I am pleased to announce that my short story ‘Trying to Find Van Breukelen’ has been published in the latest Route anthology ‘Ideas Above Our Station.’  (ISBN 1-901927-28-8 £8.99) This should be available  for purchase towards the end of October/November and will  involve the usual promo (book signings, readings) at a Leeds bookshop.  I will provide details of this as and when I find out. As always I will give the readings a miss and turn up for my free glass of wine. The story basically involves a father and son going to visit the grave of their partner/mother. To help the child come to terms with the grief they play a game, trying to spot the names of former Forest players’ on the gravestones. As always it is my intention to get in Nottingham references as and when I can to put the city back on the map and in a positive manner. Hans Van Breukelen is a former Forest goalkeeper from the eighties. I chose him for the title for two reasons; firstly, he has a great name and secondly, ‘Trying to Find Stevie ‘One Eye’ Sutton’ hasn’t quite got the same ring…

I recetly wrote a review of Danny Taylors’ ‘Deep into the Forest’ for Left Lion Left Lion is a superb new magazine which is trying to tackle the negative publicity Nottingham has been receiving of late by promoting local culture. This is a sentiment I feel strongly about and is a motivating force behind the Clough book. Although wit is sometimes sacrificed for intellect, Left Lion is a refreshing take on the citylife format and will certainly do more for Nottinghams image than the slanting ‘N’.

I have a story entitled ‘The Cocca-Bella Man’ being published in September for a book entitled ‘Wonderwall.’ The Wonderwall ‘is a spy hole into the world of other people’ and given it is also the name of an Oasis track, is guaranteed hits on Google. Here’s a link for the book:-
http://www.route-online.com/routev7/page.asp?idno=227

‘Naked City’ (which includes one of my short stories) will feature in the BBC film Naked City – Spencer Tunick in Newcastle Gateshead. The film will be broadcast on BBC 3 at 9pm Sunday 17 July and is a record of Spencer Tunick’s major installation at Baltic, the centre for contemporary arts in Gateshead which takes place that very day. As I do not have Sky or Digital I will have to pretend I have seen it.

An article I wrote for a student magazine (Platform) has been nominated for the Guardian student media awards, which I will make available on the website when I get around to (or get Phil to) make an aticle section.

An academic article I wrote on the phenomenon of celebrity culture will be appearing in the July 22nd issue of Flow. Although unpaid (surprise) I am very proud of this as it features work by some of the top cultural critics e.g. Jim McGuigan (cultural populism thesis)