I’ve hardly seen any of my friends recently because I’ve been involved in loads of exciting projects, many of which come to fruition in October. As one friend commented ‘you’d prefer to celebrate the life of a dead man than someone who’s still alive’. But it’s been necessary and hopefully the good folk of Notts will appreciate the effort. Below is a list of some of those events that have cost me friendships, sanity, sleep and one broken rib…

Celebrating Alan Sillitoe October 2nd 11am -5pm (Nottingham City Council House)

Kicking off with readings at West Bridgford Library on Friday October 1st begins a series of events celebrating the life of local legend Alan Sillitoe which will run continuously until enough money has been raised to build a statue near Alan’s place of birth in Lenton Abbey. Alan’s father was illiterate and it’s hoped the statue will encourage younger generations to read, ensuring this basic (and often taken for granted) human rite, is reduced to a historical anomaly as unbelievable as the Sinclair C5.

The main event happens on Saturday October 2nd and includes a variety of talks hosted by John Harvey, Alan’s son David, DJ Taylor, Nicola Monaghan, John Lucas and many others, each covering specific areas of his vast and diverse writing career. Future events currently being planned include a literary walk and a ‘curry and a pint’ (or fight if you really want to get into role play)’ at the White Horse Cafe. It’s been a hard slog but great fun putting this together. The real treat though is just around the corner; A Sillitoe real ale to kick off a new series of Notts based ales. Don’t ask what the ingrediants are… 

Booker Prize Evening October 12th 8pm-10.30pm – (Arnold Library)

To celebrate the ‘Champions League’ of literature, six bibliophiles (Bianca Winter, Nicola Monaghan, Frances Finn, Jane Streeter, Peter Preston and I) will each argue why our shortlist nominee should scoop the coveted prize. Expect furious debate, passion and tantrums. Then sit back and revel in the schadenfreude as five of us get it completely wrong and have to flee the city in shame. The event is aimed at provoking a good old-fashioned debate with a strong emphasis on audience participation, so don’t worry if you don’t know your Carey’s from your Donoghue’s, all opinions are welcome. The event will have a live link-up with the award ceremony in London so you can pretend you’re in our shitty, smelly, over-crowded capital.

Scribal Gathering at Hockley Hustle October 23rd 3pm -8pm (Nottingham Contemporary Cafe)

If you don’t know what the Hockley Hustle is by now it’s because you’re emotionally disabled and think that compassion is giving beggars the 10c that was too small to change back into sterling when you arrived back in Blighty. It’s a ‘charidy’ event and this year the ‘Scribal Gathering’ team are putting on a wide range of events with a strong arty theme. They’ll be authors and artists from the forthcoming Staple publication 24 discussing the project. Alex Davis of Alt Fiction will be putting together a panel that explores that most visual of literary forms, fantasy fiction. Lord Biro will be joining us to slag off the government and explain why shouting at icebergs is the most practical way to stop global warming.

Other events include an open mic session, MulletProofPoet, a game of Literature Room 101 with Maria Allen, Jon McGregor and a football panel that includes ex-hack Paul Reaney, young-adult fiction writer Dan Tunstall, ‘three Singhs on a shirt’ author Bali Rai and our festival highlight, Graham Joyce. Joyce is a multiple Fantasy Award winner with a bigger following than ‘County. He’ll be reading from his recent memoir about his time as a goalkeeper, the loneliest position on the field. Rounding the night off will be music from local bands with a special Al Needham post 9pm appearance.

In addition to the above there is the Birmingham Book Festival, Manchester Literature Festival, Beeston International Poetry Festival and Everybody’s Reading – which I’ve been blogging for – to look forward to in October. We had planned to run an event called ‘May Contain Creative Notts’ on the 6th but this has been postponed. The reasons for which are worth a blog in itself but I’ll save that one for now.  One thing is for certain, I won’t need to worry about buying presents for friends this Christmas because with all of this wordy madness going on, I’m not going to have any left. Live by the word, die by the word…