Tag Archives: Nicola Monaghan

Michael Eaton – The Year of the Writer

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Photo: Graham Lester George

Tuesday 19th January gave me a very tough but enviable dilemma: What to do in the evening? Putting aside the domestic basics which will always wait, my first option was the City versus United derby on TV and the chance to see overpaid idiots impress their American and Arabic employers. Very tempting, but you’ve seen one football match, you’ve seen them all. Now on the other hand, if it had been Forest versus County …

Next up was Howard Marks at the Y Theatre in Leicester, but I figured his own interpretation of ‘greening the economy’ was one which has been said countless times before and wouldn’t really offer me anything worth justifying the train trip to our southern neighbours. The Shoestring Press Evening at the Flying Goose on the other hand was a serious contender, ticking all the right boxes; local publisher, wonderful setting (outside of the city centre) and two local writers/poets in Eireann Lorsung and Dan Tunstall. Eireann has done wonders for poetry in the region, so supporting her would have more than justified the half hour bus trip to Beeston and LeftLion has unfinished business with Dan Tunstall. One of my Lit subs went out to interview him six months ago and it wasn’t quite up to scratch so it never got published. Fortunately another sub offered to go out and repair the damage. This meant my attendance (at least from a journo perspective) wasn’t necessary.

This left me with my final option: Michael Eaton giving a talk as part of the ‘Year of the Writer’ programme at Nottingham University. I decided to go to this event over others because I knew he would tell me something I didn’t know and make me laugh in the process. A bottle of wine sat on the edge of his desk as he spoke and was swiftly passed around the audience – on his instructions – and then returned back – on his instructions! It instantly united and relaxed everyone. He then dazzled them with his knowledge, finding the perfect balance between academic insight and comical stories. Michael describes himself as a ‘dramatist’ rather than a writer and he certainly chose an appropriate word. Although I’d love to share his trade secrets now, I’m going to resist the temptation and knock out an interview closer to the release of his Lockerbie play (which will follow on from where his seminal TV drama left off).

One interesting observation I will share relates to research and characterisation. Once Michael has ploughed through the archives and read the mountains of reports about his subject matter he then has to meet them in person so that he can get a feel for who they are, observe their mannerisms, look for accent and pronunciation. This is quite a guttural – almost anthropological – approach, but one which enables him to work out if they are genuine. As a dramatist, Michael refuses to add scenes that haven’t happened and avoids the pop psychology that can create unfair portrayals of people. Looking people in the eye enables this and is a moral that our gutless (rather than gutteral) politicians should consider. I wonder how eager Blair would have been for war in Iraq if he’d had to stand on the battlefield and look his enemy in the eye rather than ponder them from the warmth of his Downing Street apartment. There’s nothing quite as honest as the stench of stale breath…

Michael spoke as part of the Year of the Writer programme developed by Writer-in-Residence Arthur Piper. Other guests have included Jon Mcgregor, Nicola Monaghan and Mike Wilson.

Nottingham Writers’ Christmas party

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Photo by Tim Mossholder at Pexels. 

I attended my first ever writers’ Christmas party and I’m glad to report it was as debauched as any office party I’ve been to. Granted no-one was trying to shag each other on the stairs and there weren’t any drunken bouts of vocal honesty that could ruin your career, but there was plenty of drinking. The £80 budget went on wine and bottled lager with a random orange juice cartoon thrown in for aesthetic purposes. The food paid homage to a 70’s tuppaware party with peanuts and two flavours of crisp and a tray of mince pies. Perfect. The only thing missing was pigs in blankets or ‘pigs in duvets’ as I once mistakenly referred to them as – my ignorance born of a vegetarian diet.

As always Michael Eaton was on fine form, recalling earthy local stories from his childhood and then filtering in a couple of more high brow escapades. He’s a man who obsesses about which side of the river you were born on, which he believes can be detected in slight inflections of accent. Hearing him dissect up the city you’d think we were living in Derry. He should be made Mayor of Nottingham, with Al Needham as his trusty Depute. Michael will be giving a talk at Nottingham University soon as part of the Year of the Writer programme put forward by Writer-in-Residence Arthur Piper. I strongly urge readers attend this not only for the way he commands the stage but because he’s a man who underplays an amazing achievement in film and television with real Cowboy swagger.

The event was also used as a brief launch for Weathervane Press who have just published Make Less Strangers by twenty-something author Steven Wilcoxson. Steven is too shy to read his own work in public so Ian Collinson stepped in, but Steven was happy to answer any questions. It was quite a surreal, almost ventriloquist type experience, like watching a father nurturing his son. Unfortunately authors can no longer hide behind the written page. Marketing and self-promotion are deemed vital statistics and a necessary prerequisite if you are to survive in these murky waters. I enjoyed the written extract and it reminded me a little of Chris Killen in its precise, detached listing of events. As Steven is a local lad we won’t be allowing such modest mannerisms to thwart his career. We intend to kidnap him from his bedroom and drag him down to Stone Soup studios for a podcast and rid him of his stage nerves.

Weathervane also announced that they will be publishing Megan Taylor’s second novel The Dawning in January. This is great news as we announced in our last issue that they had a call for submissions for a female author and sure enough it has paid dividend. If you’re a female author and have a manuscript in the loft, get in touch with them now!

Watching Weathervane grow is one of the pleasures of being a member of the Nottingham Writers’ Studio as you get to see first hand the various complexities the industry throws out. For example, Weathervane’s second release by Marty Ross Aztec Love Song came out on Oct 1st which in the publishing industry is known as ‘Super Thursday’. This is when all the major publishers launch endless celeb autobiographies as potential stocking fillers, ensuring a Chav stampede down the aisles of Asda. The downside for Weathervane is it means review space gets gobbled up in the press which is of course the life blood of a small publisher. Luckily, (oh lucky, lucky) LeftLion was on hand to slip a review into our December issue, courtesy of Theatre Writing Partnership coordinator Bianca Winter. Bianca is a literature sadist who recently read the entire Booker longlist and now plans to do similar for previous years. She might even write us an article on her findings if we’re lucky. So watch this space.

Meeting people of a similar persuasion is a reason for joining the studio because it helps to dispel all the elitist myths about writers being all lardy da. Instead you have a group of normal people all trying to make a living from the thing that they love with exactly the same fears, hopes and dreams as you and I. Journalists discuss the merits of forming sub groups to share ideas with each other about emerging markets, scriptwriters ask for advice on locations for plays, poets tell you about performance tips and author’s such as Nicola Monaghan smile when they see their face on our Stg. Pepper mock up, alongside Bin Laden, Gary Glitter and the Fishman. I just hope that this hub of creativity is able to gain continued funding and that the wealth of talent inside – with peanuts wedged between the gaps of their teeth – are able to work together and create revenue streams that will enable it to become self sufficient.

This Friday (Dec 4th) WriteLion will be presenting an hour special at the Arts Organisation and introducing Hello Hubmarine. Entrance is free, bring your own bottle, peanuts not included.