Literature & Spoken Word Archives - Page 8 of 21

11 Jul

Author Q&A: Anne Worthington

Antonia Charlesworth0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

Blackpool-born Anne Worthington has spent decades producing a body of photographic work that highlighted the conditions of housing, and the effects of social and economic change that began during the 1980s, with particular focus on her adopted home of Manchester. She tells Josie Hindle that writing allows her to expand on the themes of her work, and why she returned to Blackpool for inspiration. Tom Pullan knows that the people who visit him are trying to tell him something, but he cannot remember what. He knows the faces in his memory, the ones he loved, are not the ones around…

06 Jul

Podcast: novelist Claire Fuller talks octopuses and the Memory of Animals

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken WordAntonia Charlesworth Stack, Claire Fuller, Lancashire Stories, literature, podcast, The Call of the Sea, The Memory of Animals, The Reading Ramble

The Costa Novel Award-winning author of Unsettled Ground has released a stunning new piece of speculative fiction, The Memory of Animals. She chats to writer and editor Antonia Charlesworth Stack, about their shared fascination with octopuses. Octopuses are having a moment. In scientific discovery and in literature. In this special Blackpool Social Club edition of Lancashire Libraries’ Reading Ramble podcast, Antonia Charlesworth Stack sits down to chat with Claire Fuller about her new novel, The Memory of Animals, and the unlikely themes it shares with her story, The Call of The Sea – part of the Lancashire Stories anthology. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3NyaaUWquyf7IMuhsUAd0U?si=YaL8AdeTTT-4sZvpsxeTrQ…

04 Jul

Book Review: The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings by Joanna Nadin

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

Local librarian Hannah O’Brien says this thrilling book about relationships and identity was so compelling she read it in a day. “The characters in this book are works of fiction. But then, isn’t everyone?” Joanna Nadin, an author with over 90 books published, rarely branches into adult fiction, but in this case I'm glad that she did. The double life of Daisy Hemmings was a thrilling read about life, relationships and identity, all wrapped up in a mystery. James Tate has been living a lie, he's changed his life completely and nobody really knows who he is. He ghost writes…

13 Jun

Author Q&A: Cressida Cowell

Antonia Charlesworth0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

The author and illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon series arrives in Blackpool this week to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the books beloved by children and parents alike. She chats to Blackpool Social Club about her ambitions for every child to have access to books and stories. Cowell, who was Children’s Laureate in 2019, will visit the Winter Gardens conference centre on Thursday (15th June) where school children will visit to hear her top tips on becoming an author or illustrator. The series of 19 books is now a film and TV franchise and she’ll also be…

11 May

Author Q&A: Michael Davies

Linda Hampton0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

Cleveleys-based author, Michael Davies, publishes his debut novel today. He tells Linda Hampton how it's in fact a sequel to a book written by another author with a Blackpool connection. Your debut thriller, Outback, is out today and is a sequel to the novel Domino Island by Desmond Bagley, who lived in Blackpool. Can you tell us about the events that lead you to write this novel and how is it connected to Bagley’s last work? The chance to work on a Desmond Bagley manuscript was a huge thrill for me. I’d first been in touch with his publishers, HarperCollins,…

29 Apr

Interview: Henry Normal: rhyme and reason

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

He’s perhaps best known now for producing The Royle Family and Gavin and Stacey but Henry Normal is returning to his first love, poetry, for his next venture. He performs Collected Poems and other landfill at Bootleg on 10th May. Richard Smirke writes When Henry Normal first moved to Manchester in the early 1980s, leaving behind the relative quiet of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, he found himself standing on a bustling Oxford Road, looking up at the imposing red brick buildings that surrounded him. “I was breathless for a second,” he recalls. “I remember thinking, this is too big. I can’t…

19 Apr

Interview: Dave Haslam

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

DJ turned author Dave Haslam tells Carmen Heron about his new book based on Pablo Picasso’s nightlife before he opens up the conversation to audiences in Blackpool Dave Haslam was famous on Manchester’s club scene for his legendary DJ sets at Haçienda over 40 years ago. Now he regularly finds himself stepping down from the DJ booth and picking up a pen. Although his adventures can be seen more now in the pages of a book, the influence of night-time culture is evident in his writing too. Adventure Everywhere: Pablo Picasso’s Paris Nightlife is the seventh book in Haslam’s acclaimed…

07 Apr

Blackpool Social Club presents: Dave Haslam

Antonia Charlesworth0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word, Local News

Blackpool Social Club is proud to be hosting a brilliant event this April, blending literature, art and nightlife at Blackpool's newest theatre, The Old Electric A few short decades ago you would have found Dave Haslam seeking adventure in Manchester’s club scene – most memorably hosting regular DJ sets in the legendary Haçienda. Now a successful author, adventure is found in art and literature – but the influence of the night time culture that formed him is never far from Haslam’s mind. Adventure Everywhere: Pablo Picasso’s Paris Nightlife (Confingo) is the seventh book in Haslam’s acclaimed Art Decades series, which…

13 Mar

Theatre Q&A: John D Slater

Linda Hampton0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word, Theatre, Dance & Performance

Veteran actor and writer John D Slater, brings his one man show, King Lear’s Fool’s Tale, to The Old Electric in March. Linda Hampton asked him about his long career on the stage and his show that he’s bringing to Blackpool. Tell us a little bit about how you first got into acting. I expect my first love affair with the stage started when I was a child – giving impromptu concerts for the family with the help of my grandfather, who was happy to be my stooge. Amateur dramatics beckoned when I was 17 – and continued until my…

04 Feb

Poetry and Tea by the Sea

Linda Hampton0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken Word

Jessica Lyon-Wall (pictured left) showcased Bones, her first poetry collection, live at Tea Amantes Tea Room and Gallery, supported by writer Elaine Ridgeway (right) who shared tales of her trip to Peru as a volunteer teacher. Linda Hampton went along to listen. Undeterred by a bitter winter’s night in January, poetry lovers piled in to Tea Amantes Tea Room and Gallery, to soak up the literary vibes of two local emerging writers. Elaine Ridgeway and Jessica Lyon-Wall, students of creative writing at Blackpool and the Fylde College, presented extracts of their work to a word-hungry crowd. Elaine Ridgeway opened the…