Sean O'Brien and Jane Rogers

What's On

Sean O'Brien and Jane Rogers

The past twelve months in the world of poetry have almost certainly belonged to Sean O’Brien. Already one of Britain’s most decorated (and well respected) figures, 2007 saw his already bulging trophy cabinet filling up with ever more accolades as he won the Forward Prize for best collection for an unprecedented third time back in October of last year, and the TS Elliot Prize in January of this year. Add this to his Somerset Maugham Award, and Northern Rock Foundation Writers Award which he was awarded back in 2006, and it’s obvious that tonight’s event looks sure to be one of the highlights of the festival. Monday night sees Manchester’s Comma Press launching his much anticipated book of short stories, The Silence Room, a set of deliciously Gothic vignettes focusing upon the lives of the enigmatic idlers which haunt the alcoves and staircases of a mysterious library.

O’Brien will be joined amongst the hallowed eves of the Midland Hotel by Jane Rogers, a Professor of Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University, who will be reading her contribution to another Comma publication The New Uncanny, a series of modern horror stories specially written to update Freud’s famous essay, and which also includes exclusive new stories from A.S Byatt, Hanif Kureishi and Sara Maitland amongst others.

Proceedings start at 8pm and tickets are a mere £5 which can be bought either via www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk or by calling their booking line on 0870 428 0875.

Send to a Friend | Print Thumbs up? (0)

Details

Comments (1)

You need to be logged in to comment. Login | Register

Christina McDermott wrote on the 22/10/08 at 20:44…

The French at the Midland Hotel with its gold-leaf cortices and images of busty ladies in crinolines, doesn't really spring to mind as the most obvious of venues when one thinks of the right setting for an event of stories designed to make one feel like a little anxious about all those things which go bump in the night. However, its rather intimate setting proved to be just the place in which one could sit back and settle in for a rather fine evening's entertainment, brought to us courtesy of Manchester's Comma Press. "A shopping list of shivers," First up was Jane Rogers, reading her contribution from the forthcoming anthology "The New Uncanny," an anthology of modern day horror stories focusing upon all the elements of the 21st century world which unsettle the body and the soul. Roger's story, "Pedomatique," is a black comedy focusing on an out of control piece of technology and the fight or flight instinct of a middle aged woman unsure of what she wants out of life. Rogers confessed beforehand that a few sections of the story may appear disjointed because of her frantic efforts to pair the story down to a manageable length for the evening's proceedings, but if there were any cracks in the joins then they were unnoticeable amidst her engaging and frequently witty dry reading style. Archly Gothic From the introductory description of him, Sean O'Brien both sounds and looks like the Literary world's answer to John Peel-a man whose house contains so many books, they've started to cause the walls to cave in-which has to be the most admirable and intellectual way to cause the destruction of a property one could ever hope to imagine. Known mainly as one of the finest and most decorated British poets working at the moment, you can't help but feel a little overawed by his presence. However, whatever reservations the audience may have had are soon overcome by the warmth of his broad Northern accent, and his rather captivating method of storytelling. Reading the title story from his new collection of short stories "The Silence Room," this is the kind of story in the model of such Victorian horror greats as M.R James, a dark cautionary tale of feuding poets, a room in a Newcastle library filled with light "the colour of marmite," an unexplained disappearance, and the rather disturbing actions of a shabby Turkish rug. If the rest of his collection is as good as we heard this evening, then this is certainly a book which will earn him yet another award to contribute to his already bulging shelves. The power of a good story All in all, this was the power of storytelling at its best-short yet bittersweet, with rather cosy feel that you were in someone's parlour rather than one of Manchesters grandest hotels. Lasting at just over an hour, this may have been one of the Manchester Literary Festival's more low key events, but it was certainly one of its best.