was Michael Morpurgo.  We are thrilled that over 500 children from nearly every school in Derby will meet him at a special event on 8 June. 

We also wanted to have authors who would appeal to local residents so included events at the Cricket Club, Football Club and Derby Arena.  We hope to do more of this sort of programming next year. 

Which specific event are you looking forward to? (and why)
It has to be Sarah Waters and David Nicholls as I have loved their books so much.  But also events like the Derby on Board Games as it’s such a great atmosphere there and the Nigel Lowey talk about St Pancras station.  And Dymphna Flynn, the producer of Radio 4 Bookclub, who will have a great story to tell about 12 years of choosing the books, meeting the authors and some anecdotes about the monthly recordings ….. this event is ticketed but now FREE.



To find out more about the festival, check out which authors are appearing and book tickets see here

Derby Book Festival Launch

 by Maryom

We've been to quite a few book festivals now - north to Edinburgh, west to Hay on Wye, south to Chipping Norton, even over 'the border' to Nottinghamshire for Lowdham book festival, and DerbyshireLitFest is held every two years in libraries up and down the county - but all of these involve travelling, sometimes even planning our holidays around them! Now there's to be a book festival right here on our doorstep in Derby - how exciting is that?!!
I've known about this for a while and have signed up as a volunteer, but it was only last Thursday, World Book Night and Shakespeare's birthday, that the full programme was launched. The festival is the brain child of Sian Hoyle and Jenny Denton, and they've put together 60 events ranging from school visits by authors to appearances by big names such as David Nicholls, Katie Fforde and Sarah Waters. Taking place from 31st May to 7th June, there'll be crime writers, poetry, book-signings, a footballer, a mountaineer, writing workshops, exciting debut authors, familiar names, lots of free book-related activities for children and a special Radio4 BookClub, with events in various locations around the city from theatres to bookstores to the new cycling arena.
I've got my programme - in fact several which I'm trying to pass round friends and anyone who might be interested - and my highlighter pen's at the ready BUT I've discovered a slight down-side to volunteering. I've offered my services for several days over the week but not yet heard when and where I'll be needed - and until I do, I won't know which events I'll be free to attend, so can't book tickets. I'm now waiting anxiously to hear - it should be sometime this week - then I can really start to plan!

You can find out more on the Derby Book Festival website or follow on Facebook or Twitter.

I've already read books by several of the authors due to appear, and hope to read more before the festival, so I'll be adding links to them below.

Steven Dunne - The Reaper, Deity, The Unquiet Grave (booksigning 5th June Waterstones)
Jon McGregor - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things   (Radio 4 BookClub 5th June, Quad and Hello Hubmarine-The Silk Mill 6th June)
Antonia Hodgson - The Devil in the Marshalsea - and SD Sykes - Plagueland  (Joint event 6th June Quad)
Alison McQueen - Under the Jewelled Sky (6th June Quad)
Anne Zouroudi - The Messenger of Athens  (joint event with Stephen Booth 7th June, Quad)
Paula Rawsthorne - Blood Tracks, The Truth About Celia Frost (school visits)

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

review by Maryom

On a late summer's day the residents of a street in the north of England are going about their daily routines. Nothing special is happening - a man is painting his windows, two boys are playing cricket, a toddler rides his tricycle up and down the street, an elderly couple celebrate their anniversary - the sort of things that make up any average day...then something happens, a terrible thing which leaves its mark on all who witnessed it.
A few years later one of the young women from the street is trying to face up to some unexpected, disturbing news but her thoughts keep getting dragged back to that fateful day....

I picked this up from the library as the author is going to be appearing at a local book festival - and I was stunned! I just don't know how I haven't discovered this wonderful book, or in fact any by this author, before.
It opens with an over-view of the anonymous city, with passages that read like poetry, then zooms in one street as its inhabitants go about their daily lives, focussing on all the little things that make up a day - all rather like Under Milk Wood.
The reader's told quite early on that something dreadful occurred on this specific day - but the actual details are withheld, and I had the feeling that the author was teasing me with possibilities - would something happen to the elderly couple catching the bus? the man making a charity bungee jump? the toddler on his trike? When the tragedy occurred, it wasn't what I was expecting.
These events alternate with the (presumably) present day, as the young woman copes with another life-changing event, explores her relationship with her parents, meets a new guy - but all of these things are still marred by the past.

A curious feature is that barely anyone is named but referred to by gender and house number, underlining the fact that, like so many of us, the inhabitants of this street don't really know their neighbours. It also serves to make the characters more universal - they're all people we can identify with, maybe even like some people we know - and that's what this book celebrates; the everyday captured and turned into something special.

The good thing about discovering this book so very late, is that the author has had time to be writing more - so it's time for another trip to the library!



Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre - adult literary fiction