I don’t know many writers who spend their days swimming the River Avon or photographing storms from the Bristol rooftops.  The writers are writing,  a repetitive action with a limited core [...]]]> The best blog I follow is written by Dru Marland. She has an unbeatable formula.  She does distinctive and interesting things, then writes them up  in a distinctive and interesting  way. 

I don’t know many writers who spend their days swimming the River Avon or photographing storms from the Bristol rooftops.  The writers are writing,  a repetitive action with a limited core of intrigue.

 Got any photos to go with that?  The desk, the wall, the page.  We’re done.

Dru illustrates her blog with her own photographs.  These are unique to her site, adding another good reason to go there.  Dru was the first person to point out to me,  I think correctly, that blogs are an image-led format.  Many of the more entertaining blogs are extended captions to intriguing images. 

Writers can make the mistake of thinking it’s all about the words.  That’s what we’ve trained ourselves to think, and we’re in the habit of working up our sentences.  There’s a reluctance to ship out a blog that hasn’t been honed in the same way as any other piece destined for publication.  Honing takes time, and effort, but Twitter might be different.  It’s shorter.

I feel confident about honing statements or questions of 140 characters or fewer.  I don’t stand to  lose too much time or sleep.  And there are no pictures.  Truly, the tweet may be the more literary medium of the two.

The National Academy of Writing and the Garrick Trust is staging a rehearsed reading of extracts from four plays written by National Academy of Writing students. 

Extracts to be performed:

Sidekick by Rena Brannan

Set in the Korean community of Los [...]]]> Friday 30^th April, 6.00pm – 7.30pm in the Wilson Studio at the Royal Court, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS

The National Academy of Writing and the Garrick Trust is staging a rehearsed reading of extracts from four plays written by National Academy of Writing students. 

Extracts to be performed:

Sidekick by Rena Brannan

Set in the Korean community of Los Angeles, Sidekick is the story of the Hwang family and the secrets that they keep.

 The Men Outside by Roger Noble

Frank the gangster is getting on – he knows he’ll have to hand over his petty empire to one of his deputies. When the son of one of them visits he sees a paranoid old man, unrealistic about his abilities and increasingly unable to cope.  But the old man isn’t finished yet.

 Some Garden by Federay Holmes

A man can’t help it if his wife grows fat on stolen greens.  A pregnant woman will do anything for a vegetable. And a strange child is born who wants the moon.
“I don’t want to get heavy.  Things just happen – you know?  Take Us.  One minute we’re free, next minute we’re fat.”

 Harold’s Cafe by Geoff Mills

Guardian journalist Patrick visits Harold’s cafe in this surreal comedy with a dangerous edge.

 
These script-in-hand performances will be directed by theatre director Jenny Stephens, who works with the writers on developing their plays.

It is very nice to [...]]]>

Monday 22 Feb 7pm UEA

I’ve enjoyed the continuing positive reaction to Becoming Drusilla, but we’re still spreading the word.  On Monday 22nd Feb Dru and I will be in Norwich at UEA to give the LGBT History Month Lecture.  There is a full month of events in Norwich and we’re providing some, though not all, of the T.

It is very nice to be invited, and these opportunities to keep going with the book remind me of a misunderstanding I had with Dru on the walk.

When we go walking we drink a lot of tea, which means that we’re often overtaken by other walkers while brewing up in a cosy hollow or on a friendly flat rock.

As the more earnest walkers struggle past I used to shout out ‘Keep Going!’ in what I took to be my jovial, even convivial voice.  As the days went by, Dru grew increasingly gloomy.  This surprised me, as she would usually support any attempt to make the world a more jovial and convivial place.

A family of Germans march by in the rain.  ”Keep going!” I say, and Dru smoulders me a look.

‘What’s wrong?  I thought you liked it when we talked to strangers?’

‘Yes,’ Dru said.  ‘But you keep on telling them to keep going.  How rude.  You should try asking them to stop.’

This news came across like smoke signals from the young:  the smoke was [...]]]>

not enough information

I had an email from Dru that wasn’t from Dru.  It was her daughter, ambushing Dru’s email account like a policeman at the door  – Dru had spent the night at A & E, she was being kept in hospital, she had to have an operation. 

This news came across like smoke signals from the young:  the smoke was bad but the  signals were cheery.  The message ended: 

P.s dru’s mobile is out of charge so don’t try to ring it L

What were the Indians trying to say?  How bad is L?

I wouldn’t say I panicked, but I googled Bristol Hospitals and started with the Royal Infirmary, thinking I could work down from there.  Right first time.  They did indeed have a Drusilla Marland on the wards, and yes, I could speak to her on the old-fashioned telephone.

Except Dru wasn’t exactly on the wards, she was somewhere north of Planet Nebula.   She was on the wrong side of most of Bristol’s Royal painkillers, but at least they’d done their job.  Those gallstones were sending out pain that was no longer reaching the brain.  Dru tells me (because she is still in there) that an operation is imminent. 

She came back to earth just once, to report that the Trav was parked outside and had a ticket on it. 

I did what everyone does with health problems and looked gallstones up on the Internet.  They are very painful, the internet says, and the condition is twice as likely to be suffered by women as men.  The operation is usually successful.

At Schloss Marland, I’m glad to say, normal transmission should shortly be resumed. 

Thursday 7th October – Birmingham Books Festival

19.00 Birmingham Conservatoire

Tickets (5 pounds) and more information available here:

Richard Beard in conversation with John Boyne and Janette Jenkins

I haven’t seen John  and Janette together for fifteen years, since we were at UEA together.  When Malcom Bradbury died I wrote 24 Hours with Malcolm Bradbury for [...]]]>

Shout LGTB Festival - November

The news!  I always neglect the news. 

Thursday 7th October – Birmingham Books Festival

19.00 Birmingham Conservatoire

Tickets (5 pounds) and more information available here:

Richard Beard in conversation with John Boyne and Janette Jenkins

I haven’t seen John  and Janette together for fifteen years, since we were at UEA together.  When Malcom Bradbury died I wrote 24 Hours with Malcolm Bradbury for the Paris Review, but otherwise haven’t been a great revisitor of that time.  However, I’m looking forward to playing David Dimbleby to Janette’s Bolton Joanna Lumley and John’s John Boyne.  The last time I saw John he generously stood in at a Dublin reading when I came down with chicken pox hours before the event.

Wednesday 25th November – SHOUT Festival

19.30 Birmingham Library Theatre, Paradise Place

Tickets (5 pounds) and more information available here:

Becoming Drusilla at Shout

Shout is Birmingham’s Festival of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Culture.  Dru and I do a reading which is more a kind of double-act – we read from the book but we do our own dialogue.  Dru reads out the bits she wrote and I read out some other bits.  We then have lots of questions at the end which are nearly always exclusively for Dru.  As if I mind.

Dru recently discovered some unseen photos of the Becoming Drusilla walk.

 Saturday 21st November – The Writer’s Toolkit Conference

10.00-16.00  South Birmingham College, Digbeth

Tickets (29 pounds) and more information available here:

The Writers Toolkit

What it says on the tin: 

‘Subjects covered include Understanding Publishing, Pitching Ideas, Social Networking for Writers, Working with the BBC, Writing with Communities, Promoting Poetry, Working with Agents and Writing in the Digital Age. Other individuals and organisations involved include Arts Council England, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Arvon Foundation, National Association of Writers in Education, BBC Radio Four, The National Academy of Writing and Bloodaxe Books.’

NAW Readings, October

At these events I shall be introducing the highly talented writers from The National Academy of Writing, who will be reading from their work.

Entry is free but tickets should be booked:

Thursday 8th October

18.00 Birmingham Conservatoire

Postgraduate Poetry Platform – Poets in Performance

Wednesday 28th October

18.00 Birmingham Conservatoire

Emerging Talent – National Academy of Writing Showcase