We’ve decided to do our bit for the ‘Big Society’ by broadening LeftLion out to a whopping 48 pages for issue 41. It’s something we hope to be able to do more often, although our August issue will retain it’s more familiar slender frame because it’s traditionally a ‘quiet’ time. Our aim is to eventually go monthly, and expanding content is one way in which we are able to monitor if this is feasible.

Culturally, Nottingham is being incredibly demanding at the moment and we simply couldn’t cover everything in 32 pages. In addition to Southwell and the Nottingham Poetry Series, it’s also Lowdham season. We covered the latter by featuring the eight shortlisted authors for the inaugural East Midlands Book Award. A lot of thought went into matching reviewers with books. Aly Stoneman looked at Mark Goodwin’s Shod because he’s been selected as her mentor for her first poetry collection; Anthony Cartwright kindly reviewed Maria Allen’s Before the Earthquake as they are both published by Tindal Street, whereas Michael Eaton covered Ann Featherstone’s The Newgate Jig because he gave her critical feedback on her original proofs. These give the reviews an added dimension that may not be picked up by all readers but is personally pleasing.

The magazine also represents a hat trick of sorts as it includes three people I’ve been after for ages.

1. Marcus Clarke is an eccentric puppeteer who loves his profession and his city in equal measures. Puppetry gets bad press but he gives great copy because he exudes passion and people love this no matter what the topic. It also meant we had a fantastic option with regards to the cover, getting him to create a Punch and Judy type stage with our featured interviews. This looked fantastic although it did create a lot of stress as interviewees can pull out at the last minute meaning the cover has to be remade from scratch.

2. The Thompson Brothers are Nottingham’s most opinionated Greengrocers and have built up a reputation for politely harassing customers. At long last we’ve found a space for them to rant on topical issues which has given a much needed revamp to the Nottingham Voices column. LeftLion is a celebration of local oddities, and they don’t come any odder than fifty-year-old twins who love Royalty. ‘Marvellous!’

3. Finally, after nearly two years of trying, I got my ‘voice of the Sumac’ in the form of Pat Smith – the vegan catering campaigners. Sumac members are notoriously difficult to interview because they are rightly suspicious of the media and because as a non-hierarchical organisation, nobody wants to be seen as a spokesperson. Two years ago I interviewed a young lad called Ben Sharkley and a couple of his friends. They came around for a drink and a chat, I recorded the interview, and then the next day they pulled out. Ben was tragically killed in 2010 by a drink driver and it has always been a deep regret that I deleted the interview as it would have been great to have shared this with his friends.

Pat Smith works tirelessly for many causes and has helped to ‘normalise’ veganism. We chatted about Mark Kennedy, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar debacle and why he has dedicated his life to helping others. It was imperative that Pat felt comfortable with how he was represented and so was given a copy of the edited interview prior to print to ensure he was happy with it. I can’t abide cheap journalism and this ensured fair representation. It isn’t something I would do with all interviewees but here, trust really was essential.

My literature interview for the magazine came in the form of Dom Joly who has written about ‘dark tourism.’ This was to help promote his show at the Playhouse on the 21^st June – who we’ve given a big push in the mag because we don’t want a theatreless city like our friends down the A52. Fame can be cruel and I was interested in how it must feel to be reduced to a catchphrase, particularly given that he started out as a political researcher for the New Statesman, and has worked at the UN and with Mark Thomas. Joly went to school with Osama Bin Laden so I was particularly interested in his thoughts on the farcical smear campaign that has surrounded Bin Laden’s death.

Finally, never underestimate ‘chance’ when it comes to mag content. Christy Fearn, a local Bryon and Shelley expert, emailed me about a forthcoming talk she was giving just as another interviewee pulled out. From this was born the idea to imagine a conversation of one-upmanship between Byron and Shelley that gave information on their various exploits as a means of promoting her talks. So often a random email from someone triggers an idea for content. It’s the reason it’s important that journalists keep in contact with authors and authors keep in contact with journalists. So if we haven’t spoken for a bit, get pestering me now!

Since I came to LeftLion 2/3 years ago, I’ve been delighted with how well the literature element of the magazine has expanded and how receptive Al Needham and Jared Wilson, the co-editors, have been to developing this particular area. At one point the magazine was music heavy and had, in my opinion, a rather biased view of what constituted ‘arts and culture’. You got the occasional author interview and an odd book review but generally speaking, wordsmiths were conspicuous by their absence. Now we are guaranteed one literature interview, three book reviews and three quarters of a page devoted to poetry from our forum, each issue. The lost teeth and bruises were well worth it!

Now that the magazine is more evenly balanced between the genres, the next natural progression has been to expand into podcasts. Our literature based one is aptly named the WriteLion podcast. These and others will correspond with the publication of the magazine. This way there is less pressure on me to keep churning them out and it also means we are able to promote and market them in the magazine and get maximum exposure. I’ve never really seen myself as a ‘voice’ and much prefer the anonymity of the written word, but it is a format that our audience evidently prefer given how many have downloaded so far. And of course, they may simply not like my writing…

One thing that the podcasts do offer that really appeals is the opportunity to talk to more people, particularly given the obvious space restrictions in the magazine. There is nothing worse than trying to choose between ten or so local authors for the one elusive slot, when so many, if not all, deserve a place. Pragmatics aside, there are other reasons for embracing this medium. Poetry, for example, is so much better suited to the ear than the eye because it enables the poet to emphasise particular phrases or words. This is often lost by readers who do not have a degree in punctuation and can lead to misinterpretation of works. Poems, by nature, are a lot smaller than stories and so perhaps benefit from the dramatics that speaking them aloud, allows.

You can listen to my first WriteLion podcast here Apparently I’m a cross between Alan Partridge and David Brent. Others say I should be presenting Classic FM. What can I say, it’s the first one and I’m doing it for the authors, man…See below for guestlist

• Jamie Rhodes discusses the screenwriting process at Donkey Stone Films
  Hhymn – ‘These Hands’.
• Ian Collinson announces the winners of the Nottingham Poetry Society performance competition.
• Rosie Gardner, Louise Ashley and Michelle ‘Mother’ Hubbard read their winning poems.
• Four fledglings from the Write Lion forum discuss all things literary
  Hymn – ‘Paper Trail’.
• Jared Wilson of LeftLion discusses poetry and hip-hop.