New Writing North

Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes. Here in this episode we explore the North-East's relationship with its borders, of land and sea, and how being on this edge informs its character, communities and perspectives.

Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself.

New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

"They tell us that we live on a tiny crowded island. They try to tell us that we are tiny within ourselves. Tell them to come up here with the skylark, to forget what they think they know, and to look down upon the vastness of the North." David Almond, from Sing the North.

Welcome to our audio series which explores the work created for the New Narratives for the North East project through a series of four podcast episodes.

Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself.

New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

In this specially recorded podcast, which forms part of Durham Book Festival's Writing Durham series, DBC Pierre will talk about a specially commissioned piece The Long Cascade, which is inspired by his family’s strong connection to Durham, as well as his latest novel Meanwhile in Dopamine City.

DBC Pierre is in conversation with Lee Brackstone, White Rabbit Books.

Join the Durham Book Festival team, as they discuss some of the books they’ve loved reading in 2020. In this special podcast, Claire, Rebecca and Grace, share their highs and lows of reading in lockdown and highlight some of the new titles they are most looking forward to delving into this Autumn.

Books mentioned in the podcast:

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang

Pew by Catherine Lacey

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld

The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld

Djinn Patrol on the Purlple Line by Deepa Anappara

Humankind by Rutger Bregman

Shadow State by Luke Harding

Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Passing of Friends by Anne Applebaum

Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin

Intimations by Zadie Smith

The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Xstabeth by David Keenan

The Divers’ Game by Jesse Ball

The Less Dead by Denise Mina

The Searcher by Tana French

Inside Story by Martin Amis

Let’s Do It: the Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood by Jasper Rees

Mr Wilder and Me by Jonathan Coe

Love After Love by Ingrid Persuad

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

Mexican Gothic by Slivia Moreno-Garcia

The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams

Daddy by Emma Cline

The Mission House by Carys Davies

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan

Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak

Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg

Leading writers Stuart Maconie, Kit de Waal, Tony Walsh and Lisa McInerney consider what it means to be a working-class writer working in the publishing industry today

“It’s the last great unspoken prejudice in British life, and that runs through everywhere – particularly some of the areas of the media I work in, like publishing and broadcasting” Stuart Maconie

---

The Common People anthology brought together 16 leading working-class writers with 17 new unpublished working-class writers to create a picture of working-class life in Britain today.

As part of the opportunity, the 17 new writers were also offered a 12-month professional development programme to support their entry into the publishing industry, working alongside mentors and England’s seven regional literature development agencies, with Unbound and Arts Council England.

Now, to coincide with a new report by Professor Katy Shaw of Northumbria University, Common People: Breaking the Class Ceiling in UK Publishing, we are delighted to present this special episode of the New Writing North podcast.

This episode brings together several of the established authors who featured in the Common People anthology, including Stuart Maconie, Kit de Waal, Tony Walsh, Lisa McInerney, with writer and academic Dave O’Brien and new writers Jodie Russian-Red and Shaun Wilson. The episode also features Jonathan Paterson, a Finance Director at the Hachette UK Group, and Clara Farmer, Publishing Director of Chatto & Windus.

Together they consider the experience of working-class writers and publishers working in the UK, identify some of the pervasive barriers which mean that the publishing industry fails to represent a huge proportion of the British public, and consider what change could look like.

Produced by Philippa Geering for New Writing North

The Common People Writing Development Programme was produced by literature development agencies New Writing North, Writing West Midlands, New Writing South, National Centre for Writing, Writing East Midlands and Literature Works and Spread the Word with support from Arts Council England.

A new podcast about an ancient dale from journalist and broadcaster Caroline Beck.  

Somewhere high up in the North Pennines, between everywhere and nowhere at all, is Weardale, a remote northern dale.  It’s a place of old lead mines, deep worked out limestone quarries, and hill farming; the home of day-dreamers, explorers, incomers, artists, philosophers, sky-watchers, story tellers and travellers. 

Over a series of ten exclusive interviews with writers and poets Caroline has gone in search of  what it means to live in  England’s last wilderness. 

As the series reaches its final episode, she returns home on regular walk up into a former quarry now overgrown with wildflowers, where nature has healed its own ravages, and which has a restorative effect on the walker. As she reflects on the interviews she has undertaken with writers across the series, she also considers the very concept of ‘home’ itself.

Narrated and recorded by Caroline Beck

Produced by Jay Sykes

Ten Words for a Northern Landscape  is commissioned by  Northern Heartlands and produced as part of Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council event. The recording was made possible by funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. Look out for  Ten Words  for a Northern Landscape  on the New Writing North podcast and Durham Book Festival website. 

#10wordspodcast

A new podcast about an ancient dale from journalist and broadcaster Caroline Beck.

Somewhere high up in the North Pennines, between everywhere and nowhere at all, is Weardale, a remote northern dale. It’s a place of old lead mines, deep worked out limestone quarries, and hill farming; the home of day-dreamers, explorers, incomers, artists, philosophers, sky-watchers, story tellers and travellers.

Over a series of ten exclusive interviews with writers and poets Caroline goes in search of what it means to live in England’s last wilderness.

In this ninth episode, Caroline considers grouse-shooting, one of the major uses for land in the area - and one which polarises the local community.

She meets Dr Mark Avery, an outspoken environmental campaigner, the former director of conservation at Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and the author of hard-hitting book about grouse-shooting, Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands. Local resident Colin Organ, from Rookhope, involved in game sports since childhood, offers an opposing perspective rooted in preserving a rural way of life, while Roisin Beck-Taylor, Caroline’s daughter, who worked on a hill farm for nine years and now works in conservation, discusses the complicated relationship between economy and conservation.

Narrated and recorded by Caroline Beck

Produced by Jay Sykes

Ten Words for a Northern Landscape is commissioned Northern Heartlands and produced as part of Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council event. The recording was made possible by funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. Look out for Ten Words for a Northern Landscape on the New Writing North podcast and Durham Book Festival website.

#10wordspodcast

In the eighth episode - Childhood - Caroline goes on a journey across the uplands, meeting and talking with poets, teachers, writers, illustrators and playwrights.

In Wearhead Primary School, she speaks to deputy headteacher Liz Judges about children growing up in Weardale and how living in the countryside affects them. The disparity between schooling and life experience for young people in rural areas compared to bigger cities is explored, and we hear how teenagers kept themselves entertained when there was just ‘one bus going to Newcastle on Saturdays’.

With author Sarah Moss, Caroline talks about northern identity, working class masculinity and growing up in rural areas. Critics have called Moss’s latest book, Ghost Wall, ‘a Brexit novel’, about a man enthralled by a lost England. The narrative focuses on Bill, a father keen to implement the social mores and societal rules of a Britain from long ago, and his beloved daughter who is growing into a woman in front of him.

Narrated and recorded by Caroline Beck

Produced by Jay Sykes

Ten Words for a Northern Landscape is commissioned Northern Heartlands and produced as part of Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council event. The recording was made possible by funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. Look out for Ten Words for a Northern Landscape on the New Writing North podcast and Durham Book Festival website.

#10wordspodcast

A new podcast about an ancient dale from journalist and broadcaster Caroline Beck.

Somewhere high up in the North Pennines, between everywhere and nowhere at all, is Weardale, a remote northern dale. It’s a place of old lead mines, deep worked out limestone quarries, and hill farming; the home of day-dreamers, explorers, incomers, artists, philosophers, sky-watchers, story tellers and travellers.

Over a series of ten exclusive interviews with writers and poets Caroline goes in search of what it means to live in England’s last wilderness.

In the seventh episode - Exile - Caroline goes on a journey across the uplands, meeting and talking with Syrian refugees, curators and poets.

Caroline talks to the poet Gillian Allnutt about their time at a textiles workshop put on for Syrian refugees. Gillian has been working with refugees and asylum seekers in the North East for years and Caroline visited her making textile butterflies with a group of Syrian refugees who have been settled in County Durham. The collision of home and exile is explored through needlework, talking and singing songs.

Caroline also visits the exhibition, Craft and Conflict, curated by Karen Babayan. Award winning ceramicist, Paul Scott’s work is celebrated for capturing the history and mood of Damascus, with the families agreeing that the exhibition has successfully mixed the two cultures together, provoking memory, thought, grief and happiness.

Narrated and recorded by Caroline Beck

Produced by Jay Sykes

Ten Words for a Northern Landscape is commissioned Northern Heartlands and produced as part of Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council event. The recording was made possible by funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. Look out for Ten Words for a Northern Landscape on the New Writing North podcast and Durham Book Festival website.

#10wordspodcast

Over a series of ten exclusive interviews with writers and poets Caroline goes in search of what it means to live in England’s last Wilderness.

In the sixth episode, Gypsy, Caroline delves into Weardale’s significant connections with the Gypsy Roma Traveller community.

Writer Damian Le Bas, author of The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain, joins Caroline to offer an insight into the lesser-known history of the Weardale area, particularly in relation to the nearby Appleby Horse Fair. They discuss some of the limited portrayals of Gypsy Roma Traveller community that have been told over the years and open our eyes to the vastness and richness of a hard-working community.

Narrated and recorded by Caroline Beck

Produced by Jay Sykes

Ten Words for a Northern Landscape is commissioned Northern Heartlands and produced as part of Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council event. The recording was made possible by funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. Look out for Ten Words for a Northern Landscape on the New Writing North podcast and Durham Book Festival website.

#10wordspodcast