Category Archives: LeftLion

Wot no subs?

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LeftLion held its annual Christmas meal and celebrations in Bar Deux on Saturday, treating editors to a meal. In six years of writing for the magazine it’s the first time I’ve had a freebie, so certainly cause for celebration. Afterwards we congregated in the bar and eagerly awaited the arrival of our respective subs who had all been invited by department editors for a few thank you beers, nibbles and free music from four local bands. It was an opportunity to finally place a face to an email. However, barely anyone turned up.

I find this very alarming because it shows a complete lack of ambition on the part of the writers. Here was an opportunity for them to tell us a bit about themselves, share or pitch ideas for future issues or at the very least do a bit of basic networking. Journalism is all about meeting people so if you can’t be bothered to leave the house you haven’t got that inquisitive gene and so you’re in the wrong profession. We even provided plates of salted and roasted peanuts for goodness sake…

Photo by some random at the do.

I suspect, though, that many people who write for LeftLion don’t want to be journalists. They just want to get into a music gig or the theatre for free. But this still requires some effort. You’re not going to be given a free ticket to Glastonbury until you’ve proved you can cover the small bands in the grotty pubs first. Similarly, you’ve got to review a couple of self-published books before getting the latest Jon McGregor in hardback. You have to earn your spurs.

I ended up as the Literature Editor of LeftLion because I was furious at the lack of coverage of books in the magazine. I bombarded them with suggestions, produced the goods on time, but most importantly met up with editorial so that I could convey my passion. Perhaps there simply isn’t the same motivation in the digital age. Everyone has some form of online presence and the potential to reach a global audience and so face-to-face relationships may appear irrelevant in comparison. But conversations spark creativity and make meaningful connections in a way that a formal email or factual text do not. Underestimate this at your peril.

LeftLion 50

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LeftLion celebrated its 50th birthday on 1 December and to celebrate we sunk a few beers in the ridiculously expensive Orange Tree. We decided not to milk this in the magazine because it’s not really our style. We’ll save that for 2014 which will mark our tenth year of surviving on wits alone in the brutal realm of print media. Instead we celebrated our latest significant anniversary by interviewing Shane Meadows who appeared in the first ever issue. It made for a nice bit of symmetry while also giving us the excuse to break our number one rule that you only ever get one interview in the magazine.

The front cover was shot in my front room but you wouldn’t be able to tell as the background was blurred out to focus in on the main image of a Quality Street tin which would later become ‘Clumber Street – an unsavoury assortment of chattiness and trainer shops’. Dom Henry popped over to take the image and brought an array of Christmassy treats with him – wine, smelly cheese, chocolates, to be used in the shot which was wolfed down shortly after.

Photoshoot in our front room.

The Quality Street tin was painted white for the photograph so that it would be easier to draw over when it was handed over to our illustrator. Now when people pop over the house for a glass of mulled wine they look at the tin and think that I’m some kind of minimalist who likes chocolate but has a Naomi Kleinesque aversion to branding.

WriteLion saw the return of a bumper book reviews pages, with reviews of Graham Joyce, Alan Sillitoe and Zoe Fairbairns as well as NottsLit Blog stepping in to review three books from Pewter Rose. I really like the idea of featuring guest reviewers looking at specific publishers as it offers a little bit more promotion for both. Our poetry page also included three bonus reviews of Sue Dymoke, Kathryn Daszkiewicz and Alan Baker. Katie Half-Price was given a Santa’s hat courtesy of our wonderful illustrator Rebecca Hibberd and got stuck into E.L.James, Naomi Wolf and Graham Rawle. It was great fun to write as always and a scary reminder of how easy it is to get into character. My girlfriend always looks a little puzzled when she reads it.

The literature interview was with Alison Moore who was recently shortlisted for the Booker Prize for her debut novel The Lighthouse. The illustration came from Michelle Haywood and as always is an example of getting your work (and brief) in early to allow an illustrator time to work on their design. The Lighthouse is a wonderful book, full of subtle warnings that become clearer on a second read. It also has a wonderful rhythm to it, a little like John Banville’s The Sea. Alison is a genuinely lovely person and will go on to be a very significant writer. Salt are definitely my publisher of the year for having the bollocks and faith to submit the novel, given all of the financial risks this entails.