A A Dhand - our Writer in Residence for 2018

AA Dhand's thrilling sequel GIRL ZERO is due for release on Friday 14th July with what promises to be one of the busiest launches of the year at Bradford Waterstones. Join him in conversation with journalist and BBC radio presenter, Nick Ahad, in this Bradford Literature Festival event. He will launch the paperback version at the Headingley LitFest in March 2018.

Poetry in Headingley Library this month

Two (free) 'Between the Lines' events:

Douglas Houston

T.F. Griffin

T.F. GRIFFIN AND DOUGLAS HOUSTON - A CELEBRATION

FRIDAY 9 JUNE 7pm

A joyful celebration of the lives and works of two much loved poets—the late T.F. Griffin and Douglas Houston. 

Poems, reminiscences, music, and the launch of Doug’s ’Last Poems’—a ‘bitter sweet postscript’ published by Shoestring Press. 

Readings by Pam Scobie and friends. Music by Des the Miner.

SONNET SESSIONS - JAMES NASH AND DI SLANEY

WEDNESDAY 21 JUNE 7pm

Di Slaney and James Nash share their worlds of nature, animals and personal history in sonnets laced with wit and wry humour. 

Expect warmth and engagement from these two poets in writing that is direct, funny and unafraid; they offer hard won optimism and honesty in a shaky contemporary world. 

They will share new material and work from their latest collections published by Valley Press

Faber & Faber – Its Designs and History

Emily Gibbons writes

Tony Faber, grandson of Geoffrey Faber who founded Faber & Faber, led this event on the 17^th May. The event was a mixture of the history of Faber & Faber, looking back over its inception as Faber & Gwyer, survival through WWII, recruitment of T.S Eliot, and transition to the paperback format, all the while identifying how the cover designs formed this history. The lecture took us through many brilliant cover design artists such as Margaret Wolpe, who was trained in sculpture by Henry Moore, or even Damien Hirst who designed the cover for Happy Like Murderers.

Tony Faber

One of the most interesting discussions in the lecture was about the unique Faber branding through cover designs. A major figure in the publisher’s design history was Berthold Wolpe, a Jewish refugee from Austria who joined Faber & Faber in 1941 and created the Albertus typeface. This typeface came to be used on a large number of Faber books and served as a recognisable way of branding the publisher without naming them. It was especially interesting to learn that this typeface now adorns the street name signs in Central London. When Pentagram took over after Wolpe’s loss in the mid-70s, Faber & Faber moved on to further distinctive branding methods, such as the ‘box’ design, with all the book’s information in a box on the cover, and then onto the ‘grid’ design . It was so interesting to have these distinctive designs which we all recognise identified and contextualised within Faber and Faber’s history.

One of the most interesting facts to learn was that authors have little say over their cover designs, as Faber & Faber have an Artistic Director who matches the artist and author together, and then the artist essentially has one shot to design the right cover. This resulted in situations where the artist hated the design, such as Lawrence Durrell and his book Justine, but also produced iconic designs that still impact Faber & Faber and any book-lover today, like Anthony Gross’ cover design for William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

Strix

 
Ian Harker and Andrew Lambeth write:
Submissions are now open for a new Leeds-based poetry and short fiction magazine, Strix. 

Submissions close at midnight on 31 May. We’re looking for three poems (max. 40 lines) or up to 1,000 words of short fiction. There’s no theme, and no limit on genre or style.

The first issue will launch in Leeds on 1 July. It’s co-produced by Andrew Lambeth (who’s a typographer as well as a poet) and the designer Nat McAnuff – it’s going to be entirely print-based, and will revel in its inky-papery-ness. Some prototype issues are pictured.

So do send us something.

Please email us at strixleeds@gmail.com. Word documents would be good, and it would also be a big help if you could include a short 100-word bio, and list the title or titles of the pieces you’re submitting in the body of the email.

On the edge of the stage with David Robertson

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Teresa O'Driscoll, David Robertson, John Kilburn     Photo Richard Wilcocks

It was relaxed, sometimes endearingly random, intimate, informal and engagingly indulgent. In front of us, Dave Robertson, who is our grand old man of the theatre - at very least - together with the Retrolettes, a grand pair of melodic entertainers, all of them just the warm-blooded people we needed for the finale of this year's LitFest, especially as several of those in the audience had actually acted with him. Dave took us through his long career on stage, beginning with when he danced around as Jack at primary school, his Jill never reaching the well because her mother ordered her off stage before she showed her knickers to the assemblage. He moved on to when he became a student in Hugh Hunt's Manchester drama department, to a character in an absurdist play by Eugene Ionesco, to Guildenstern in a memorable Hamlet in which he repeatedly clunked his leg against some item of stage furniture, to King Lear, which is where all actors of note and of suitable grizzlement end up. Dave ended the first section of the evening in his parody of part of Lear, during which he was flung over a cliff by his daughter Cordelia, played by Teresa O'Driscoll, half of the Retrolettes, who briefly revealed a melodramatic acting style which could be put to good use in future entertainments. John Kilburn, the other Retrolette, also performed (without the ukelele) when, in T'Batley Faust he told the story of a Yorkshireman seduced by Mephistopheles to sell his soul in return for being made twenty-five again. It raised plenty of laughs, and was more accessible, less drawn-out than the over-embellished version peddled by that Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.

Dave took us to the time when he was seriously wondering whether he could survive in the professional theatre, which is what all aspiring actors wonder - repeatedly. He decided he would start his own company, after just missing out on a teaching job in the USA which was offered to him, then withdrawn. This took a little while to come to fruition, and in the meantime he based himself at the Swarthmore Institute. I was particularly struck by Dave's reprise of his role as the caretaker in Pinter's play: Dave is good at psychotic rants. He's better at comedy, though. I wish I had got to see his improvised version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves - he provided the storyline while the characters were allowed to let rip. We could have done with more Chekhov - one of Dave's first loves - and I would have liked a little more of an airing of his great background knowledge of Elizabethan theatre: we got a few tiny insights - on how Shakespeare was inspired by Marlowe, for example, The Merchant of Venice spinning off from The Jew of Malta. The evening ended with 'You'll never walk alone' from Carousel. Dave was in this for Opera North as the speech-making doctor towards the end, and he admits to forgetting the words 'castor oil' on one occasion. He asked the cast, loudly, what it was he had dosed them with, to receive the desired reply. It's called thinking on your feet.



Audience Comments

A very enjoyable evening – David very engaging and 'human'.  Lovely vocals from Retrolettes

Friend of David and very much enjoy his work

Fascinating on his career

The Headingley Master!

The event was interesting both as the 'flow of memory' and the 'show of personality'.  Also the audience, largely, was part of the career being celebrated!  Thanks.

A relaxed celebration of theatrical ' goings on' in the world of David Robertson with great support from the Retrolettes!  A quirky, fun romp of an evening and a warm audience.  Good to share.

Great evening – great speeches from Dave and good music from John and Teresa.

Very relaxed evening with lovely theatre chat and delightful music.

Good fun – lots of memoirs of great theatre!

Real fun.  Well done.

An entertaining evening of theatrical memories and song.  Retrolettes great as usual.

Good night – human complexities in abundance and with (unreadable).  Salut.

Very enjoyable.

Very good music by Louis Armstrong as people were coming in and nice music during the evening as well.  Very good acting performances by David and by the Retrolettes as well (first time that I have seen them act).

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A fitting finale to the LitFest.  Brilliant as ever.  Thanks David.