It was T.H. White who recommended learning as an antidote to all the disappointments and griefs of this world. Learning is never wasted and lets you down and, as he pointed out, ‘look what a lot of things there are to learn.’ I try to take at least one course and a workshop every year; in October, I attended Ian Nettleton’s The Threshold of the Novel at the National Centre for Writing. It examined some of the imaginative processes by which people find ideas for a novel, how to introduce the first important ideas and establish your themes. Ian won the Bath Award for his novel Out of Nowhere in 2023 and is a very sympathetic and encouraging teacher. Writing fiction is a huge challenge which I’ve been attempting to get to grips with over the years. Since the spring, I’ve been sampling the Jericho Writers website, online sessions and podcasts. Their approach is very practical and always moving towards a goal of publication. During the Covid lockdown I returned to working on what I hope will be my debut novel Love-Knot at Knollecote Hall, a satirical ghost story, so I am keenly following the Jericho advice. One of the pro bono roles I undertake is helping the Norwich Society Publications Working Group. We have some super academic editors and we produce two illustrated booklets a year, called Aspects of Norwich, each of which presents six articles on a wide range of historical and cultural topics. In the next issue my old friend Natascha Scott-Stokes is contributing an article on Margaret Fountaine – the Norfolk butterfly collector - about whom she has written a biography called Wild and Fearless. For more about Natascha and her own fearless life in Chile see nataschascottstokes.com.  Aspects of Norwich is delivered free with membership of the Norwich Society – which in itself is enough reason to join - thenorwichsociety.org.uk – but the booklets are also available for purchase at City Books on Davy Place. Next time I’ll tell you about the Norwich Society Book Club and our explorations into deep history.
Last Thursday I attended the 2023 East Anglian Book Wards hosted by the National Writing Centre at the Dragon Hall on King Street. It was sponsored by Jarrolds, the Eastern Daily Press and UEA. What a pleasant evening it was. There was a full house and we were treated to chats with the nominated writers from each category in two sets of three. Holly Ainley, Head of Programmes & Creative Engagement, skilfully orchestrated the lively and often humorous conversation. Categories covered Poetry, Fiction, Memoir, Local History, History and Landscape..
|
Victoria Manthorpeauthor and feature writer Blog
Your email will only ever be used to send you new posts and you can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please check Victoria's privacy statement.
Archives
November 2024
Categories
All
|
|
|
