Milk and Martha Proctor
James Lasdun and Sean O’Brien
Thursday 22nd Oct, 6pm at The Storey Auditorium. Tickets free.
Friday 23rd Oct, 8pm at The Storey Auditorium. Tickets £7.50 (£6.00 concessions)
Case books telling the stories of the lost and confused inmates of the Lancaster Moor County Asylum are among the historical records that have given birth to Milk and Martha Proctor. The case books are a small part of the archive collections at Lancashire Record Office, covering many facets of the county’s history from the 1100s onwards. Selected documents gave inspiration for
creative writing – poetry, prose and scripts – based around the stories they tell. The project began in February and has encouraged some high-quality written contributions which the Record Office is pleased to be publishing, and we’re glad to help celebrate.
Short fiction from some of its finest practitioners.
James Lasdun “Enter, then, the mesmerising world of James Lasdun, and marvel at his mastery of the short story form.” theshortstory.org.uk “There is something so rich and gripping in his prose… It’s Beginning to Hurt is a collection to jump-start your imagination” Aesthetica
Join us to learn more about the project and the Record Office, and to hear some of the participants reading from their work.
James Lasdun was born in London and lives in New York. He has published three collections of stories, three books of poetry and two novels. His first book of short stories, The Silver Age won a Dylan Thomas Award, and was followed by Three Evenings and the selection The Siege, the title story of which was made into a film by Bernardo Bertolucci (’Beseiged’). In 2006 he won the first National Short Story competition.
Andrew Miller and Sarah Hall Thursday 22nd Oct, 8pm at The Storey Auditorium. Tickets £7.50 (£6.00 concessions)
His latest collection of stories, It’s Beginning to Hurt was featured on Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime in March.
Fiction from Booker-shortlisted novelists.
Andrew Miller
Sarah Hall
“The prose is as delicate as a Japanese print.” Sunday Times
“Sarah Hall’s writing is powerful as well as delicate, and How to Paint a Dead Man affords the deepest pleasures fiction has to offer.” Nadeem Aslam
“He has the rare gift of tossing out perfect sentences that make you stop in your tracks.” Metro 1940. Japan is at war with China, and Yuji Takano is clinging to the life he has made for himself as a young poet. But his father is disgraced, his allowance is scrapped, and the threat of conscription is coming ever closer. And then there is Alissa... A timeless story about growing up, and a fascinating portrait of a bygone Tokyo and of Japan at a critical juncture in its history. Andrew Miller’s third novel, Oxygen, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Booker prize.
“This deeply sensual novel is what you rarely find – an intelligent page-turner which, perversely, you also want to read slowly to savour Hall’s luscious way of looking at the world.” Sunday Telegraph
Sean O’Brien “Hugely entertaining... superbly chilling.” The Guardian
Andrew Miller photo by Abbie Trayler-Smith
How to Paint a Dead Man is a complex and intimate study of art, loss and humanity spanning 50 years, told through four interweaving stories. Sarah Hall lives and works in Cumbria. Her second novel, The Electric Michelangelo, was short – listed for the Booker Prize in 2004.
James Lasdun photo by Nina Subin
“His stories glint with black comedy and touches of the macabre and surreal... in the kingdom of backstreet pubs, tired, desirable girls and Square Cuts Flax001 – a colourful, sharp and drowned men. Nothing is ever as it seems: it is much more frightening than that… First-class stories from one of our finest writers.” readable digital anthology of Helen short fictions. Dunmore
Sean O’Brien
Chain-smoking alcoholics, warring academics, gothic stalkers and aspiring writers are just some of the visitors that browse the mysterious library at the heart of Sean O’Brien’s fiction debut. Sean O’Brien has published 7 collections of poetry to great acclaim.
Short Fiction Writing Workshop with James Lasdun Saturday 24th Oct, 10.30am - 1.30pm at Litfest, Level 1, The Storey. Tickets £25 (£15 Concessions)
Sarah Hall photo by Martin Figura
Spend a morning exploring short fiction with James Lasdun. Be ready to investigate a classic short story and to write your own. Places are strictly limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.