How to Read the English Landscape, with Andrew Bibby

Andrew’s books include Backbone of England which focused on northern upland landscapes. His new book delves into the landscapes of ‘middle England’, using the device of a journey made by bicycle along the belt of Jurassic limestone from west Dorset to north Lincolnshire. Andrew turns to social history, economics, and literature, to describe why the countryside looks the way it does. He considers efforts taken to improve community life, ranging from the co-operative village shop in Northamptonshire to the campaign for affordable housing in a Dorset village. He looks at land usage land ownership, discussing how the countryside today is shaped by agricultural subsidies and estate management.

Pandemic, 1918 an illustrated talk with Catharine Arnold

 “In the same city, the Victoria Baths swimming pool was drained and turned into a temporary morgue when the local council ran out of places to store the dead. By the week ending 16 November 1918, Nottingham had the highest death rate in the country: 60,000.” This is the story of Spanish flu, which killed 100 million people globally.

The Piano Room, with  Jaroslav Melnik

Jaroslav Melnik (Jaroslavas Melnikas) is a celebrated Ukrainian/ Lithuanian writer. He has won the BBC Ukrainian Service Book of the Year Award in the Ukraine and has been nominated for it multiple times. His books have been best sellers in Lithuania and his writing is celebrated in France. Today he will be reading in English and discussing East European fiction with Stephan Collishaw (Noir Press). 

New Irish Writing, with Deirdre O’Byrne

Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends was the book other publishers said they wished they had published last year. Eimear McBride won the Goldsmiths Award for her experimental fiction. Then there’s the short story writer Claire Keegan and the novelist Sara Baume, all making waves. Deirdre will introduce you to a new generation of Irish writers and give out samples of their writing to discuss. 

  2.00-3.00

 The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness, with Graham Caveney 

The Boy with… is a memoir of a northern, Irish-immigrant working class family, and an adolescence that was redeemed, then betrayed, by his headteacher, a priest, who introduced him to a world of arts and culture, but who also abused him. This memoir was one of the most widely reviewed books of 2017, now out in paperback.

 The Welbeck Atlas, an illustrated talk by Steph Mastoris

Steph Mastoris is the editor of The Welbeck Atlas produced by the Thoroton Society. It is presented together with a description of the work of William Senior in the 17^th century and includes maps of the Earl of Newcastle’s estates in Nottinghamshire, much of which lay within Sherwood Forest, as well as maps of estates in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Northumberland, so it is of great local interest. 

 Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Panel*, with Dr Teika Bellamy

Although there are many successful women authors in the science fiction genre today, it is still very much a genre dominated by men. Join Teika Bellamy, the founder of Mother’s Milk Books and the editor of the popular series The Forgotten and the Fantastical, discuss the current state of the genre with regards to women authors. She will be joined by other local writers and readers. 

 The Shoestring Poetry Hour, with Jonathan Taylor and Robert Etty

 Nottinghamshire’s leading specialist poetry publisher, and long-time Lowdham regular, John Lucas of Shoestring Press launches a new collection by Leicester poet Jonathan Taylor and offers a welcome return by Robert Etty from Lincolnshire.

3.30-4.30

 Vikings Nottinghamshire, an illustrated talk by Rebecca Gregory

Nottingham was part of the Danelaw, the Viking settlement. Traces can still be found in street and village names, the local dialect and archaeological finds. Did you see the big exhibition recently at Lakeside?

In Transit, poems about travel with Sarah Jackson and Tim Youngs

‘I’m fascinated by this relationship between imagination and travel. What is it about being on the road that has inspired so many poets? How is the rhythm of movement translated into poetic form? And how does the texture of the journey shape the language of each poem? In this reading, Tim and I want to explore the physical, social and psychological implications of travel, gathering together a range of poems that challenge our assumptions of what it means to be in transit.’ 

Sarah and Tim edited the Emma Press book, In Transit. They will be joined by contributors Jo Dixon, Richard Goodson, Rory Waterman and others from the collection

Crime fiction, with  Roz Watkins 

Roz Watkins’s Detective Inspector Meg Dalton is a slightly overweight, feminist vegetarian who plies her trade in the Peak District. It was shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger and is being adapted for TV.  In her novel, Devil’s Dice, a body is found near The Devil’s Dice – a  network of caves and a well-known local suicide spot. The man’s initials and a figure of the Grim Reaper are carved into the cave wall behind his corpse, but bizarrely, the carvings have existed for over one hundred years…

Words Best Sung, with Lee Stuart Evans

Lee Evans is a comedian – no, not that one, this Lee Evans is funny. He writes for Stephen Fry, Julie Walters and a host of top stars, but here is appears in his own right with Words Best Sung, a very loosely family autobiographical novel of the 1960s. There is a sound track – the music of the 60s – but primarily this is a novel of working class life in Worsop. There’s a lot about finding love and happiness, and a lot about steam trains.

Find the full Festival programme on the website of The Bookcase or pick up the physical programme, which looks  like this: