Legend Press

New Kingston University Press title

Kingston University Press are publishing a new book Beyond the Workshop: Creative Writing, Theory and Practice on 29th March 2012. The book is edited by Paul Perry.

Blurb

Beyond the Workshop arrives at a crucial time in the debates around creative writing studies. More and more writers, students and scholars are asking the questions: What is the role and future of creative writing in the academy? Does the workshop remain central to creative writing studies? What comes ‘beyond the workshop’?

Unlike many other studies on the evolution of the creative writing workshop, Beyond the Workshop not only provides a compelling suite of essays on the subject, but also contains a range of practical creative writing exercises.

- The exercises are original and effective ‘triggers’ from the contributors to Beyond the Workshop who are all writers and teachers of creative writing.

- International expertise: poets, novelists, short story writers, creative non-fiction writers and essayists from the UK, Ireland and the US.

Lucy

KUP author Christine Pullen speaking at WT Stead event

Kingston University Press author Christine Pullen will be speaking at the W.T. Stead conference in April at The British Library.

Christine is the author of The Woman Who Dared: A Biography of Amy Levy. She will be presenting her paper ‘“Featherbrained” or a Force to be reckoned With: W.T. Stead, the New Journalism and the New Woman’.

For details about the conference please click here

Lucy

The Woman Who Dared is available to order by clicking here

Review of Kiskadee Girl by Devi di Guida

Kingston University Press book Kiskadee Girl by Maggie Harris has reeived a great review from Montreal Linguist Devi di Guida:

'The kiskadee is a colorful tropical bird so named for its beautiful, arresting sing-song whistle. So sweetly it sings its kis-ka-dee, kis-ka-dee tune that it plays with the senses …

As the Kiskadee Girl, Maggie Harris is a voyageur in the post-colonial Guyana – the land of many waters. Like the bird that she aptly names her book, she flits through her coming of age in a lyrical fashion, immersing the reader in a narrative scattered with references and words that are so Caribbean: - You dare not eyeball an adult, walk far girl,, potagee, suck teeth and betterment - no reader will get lost though as she conscientiously explains the meaning of these words throughout.

In her childhood years, she recounts her happy days with her father, a river man, as she traverses the Berbice River which parallels New Amsterdam, her hometown. Not quite an adolescent, she bravely crosses over this river when she had to leave her nest to attend a prestigious school in Georgetown, the big city so far away. As a misfit, her loneliness, homesickness and exposure to snootiness from the town girls pull at the heartstrings. Forced to return home to her nesting grounds, she reconciles with her old friends only to witness the same snootiness being dished out on a shy Hindu girl who could barely speak English. She handled this in a very kiskadee manner - pairing off and cocooning with the misfit - the heartstrings slacken.

In the transition from childhood to adolescence to womanhood, she steps back in time with ease. She questions, ponders, wonders and worries. Relationship with church, God, and Jesus are questioned. She ponders on her puppy love for the boys of different ethnicities, the shades of color of the people around her. She wonders at her Scottish, African, Portuguese and Amerindian heritage. She worries about politics, which like a volcano waiting to erupt, lurks with the ole higues, jumbies and ghosts and hold their place tightly as this young lady makes us reminiscence with songs of the late sixties and early seventies.

When another riverman steals her heart, Kis-ka-dee Girl Maggie sings at her happiness, but with ‘betterment’ imbued in her brain, this ‘walk far girl’ must spread her wings to find another nesting ground. England calls to her from afar. Once again she crosses the river and nostalgically waves adieu to her country, her Guyana from the window of an airplane. What a poignant journey Maggie Harris! I crave more.

The Kis-ka dee Girl plays on your senses … she touches you as she frees the ghost of her father from a conch shell, feel sadness at her homesickness, smell the perfume of the hibiscus and oleander flowers, hear her whisper to her lover, see her as she spread her wings in flight, and you fly with her as she soars higher and higher.'

Lucy

Kiskadee Girl is available to order by clicking here

Review of Kiskadee Girl by Elizabeth Porter

Kingston University Press book Kiskadee Girl has received a great review from Elizabeth Porter from Cardiff Central Library:

In her beautiful memoir Kiskadee Girl Maggie Harris recalls the Guyana of her childhood in the 1950s and 60s, enchanting the reader with a sensual depiction of New Amsterdam life and a family narrative shadowy with foreign influences and secrets. Yet, simultaneously, she strums those chords of shared experience which make reading such a pleasure: the clashes between siblings, the child rebelling against her parents; above all, at the climax, the fierce headiness of teenage passion. All this in prose which moves effortlessly between Creole and Standard English, a lyrical voice that confirms and celebrates the complexity of her background.

It is another mark of her skill that Maggie Harris, while bravely candid about her younger self, never dominates her own story. As a girl she excelled at needlework, and the book has the colour and texture of fine embroidery, rich with incident and character: her vivacious mother; her strict, charismatic father and stricter grandfather (there are ‘licks’ aplenty); the friends who collude with Maggie in outrageous teenage experiments. There is humour (I particularly liked the naughty three-year-old who moons at the Bank Manager’s wife), and there are poignant recollections of beloved aunts, taken too soon. Death appears often, and when the dead refuse to lie still there is terror, but these memories are tempered throughout by a warm humanity, infused with the wisdom of hindsight.

Perhaps the most moving chapter of all comes when Maggie wins the scholarship which takes her away to school in Georgetown, only to be overwhelmed by homesickness. ‘The idea of home itself has preoccupied me to an extent I could never have imagined,’ she says – this book is the triumphant result. Kiskadee Girl is a spellbinding story, and when I reached the end I did not want to be released.

Lucy

Kiskadee Girl is available to order by clicking here

Review of Kiskadee Girl by Derek Sellen

Kingston University Press book Kiskadee Girl by Maggie Harris has received a fantastic review from author and poet Derek Sellen:

'One of the great achievements of Kiskadee Girl - and there are many - is that it sustains a vital energy from first to last page. It is there in the speech of the people of Guyana as Maggie Harris re-creates it in this autobiographical memoir of her childhood and teenage years. It is there in her naturally figurative imagination which sees 'shame' as a 'traveller' and church-goers as a 'scatter of butterflies' and 'Book' as her living companion, to take only three examples. It is there in the shifting viewpoints she adopts as she tells her story, one moment narrating her life-story, the next addressing her Daddy or confiding in the reader or invoking 'Book'. Unfamiliar terms and beliefs - jumbie, dounze tree, go on the lime, that sorceresses are born with the caul, the power of subtle racial gradations - mingle with the familiar concerns of any child growing up. Schoolyard rhymes, remembered conversations, fragments of song lyrics, poetry, school reports, diary entries, the voices of family and neighbours, preachers and teachers, all combine to realise a past world of Guyana in the 1950s and 60s. It is a magical world where there are dreamtime visitors and premonitions of death and the mysteriously lingering smell of funeral flowers in the home. At the same time, it is an authentically recalled world of harsh realities and tender joys, as Maggie Harris imaginatively re-occupies the mind and heart and sensations of the Guyanese Potagee girl that she was.'

Lucy

Kiskadee Girl is available to order by clicking here

Two Kingston University Press titles out on Monday

We are delighted to be helping represent two fantastic titles launched by Kingston University Press on Monday 1st August.

The first is Kiskadee Girl by Maggie Harris - a memoir of Maggie's childhood in Guyana - drawing on the different ancestral strands from Africa, Scotland and Madeira that shaped Maggie's upbringing. Born of mixed race parentage, yet looking ‘white’, Maggie grew up in the 50s and 60s in a society that was trying to find its path after centuries of slavery and colonial oppression. Maggie had a strict Catholic upbringing and a strong emphasis on education. Political struggle and hardship was the daily life in Guyana, although Maggie's childhood was fairly protected and she didn’t realise much of the turmoil that my country experienced until later. There were worlds within worlds: news on the radio about political murder and lootings were side by side with pop music, fashion, movies and parties offered an exciting world for young people.

The second book is The Story of Human Rights by Marcello Flores a comprehensive guide to one of the most important topics of today. Marcello is Professor of Contemporary and Comparative History and coordinator of the European Master in Human Rights and Genocide Studies at the University of Siena. He has published extensively on human rights, genocide, totalitarianism and the history of communism.

Lucy

New Kingston University Press titles

Kingston University Press are publishing two fascinating titles this summer:

Kiskadee Girl by Maggie Harris - published 1st August (£12.99)

In the small Caribbean town of Guyana town on the South American coast, a fifteen year old schoolgirl is forced to face her father’s sudden death, pre-empted by a strange foreboding. This memoir of growing up in the 50s and 60s reflects a society that was trying to find its path after centuries of slavery and colonialism. Life for teenagers was at a crossroads between tradition and discipline, political awareness and a new-found voice influenced by literature, the music of Donovan and the new reggae sound, and the movies of Britain and America. In a world within worlds, love and dreams exist side by side as a young girl on the cusp of maturity discovers her sensuality in the midst of her country’s own movement towards independence.

Kiskadee Girl vividly re-imagines Guyana, named from the Amerindian Land of Many Waters. The Berbice River runs like an artery through the book‘s emotional and geographical landscape, carrying tug-boats and ghosts, bauxite, bones, and long-forgotten stories.

The Story of Human Rights by Marcello Flores - published on 28th July (£25.00)

Many of the most pressing matters in world news today concern the denial of human rights. Flores tells the dramatic tale of the development of human rights across continents, borders and boundaries. How did the culture of human rights develop? How did different schools of thought influence the legal documents and measures over the centuries? Was the French Revolution truly the turning point for human rights?

This book analyses these fundamental questions and outlines the history of human rights from the 18th century to the present day. It captures in one lucid source the essential aspects of the subject and is both an introduction to the arguments, and the key to in-depth study of the concepts and principles.

While pushing the traditional boundaries between philosophical histories of rights and legal ones, Flores provides an objective approach to the modern-day, “westernised” concept, and expands it to analyze the contributions from African, Asian and Islamic cultures.

Lucy

Forces Stories and Poems featured in the Saturday Times

Forces Stories and Poems - the chapbook was featured in the Saturday Times at the weekend.

The booklet, which is the result of a fascinating competition by Kingston University Press marks the 125th anniversary of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) Forces Help. The competition for poetry and prose was entered by hundreds of members of the Armed Forces, their families and friends.

The book is now available to order for just £5, for details on the collection please click here

Lucy

Kingston University Press: Forces Stories and Poems collection

Kingston University Press new release

For centuries, the Armed Forces have used poetry and prose to describe the horrors of war. The celebrated First World War poets – Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke – famously wrote powerful verses which still resonate today. But nowadays literary works about more modern conflicts, such as Afghanistan, Iraq or the Falklands, written by those involved are seldom seen. Now Kingston University aims to change all that, through a competition which has identified some of the best forces poets and authors.

Several hundred members of the Armed Forces, their families and friends submitted their poetry and prose as part of the Forces Stories and Poems competition. It was organised by the University to mark the 125th anniversary of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) Forces Help.

The winning works are being printed in a celebratory booklet which is published by Kingston University Press, the University’s commercial publishing arm, and all profits will go to SSAFA Forces Help.

Copies of the collection are now available to order for £5.00 using the link below.

Order your copy of Forces Stories and Poems now - £5.00 

For full details on the collection please click here

Lucy

 

Kingston University Press author Gill Gregory

Kingston University Press author Gill Gregory (author of The Sound of Turquoise) has just published a new collection of poetry entitled In Slow Woods, published by Rufus Books.

The collection is graced by cover art painted by Elizabeth Jane Gregory, and has already collected some glittering reviews:

“Gill Gregory’s work has the kind of limpid minimalism which other poets envy. The words ‘light’ and ‘breath’ are often key elements in poems which capture the indefinable texture of moments of recognition, realization, or recollection… Her work has a geographical, temporal and conceptual restlessness which exhilarates and intrigues.”

- Peter Barry, poetry editor of English (Aberystwyth, The University of Wales)

“Gill Gregory’s poems are wonderfully succinct and clear. A joy to read aloud.” - Michael Morpurgo (former Children’s Laureate, UK)

This is her first volume of poetry, but far from her first poetry publication: her poems have been published in a wide range of journals including Critical Survey, English, The Frogmore Papers, Leviathan Quarterly, Poetry Review, The Reader, The Rialto, Stand, Tears in the Fence and in the anthologies, Oceans, Foreign Affairs and Untitled (published by The Red Wheelbarrow)

Rufus Books is an independent small press publishing house based in Toronto, Canada, specialising in quality publications of poetry and short stories. They have been recommended by The Times Literary Supplement for their high quality list of poets and for the artwork covers which include original designs by artists such as John Berger.

Gill Gregory regularly teaches two English Literature courses for the LUP (currently, ‘London Writers’ and ‘British Literary Traditions’), and will be teaching ‘London Writers’ for the London Summer Program.

Lucy

The Woman Who Dared reviewed by the Jewish Chronicle

Kingston University Press title The Woman Who Dared: A Biography of Amy Levy by Christine Pullen has been reviewed by the Jewish Chronicle.

The tragic figure of Amy Levy has always intrigued me. The child of a prosperous, middle-class family, she was the first Jewish student to study at Newnham College, Cambridge. She went up with a collection of poetry already published to high praise. This included a poem in the voice of Socrates' unhappy wife Xanthippe. When she left Cambridge, her circle of friends soon included Eleanor, the daughter of Karl Marx, the novelist Olive Shreiner, Beatrice Webb, and George Bernard Shaw. Oscar Wilde described her as "a girl of genius".

She was a New Woman, a rare creature indeed among the largely conformist Jewish community of her time, and she became part of a world that included followers of Darwin and some early proponents of eugenics, such as the statistician Karl Pearson, a protégé of Galton. With all her attainments, she valued her life so little that she killed herself in 1889 at the age of 27.

Christine Pullen is far from the first to ask why. (Indeed, some of the earliest speculations arose within a fortnight of Amy's death.) Amy's own work supplies many possible answers. Much of the writing about her suicide is influenced by her brilliant story, Cohen of Trinity, in which she describes a talented, Jewish student who comes to recognise that a group of aristocratic young men he longs to join will never accept him. His ungainly walk and alien features make him appear like a species of "pond life", whatever his success. So, at a moment of triumph, he takes his own life.

To read the article in full click here

Lucy

The Woman Who Dared launch tonight

The Woman Who Dared: A Biography of Amy Levy is launched by Kingston University Press tonight at the Phoenix Artist Club from 6:30pm.

This entralling biography is the previously untold story of Amy Levy, a British Victorian Jewish Writer, who Oscar Wilde described as 'a girl of genius'.

The first Jewish woman to study at Newnham College, Cambridge (where her ethnicity attracted unwanted attention), she went on to become a pioneering poet, journalist and novelist, whose second novel aroused fury within the Jewish community. Despite many friends and an active literary life, Levy suffered from episodes of major depression from an early age which, together with her growing deafness, led her to commit suicide at the age of 27.

Dr Christine Pullen an expert on late nineteenth-century social history and women’s writing.

Lucy

KUP/SSAFA Forces Stories and Poems Competition

Kingston University Press are currently running a writing competition celebrating the 125th anniversary of The Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) Forces Help. This is the fantastic charity that cares for those who serve or have served in Britain's Armed Forces, and their families.

The competition is open for anyone over 18 who writes about conflict, peace-making or any aspect of the services from all sectors of society and from any point of view.

For details of how to submit download the link below.

Download KUP SSAFA Comp leaflet pdf

The competition is attracting great attention in the national press, including an article in the Times.

Lucy

Kingston University Press review

Finding Our Sealegs by Will Buckingham (Kingston University Press) has received a brilliant review from Moral Objectivity.

Combining storytelling with philosophy in a highly engaging way, Will manages to give a bigger context to the stories and allure to the philosophy. It is also a book that draws on Will’s wide reading and experience, of travel in Indonesia and other parts of Asia, of both Buddhist and Western thought, and of both philosophy and literature. All of this feeds enticingly into a rich, lucid feast of a book.

To read the review in full click here

Lucy

With Love and Rage - The Hill feature

With Love and Rage, Kingston University Press's biography of Iris Murdoch by David Morgan has been featured in The Hill, the lifestyle magazine for the Notting Hill area.

“I wanted to capture the darker bits of her that I knew. But it’s not a kiss and tell, if that’s what you're thinking," says Morgan at his home in Bassett Road, where he is one of the few remaining non-millionaires to inhabit the once shabby W10 address. “It’s a record of a friendship and the pain of falling out of love into friendship.”

The book started as a collection of letters between Murdoch and Morgan, which Morgan dug out when Conradi asked him for memories. “I wrote notes and it got me remembering, so I re-read the letters and it was a bombshell. I thought, blimey, these are love letters.”

To read the article in full click here

Lucy

The Woman Who Dared: Biography of Amy Levy

Keep an eye out for the fantastic new books coming out in October from Kingston University Press - THE WOMAN WHO DARED: A BIOGRAPHY OF AMY LEVY by Christine Pullen.

Described by no less than the great Oscar Wilde as 'a girl of genius', a feminist and free-thinker, Any Levy was one of the boldest spirits of her generation. The book is a must for anyone studying Levy or the Victorian era.

Looking forward to it launching!

Tom

Kingston University Press event - 20th September

Kingston University Press author Gill Gregory will be taking part in the SW11 Literary Festival in September. The event on the 20th September at 7pm will be at the Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill.

Gill will be chairing the Migrant Stories writers' panel with authors Nadia Valman and Georgie Wemyss.

The event is £5 and can be booked at Waterstones, Clapham or by phone on 020 7627 3182.

Lucy

Kingston University Press events

Gill Gregory, author of the fantastic The Sound of Turquoise published by Kingston University Press, is busy promoting her book in Waterstone's over the next couple of months including:

- Book-signing at Waterstone's Dorchester on Saturday 14th August at 11am. Click here for details

- On Monday 20th September Gill will be chairing and reading at a writers' panel titled Migrant Stories at the SW11 Festival, Clapham Waterstones in the evening.

- Book-signing at Waterstone's Bristol on Saturday 2nd October.

Lucy

Kingston University Press preview

Just thought I would give you a preview of the fascinating up-coming book published by Kingston University Press: The Woman Who Dared: A Biography of Amy Levy by Christine Pullen. The book is published in September and will be available shortly to pre-order.

Described by Oscar Wilde as ‘a girl of genius’, like him Amy Levy set out to challenge the status quo and ended up by destroying her life.

A trailblazer from the outset, she was the first Jewish woman to study at Newnham College Cambridge, a seasoned traveller, and a ground-breaking writer. But although her spirit was strong, her constitution was weak. Haunted throughout her life by depression, the difficulties that she faced as a free-thinking Jewish woman in Victorian society were compounded by problems that she brought upon herself. In the end she was unable to reconcile what Wilde termed ‘the cravings of her heart’ with the reality of her life. Unable to face the future, she brought her unhappiness to an end with an extraordinary self-inflicted death.

This ground-breaking biography takes the reader on an intriguing journey and brings Amy Levy to life once more, illustrating the problems faced by the women of her era and highlighting her role as a pioneer of the modernist movement.

Dr Christine Pullen is a free-lance writer and researcher who lives and works in London. She has contributed to scholarly publications and lectured to various groups on a variety of aspects of late nineteenth-century social history and women’s writing.

Lucy 

The Sound of Turquoise - Second print run

The Sound of Turquoise by Gill Gregory, the fascinating book published by Kingston University Press is continuing to do well across the UK, with recent events including a talk and signing at Waterstone's in Tunbridge Wells. The book, which goes into its second print run this week has received some excellent recommendations, some are listed below:

'A magical read. The Sound of Turquoise is one of those rare books that makes you take stock of your own life-story and reaches out to what is good in the world.' - Agnes Cserhati, editor of Rufus Books, Toronto

'Gill Gregory’s The Sound of Turquoise is wonderfully clear-eyed and absorbing. This memoir admirably conveys an acute and subtle sense of pain whilst also rejoicing in the world. I was sorry to reach the end.' Clare Brant, Kings College, London

She is a fine writer with a rare gift of storytelling. I couldn’t put The Sound of Turquoise down and read it at two sittings. A must read.- Isobel Armstrong, author of Victorian Glass Worlds

Order your copy of The Sound of Turquoise now - £10.99 

Lucy

Kingston University Press event this Thursday

This Thursday Kingston University Press will be holding a celebratory event for the newly established press, with author readings from Gill Gregory, Christopher Vanier, David Morgan and more.

The event will be at the Waterstone's in Kingston from 4:30pm.

Information about Kingston University Press titles can be found by clicking here!

Lucy

KUP Blog - Caribbean Chemistry reaches St Kitts

We received these photos this week from Kingston University Press author Christopher Vanier. Chris is the author of Caribbean Chemistry: Tales from St Kitts, and we are pleased to announce that the book has reached St Kitts!

The photo on the veranda of the Serendipity restaurant is Chris's old family home, where much of the action in the book takes place. The photo in Pall Mall, or "Independence" Square is a historic site in the middle of Basseterre that also features in the book (Confessions chapter).

It is great to see this brilliant book travelling the world!

Lucy

The Sound of Turquoise reviewed in the TLS

The Sound of Turquoise by Gill Gregory (Kingston University Press) has been reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement:

A gentle, lyrical life history in which Gregory creates a space for her alter ego, 'Meg', to relive her experiences: some exhilarating, some too painful perhaps to recall directly. From ballet in Bloomsbury to Croydon's Orchid Ballroom, packed with eager teenagers waiting to see The Supremes, Gregory's narrative offers vivid sketches of venues and a strong sense of the bodily presence of those who frequented them. Preoccupied with the epilepsy of her brother, we watch Meg as she haunts the periphery [...] The Sound of Turquoise also recounts Meg's Russian grandfather's fairy-tale escape from 'exotic' Uzbekistan in 1904 but it is the details of the adoptive world he rallied round him in England that will perhaps most captivate the reader - the collection of Constable's landscapes paintings and his impassioned discussions with Benjamin Britten over their display at Aldeburgh.

(Madeline Clements, The Times Literary Supplement)

It is great to see such a great review for this fascinating book.

Lucy

KUP Blog - Exclusive letter from With Love and Rage

We are delighted to share with you an exclusive letter from Kingston University Press's lead title for Spring With Love and Rage by David Morgan.

LETTER 1 dated June 20th 1964 (12 sides)
Steeple Aston
June 20th

Dear David,

Thank you very much for your letter/ Yes, I think maybe I have underestimated your common-sense. Perhaps in a way even underestimated you. On Thursday & Friday (hence my card from Cambridge) I began to wonder whether you were not by now seeing Wednesday evening as a dream or feeling alarmed or baffled by it - & whether you might not feel it beyond your ingenuity to know how to write to me. In fact you have known very well how to write; and I am impressed by your immediate ability to be, as it were,‘tough’ with me. I don’t mean that I expected you to be awed or flattered (I equally expected you to be resentful) – but I am pleased by the way you at once treat with me as one sovereign state treating with another. This is nothing but good.

I had intended, earlier, that we should part for the vacation on rather more formal terms. But by last Wednesday it had become impossible not to touch you & to draw you a good deal closer – and perhaps it’s surprising we held out so long with only Piero della Francesca between us like a drawn sword. Well, no, not surprising – maybe it couldn’t have happened earlier though it had to happen then. About the vacation – I’m not being masochistic in saying ‘till October’, nor am I wanting to make you into a ‘medallion’ (I’ll talk about that in a minute) – I just didn’t want us both to be troubled by perhaps brief & isolated meetings (where someone might say something which would be misunderstood, or where something might go wrong which couldn’t then be put right face to face.) I have a hell of a lot of work to do this summer – and while I wanted somehow to ‘secure’ things before we parted I didn’t want to be in a state of being irrationally upset by you or about you during the interval. (straightforward self-interest.) In fact things have moved more swiftly & also our ability to understand each other seems greater that I expected – although in many ways, & in spite of all your talk. I still don’t altogether know what goes on inside that singularly good-looking head of yours. I’d like to see you sooner too, but let us leave it at ‘October’ & not worry about it for the present.

I would like to take away your suspicions & mis-trusts, but perhaps only time & experience can altogether do that. I do want to know you and love you wholeheartedly, as one entire person dealing with another. And I want this to be ‘clean-cut’: I too have had so many muddled & twisted relationships, and I want ours to be steady & clear, & I think it can be. (I have, by the way, mentioned your existence in general terms to John Bayley, who trusts me absolutely & never wants to hear details. All that side of things is OK. I was touched and pleased that it occurred to you.)

To read the letter in full, along with David's comments please click here

Lucy

Kingston University Press - With Love and Rage

New Iris Murdoch biography With Love and Rage: A Friendship with Iris Murdoch by David Morgan was published today. The novel was featured in both the Independent on Sunday and the Telegraph:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/revealed-iris-murdochs-secret-love-affair-1917576.html

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7391143/Dame-Iris-Murdoch-letters-reveal-secret-love-affair.html

 

It is great to see this fascinating book getting such great national coverage, with several other reviews etc planned for the coming weeks.

 

Lucy

Kingston University Press - With Love and Rage out today

With Love and Rage: A Friendship with Iris Murdoch by David Morgan (Kingston University Press) is published today. The book features never-before-seen letters by Iris Murdoch to David Morgan, and charts their interesting and sometimes turbulent relationship.

Peter Conradi (Iris Murdoch's biographer) has said of the book 'You have captured things about Iris that no one else has'.

David Murdoch met Iris Murdoch at the Royal College of Art in 1960s and 'something clicked'. It was an unlikely alliance: he was a rebel from Birmingham; she was a famous writer, but their loving friendship was to endure for more than 40 years. Their relationship was one of love and rage.

The book is an important eye-opener on a much read, loved and studied Brit writing icon.

On the blog tomorrow we will be featuring one of Iris's letters which gives a real introduction to the book and as David has commented 'is the letter of 'recognition' of each other after the first meeting, which launches the friendship.'

Order your copy of With Love and Rage now - £13.99 

Lucy

Kingston University Press blog

Caribbean Chemistry by Christopher Vanier was published by Kingston University Press at the end of 2009. Chris has kindly written this blog about his fascinating memoir.

I bore in mind two warnings when I started writing my memoir. The first came from a famous American novelist who was asked how young graduates should go about becoming published writers. “It’s simple,” she said. “There’s only one imperative: don’t smoke! That way, you will increase your chances of living a long life. And perhaps, in the latter part of that long, eventful life you will find an interesting jewel to relate, a story based on experience.”

I satisfied this criterion, since I waited until retirement before beginning my memoir about life in the Caribbean fifty years ago. But later, my son – journalist – tried to steer me away from autobiography. He pointed out that I was not a famous (or infamous) politician, that I had never killed anyone, and that I had not even been to prison. Who would want to read about a happy life? I decided to ignore this.

I picked up my pen and set down on paper the mischief that a growing boy gets up to on a small island. I discovered that what I had lived as games and excitement were really dangerous escapades, from fighting with monkeys to breaking out of boarding school at night, to getting lost on the slopes of a volcano, to rocketing down a sugar cane chute, to assaulting vehicles, to being thoroughly caned, and finally to making serious explosives. Were it not for a warm and understanding family environment, plus a dollop of luck, I might not have survived.

Looked at from another angle, my book is a voyage of discovery about growing-up in a small, exotic community, shut off from most of the world, a tiny speck in the Caribbean ocean. The encircling island shores are at the same time a wall of protection and a prison. My young protagonist thought that the world was against him, hiding its secrets, whereas the real secrets were inside him – his search for identity. His skin reflects the diversity of the region: neither black nor white but brown, in a world where the debate about colour is ever-present. He learns that he has inherited Carib blood from Guyana, but on his island the Amerindians were brutally exterminated by the colonists three centuries earlier. Which ethnic group should he cleave to? He also has French blood in him, but unfortunately French is the subject he dislikes most in school. There remains a mixture of English and Danish genes going back to the usurping colonisers, and some African heritage, from the slaves who painfully replaced the rebellious Caribs. He is rooted in the sun-drenched tropics, knowing only St. Kitts-Nevis, Antigua, and Barbados, but the books which shape his mind are all about wintry England and America, places that he has never seen and of which he sometimes doubts the existence. As he reaches his teens, the challenges become more intense. The colonial system in the Caribbean is breaking down and the sugar industry is coming to its end. His father, a lawyer working for the planters, is embroiled in labour strife, and as politics turn black he will soon lose his job. His tries to push his children out into the wider world. But how can his son escape from his island jail if his family does not have the resources to pay for him? And where should he go? And, above all, why? The protagonist has a foretaste of exile when he unexpectedly wins a Lincoln essay contest that takes him to Washington and confronts him with American racial politics, quite different from those on his island.

At any point, from examination intrigues with his friends, to his personal struggle over religion, to his passionate sexual blossoming, his future may take a different direction. Behind the conflicts, I hope that this book radiates the warmth of Caribbean life that I felt. It is a hymn to the emigrant, or why young people leave their beloved countries and families for the unknown.

Christopher

Kingston University Press - Christopher Vanier

Christopher Vanier, author of the fascinating Caribbean Chemistry published by Kingston University Press has been interview on author Janet Skeslien Charles' website. Below is a taster:

What brought you to Paris?

I came to Paris in 1970 from Syracuse, New York, shortly after marrying a French visiting professor at Syracuse University and completing my PhD in engineering. The US immigration authorities were happy with my continued residence as a British citizen but objected to the extension of my wife’s exchange visa. One week before leaving the USA for France we were advised that both could stay, but by that time we were fed up with the administrative hassle and very keen for me to explore the French culture. We thought we would live in Paris for two years and found ourselves still there, thirty-nine years later.

What keeps you in Paris?

At first, the challenge of learning the French language and learning to work with the French in an all-French company (Spie Batignolles); later, the charm of the city, the country, and the joys of bringing up two thoroughly bilingual children; still later, the long holidays and the comprehensive welfare system; and later still (unfortunately), the efficient medical and hospital resources. Finally, the generous pension system.

What books have changed your life?

A tough question: many writers have influenced me though none have really “changed my life”. I don’t like the image of life changing because it implies that one is not in control of one’s ideas and is waiting to be “transformed” in some obscure but mystical way. In my memoir of childhood, I relate that several books (on Hypnotism and on Poisons, for example) led me into adventures; Tolkein was another easy favourite. However, I came to regard each good book as a little building block to reinforce my intellectual edifice, not as an earthquake capable of shaking the structure. As an engineer and scientist I was deep into fantasy and science fiction; I have just picked up at random from my bookshelf Stephen King’s “The Dark Half”, Frank Herbert’s “Dune”, and Iain Banks’ “Use of Weapons”. With respect to my own memoir, I have had Caribbean influences such as George Lamming’s “In the Castle of My Skin”, Maryse Condé’s “Le Cœur à Rire et à Pleurer”, Jamaica Kincaid’s “Annie John” and “The Autobiography of My Mother”, and V.S. Naipaul’s “Miguel Street”, and Andrea Levy’s “Small Island”; South African influences with J.M. Coetzee’s “Boyhood”, “Youth”, and “Disgrace”; Indian influences with Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children”; Sri Lankan influences with Michael Ondaatje’s “Running in the Family”; English influences with Jonathan Coe’s “The Rotters’ Club”, Zadie Smith’s “On Beauty”, William Horwood’s “Skallagrigg”, and R.F.Delderfield’s “To Serve Them all my Days”; and American influences with Pillip Lopate’s “Getting Personal”. As text books, by far the most interesting were Tristine Rainer’s “Your Life as Story” and Margaret Atwood’s “Negotiating with the Dead”.

To read the interview in full click here

Lucy

Kingston University Press events - Gill Gregory

Gill Gregory won the Kingston University Press prize for The Sound of Turquoise, her experimental memoir, judged by Kathryn Hughes, Rachel Cusk &Hanif Kureishi . Gill has been busy promoting her book at a series of events and has more planned, see below for details.

READINGS & SIGNINGS

Thursday 21st January, 8pm: ‘From Russia with Love & Affection’, Gill Gregory reading and talking about The Sound of Turquoise at West End Lane Books, West End Lane, West Hampstead. RSVP Danny info@welbooks.co.uk or tel. 0207 431 3770. FREE entry and WINE. West Hampstead tube station, Jubilee line.

Saturday 30th January, 12-3.30pm: Gill Gregory signing and talking informally about The Sound of Turquoise at Waterstone’s, Bath, 4-5, Milsom St., Bath, Avon, BA1 1DA. For details contact Clare Lewis – manager@bath.waterstones.com 01225 448515

Sat & Sun, 6th – 7th February, 11am – 4pm: Gill Gregory signing The Sound of Turquoise and talking informally with customers at Waterstone’s, Clapham, 70, St. Johns Rd, London SW11 1PT. For details contact Emma Ballard at manager@clapham.waterstones.com 0207 978 5844.

Saturday, 20th February, 11am – 3pm: Gill Gregory signing and talking informally with customers about The Sound of Turquoise at Waterstone’s, Wells, 30-34, High St., Wells, BA5 2SG. For details contact Helen Proudman or Paul Lynch at manager@wells.waterstones.com 01749 677881

Saturday 6th March, 11am – 1pm: Gill Gregory reading and talking about The Sound of Turquoise at Waterstone’s, Bridport, Unit 1, 21-21A, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3JX For details contact Jan Jaggard, Tel. 01308 458925 manager@bridport.waterstones.com

Saturday 13th March, 11am – 2pm: Gill Gregory signing The Sound of Turquoise and talking informally with customers at Waterstone’s, Bristol, llA, Union Gallery, Broadmead, Bristol BS1 8XD. For details contact Mark Scott, enquiries@bgs.waterstones.co.uk 0117 925 2274

Saturday 27th March, 11am – 4 pm – Gill Gregory signing The Sound of Turquoise and talking informally with customers at Waterstone’s Taunton, The County Hotel, East St. , Taunton TA1 3LU 01823 333113 manager@taunton.waterstones.com Dave or Natasha

Saturday 10th April, 11am – 3pm – Gill Gregory signing The Sound of Turqoise and talking informally with customers at Waterstone’s Dorchester, 44 South St., Town Centre, Dorchester DT1 1DQ. 01305 257123, manager@dorchester.waterstones.co.uk James or Phoebe

Lucy

More quotes for 'The Sound of Turquoise'

The Sound of Turquoise by Gill Gregory (Kingston University Press) has received two more excellent quotes:

'A magical read. The Sound of Turquoise is one of those rare books that makes you take stock of your own life-story and reaches out to what is good in the world.' - Agnes Cserhati, editor of Rufus Books, Toronto

'Beautifully written and so, so gripping. The sensuous details are delightful. A wonderful book.' - Harmeet Ghumann, textile designer, India

Order your copy of The Sound of Turquoise now - £10.99 

Lucy

More praise for The Sound of Turquoise

The Sound of Turquoise by Gill Gregory (published by Kingston University Press) has received more praise today, including these two fantastic quotes:

'Gill Gregory’s The Sound of Turquoise is a wonderful, compelling story. I was crying and laughing and loving this book and its characters all the way through. I didn’t want it to end. Although in many ways a very different story, I was reminded at times of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. The Sound of Turquoise is written with great simplicity and clarity, whilst telling a many layered story of migration and its repercussions, spanning the period from 1904 to the 1990s. This is an absolutely must read in the New Year. Gill Gregory’s story rings very true.'

Jan Jaggard, Events Manager, Waterstone’s Bridport

'A powerful and haunting tale of migration which maps and explores the ways in which trauma continues to resonate through the generations. As a child of migrants from Poland and Croatia, The Sound of Turquoise resonated for me on many levels. The Sound of Turquoise is a beautiful and very dramatic story of the past told from the vantage point of the present. Here is a compelling tale of our times.'

Greg Kucich, author of Nineteenth-Century Worlds: global formations past and present

Order your copy of The Sound of Turquoise now - £10.99 

Lucy

More quotes for The Sound of Turquoise

The Sound of Turquoise by Gill Gregory, the latest book by Kingston University Press has received 2 excellent recommendations this week:

'A mesmerizing story told with finesse and delicacy. One is absolutely immersed in worlds full of colours and scents and minute observations of human behaviour. Exquisite is the word that best describes The Sound of Turquoise, a book in which pain is gloriously transformed into gentle reconciliation.' - Boika Sokolova, author of Painting Shakespeare Red.

'Gill Gregory’s The Sound of Turquoise is wonderfully clear-eyed and absorbing. This memoir admirably conveys an acute and subtle sense of pain whilst also rejoicing in the world. I was sorry when I reached the end.' - Clare Brant, Kings College, London.

Order your copy of The Sound of Turquoise now - £10.99 

Lucy

Author Blog - Kingston University Press's Will Buckingham

Finding our SeaLegs: Ethics, Experiences and the Ocean of Stories (Kingston University Press, 2009)

When I sat down to write about ethics, I knew that I wanted to approach the subject through stories and storytelling. This, after all, is how we think about ethics in our everyday lives. Aristotle once said that ethics is like navigation; but perhaps it is the sea of stories – an image I have stolen from Salman Rushdie, who stole it, in turn, from ancient Indian texts – that we inevitably find ourselves navigating when we talk about right and wrong, justice and injustice.

This is where Finding Our Sea-Legs began, with these two ideas: ethics is navigation, and stories are like a sea. But when I sat down to write, I knew that I would have to do more than simply talking about stories, I would have to use storytelling as a method.

It soon became apparent that, once you introduce stories into the mix, strange things begin to happen. Stories are not particularly well-behaved beasts. They do not sit down quietly and do as they are told. Sometimes reading philosophy can be like visiting a natural history museum - fascinating, compelling, thought-provoking, perhaps, but when it comes down to it, all the animals are stuffed. I like to think that Finding Our Sea-Legs is less like a taxidermist's collection, and more like a zoo. Or, in keeping with the nautical theme, more like a zoo afloat, a raucous philosophical Noah's Ark, populated by talking fish, philosophical woodpeckers, rutting buffalo and palmwine-stealing gods.

As a writer, I alternate between fiction and philosophy. I see the two as closely linked: writing fiction is often a philosophical kind of business, and writing philosophy is often a matter of storytelling. My novel, Cargo Fever, published in 2007 by Tindal Street Press – a recasting of those classic woman and ape tales, like King Kong in miniature – is a book that, for all of its light-heartedness and anarchy, nevertheless arose out of philosophical questions about the limits of how we see ourselves as human beings: it is a book about gods and animals, ancestors and strangers, humans and non-humans, about the borderlines between "them" and "us". Conversely, Sea-Legs – although it tussles with the philosophers – is a book born out of my love of stories.

If I were pressed to say what it is that unites my love of philosophy and my love of fiction, I think I would say this: in approaching both, what I look for is a kind of movement, a kind of life, a kind of delight in the world. I have no time for the terrible and widespread prejudice that links gloom with profundity. Misery alone does not lead to greater wisdom, kindness or insight. Back in ancient Greece it was claimed that philosophy, the love of wisdom, might be a way of curing ailments and sicknesses of the soul. For those who find themselves queasy, I’d hope that Finding Our Sea-Legs, although it doesn’t offer any cure for this life afloat, might be able to quell a little of the sea-sickness, through philosophical arguments and reasons, through stories, through tales and yarns.

Will

Finding Our Sea-Legs is available to order from our on-line shop now!

Order your copy of Finding our Sea-Legs now - £10.99 

Author Blog - Kingston University Press's Gill Gregory

Gill Gregory: The Sound of Turquoise (Kingston University Press, 2009)

My childhood was spent in a small Surrey village near Epsom Downs and after leaving school I traveled for many years before settling in London on the Clapham Brixton borders. I teach part-time at The University of Notre Dame in London to support my writing. I was awarded a PhD by Birkbeck College and have written a biography of Adelaide Procter, a London poet published by Charles Dickens in his journal Household Words. I am also a poet and my poems are published in a variety of journals including Poetry Review, The Reader and Stand. My first collection, In Slow Woods, is to be published by Rufus Books in Toronto. I’ve reviewed books by Meera Syal, Yasmin Alibhai-Browne and others for The Times Literary Supplement. My book, The Sound of Turquoise, won the Kingston University Press competition for Biography & Memoir (2008) which was judged by Kathryn Hughes, Rachel Cusk and Hanif Kureishi. Winning the competition came as a big surprise and, with the encouragement of KUP, I then reworked the material as a third person narrative. The Sound of Turquoise was launched on December 1st at the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury, where the early chapters of The Sound of Turquoise are set. The bookshop was packed, with my American students bringing a lot of energy and excitement to the evening. Many family and friends came from as far afield as Easdale Island off the Scottish coast.

The ‘turquoise’ of the title refers to the domes of Central Asian mosques which my Russian grandfather, Alexis, leaves behind after his entire family was killed in Tashkent in 1904. I only met my grandfather once, at the age of nine, when my father and I visited him in his London flat. The memory is still very vivid – he was short and stocky and had a strong Russian accent. He laughed a lot and radiated a great deal of warmth. The story of his flight to England (on his own) at the age of fourteen has always fascinated me and I began writing and researching his story a few years ago after going to a talk on Uzbekistan at my local Waterstone’s. The other story in The Sound of Turquoise is that of my brother, Andrew, who suffered from a very severe form of epilepsy. I didn’t want my book to read as a narrative primarily about illness, so the lives of Alexis and Andrew, the stories of an extremely resilient boy and of a very ill boy, are juxtaposed. Meg (who is based on myself) has these two stories running in her imagination on parallel lines, with both containing moments of high drama and many surprises.

The girl on the cover of The Sound of Turquoise is myself, aged about nine. The bandstand beside her is based on the Clapham Common bandstand but also nods to the Central Asian domes. I am holding a live monkey (the pic was taken outside Hampton Court in the early sixties)!

The following is one of my poems about Alexis from In Slow Woods:

Grandfather

At the side of a tiny dock
a half-built house
I cannot see for dust

and as I sleep my head inclines
to verge upon
the day’s first sound

a balalaika breeze
I call the song my own
triangular, traveling
wrapped up in tones

of once upon a once upon
his heart was alone
and younger than my dreams

Alexis came to London
began to settle
settle in.

Gill Gregory, In Slow Woods, 2009

Thursday, 21st January, 2010

Gill Gregory, reading and signing The Sound of Turquoise at West End Lane Books, 277 West End Lane, West Hampstead, NW6 1QS. Tel: 020 7431 3770. Please rsvp to Danny at info@welbooks.co.uk (West Hampstead Tube Station). Free entry - wine and a reading at 8pm.

Sat & Sun, 6th – 7th February, 2010

Gill Gregory will be signing copies of The Sound of Turquoise at Waterstones, 70, St. John’s Road, Clapham Junction, SW11 1PT Tel: 020 7978 5844. Emma Ballard at manager@clapham.waterstones.com

Gill

Kingston University Press in the Bookseller

Kingston University Press, officially launches on 1st December with an event in Central London. The press have a really interesting range of titles and we look forward to working with the team on feature titles in the coming months and 2010.

The launch of the press received a mention in the Bookseller last week, in an article discussing the survival of University Presses in the current economic climate, with Kingston bucking the current economic trends.

To read the article click here!

Lucy

New KUP title - The Sound of Turquoise

We are about to launch a number of titles with Kingston University Press. The Press have a great list, and we are delighted to be working on these fantastic books with the KUP team.

The Sound of Turquoise by Gill Gregory is out on 1st December. The book has received excellent reviews from those who have already read it.

‘A gripping and very moving book, a family story chronicling the effects upon a sensitive young woman of two family tragedies, one close at hand, the other in pre-revolutionary Russia. I found it hard to put down and am sure that other readers will feel the same.

’ Leonee Ormond

‘This subtle, beautifully written narrative is irresistible. Built from stories within stories, memories within memories, it tells of a girl growing up in the sixties haunted by the three men in her family – her brother who has severe epilepsy, her mysterious psychiatrist father and her exotic Russian grandfather. The tenderness and the bleakness, the jokes and the tragic tensions evoked in Gill Gregory’s book are unforgettable. She is a fine writer with a gripping story to tell.’

Isobel Armstrong

Author Gill Gregory comments 'This book is an experiment of life writing. As a third person narrative it is not memoir or autobiography. The story is based in real histories but it also maps the invisible pathways, the haunted terrains that this child, who is myself, keeps on bearing in mind.'

Lucy