Welcome to the Spring 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.
In this issue you can also find out about some exciting upcoming author events in Newcastle, as well as the books the NWN staff are looking forward to reading this year! And on top of our usual giveaway, we have a bonus giveaway for all the poetry lovers...
What are you reading? Join in the chat on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using #NorthernBookshelf.
Dragged Up Proppa by Pip Fallow
Dragged Up Proppa is the story of growing up working class in a forgotten England.
Pip Fallow, awarded Highly Commended for the 2019 Sid Chaplin Award, was born in the coal-miner’s cottage where his family of eight lived, in a village near Durham. Pip was destined to join his father and brothers down the pit, but the closure of his village’s mine in the 1980s saw him at the back of the dole queue like the rest. This is Pip’s story of being ‘dragged up proppa’, living by his wits, working and travelling the world before finally settling a few miles from where he grew up.
This is the memoir of a man who left school illiterate, but has now written a book. The story of a lost generation who were prepared for a life that had disappeared by the time they were ready for it, and an account of some of the most important issues affecting Britain today.
Dragged Up Proppa is published on 23 March with Pan Macmillan. Read our interview with author Pip Fallow.
Giveaway!
We have three copies of Dragged Up Proppa to give away!
For the chance to win, tell us what you're reading on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using the hashtags #NorthernBookshelf and #DraggedUpProppa. Winners will be drawn on 24 March 2023.
Cuddy is Ben Myers’ bold and experimental retelling of the story of the hermit St. Cuthbert, unofficial patron saint of the North of England. Incorporating forms from poetry to real historical accounts, Cuddy straddles historical eras. Along the way we meet brewers and masons, archers and academics, monks and labourers, their visionary voices and stories echoing through their ancestors and down the ages.
Jo Cheetham went to a protest against the Page 3 pictorial in The Sun and officially joined the No More Page 3 campaign team. She protested across the country, attended parliament and made an unlikely group of friends. Killjoy: Taking on a Macho Media Empire and Winning is a story of everyday people doing extraordinary things, the power of a grassroots campaign and what you can achieve when you shout a little bit louder.
Lily is sixteen and living in Manchester. Five years after her father’s death, she is soon to return to Nigeria to reunite with her mother and siblings. But there is a tension that nobody dares speak out loud and it teaches Lily an early lesson: always blend in and play the right part. My Life as a Chameleon by Diana Anyakwo is a powerful story of resilience and belonging, about family secrets and how they can destroy bonds.
Andy Ruffell’s Lily Grim and the City of Undone introduces us to Lily and her guardian Gabriel. Undone is a dangerous place to live, especially if you’re an Other: feared for their special gifts and persecuted by the cruel Master of the City. When the Master captures Gabriel, Lily is saved by a young Other boy called Dekka. Can Lily find answers about who she is, and can they rescue Gabriel before it’s too late?
In The Stickleback Catchers, Lisette Auton introduces us to Mimi, who adores her wild and fun Gran. Then Gran starts forgetting things. Suddenly there are cracks appearing all around their home - and a mysterious black crow - both of which only Mimi seems able to see. Together with her new friends, she discovers a mysterious stone. But this is no ordinary stone. Could it be Mimi’s chance to bring back Gran forever?
In the second book of the new Wildsmith series by Liz Flanagan, City of Secrets, Rowan starts to embrace her gifts as a magical wildsmith who heals and speaks to animals. But saving a young pegasus brings difficult decisions. When she is betrayed, which friends can she trust? With her family divided and war still raging, where does Rowan belong now?
The Ones Who Flew The Nest is an anthology of four stories of feathers, blood and eggs. A girl chases a different future on the back of a Suzuki 250. A sibling seeks her brother, hoping answers will heal. Inside the walls of her speaking house, a ‘kept’ wife tries to learn to be content with her identity. A young woman falls in love with a Goose and grows wings. Stories by Helen Kennedy, Katie Hale, Louise Finnigan and Jacqueline Ward. Edited and compiled by Isabelle Kenyon.
What happens when the Knights of the Round Table return to fix the problems of the modern world? Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee follows Sir Kay and his fellow knights who awake from their mythical slumber whenever Britain has need of them. In these perilous modern times, the realm is more divided than ever, a dragon has been seen for the first time in centuries, and Kay is not the only ancient and terrible thing to come crawling up out of the ground...
Glow Up, Lara Bloom follows Lara and her friends as they embark on their project of empowerment and self-love. Meanwhile, Lara shares her innermost thoughts with her online journal. Then Lara's journal is leaked for everyone at school to see. Can her friends help her to uncover the truth and set Lara back on track? A heart-warming story of friendship, crushes and learning to love yourself by Dee Benson.
If I Let You Go is a gripping, darkly comic tale of searing loss, coercive control and the consequences of taking the wrong path by Charlotte Levin. It follows Janet Brown, a cleaner who carries the guilt of a devastating loss. When involved in a train crash, she makes a decision that inspires everyone around her. But as events spiral out of control, she discovers that long-buried truths cannot come to the surface.
It is 1940 and twenty-year-old Charlotte Richmond watches from her attic window as enemy planes fly over London. In Jo Baker’s The Midnight News, every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after yet another heart-breaking loss Charlotte has an uncanny sense of foreboding. Someone is stalking the darkness, targeting her friends. And now he is following her.
Following a move to the Netherlands, a young woman dissects the developments of her new life: awkward exchanges with the people she meets, days spent alone freelancing in her apartment, her confrontation with boredom and unease. Intimate, incisive and brilliantly observed, Temper by Phoebe Walker explores loneliness, self-worth and disconnection with head-nodding accuracy.
You can view the featured books on our Bookshop affiliate list. All Bookshop links above are affiliate links.
What We're Reading: Spring 2023 Edition
Whether your reading year has started off strong or been slower than you'd like, we're here to help you get excited about your 2023 TBR. This Spring we've asked the team at NWN to tell us about what they're currently reading, and any upcoming releases they're excited to get hold of. Read our blog post here!
We'd love to hear your recommendations – let us know on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #NorthernBookshelf.
New and Recent Poetry from the North
Spring has arrived and Senior Programme Manager, Will Mackie has handpicked some of his favourite poetry releases from Northern poets. Check out his top recommendations for collections that were published in Spring 2023.
Some of these recommendations are available on our Bookshop affiliate list.
Giveaway!
We have two copies of White Ghosts by Katie Hale to give away!
White Ghosts is Katie Hale’s brilliant and unflinching debut collection, tracing and confronting family history and the legacies of past generations. It won a 2021 Northern Debut Award.
For the chance to win, tell us what you're reading on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using the hashtags #NorthernBookshelf and #WhiteGhosts. Winners will be drawn on 24 March 2023.
An Evening with Faber: Eliza Clark and Dizz Tate
Join us in Newcastle city centre’s Common Room on 15 March to listen to Eliza Clark and Dizz Tate in conversation, as well as a drinks reception and book-signing. Guests will also receive an exclusive New Writing North X Faber book-bag containing the new hardback of Brutes by Dizz Tate, a voucher to pre-order Penance by Eliza Clark, and more.
Newcastle-born Eliza Clark’s debut novel Boy Parts was named Blackwell’s Fiction Book of the Year. Her latest, Penance, is an utterly chilling, compulsive story of a murder among teenagers, while Dizz Tate’s Brutes is one of the year’s most highly anticipated debuts – a coming-of-age story that captures the violence, horrors, and manic joys of girlhood. Book tickets for our Evening with Faber.
7.30-8.45pm, Wednesday 15 March, The Common Room, Newcastle, £20 (plus booking fee). Ticket includes a glass of wine/soft drink and goodie-bag containing a copy of Brutes by Dizz Tate.
Jennifer Saint in Conversation @ The Biscuit Factory
New Writing North and The Bound present an evening with Sunday Times No.1 bestselling author Jennifer Saint at The Biscuit Factory in Newcastle. Join us on 25 April when Jennifer will be talking about her latest mythology-inspired novel, Atalanta, followed by a Q&A with the audience and a book signing. Our book-and-ticket offer includes a welcome drink and a hardback copy of the book.
This is the first in a new quarterly series of live Book Club events in Newcastle. We’ve teamed up with our friends at The Bound (Forum Books) once more to bring exciting authors to avid readers in the North East. In upcoming editions of Northern Bookshelf we will be offering extra bookish content, including event podcasts and reading group questions. Book tickets to join us in April.
7.30-8.30pm (doors open at 7pm), Tuesday 25 April, Artisan @ The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle, £10-20 (plus booking fee). Ticket includes a welcome drink and the option for a copy of Atalanta by Jennifer Saint.
The North Recommends: Hexham Book Festival
Hexham Book Festival returns with a programme of events for all ages. The 10-day festival will take place at Queen’s Hall and Hexham Abbey between 21 and 30 April. Laura Fraine from New Writing North picks some of her personal highlights.
The North Recommends: Northern News
This brand new comedy podcast sees comedians Ian Smith and Amy Gledhill – two Northerners living in London – on a mission to find the juiciest stories from their hometowns and beyond. Join them each week as they scour the local rags of the North to find the stories you didn’t know you needed to know. Listen to the first episode here.
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 June 2023 and will cover June 2023 - August 2023. The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 27 May 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.
