News & Happenings

New Vopenka is the ‘Science Fiction Book of the Month’ – The Times

The Times crowns a great launch week for Martin Vopenka, making his MY BROTHER THE MESSIAH their Science Fiction Book of the Month. This is a HARD book to grapple with in a short piece, but we’re impressed how well reviewers have taken to the task. Simon Ings grapples with …

A Writer’s Journey to discover Angelica Kauffmann – Miranda Miller

Writing fiction about a real person is a big responsibility. As I researched my novel about the painter Angelica Kauffmann (1741 – 1807) I worried that I wasn’t bringing her to life vividly enough. During the fifteen years she lived in London she was so successful that a word was …

James Thornton Poetry Reading

For 25 years James Thornton has spent a good portion of each year nestled in a  Pyrenean mountain village. Like the house martins that flock to the valley, it was part of his migratory journey. Each year, he observed the flow of villagers and the natural world and wrote what …

Chris Westoby launches THE FEAR TALKING

https://youtu.be/jrpP82FMiOQ Chris Westoby launches his debut THE FEAR TALKING: The True Story of a Young Man and Anxiety in a truly open-hearted launch event. Watch Chris in conversation with the writer Edmund Hurst. Here’s a surprising snippet from the conversation. The word ‘anxiety’ only gets mentioned once in the whole …

Writing True Stories of Seafolk and the Sea – A conversation with Brian W. Lavery

You live on Hessle Road in Hull, albeit on the posh end. How does it help you as a writer, living in the community you are writing about? Being able to ‘walk’ the setting for my books is invaluable. Even though much has changed in some parts, there are still …

The Fear Talking: A writer-reader diary. Joseph Coward on reading through anxiety

We asked writer-readers to write us a reader-diary of their reading journey through Chris Westoby’s The Fear Talking. Joseph Coward writes this crackingly honest first piece.  [To meet Chris in conversation with Edmund Hurst, live on Zoom 18.00 GMT Dec 3rd, email thefeartalking@gmail.com] Chris Westoby is the same age as …

Chris Westoby – Why anxiety, OCD & depression are worth sharing

I’ve had a severe anxiety disorder for my whole life. Growing up, I kept my illness secret, even from my parents. Partly through the shame of the things I thought, the things I was afraid of, my hidden behaviours, but also because it was the 00s and nobody seemed to talk about these …

Paul Harfleet – The Power of Pansies, Birds and Art

Birds feature in the story of Pansy Boy, but they get their own star feature at the end of the book in your hand drawn Field Guide to Birds. Why was it important to include those pages? When the book felt almost complete and was filled with the birds I …

Living in Lockdown – a Couples’ Guide

James Thornton is CEO of the not-for-profit environmental law firm ClientEarth, as well as being a poet and a Zen Buddhist priest. His new collection Notes from a Mountain Village collects poems drawn from twenty-five years of observing French mountain life. In this new era of working-from-home, James shares lessons he learned …

Interview with Colin W. Sargent on Red Hands

Red Hands is a compelling read. You get pulled in to the story of a young girl’s life, and then find yourself led through the excesses and collapse of a whole Communist State. As the book’s editor, I know that such a vivid read only comes out of a tough …

William Barry, thoughts on Red Hands

Bill Barry, who reviewed The Boston Castrato for The Maine Sunday Telegram, offers this bright review of Colin W. Sargent’s Red Hands, with its whole array of wider reflections.  Taken at face value, Red Hands is a unique insider’s view of the rise and fall of the dystopian regime of Romania’s Nicolae and …