Welcome to the Autumn issue of the Northern Bookshelf, brought to you by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival.
Each season we speak to readers, publishers and producers from across the North to find out what books they are recommending to their friends, as well as focusing on some of the most exciting new books by writers based in our region.
Get your notebooks ready, because as well as our usual list of upcoming releases from Northern authors, we've got loads more recommendations; from crime fiction set in the North, to climate reading for children, to a whole range of books that will be appearing in Durham and online at Durham Book Festival this October. Brontë enthusiasts will be especially eager to read this issue's author interview and enter the giveaway...
All of that, plus fantastic poetry, publishers and podcasts!
Happy reading,
New Writing North and Durham Book Festival
What are you reading this autumn? Join in the chat on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #NorthernBookshelf.
Fifteen Wild Decembers by Karen Powell
Isolated from society, Emily Brontë and her siblings spend their days inventing elaborate fictional realms or roaming the wild moors above their family home in Yorkshire. When the time comes for them to venture out into the world to earn a living, each of them struggles to adapt, but for Emily the change is catastrophic. Torn from the landscape to which she has become so passionately bound, she is simply unable to function.
To the outside world, Emily Brontë appears taciturn and unexceptional, but beneath the surface her mind is in a creative ferment. A violent phenomenon is about to burst forth that will fuse her imaginary world with the landscape of her beloved Yorkshire and change the literary world forever.
Fifteen Wild Decembers is the dazzling second novel from 2017 Northern Writers' Award winner Karen Powell, author of The River Within.
Fifteen Wild Decembers is published on 21 September with Europa Editions. Read our interview with author Karen Powell to learn about her process of researching and writing the book.
We have three copies of Fifteen Wild Decembers to give away!
For the chance to win, tell us what you're reading on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using the hashtags #NorthernBookshelf and #FifteenWildDecembers. Winners will be drawn on 22 September 2023.
Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel is the third in the page-turning cosy crime series from Glenda Young. Helen Dexter is enjoying the new four-star status of the Seaview Hotel. But she begins to wonder if this accolade is cursed when a series of disasters strike. Can Helen unmask the crazy golf killer, save the reputation of the Seaview, win Jean back and solve the mystery of the party invitations? With her rescue greyhound Suki by her side, Helen Dexter is on the case.
Charlotte Thomas is polite. Manners cost nothing, her mother always said… yet there’s a fine line between diplomat and doormat. But every woman has their breaking point and Charlotte has just found hers. With the help of her best friend and housemate Mush, Charlotte declares she’s apologising no more. No more saying sorry for just doing her job, or speaking her mind or simply taking up space. No Worries If Not! is a relatable and funny new rom-com from Lucy Nichol.
In an old-fashioned fishing community on windswept Morecambe Bay, change is imperceptibly slow. Arthur is retired and widowed. When his path crosses Suling’s, both are almost out of options. Suling is without papers or money, speaks no English, and debt collectors are hunting her down. Her only choice is to trust the old man. Julia Rampen combines warmth and tension to recall a true incident in The Bay, winner of the NorthBound Book Award 2022. Read our interview with Julia Rampen here.
Set in the Scottish Lowlands in 1593, Burnt Offerings by Danielle Devlin is the story of Besse Duncan, a young mother whose husband is missing, accused of witchcraft by the man who attempts to rape her. Destined to lose her daughter, her freedom and her life, this is the story of one woman's fight for vindication through a patriarchal landscape of torture and persecution.
The Rewilding of Molly McFlynn by Sue Reed is about Molly, a girl uprooted from town life to live with her bohemian grandparents in rural Northumberland. It’s Spring 2020 and she meets Martha in the woods on the run from the witch finder. Martha is from the seventeenth century. As Covid strikes, and a local witch hunt takes place, Martha’s is not the only life that is in danger....
Enter an imaginative journey through the landscape and history of another world, and the curious beings who live there. Unfurl is a chapbook featuring vignettes, flash fiction, prose poems and short stories from Kym Deyn, Nathaniel Spain, and Finlay Worrallo. It is a tour-de-force of speculative and experimental writing. Kym Deyn is a Young Creative Associate at New Writing North.
A civilian consultant in interrogation, Samantha Greenwood’s psychic abilities have drawn both suspicion and admiration from her colleagues at London’s Metropolitan Police Service. But then her daughter Cate becomes the subject of her latest investigation. As Greenwood digs deeper, she discovers that Cate has been harbouring secrets. All Lies Hidden is a compelling first thriller from Marc Turner.
Join wordsmith and NWN Creative Associate Adam Sharp as he journeys around the world in idioms, proverbs and general nonsense. Learn unusual insults from France (You are a potato with the face of a guinea pig), how to hurry someone up in the US (You're going as slow as molasses in January) and what they call a shark in Vietnam (fat fish). The Wheel is Spinning But the Hamster is Dead rounds up the very best of what every corner of the globe has to offer.
Yousef is the golden child to his strict Pakistani parents. As he finishes his medical degree in London, Yousef’s life appears to be mapped out for him: become a doctor, marry a suitable girl of his parents’ choosing and make his family proud. Then Yousef meets Jess. Suddenly, Yousef finds himself torn between two worlds – keeping each a secret from the other. How (Not) to Have an Arranged Marriage is a timely, heartfelt novel from Dr Amir Khan.
On the 'big questions' of meaning and purpose, Western thought has been dominated by the dichotomy of traditional religion and secular atheism. In Why? The Purpose of the Universe, Philip Goff argues that it is time to move on from both God and atheism. Through an exploration of contemporary cosmology and cutting-edge philosophical research on consciousness, Goff argues for cosmic purpose: the idea that the universe is directed towards certain goals.
1956, the Scottish Highlands: Aaron and Robbie are fast friends with a shared passion for diving. At a grand private school in Edinburgh, Mark and Ally aspire to change the world. Joseph, heir to an Aberdeen trawler-fishing dynasty, broods over his true ambitions. The discovery of oil under the North Sea will make their dreams achievable. But behind the promise of 'black gold,' there is a price to be paid. The Black Eden is a soulful, sweeping novel by Richard Kelly.
AD 193. After a year of brutal civil war, Rome is settled under Septimius Severus and his aspirations for a new dynasty of emperors. Severus’s sons promise a clear line of succession to steer Rome into the future. A promise that might be hard to deliver upon. As the relationship between the siblings grows strained, their parents desperately attempt to reconcile them before it is too late. Caracalla is the final novel in the Damned Emperors series by S.J.A. Turney.
You can view the featured books on our Bookshop affiliate list. All Bookshop links above are affiliate links.
What We're Reading: Durham Book Festival 2023 Edition
With less than a month to go until Durham Book Festival 2023 kicks off, we're eagerly eyeing up the festival lineup on our office bookshelf. Find out the books we're most excited to read, as well as some that we've already read and loved, by reading our blog post here.
What are you excited to read this autumn? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NorthernBookshelf.
Join us at Durham Book Festival in person or online this October!
All our events at Gala Durham will be live-streamed, meaning you can join us from anywhere in the country. The live-streamed events will be available to watch until 31 October.
The festival offers 35 events with more than 40 authors over a bustling long weekend. There's something for everyone, from the history of Durham, to fantastic new fiction and historical retellings, to politics, and much more.
New and Recent Poetry from the North
As the evenings draw in, it's time to discover a new poetry collection to cosy up with this autumn. Check out Senior Programme Manager Will Mackie's top picks of recent and upcoming collections from northern poets here.
Some of these recommendations are available on our Bookshop affiliate list.
IRON Press
IRON Press is an independent poetry publisher based in Cullercoats, celebrating its 50 year anniversary this year. We chatted to IRON's Pete Mortimer about how IRON began and some of its highlights from the last 50 years, as well as the 12 hour poetry bonanza it is hosting this October with a wide range of poets and authors as part of the celebrations. Read it on our blog.
unfinishing Podcast
unfinishing celebrates projects that are unfinished, abandoned, or not public. What’s the value to be found in unfinished and private writing, art, music? What stops us from finishing things off? Sheffield-based Emily Anderson asks her guests to search the abandoned corners of their laptops to rediscover secret and incomplete schemes. Listen to the first 2 seasons now on your favourite podcast platform!
Faber Academy's
Poem of the Month
Pippa Little, tutor on Faber Academy's upcoming Writing Poems course in Newcastle, has picked Sheenagh Pugh’s sonnet ‘What If This Road’ as her September Poem of the Month. Read the poem, alongside Pippa's thoughts on why this is a fitting poem to reflect on as we enter this beautiful yet melancholic new season, here.
Writing Poems is a three-month course for anyone just starting out in poetry or wanting to hone their craft, starting 27 September.
Climate Hope Book List
Threads in the Ground is a new climate hope organisation, set up with the support of New Writing North. They have curated the Climate Hope Book List to give teachers and carers a starting point in climate change education, and to connect more communities with climate change ideas through children. Read more about why this project exists, and discover this exciting list, on our blog.
Bad weather, great thrillers – the cream of Northern-set crime fiction
There is something about the North that lends itself to a good police procedural. Who can resist a dark, twisting tale, set against a backdrop of biting cold, brooding clouds and torrential rain? Find your new favourite Northern crime series as Marnie Riches, crime writer and tutor on our Writing Crime Fiction online course, tells us about some of her favourite crime fiction from the region. Read Marnie's blog post here.
The Writing Crime Fiction online course begins on 25 September. More info here.
BOOK CLUB
Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding
For our summer Book Club Live event we celebrated the publication of Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding – a Newcastle-born author whose ‘multi-layered, propulsive debut thriller’ features a cast of seven unforgettable characters… and a healthy dose of female rage.
Listen to our podcast recording of the event to hear about some of Rose’s inspirations, influences, and how she came to write a story of murder and mystery set in her own home city. Chaired by bestselling crime author Ann Cleeves. Available here, and on all the main podcast platforms!
Seven women stand in shock in a seedy hotel room; a man's severed head sits in the centre of the floor. Each of the women has a very good reason to have done it, yet each swears she did not.
Speak of the Devil is a dark and nuanced portrait of love, loyalty, and manipulation. Rose Wilding explores the roles in which women are cast in the lives of terrible men... and the fallout when they refuse to stay silent.
Speak of the Devil Book Club Questions
- Rose Wilding evokes a strong sense of place (Newcastle and surrounding areas), in the novel, how do you think this contributed to the book?
- Female rage is at the heart of this book – how do you feel about the way the author portrayed this? Have you read any other books that handle this topic well?
- Why do you think the author chose to set the novel in 1999? Do you think much has changed for women in the last 20 years?
- There are multiple narrative perspectives featured in the book, were there any characters you felt more sympathetic towards than others. If so, why?
Francis Spufford in Conversation @ The Biscuit Factory
Monday 23 October 7pm, The Biscuit Factory, £10/£8/£22
Our next Book Club Live event in Newcastle will celebrate a brand-new book from the bestselling author, Francis Spufford.
Cahokia Jazz is a thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently. It’s 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz and stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on, until a body found on the roof of a skyscraper sparks off a week that will spill the city’s secrets…
Come and sip on a drink while you hear Francis chat about Cahokia Jazz – plus get your hands on a copy of the book from The Bound and get it signed!
Book your tickets here, and tune back into Northern Bookshelf next quarter for Cahokia Jazz book club questions and a podcast recording of the event.
Northern Bookshelf is published by New Writing North and Durham Book Festival. If you have news about books by northern authors or you would like to recommend books as a bookseller, librarian, book group or reader, please contact carys@newwritingnorth.com. The next issue will be published in December 2023 and will cover December 2023 - February 2024. The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 10 November 2023.
While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this newsletter is correct at the time of going to press, things do change, frequently at the last minute and very often without our knowledge.
