Blog twenty-one: thank you, funders!

Reading together in libraries. Image courtesy of ACE.

Only a quick one this week as I just want to thank the truly awesome bunch of people who have supported my crowdfunder, without whom I wouldn’t have been able to afford this trip and to find the new, exciting and eccentric ideas for engaging children and young people in literacy learning that we could seek to replicate here in Nottingham.

A huge heartfelt thank you to:

Jane Upton, Francesca Vaney, Lyndon Roberts, Emteaz Hussain, Kate Chapman, Helena Brown, Tily Branson, Siobhán Cannon-Brownlie, Monica McAleer, Tom Robbins, Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir, Georgie Levers, Steve Battlemuch, Emily Holyoake, Toby Neal, Dickie Garton, Pat Huxley, Mary McCarthy, Clare Farrelly, Richard Pilgrim, Sam Webster, Liz Pierrepont, Joy Thackeray, Helen Maddison, Paul Roberts, Manya Benenson, Chris Archer, Esther Richardson, Jon Rea, Sylvia Robson, Juliet Woodin, Linda Abbott, Colette Louise Morgan, Nic Harvey, Christopher Whittaker, Matt Goold, Phil Gunn, Ethan Radford, Jane Holyoake, David Mellen, Katrina Garton, Amanda Whittington, Jo Robinson, David Preece, Dawn Claypole, Sandeep Mahal, Cáit McNamara, Helen Solomon, Giles Croft, Rachel Parkes, Paul Morgan, Diane and Steve Harrington, Ian Collinson, Annette Watson, Val Linnett and Kim Poole, Rick Hall, Adam P McCready and Becky Little, Ken and Mona King, Sally Vinten, Sue Thornton, Barbara Morgan and three amazing anonymous donors.

I couldn’t have done any of what I’ll be going off to do without you all!

Blog twenty: Stock Take – Where Am I in this Mad Journey?

Me working with pupils from Crabtree Farm recently. Image courtesy of Pete Hancock.

With only a few weeks to go until I jet-off to the US, I’m excitedly putting stuff into place with loads of amazing organisations in the places I’ll be visiting. From the Super Hero Supply Store to a  nexus of colourful, chaotic portals art installation of non-linear storytelling (yes – that’s a thing!), from big national charities to volunteer-led almost ‘mom and pop’ community start-ups, from readers, writers, story-tellers, producers, teachers and children – and anyone in-between – I’ve been a blur of emails and google searches whilst I try to plot out what will be a genuinely life changing experience which could also dramatically help many young people in Nottingham too by increased opportunity and provision of literacy support.

This, to me, sometimes sounds a bit pompous however I do feel that there’s some massive potential in this – as daunting as it often seems. This “dauntingness” is what I’m looking at today.

Sometimes it’s useful to take stock of where you are with this mad whirlwind of a combined: setting stuff up to visit when on your scholarship in the States, developing links with new people and organisations here in Nottingham and promoting what you’re doing as widely as possible – alongside trying to fundraise and earn enough to make sure you can survive the trip (and when you get back) financially.

However, I’ve managed to speak to a massive range of future possible partners that can catalyse and accelerate what I hope to do. Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, Literacy Volunteers, Nottingham City Libraries, Bromley House Library, Writing East Midlands and my awesome colleagues in Nottingham Playhouse’s Participation department, in the city's Education Improvement Partnerships and at College Street are such a fantastic support and have been spurs to action/wise sounding-boards. So too have been many individuals within Nottingham City Council and the local politicians of the city. This has been awesome to know that there’s what feels like a really willing literacy community that want to deliver on shared literacy goals.

Equally, I’m feeling much more secure in myself being able to pull the whole thing off through a combination of support from family and friends (most notably Cáit, as always) and from getting myself caught up in the scholarship, the planning and in all the other work I’m doing. I refuse to wear what Cáit and I have come to term a “busy badge” (where freelancers boast their worth based on the amount of work they have) but I will admit my currently level of activity and work/Roosevelt tasks is much higher than in some other periods when people haven’t been offering me as much work. I like being engaged in doing stuff and have an awesome schools’ literacy project on the go currently with Nottingham City Council and Wild In Art, plus Playground Festival happening at Nottingham Playhouse! This, I feel, is a great gearing up to my American adventure – I just need to make sure I’m not tired out by the time I arrive!

Blog nineteen: a week for birthday authors

Lawrence, Dahl and Christie - this week's birthday authors!

It's a big week for literary anniversaries with the birthdays of three of the UK's most popular writers of the Twentieth century happening this week. Between them, I'd guess, that most people have read at least a book from one of this triumvirate. From Eastwood's scribbler of mucky books, to the queen of the crime thriller, to the children's' laureate of invention who gave us chocolate factories, giant peaches and marvellous medicines, these writers have given such enjoyment through their books and stories.

Monday saw the 132nd birthday of DH Lawrence, who was born 11th September 1885. 11th September was also the second and final time which Lawrence left his Taos ranch in 1925. I'll be visiting Taos as part of my trip when in New Mexico and am hugely looking forward to following the footsteps of one of Nottinghamshire's most celebrated authors and someone who has played such a key role in our become a UNESCO City of Literature, alongside our other rebel writers like Sillitoe and Byron.

Tomorrow (although probably today when you're reading this as I'm posting late on Tuesday night), is Roald Dahl's 101st birthday, born 13th September 1916. This year, Nottingham Railway Station will play host to an amazing Lego sculpture, one of just 6 in the country, of one of Dahl's timeless characters. Nottingham has the great honour of being the home of George from the fantastic George's Marvellous Medicine, although there may be a few Nottingham nanas questioning any fluids given to them by their grandchildren over the next month if they have been a little too inspired.

Finally, on Friday, is the 127th birthday of Agatha Christie - still the undoubted queen of the who-dunnit! - who was born on 15th September 1890. Her books have fans young and old (Cait, my partner, is obsessed with them currently and keeps buying second hand copies in every bookshop we visit) as she continues to be one of the most widely read authors in history.

Whilst these authors may differ quite widely in genre, though Dahl's novels for adults do owe more than a debt to Christie, they have perhaps inspired readers from different backgrounds, ages and abilities and I hope that they continue to do so. Over the last week I've spoken to loads of people - from members of Nottingham City's library service to local councillors, reading charity volunteers to heads of education establishments and the response is always the same when we talk about the joy reading can bring and the need to engender a love of reading in every person in Nottingham. This is something that I hope, over the next few years, as I reflect and try to deliver on the things learnt on my scholarship, will be achieved more widely in the city and county - to give every child the gift of being able to enjoy curling up with a good book.

Blog eighteen: books, glorious books!

Nottingham's great trove of books. Image courtesy of Jermy & Westerman.

Support your local bookshop. It's a simple maxim but one which I feel is often ignored or overlooked by many, myself included, when it comes to finding the next novel to read. However, I'm going to try and make a pledge that before I buy anything from an online retailer (that may or may not be named after a South American river) or popping into a chain which could be on any highstreet in any city, I will check in one of Nottingham's great independents first.

Nottingham is well resourced for bookshops and other purveyors of reading materiel. There's the radically rooted Five Leaves near the Council House or the stonkingly hip Ideas on Paper at Cobden Chambers, both hidden up their own little literary alley. The quirky Bookwise on Goose Gate, where all the profits support local music charity Music for Everyone. The idiosyncratic Books and Pieces hidden up in West End Arcade, opposite the city's main Angel Row library. If you're into comics and graphic novels there's Page 45 on Market Street - a few doors down from an Oxfam Books and Music - or the new space for Mondo Comico on Mansfield Road, shared with a board games cafe. But, for me, there's only one place that could have struck me with this notion and that is a bit further up Mansfield Road and the superb Jermy and Westerman (see note 1 also at the bottom of the page).

Established in 1978, Jermy and Westerman, is an Aladdin's cave of literary wonders and an oasis of calm for bibliophiles. The shop is owned by father and son - Geoff & Richard Blore - who still do most of the staffing too, which includes making tea and coffee for thirsty book browsers. The shop covers two floors and has an eclectic collection covering all subjects from popular reading to rare and interesting books, magazines and comics.

The storefront of Jermy & Westerman on Mansfield Road. Image courtesy of Jermy & Westerman.

On Saturday, Cáit (my partner) and I went to J&W after braving Nottingham on a Saturday morning - never a pretty sight. After a quick browse in the history section, I found Frank Friedel's 1990 single volume Franklin Delano Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny. For only a fiver, it was an easy one to convince myself of and I have already (Monday evening) read the first three chapters. So, I found a book that I know I'd like (and subsequently have done), for a fair price, read the new LeftLion, which includes an interview with me!, and was able to have a lovely cafetiere coffee too whilst I was there. All of these things are a cut above the chains, but this wasn't the clincher. When buying the book, Richard told me the story behind the book and where he'd got it.

My copy of FDR:aRwD (snappy, huh?) belonged to Nottingham University academic Robert Frazier. Frazier was an American who had served in the Army in World War II, married an English woman and moved to the UK, writing a PhD thesis on the Greek civil war, which ran from 1946-49. Richard had bought his collection of academic books from his widow following Robert's death and it gave me a small thrill to know that a book that belonged to an American academic who had called Nottingham home will be helping me with my trip to his, and FDR's, homeland. 

The new shelves and coffee corner at J&W. Image courtesy of Jermy and Westerman.

This is what mainly prompted my resolution - you don't get this personal touch in other stores. As well as supporting local businesses by giving them increased custom (I hope), I also find new stories and tales of Nottingham hidden in the history of the pages and memories of those who had owned or purchased those books before. Call me an old romantic, but that's something you don't put a price on!

PS: Give J&W a follow on Facebook or Instagram. It's very much worth it if you like pictures of books!

1 - we also have a Waterstones and a Blackwells but these could be anywhere - Waterstones do some good events and have employed some friends of mine but the shop's roots aren't here and never feel like they will do. The Fopp in Nottingham also used to have a great selection of poppy, pulpy stuff at knockdown prices but this all stopped when Fopp was bought out by HMV and the cavernous warehouse-like shop on King Street was turned into yet another BBQ restaurant and Fopp, with a much diminished books section, was relegated to a poky shop in a pretty deserted Broadmarsh.