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LEGACY OF BRIT NOIR – BLOODY SCOTLAND POSTSCRIPT

Richard Widmark in Night and the City (1950) I was lucky enough to join the exodus north to the glorious city of Stirling last weekend for the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival for the panel, The Legacy of Brit Noir. Joining novelists Cathi Unsworth and Harry Brett and ably directed and moderated by crime writer, Douglas Skelton, the conversation was free-flowing and the audience ready to engage with the discussion at Q&A time. All in all a fantastic weekend with some interesting and thought provoking debate, great scenery, a healthy dose of end of the pier entertainment, and a few beers with old and new friends. For the most part, the Brit Noir panel covered ground we knew well: in brief, an attempt to define noir in the US and European tradition, how the genre in Britain emerges from an influx of European artists, writers and film makers in the 1930s and 40s and, similarly, blacklisted writers and film makers forced to leave the US in the 1950s. The noir sensibil
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Life writing, memoir, autobiography. However you describe it, sometimes you just want to tell your story. Or to know how to make the most of the life story of someone you know. Writing nonfiction, particularly when you're so close to the subject, can be a daunting task. The idea behind these workshops, delivered in partnership with the Lil Drama Company at PAD Studios, is to demystify the writing process, to give participants the techniques and tools to enable them to approach their writing with confidence.   In many ways, traditional history tends to focus on the momentous; but now, arguably more than ever, everyday life experiences of people are the places we go to hear the truth. I'd hope that over the three weeks of workshops participants can work towards finding their voice, bringing together memory and history to make sense of their own experiences, framing them on the page in a way that communicates and gives us all a greater understanding.   For more info o

Paris in the Dark - Robert Olen Butler

  Paris 1915, the United States’ entry to the First World War is eighteen months away. President Woodrow Wilson is committed to keeping America out of the war. Christopher Marlowe ‘Kit’ Cobb, American correspondent for the Chicago Post-Express and undercover agent for the US government, is resident in the city, ostensibly to tell the story of the volunteer American ambulance drivers helping the war effort, their nightly convoys ferrying French wounded to the city’s hospitals. With war raging, the city’s morale on the verge of collapse and French authorities desperate to maintain control, Cobb the spy is assigned to investigate a wave of bombings of civilian targets. In the wake of one blast, he returns to pay his Café bill. His waiter catches the prevailing mood: ‘“The Barbarians,” he said. Meaning the Germans. “They are among us.”’ Suspicion falls on infiltrators among the refugees streaming into Paris from Alsace, northern France and Belgium. Cobb picks up the bombers'

GETTING CARTER: Ted Lewis and the Birth of Brit Noir

This weekend sees another long-held ambition realised: for Ted Lewis to be a subject on the CrimeFest Authors Remembered panel. As the festival reaches its ten year landmark, it seems timely to be sitting alongside colleagues, discussing the enduring influence of this crime fiction pioneer, particularly with a copy of Getting Carter  in hand. Since publication last year, the response to the book and interest in Lewis and his work has exceeded any and all expectations. Sometimes an untold story catches the imagination, but never without the help of friends. I'm grateful to all those who have supported  Getting Carter along the way, particularly Ion Mills, Steven Mair and all at No Exit Press , Cathi Unsworth and the noir family, Paul Oliver at Soho Press / Syndicate Books, and the writers, readers, reviewers, bloggers and festival organisers who spread the word. A year ago if anyone had told me  Getting Carter  would have be shortlisted for the HRF Keating award alon

FACE VALUE: Northern Crime Short Story Winner/FRANK'S WILD YEARS: New Edition/TED LEWIS: Update

"From rural noir to urban terror, high concept drama to blunt force trauma, Moth Publishing presents its first collection of prize-winning short stories."   2015 is about to end with a result. My story  Face Value  is a winner in the inaugural Northern Crime Short Story Competition. With the winners' anthology released on Monday 7 December in paperback and E-book, it's a great way to sign off after a hard-working but not always the most productive of writing years. I'm especially pleased  Face Value  made the grade.   This week also sees the publication of a new edition of Frank's Wild Years . I'm grateful to publisher, Caffeine Nights, for the opportunity to put right a few of the things which have bugged me since it was originally let loose on the world, and for continuing to show faith in the book. The altogether sharper Frank's Wild Years  will be available online, in bookshops and at WH Smiths travel stores from 3 December.    

James Varda: Chance And Time - One Year On

On his ABC (Australia) radio show The Inside Sleeve last week, Paul Gough introduced a couple of tracks from Chance And Time, the last album from James Varda who died in June this year. He introduced the section with a few words about how he came to know Varda's music in the late 80s through the John Leckie-produced LP, Hunger . He spoke about the strength of the songwriting and how the record had stayed with him over the years. He played Beside The Sea , the haunting penultimate track on Chance And Time , and Only Love , which, in a sense is the centrepiece, closing the Chance section of the album. For me -   and I've listened to the album many times - there was something different about hearing the songs on a radio programme broadcast from thousands of miles away. It lacked the static and hiss of an old time analogue radio show, but felt no less distant.   It's a year since Chance And Time was released and nearly five months since James died. He would, I'm su

JAMES VARDA

JAMES VARDA: PRESS RELEASE Small Things Records are sad to announce the death of James Varda, one of the most distinctive singer songwriters of his generation, at his home in Sheringham, Norfolk on 12 June, 2015. James had lived and worked with a rare form of cancer for some time. He had known this day would come and until a few weeks ago was reading and listening to music, as always inspired and inspiring in equal measure. On 2014’s astonishing album, Chance And Time ,   James turned his songwriting talent to chronicling the experience of confronting illness and death, and in doing so, created a unique language and music of love and pain, family, landscape and loss. It is undoubtedly his best work.   James was the rarest of musicians, always and only making records on his own terms. His 1988 debut, Hunger , marked him out as the original indie acoustic outsider. His gigs in those days were an electric experience and led to invitations to appear on Channel 4’