May 2009
Rebecca is granted a Northern Writers’ Award to help her complete her present manuscript. She is most grateful to New Writing North and the Award sponsors, the Leighton Group.
Rebecca has been appointed Royal Literary Fund Fellow at York St John University, She is honoured to be taking over as Writer in Residence from the gifted poet Debjani Chatterjee MBE in September 2009 Both Rebecca and Debjani will be contributing to the Celebrate Literature Event being held at York St John on the morning of Thursday 14th May.
June 2009
22nd June 7-9pm
Lecture at Acklam Library Middlesbrough.
As part of the Middlesbrough Libraries Festival, Rebecca will be giving a talk on the First London Olympics of 1908, liberally illustrated with contemporary photographs and cartoons from her personal collection.
Entry fee: £3
Highlights of 2008
In June 2008 Piatkus published Rebecca’s first venture into sport - The First London Olympics: 1908. In October the book was long-listed for the 20th Annual William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize alongside Janie Hampton’s magnificent work on the second London Olympics of 1948, The Austerity Olympics. (Congratulations to Janie on making it to the short-list - you should have won!)
Also in June, Quercus re-issued The Duke’s Agent - the first of the long-planned Jarrett series. The second novel, Gentleman Jo and the Radical is scheduled to be published in 2010.
In July Rebecca gave a presentation on the 1908 Olympics to the Centre for Contemporary British History summer Conference at London University and another on the Irish Americans in the 1908 US team at the Olympics: Politics & Protest conference held at Leeds Metropolitan University.
In October Rebecca had her first experience as an art installation taking part in the "Couples" exhibition at the Baltic Art Gallery in Newcastle. She enjoyed a fascinating day chatting to all sorts of people while looking out over stunning views of the Tyne River. (See the Baltic Art Gallery website.)
A particular highlight of November 2008 was that month's Bookshop Barnie at Waterstones Economist Bookshop in Aldwych, London - a lively exchange of ideas on Olympic cities and possible lessons to be drawn from 1908. (It’s fun being a writer - you meet such interesting people.) See the futurecities website.
In December Rebecca completed her first contemporary detective novel for Working Partners, a speculative project but she is now addicted…
And plans for 2009?
A foray into romance, another Jarrett novel and maybe some more contemporary crime…
Fancy an elegant gift for the sportsman in your life? Vintage Graphics is offering a delightful series of caricatures of 1908 Olympic champions drawn by Swedish artist Torsten Schonberg (1882-1970). See more at the Vintage Graphics website:
