This exhibition features a selection of original artwork from this year’s Liverpool Reads book The Savage including the original front cover from the hard back edition which is both intriguing and chilling.

Dave McKean has illustrated several award-winning comics including Arkham Asylum with author/playwright Grant Morrison, Signal to Noise and Mr. Punch with author Neil Gaiman. He has written as well as illustrated two books (Cages and Pictures That Tick) released four different collections of his photography (Black and White Lies, Option:Click, The Particle Tarot: The Major Arcana and The Particle Tarot: The Minor Arcana) and has created hundreds of comic and book covers including the hugely popular Sandman series.

Multi-talented, Dave has created ad campaigns and over 150 CD packages for Michael Nyman, Tori Amos, Counting Crows and Alice Cooper amongst others. He has worked on a variety of book and film projects with John Cale, The Rolling Stones, Milcho Manchevski, Stephen King, Lars Von Trier and Iain Sinclair. He is currently directing and designing films including the recent Jim Henson Studios produced Mirrormask and character design on the Harry Potter movie franchise. He also jointly oversees the running of the jazz record label Feral.

The Bluecoat is delighted to host an exhibition featuring a selection of original artwork by Dave McKean from The Savage. The exhibition starts outside the bar (press 2 in the lift) and continues on the floor above. It is open from 10.00am until 10.00pm Tuesday to Saturday and 10.00am until 6.00pm on Sundays and Mondays.

The images displayed are courtesy of the artist Dave McKean with support from Walker Books and David Almond.

Brian Keenan with Vanessa

Brian Keenan is best known for being taken hostage in Beirut in 1985, a strange thing to be know for, but nonetheless, the reason we know him – this and An Evil Cradling, his account of the time taken from him.

An Evil Cradling is not just an account of being held hostage, it is a profoundly moving book, a story of one man’s emotional journey through the turbulence; the harshness and depravity is there, but along with it is a wondrous humour and vitality. It is a story of the intense connection with his fellow captive John McCarthy, they shared a hilarity and love which fed their spirits and spurred them on in spite of the worst imaginable circumstances.

It is an extraordinary account of humanity, humility and humour, a remarkable book which has helped me in my life. Quite frankly Brian Keenan is one of my heroes, so when I heard he was doing a reading at the Bluecoat (Friday 16th Oct), I knew I had to go.

He read from his new book I’ll Tell Me Ma, not so much an autobiography as a collection of memories from his childhood. Memories that for him led on to stranger and long-forgotten memories, thoughts of a young boy now interpreted by an adult mind, connections made as skeletons gently revealed their secrets.

Brian Keenan was rather sweetly nervous at the beginning, saying that the audience were more threatening than a bunch of Arab terrorists(!), but relaxed as he read to us, then happily answered questions from Jane Davis and the audience.

He is a charming man and spoke from his heart, he said that his emotions are always close to the surface, he lives through them – a lesson to us all.

He did a book signing after the event, and took time for everyone. He very kindly agreed when my friend asked if I could have my photo taken with him (I was too in awe of him to ask!), and seemed delighted to show his human and rather mischievous side.

Whoever said that you should never meet your heroes was wrong. It was an honour to meet Brian Keenan, he is a truly lovely man.

— — —

Jane Davis, Director of The Reader Organisation, hosted this event with Brian Keenan and she says this of her experience:

Anyone who has read An Evil Cradling will know that Brian Keenan has written  one of the most extraordinary books of the twentieth century, giving voice to key experiences and fears of our time. The book is a moving testament to a courage and resilience which seems to arise from but also be greater than the individual.

I’ll Tell Me Ma, his new memoir (not at all miserable)  is an account, to use an old fashioned phrase, of the development of a soul, the soul that became the man who survived the brutal captivity described in the first book. The book is a series of vivid memories and meditations, a rather Wordsworthian account of a lonely and deeply felt childhood.

Reading and rereading the books was my prep for the Chapter and Verse event at Bluecoat last week, and they helped, but nothing had prepared me for the depth of feeling, wit, gentleness and deeply individual creature that  is Brian Keenan. I felt I was meeting someone who utterly become himself, crystallised, absolute. It was a great pleasure and an experience that will stay with me, and I think many members of the audience, for a long time.

With a diverse range of events including performances from Vic Reeves, Michael Rosen and Ross Sutherland, readings by Sarah Hall, Christopher Brookmyre and Sally Vickers, a talk by Suzi Feay, in-conversation events with Brian Keenan and Abdel Bari Atwan, the second Chapter & Verse Literature festival at the Bluecoat promises to be a far reaching and eclectic programme.

The festival offers 30 events over five days from today (Wednesday October 14) until Sunday October 18 with a special focus on ‘revolution’ to coincide with a range of anniversaries occurring in 2009, including the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. As well as politics, music and culture the overarching theme will also cover revolutionary moments in football, Web 2.0, gaming and global markets.

Combining Liverpool’s active literature scene and a national take on the literary zeitgeist, the range of readings, talks and workshops will offer visitors a chance to hear directly from writers whilst mingling with fellow book-lovers and fans of spoken word. The festival derives its uniqueness from partnerships that include The Reader Organisation, Literature North West, News From Nowhere, The Poetry School and Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival among others.

Full info is available via www.chapterverse.org.uk

Tickets on sale now, to book call Tickets and Information on 0151 702 5324 at the Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX or visit www.thebluecoat.org.uk.

(Here’s what we’re doing as part of Chapter and Verse – got your tickets yet?!)

The events are free but you will need to book tickets. Tickets are available from the Bluecoat (0151 702 5324 – or drop in to the box office) so do please book yours soon to ensure you and your book get a space!

Speed Date a Book

7.30-8.30pm, Thursday 15th October, in the bar at the Bluecoat – free!

For this event, The Reader Organisation is asking you to come along with your favourite book or poem and all the reasons why you love it to see if you can find your perfect reading match. We’re acting as the matchmaker, hosting ‘Speed Date a Book’ to bring together literary lovers to share their favourite reads, meet fellow readers and perhaps find that all important perfect partner, be it in text or human form.

Are you able to be there with your favourite read?

Join us in the bar at the Bluecoat from 7.30pm, armed with your favourite read (be it poem or novel) and get ready to tell people why it’s so great (and hopefully find a perfect match).

The Reading Cure: Chapter and Verse

7.30-8.30pm, Sunday 18th October, at the Bluecoat – free!

Join staff from The Reader Organisation for this free clinic, to solve your problems with the help of some of our greatest writers.

Are you worried about your job? Are you always getting into relationships with ‘that man’ who’s just no good for you? Are you desperate to share something joyful?

Come along to The Reading Cure clinic and discover how fiction really can help reality…

‘Changing Liverpool’ with Paul Kingsnorth and Anthony Quinn (Roger Phillips, BBC Radio Merseyside, chair): Admission £5/£3; Box Office/Further Information 0151 7027787 or online.

Liverpool’s appearance has gone through many dramatic changes. Environmentalist Paul Kingsnorth and journalist/novelist Anthony Quinn discuss their work, which explores these changes in very different ways.

Liverpool-born Anthony Quinn is the Independent’s film critic. His first novel The Rescue Man, set in 1939, centres on the lonely Tom Baines, who avoids the looming crisis by submerging himself in Liverpool’s glorious architectural past. Quinn will discuss his novel and the changes wrought on Liverpool’s city centre.

Paul Kingsnorth, writer and former deputy editor of The Ecologist, examines the changing nature of England’s urban spaces, including Liverpool’s Paradise Project, in his book Real England: The Battle of the Bland.

January 22 Deryn Rees-Jones, Michael Murphy, John Redmond – following Liverpool Poetry Café @ The Bluecoat launch, by Catherine Marcangeli (Adrian Henri’s partner)

February 26 Jo Shapcott, William Park, Cynthia Kitchen

March 26 Carol Ann Duffy, Janette Stowell

Liverpool Poetry Café programme can be found here.

Renée Hemmings and Sophie Povey reflect–well, maybe enthuse is a better word–on Shipping Lines, the first Liverpool Literary Festival.

Seven days, fifty events, over thirty writers and two thousand literature lovers! The Liverpool Literary Festival has been marked as a great literary event for the Capital of Culture year.

We’ve had many emails already and here are some of the wonderful comments we’ve received:

“It was a memorable event and I am glad I didn’t miss it.”

“My 15 year old niece travelled up here for a weekend of Shipping Lines, missing school on Friday because “it’s educational and my English teacher is going to be SO jealous.”

“Congratulations … for a wonderful weekend. It was a real privilege to attend the literary events and listen to such encouraging and stimulating discussion about books and writing.”

There were many highlights over the week and the busy weekend, including the wonderful workshops and children’s events by Walker Books. The weekend part of the weekend was launched by Philip Pullman on the evening of Friday 7th November, to a packed out audience. The book signing queue at the end of the event took 45 minutes to clear, and Pullman took the time to chat to everyone which endeared him to all. Carol Ann Duffy was also very popular, and the audience was moved by her inspirational reading. And another long book signing queue!

There was something for everyone, whether it was a poetry reading, discussion or panel group.

It was a long road in the preparation of the festival, but the measure of sucess is that everyone had a brilliant time working on it, participating in it and watching it.

Thanks to all that was involved, and if you managed to get to see an event, we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did.

[Renée, Project Manager for the Liverpool Literary Festival]

The Shipping Lines Festival has come to an end, and oh what an outstanding success it has been! Thanks to the huge amounts of support and effort from everybody at The Reader Organisation and beyond, the week flew past without any hitches, leaving audiences, writers, staff and volunteers feeling fantastic! I was based at the Bluecoat for the majority of the week, and with the welcoming support of Francisco and the rest of the team there, all events ran smoothly. The ‘Scary Scribes’ workshop, led by children’s author Tommy Donbavand, saw over 120 primary school children piling into the performance space for a gory session involving witches blood, a werewolf’s finger and other ‘relics’ too gruesome to mention, but it was a brilliant day and everybody left excited about returning to school to write their own spooky stories.

The highlight of my week has to be Simon Armitage’s poetry reading on Saturday, the second sold out event that day after Roger McGough in the morning. He was very pleased to be at the festival, and thrilled the audience with incredibly moving readings – most notably ‘You’re Beautiful’ and ‘Causeway’. All the events were incredible though, and just skimming over some of the evaluation forms, it is clear that this opinion was shared by all. So well done everybody! Muffins all round!

[Sophie, Event co-ordinator for the Liverpool Literary Festival]

As part of the Chapter & Verse literature festival at the Bluecoat, I attended a session with first-time novelist Jennie Rooney, who read from Inside the Whale and also included a Q & A session. Firstly, I highly recommend you visit such events, they afford a rare insight into the development and motivation of the writer’s creative process. Secondly, the book.

My praise is unbounded I have to admit. This is one of the most beautifully conceived and executed works I have read. It is the tale of Stevie (Stephanie) and Michael: two young people, born in the 1920s, growing, living and working in the Old Kent road area of London; they meet fall in love and are then torn apart by the advent of WWII. Each chapter alternates between the voices of Stevie and Michael, their lives in the present and their reminiscences of the past. Michael is terminally ill in hospital and unable to speak silently revisits the pain and madness of the war and all that it cost him. Stevie’s autumn years see her living back with her daughter and granddaughter. It is also how their lives unknowingly overlap at the periphery after a lifetime of no more than whispers and stolen glimpses.

The language and construction is truly stunning. An unassuming poetic narrative gently leads the reader through a story of very real emotive truism. It concerns the human condition and is rendered without insistence, indulgence or cynicism and always with empathy. It essentially deals with silences or more accurately, with the things we should and wanted to have said; of those moments we can all recall that slipped by almost unnoticed and all too quickly.

I have to say ‘read it!’. Descriptively colourful, emotionally identifiable. Jennie Rooney is what I consider to be good in contemporary British talent. A wonderful and ‘must read’ debut.

The first event of the Liverpool Literary Festival is on this Monday 3rd November at the Bluecoat at 12noon. Rebecca Goss is hosting a two hour workshop over lunchtime about women’s poetry, so bring a packed lunch and join other readers and writers to discuss poems that explore key stages in the life of women.

Rebecca and the group will read and discuss poems addressing key aspects in women’s lives, taking in the poignant and the pleasurable. This will lead to a writing exercise, drawing on sensory experience and nostalgia.  No previous writing experience is necessary. This workshop is limited to 20 places and we still have some seats left.

Rebecca Goss taught creative writing at Liverpool John Moores University and is now a full-time poet. She reads nationwide and has work published in The Reader, Mslexia and Ambit and forthcoming in anthologies, The Poet’s Perspective and In the Telling.

Rebecca recently appeared at the Chapter And Verse festival at the Bluecoat alongside Paul Durcan in a lively, entertaining and heartfelt event to a packed-out audience. Although their styles were very different, it was wonderful to see two poetry readings about personal experiences and moments brought to life in such a memorable way.

There are two other workshops at the festival:

Jorie Graham is appearing in a discussion group with poems submitted by workshop attendees, and we nearly have a full session already. Many people have submitted a wide range of poems and it is shaping up to be a very interesting group. Saturday 8th November at 10am at the Bluecoat.

Ailsa Cox will be leading a creative writing workshop on short stories, one of the most demanding and yet rewarding of forms. It’s not going to take as long as a novel but it is going to ask you to be succinct. Budding and experienced writers are invited to join Ailsa Cox for a workshop which will introduce some basic concepts and give you a chance to develop your skills. No experience necessary. Sunday 9th November at 4pm at the Bluecoat. Ailsa Cox teaches creative writing at Edge Hill University. Her stories have been published widely, and have been shortlisted twice for the Stand International Short Story competition, for the V.S. Pritchett award and The Bridport Prize. She is the author of Writing Short Stories.

Remember that students can £1 tickets for all events … please visit our website www.liverpoollitfest.org.uk.

Roger McGough is appearing at the first event to sell out at the Liverpool Literature Festival, but luckily he is appearing twice over the weekend.

In our Liverpool Poets series, Roger is hosting Liverpool Poets Two at the Bluecoat. ’A trickster you can trust’, he is one of Britain’s best-loved poets for both adults and children. He was awarded his O.B.E. for services to poetry in 1997 and a C.B.E. last year. He was recently honoured with the Freedom  of the City of Liverpool.

In May this year the Liverpool Playhouse saw Roger McGough’s ‘Tartuffe’ a sell-out success and receive rave reviews. The Daily Post said ‘There are times when a critic is redundant and last night was one. There is absolutely nothing to criticise about Tartuffe at the Liverpool Playhouse’.

The Reader festival office has had many people enquiring about his events at the Liverpool Literary Festival, and obviously Liverpool folk can’t get enough of him.

Although his event at the Bluecoat has been sold out, the good news is that Roger McGough is appearing twice! He will be hosting a panel discussion and poetry clinic with other festival writers (Sunday 9 November at 4pm) and it will be a fantastic opportunity to see and hear him in this close-up interactive event in which the audience asks the panel to select poems for particular occaisions, seasons and reasons. So get your thinking caps on and come along to put this panel of experienced writers of poetry through their paces by finding instant recomendations for your particular purposes.

This should be lively and entertaining hour indeed! Please see our website for event details, updates on panel members and information on how to book tickets. Even my five year old daughter is excited about the prospect of Roger McGough coming to Liverpool as she’s learning his children’s poem called Gruesome for school!

I was sitting in the sitting room
toying with some toys
when I saw a door marked GRUESOME
and heard a gruesome noise.

Cautiously I opened it
and there to my surprise
a little Grue was sitting there
with tears in its eyes.

Oh little Grue please tell me
what is it ails thee so.
I am so small it said
the other Grue’s don’t want to know

EXERCISES are the answer
each day you must do some
and do you know what
the very next day he GREW SOME.

And don’t forget all the other great Liverpool Poets attending the festival: Brian Patten, Paul Farley, McKendrick, Peter Robinson, John Redmond and Deryn Rees-Jones.

Please see our website www.liverpoollitfest.org.uk for full details.