n quentin woolf

not me now at sadler’s wells

Thursday the 8th of July saw the performance of Not Me Now at Sadler’s Wells as part of a festival themed around movement and spoken words. The audio track for Not Me Now is a combination of music by Canadian composer Jack Hurd combined with the voice of Laurie Lewis reading my script. Her performance is effortlessly poignant. You can hear it for yourself and see the debut of the piece (from a couple of years back) using the link here.

It’s by no means a cheery piece, dealing as it does with old age, the onset of dementia, and failing and false memories. It’s not always easy to gauge its success from the audience’s immediate reaction. However I think it went over well: after the performance, the dancers reported the audience members approached them to talk about their experiences of the themes of Not Me Now. The Tempered Body dancers were reliably brilliant. Johnny Autin, Mel Simpson and Jose Campos reprised their performances, whilst Pauline Huguet took on the role previously performed by Amy Mathieson and made it her own.

It’s no little feat to visibly age by fifty years as the music grows discordant and the side lights falter. But it’s only that compression of time that makes it seem remarkable. One of the recurrent comments in the feedback on Not Me Now is how many people have seen that same transformation take place in people they love and have loved, and the excruciating length of time it took.

A previous performance of Not Me Now

traditional christmas curry

Wednesday Group

After last night’s Wednesday Critique Group, we critiquers made our way to Tayyabs in Whitechapel, for curry. The restaurant was bursting at the seams and put me in mind of a Mad Hatter’s tea party for bankers, top-hats and tea-pots exchanged for sharp suits and poppadums. The food was excellent, especially the curried pumpkin, which I’d never tried before but which alone warranted a return visit.

James and Sarah

It has been a great pleasure to work with the many writers who have

Steve's dangerously angled hat

attended the Wednesday group over the past year. In 2009 the group has grown from an offshoot of another group into something fully fledged, with its own unique identity and buzz. I’m very much looking forward to the launch of the Wednesday anthology in January next year and to the proposed writer’s retreat in the spring. Here’s to many fruitful projects and happy writings in 2010 and beyond.

the book launch in brick lane

Helen Gilbert

So the launch of ‘The Bookshop in Brick Lane’ was, by all accounts, a roaring success. We happy anthologists had really pulled out all the stops to get the thing onto the shelf for Christmas, cutting both corners and things that weren’t really corners but had to be cut also, for expediency. Our proof-reader, Warren Davis, worked his tail off turning our early efforts into grammatical, well-spelt pieces of prose. Marybel Moore did a phenomenal job of turning round the factual pieces of the book. Sarah Pidgeon deserves huge credit too, for work that is currently undetectable but which we hope will be introduced in the second edition.

Jill Young

Marybel Moore

And then, suddenly, many months of planning and scribbling and collecting came to fruition: the publisher’s truck rolled into the parking-lot and out first bulk order of the anthology was delivered. They looked pretty good, we were pleased to discover (some serious type setting problems in the proof copy had left us a little nervous). The text looks authoritative; the short stories – 18 of them, look professionally set out; the pieces of non-fiction, woven in among the tales,

Troublesome Trio

Kate Ellis

Mark, Madeleine, Jill

are a pretty good balance of size and content. Russ Willey’s foreword, to quote Camus, gives ‘the whole thing a more official air’. By the way, thanks Russ, for reading our book and believing in us enough to put your name to it.

Kerry McCarthy

The question had always been how to celebrate the delivery of our group effort

It was clear that the venue of choice should be Eastside Books – how could it be otherwise? But the fact is that not all of our group are keen on public readings. Marybel had the inspired idea of bringing the bagels chapter to life and consequently there were bagels a-plenty at the launch. We met at 7, with newly married Tera arriving well ahead of everyone else,

Nicloe Tattersal

Peter Mahon

along with her new husband. They didn’t stick around for

Kiki Otto

the celebration for the very understandable reason that they are on the first day of their honeymoon. It was great to see Tera again after so long and especially good to see her looking so full of beans. And then the crowd descended. I’d say there were 30-40 folk present and the red wine flowed. After thank yous to all concerned we settled down for some storytelling. Mark Dubois, Gareth Storey, Warren Davis and Tim Howard all read for us, some from their anthology contributions, and others from works in progress. Jane Miller read two poems which reflected

Linda Chapple

on the importance of seizing the day and not taking life and time for granted. They were very moving. There was a wonderful moment when I looked

Tim and Ced

Maddy Wynne-Jones

around the room and saw a bookshop full of adults all sitting on the floor enthralled by someone telling a story, and I though yes, this is what it’s all about.

And so, with charming inevitability, to the Brick Lounge, an establishment whose comfy couches and delicious beer have been in no way neglected by our happy band these past two years. It was great to catch up with everyone, particularly those of our group who have moved further afield. 2010 holds all sorts of promise and as the year turns it’s also

Mark Dubois

good to reflect of the accomplishments of the group and its members over the last year, not least of which is the continuation of the group itself. A good note on which to end 2009.

body language

On Friday December 11^th I’m going to be collaborating with Maddy Wynne-Jones’ Tempered Body Dance Company in a day-long workshop investigating the relationship between words, texts and dance. The workshop is almost fully booked. If you’re a dancer interested in participating, please email admin@temperedbody.com. There will be a performance in the evening which will combine improvised words, improvised dance and a combination of pre-written texts and improvised movement along with some performance from members of the Tempered Body Dance Company.

anthology launch

Our recently published anthology of short stories and poetry contains writing from a diverse group of writers who meet each week ar Eastside Books in Brick Lane. The book holds a vivid cast of characters, all of whom have a connection with a certain bookshop in a certain East London street. Private detectives and aid workers rub shoulders with Holocaust survivors and down-and-outs;obsessives discover true love and jackpot winners discover who their true friends are. In amongst the fiction, the true story of Brick Lane and it’s envorons is told in bite-size pieces: from the contemporary East London music scene to warring ideologies, from the issue of East End poverty to the importance of choosing the right beigal, The Bookshop In Brick Lane has writing to suit every taste.

The authors of this book meet each week at Eastside Books in Brick Lane and are:

Linda Chapple, Marybel Moore, N Quentin Woolf, Ced Chen, Stefano Peter Pini, Warren Davis, Helen Gilbert, Shuab Parvez, David Pidgeon, Dan Nicolai, Madeleine North, Marc DuBois, TJ Howard, Jill Young, Tera Brouwer, Gareth Storey, Frances Wasswemann-Bildner, Peter J Mahon, Jane Miller, Kiki Sousa Otto

Please join us for the launch party at 8pm on December 3rd for drinks and nibbles.

anyone for critic?

Xstream East

A workshop on how to criticise (shows, books etc.) is in the offing. I’ll be presenting this workshop for invited attendees only in collaboration with xstream East Radio. The workshop is aimed particularly at those in the 18-30 age bracket and with emphasis on using criticism as web-content. This two hour session will include theoretical and practical elements. For more details contact lit@nquentinwoolf.co.uk

about my shorts

Issue 42 of The Interpreter’s House (in shops now) carries my contemporary short story History. Here’s a link to the House’s website.

I’m delighted that Chrys Salt and John Hudson at Markings literary magazine have accepted Father, a story about being a man, for inclusion in the next issue, which will be launched on November 21st. There’s a link to the Markings site here.

Tears In The Fence (the magazine of the reknowned David Caddy) has accepted for publication a story about two contrasting characters, each with a concealed pain and a love of literature, and a piddling pug dog called Valmont. Vita Nuova is the name of the story. Tears In The Fence can be found just here.

two new series of workshops

Following on from previous successful seasons of creative classes for complete beginners, I’ll be launching two new classes this month:

Thursdays evenings in Brick Lane from September 24^th

Saturday mornings in Stoke Newington from September 26^th

This workshop is an 8-week course for new writers who are looking to develop a portfolio of early-stage prose writing skills.  Each week we address a different area of writing craftwork.  The workshop incorporates instructive, creative and critical elements. The course includes:

• Structuring fiction
• How to reveal character
• How to use the setting to tell the story
• Ways of finding inspiration in the world around you
• Conflict and its uses
• Point of view

 …and much more.

The course aims to be relaxed and friendly, and it runs for eight weeks.

Places on this course always go quickly and pre-booking is essential, so please email workshops@nquentinwoolf.co.uk to book your spot. Sessions £10 each and can be paid weekly. Further information at www.nquentinwoolf.com