Faber Fiction Roadshow and Other Events

Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants

Peterborough Central Library

Saturday 4th May, 2pm

£5 (£4 conc and heritage pass)

Book at any Peterborough Library, Waterstones Peterborough or Peterborough Museum

A fascinating talk about the true lives of Edwardian servants. Author and journalist Alison Maloney will be talking about her book Life Below Stairs. This intriguing book uncovers the real-life experiences and first-hand accounts of what life was really like working in a grand Edwardian house.

For further information, please visit:

http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/event/life-below-stairs-true-lives-of-edwardian-servants

Faber Fiction Roadshow

Afternoon Tea with Three Authors

Saturday 11th May, 2-3pm

John Clare Theatre, Peterborough Central Library

£3 (£2 concessions, free tickets for reading groups)

Tickets from any Peterborough Library or Waterstones, Peterborough

Marcel Theroux, Susie Steiner and Nadeem Aslam will be presenting a panel event. Come along and hear a group of writers talking about their novels, and be inspired to try something different.

Afternoon Tea will also be provided enabling readers to chat individually with the authors afterwards.

Susie Steiner is a former Guardian journalist. Her novel “A Homecoming” is the story of a Yorkshire family. A warm, enjoyable and funny debut novel, reminiscent of Anne Tyler and Marina Lewycka.

Marcel Theroux is a screenwriter, a broadcaster, and an award-winning novelist.
“Far North” was a finalist for the U.S. National Book Award. He is currently working on a new novel “Strange Bodies”. Nicholas has been dead for months. So when a man claiming to be him turns up to visit an old girlfriend, deception seems the only possible motive. Yet nothing can make him change his story.

Nadeem Aslam is the author of three previous novels. Maps for Lost Lovers was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Born in Pakistan, he now lives in England. His new novel “The Blind Man’s Garden” is set in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the months following 9/11 – a story of war, of one family’s losses and of the simplest, most enduring human impulses.

Their books will be available for purchase and signing on the day.

For further information, please visit: 

http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/event/faber-fiction-roadshow

Collective Noun: An Evening with 4 Poet Laureates

This is an evening performance to celebrate the contribution of 4 of our local Poet Laureates and to also say a big thank you to St John's Poet-in-Residence, Pete Cox. This will be a event full of beautiful and exciting verse that will display the imaginative of these East Anglian bards and the things and places that have inspired them in their laureateship.

The night includes the wonderful following:

Pete Cox, Poet-in-Resident at St John the Baptist Church
At Easter 2012 Pete Cox was appointed Poet-in-Residence for St John the Baptist Church. Hear some of the work he has produced in that time and about some of the events he has attended.
“Cox is a poetic wildcard, spinning off all kinds of funny, bizarre and fanciful versa…” Neal Wilgus, Small Press Review (USA)
 “Is there no end to this man’s versatility?” Keith Walker, Fanzine Fanatique (UK).

Elaine Ewart, Fenland Poet Laureate
National award-winning poet and Fenland Poet Laureate Emeritus, Elaine Ewart is currently studying for an MA in ‘Wild Writing: Literature and the Environment’, at the University of Essex. She writes poetry and short fiction, as well as creative non-fiction about the natural world. Elaine, a former lawyer, lives in Ely and volunteers at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust at Welney.
Enjoy her work and follow her poetic adventures online at: www.flightfeather.wordpress.com


Simon Stabler, Peterborough Poet Laureate
The last time Simon performed in a church was as a boy soprano more than 20 years ago. While he still has his medal from the Royal School of Church Music, his ability to sing left him many years ago, thanks in part to underage smoking and barking along to punk records. He may have given up smoking some years ago but still enjoys a spiky rant, with his poem 'This Is Peterborough ...' and 'We Deserve More' earning him the title of Peterborough Poet Laureate at last September’s finals. Having known Pete for many years, Simon is honoured to be at tonight’s celebration and for once, will be turning down his irreverence settings.

Darren Rawnsley, Stamord Poet Laureate
Take a brief journey with Darren Rawnsley, from the 1960s to the present day. A weave of reflection, truth and empathy. From buttercups to riots, intimate cafes to traditions passed down through generations. A 'Box of Allsorts' for the listener to digest.

Please take a poetic pew at our very own St John the Baptist, Peterborough, just behind the Guildhall in Peterborough City centre.

When: 23rd of April 2013
Time: 7:30pm-10:00pm
Price: £3 and please pay on the door, no advance tickets.

For further enquiries please visit the Facebook Event page.

Author Events in Peterborough this Spring!

Vivacity now has a new booking system so you can buy your tickets from any Peterborough library, not just Central Library and  Waterstones on Bridge Street will also have tickets for sale.

Experience Seventeenth Century England – fiction, fact, and food!
With Author Charlotte Betts and Re-enactor Lynda Carvell

Saturday 23rd March, 2pm
John Clare Theatre, Peterborough Central Library
£5 (£4 concessions & reading group members) including refreshments
Tickets available from any Peterborough Library and Waterstones Bridge Street

Join historical novel writer Charlotte Betts and re-enactor Lynda Carvell on a journey back to the 17th Century, with an afternoon of fact and fiction.

Charlotte’s latest novel 'The Painter's Apprentice' is set during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, a significant event in British history. She will talk about why she loves writing historical fiction and the extensive research involved. She will read from some of her sources as well as her novels.

Re-enactor Lynda Carvell will join Charlotte to reveal the realities of life at the time. She will demonstrate the clothes the book’s characters would have worn.

Both author and re-enactor will reveal lots of other fascinating details of life in the 17th Century – including recipes and cooking techniques, with a chance to taste a 17th Century biscuit!

Copies of Charlotte’s books will be available for purchase and signing.

'The Apothecary’s Daughter' (2011) won a number of awards.  'The Painter’s Apprentice' is her latest book.
 
Further information on the event is available here:
http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/event/experience-seventeenth-century-england-andndash-fi

 

World Book Night Author Event with Crime Writer S J Bolton
Folklore and Forensics: making sense out of the nightmare!

Tuesday 23rd April, 7pm
Peterborough Central Library
Tickets £5 (£4 concessions and reading group members)
Available from any Peterborough library, and Waterstones Bridge Street

Free prize draw included - great book giveaways!

Celebrate World Book Night with crime author S J Bolton. She will be speaking about how she became a writer and the particular sort of Gothic crime novel that has become her trademark.

Her new book is 'Like This For Ever':

Barney knows the killer will strike again soon. The victim will be another boy, just like him. He will drain the body of blood, and leave it on a Thames beach.
There will be no good reason for Lacey Flint to become involved . . . And no chance that she can stay away.

Face your darkest fears, but keep telling yourself it’s only fiction . . .

Copies of her books will be available to purchase and have signed.

S J Bolton is the author of five critically acclaimed novels. Her books have been shortlisted for several international awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger, and the Theakston's Old Peculier prize for crime novel of the year.





Further information on the event is available here:
http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/event/world-book-night-author-event-with-crime-writer-s-

An Audience with Joanna Trollope!

 

Meet Joanna Trollope

Peterborough Central Library

Friday 1st February - 1pm

£5 (£4 concessions and reading group members)

Tickets from Central Library or Waterstones, Bridge Street

 

Joanna will be talking about her latest novel The Soldier’s Wife, and her life as a writer, as well as answering questions from the audience.

 

Does marrying a soldier mean marrying the army? Joanna Trollope takes a keen look at the home lives of the modern army in this captivating new book. What happens, these days, when love and a vocation collide, head on?

 

Copies of the book will be available to purchase and have signed after the event.

 

Joanna Trollope has been writing for over thirty years. She first wrote a number of historical novels published under Caroline Harvey, and more recently her enormously successful contemporary works of fiction, several of which have been televised. The Rector’s Wife was her first number one bestseller, and made her into a household name. Since then she has written eleven more contemporary novels.

 

Booking is essential, telephone Central Library on 01733 864 280.

 

For further information, please visit:

For http://www.vivacity-peterborough.com/event/meet-joanna-trollope

A Pint of Po-ho-ho-ho-etry and a Dasher of Drama

Come and join us for a festive edition of Pint of Poetry at Charters Bar, Peterborough on the 12th December at 8:30pm.

It'll be choc full of seasonal mirth with a healthy smattering of bah humbug ... and Mark (Grist) assures us that this year he will be wearing full Christmas fancy dress ...

If you would like to perform (seasonal theme is not mandatory) then come along on the 12th and find us (Mark and Summer), we'll be there from 8pm putting together the set list ... we love our performers so we'll be really happy to see you!

We also love our audience, so if you enjoy being entertained you should come and be part of our lovely audience, you'll also get a chance to take part in our Christmas competition to win an incredible Christmas prize ...

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Summer, Richard and Mark,
(The Pint of Poetry Team)

Join them on Facebook!

Pete Cox, Poet - Guest Blog, September 2012

“Amongst the many things that I enjoy writing, site-specific poetry has to be near the top of the list. Back when I was Poet-in-Residence for one of my city’s cemeteries (2005-2008) I created poetry trails through the old Victorian graveyard. The first was a series of riddles relating to the wild life of the site and as they ended with “What Am I?” one of the drinkers found something sharp to engrave into the laminated cardboard precisely what he thought the answer was. I’ve kept it as a memento of interaction with my audience, though not on general display. Now that I’m P-i-R for St. John’s church I’ve so-far written about the font, the church clock, the pulpit and a memorial stone. Now every-so-often an event will come up that sparks some creativity and if I can write a series of poems, I’ll put them together as a pamphlet to be given away and hopefully (shamelessly) generate some publicity for myself. 
 

As it would be easy to label me a geek (my life is much like the characters in the American comedy series Big Bang Theory, except I have poetry rather than science) and I have always had a love of almost all things science fiction, the events at which I’m dishing out these pamphlets are often science fiction conventions. I can argue that poetry of the fantastical has a long and noble tradition passing back through Tennyson’s Locksley Hall to Beowulf and Gilgamesh. From Edgar Allen Poe the dark torch was passed to the writers who contributed to Weird Tales and other pulps of the ’thirties, H.P. Lovecraft and his circle. A couple of the most prominent  poets who have used sf tropes in their work are Edwin Morgan this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith. (If you want to know more about genre poetry and current markets, I’ve written a piece for the blog of the horror author Sam Stone http://www.sam-stone.com/) As a result of these and other poems published in the genre small-press I’ve picked up quiet good reviews and been placed in the top three for the Data Dump award (a British prize for best published sf poem) a handful of times. Recently I found that an American book-dealer was advertising one of my pamphlets for a nominal amount. My reaction was to send him a few more and wish him well. In his own way he’s helping to publicise me and for the amount he wanted ($5) he was hardly exploiting the workers.

One British small-press publisher who both uses and reviews genre and non-genre poetry is Southend-on-Sea’s Atlantean Publications, who you can find out more about at http://atlanteanpublishing.blogspot.co.uk/ ".

© Pete Cox 2012

Guest Blog from poet Pete 'Cardinal' Cox - June 2012

An odd month as I had a gig I’m in no hurry to repeat … After several months in hospital, hospice and nursing home a friend died. They and their partner weren’t religious in the slightest and as I am used to public speaking, I was asked to conduct the funeral service. For three years I’d been Poet-in-Residence for a local cemetery’s Friends Group (writing poems for the meetings and creating poetry trails through the grounds) and have been to funerals of variable quality. At my grandfather’s, for instance, the vicar got his name wrong! So I immediately had in mind the sort of service I thought Carol would have liked. She had been a fan of Oscar Wilde so my first thought was to read The Selfish Giant, but the most important thing to remember about a funeral service (especially at Peterborough crematorium, one of the busiest in the country) is that you have to keep to the time. Over-run and the next family after you won’t understand, they’ll have their own pressures so won’t appreciate any sloppiness on your part. Instead of the fairy tale I went with a poem by Wilde and (as she was a big fan of history) a quote from Marcus Aurelius about living a good life and never mind what the gods think. I collected stories from friends and her work colleagues and wove together a suitable eulogy. Before the start of the service the undertaker took me through the controls, how to start the music, how to close the curtains etc. and we had lift off. Fair to say it wasn’t your average funeral service. The coffin was brought in to 'The Post-Horn Gallop', followed by the theme to 'Blackadder'. After I had said my pieces and thanked friends, nursing home staff, undertakers, etc. we said our farewells to 'I’m On Fire' by Kasabian. Afterwards, people thanked me (including one of the crematorium staff, who also asked if they could contact me if they needed my services again) but as I said, I’m in no hurry to do another. 
 

Later in the month I attended an open mic night at the Stamford Arts Centre in Lincolnshire. Good night, only been going a couple of months and embracing all styles and abilities, as a good open mic’ should. As I was leaving this woman shouted at me “You were fantastic. We really, really enjoyed it” which I’d have appreciated more if she’d been at the poetry session and hadn’t just been mistaking me for an actor in a play she’d been to see. Still, I’ll accept any good review, even if it was intended for someone else.

Also in the month I’d been asked if I could read some poetry at an event and it was convenient and there was going to be cake, so I agreed. Nice thing was at the end the organiser said they could pay me. Hadn’t been expecting it so it was a bonus.

Last month I mentioned a couple of pieces of bad news from the small-press scene, so this month I thought I’d finish with a more positive note. Poetry Cornwall is a great little magazine that I’d recommend you perhaps buy a sample copy with a view to either subscribing to or submitting work to. Professionally produced it takes poetry in English, dialect and Cornish from around the world, includes features on editors and a brief review section. For full details go to the website at http://www.poetrycornwall.freeservers.com/”

 

Peter Cox

Guest Blog from Cardinal Cox, Poet-in-Residence at St John the Baptist Chruch, Peterborough

Earlier in the year I heard that I had been appointed the Poet-in-Residence of the early-15^th century church of St. John the Baptist in the heart of Peterborough. The post is to run from Easter 2012 through to Easter 2013. Having some lead-in time I could visit the church on some Saturday mornings when they have a coffee shop open. So in advance of taking up the post I wrote a couple of initial poems, including one for the coffee shop. We also produced an initial press release to go out to the dozen-or-so listings magazines that cover Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.
 

When I took up the position I started to write in earnest, looking towards forthcoming events that the church was hosting (very much a community hub since recent redevelopment of the area). So in the first few weeks I have had one poem (about the church clock) printed in a newsletter for the congregation and another (inspired by a Jazz concert) printed in the city’s daily newspaper.  I also did two interviews on local radio that were (to be honest) less than successful. On the Peterborough Breakfast Show (on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire) the DJ started an argument about the correct pronunciation of scone. I then read my poem to the coffee shop. The following weekend I was then interviewed on Radio Cambridgeshire’s Sunday Breakfast religious affairs show. “Do you have a faith?” the presenter asked. “No, I’m an Atheist,” I replied. Then she moved on with, “You’re not actually in residence at the church, are you?”, “No,” I retorted, “they take a dim view of me sleeping in the porch at night!”. I then read a poem for the craft fair that is held at the church once a month.

So that’s before my first month has been completed. I have some rough ideas for the rest of the year. Whether I get a chance to do them, well, I hope I get to let you know!

Cardinal Cox