WRITING FEATURES V. WRITING STORIES

Walking v. galloping and weaving v. unravelling

I was looking at the timeline of the publication of my books. I wrote the first five Sprite Sisters books in 30 months. The stories were each around 55,000 words – so 275,000 words in total. That was fast going. The most words I wrote in any one week were 6,000, followed by 4,000 and another 4,000 – 14,000 words in three days. I couldn’t think at all for a few days after that.

As a journalist, I was used to working to deadlines, but I’d never written more than 2500 words for a feature when I began writing The Circle of Power in May 2007. I had three months to work out and write that first story for Piccadilly Press. The other four Sprite titles I published with them followed at a similar gallop.

Then things slowed down. It took me a year to write the sixth Sprite title, The Boy With Hawk-like Eyes. It was partly because I was tired and partly because I didn’t have a publisher behind me, giving me an unmoveable deadline. It took me around nine months to write the seventh title, Magic at Drysdale’s School.

My point is that that sometimes your writing will gallop along and sometimes you need to take things gently.

Then there’s the difference between writing features (wearing my journalist hat) and writing stories (wearing my author’s hat). I find the two processes are entirely different.

With a feature, you do the interview, you do the research and you have a sense of the shape of the article before you begin. You know the length required. You know the angle and the tone the magazine is after because that’s what they’ve commissioned. As you write, you have things to draw on – quotes to insert, facts to note. Because your research is around you, the piece exists before you actually write it. You, the journalist, shape it and give it form. As you write, you draw in the elements together. Writing a feature is almost like weaving, as you pull together different strands and build new layers.

For me, writing a story is a completely different process because it exists only in my head. Having got my outline idea, I work out the general shape of the story and break it down into three parts – beginning, middle and end – then chapters. In that, the process is something the same, but where writing a feature is like weaving, creative writing is allowing something to unravel.

A story is something you have to follow. Despite knowing the concept and having an overall shape, I don’t know what will happen until the image or words drops into my mind – till I hear the characters speak them. That doesn’t happen until I get to precisely that part of the story – it’s one step at a time. Hence allowing the story to unfold.

If the part you are writing doesn’t come to you, there is nothing to write – so you can’t gallop. That’s where experience helps, as you know then to slow down and walk your idea.

And it will come – just in its own time.

Magic at Drysdale’s School, the 7^th Sprite Sisters story,

is available now as an e-book and will be published

as a print-on-demand paperback on 21^st June 2013

WWW.SHERIDANWINN.COM

BRITISH WEATHER AND CREATIVE FLOW

Greetings blog readers from a warm and sunny Norfolk!

How long will this wonderful weather last we all wonder? This year we have waited so many months for the sun. Who knows? It could all change tomorrow. Britain is an island nation and our weather is forever changing. Subject to numerous variables, none of which is in our control, we tend to wait, anxiously, for things to improve.

Sometimes I think the British weather is like creativity. You can’t guarantee it will be there when you need it and most often it is not. I find my creativity comes in waves, and diminishes when I am tired or stressed. Some days I can write for hours. Some weeks I cannot write at all. It is not laziness, nor lack of application. I find if there is nothing to say, then there is nothing to write. As soon as I know what to say – the next piece of the plot is in my mind – I write.

One of the things I have to do when writing is to stop reading. Fiction is a no-no. Newspapers, crosswords and the odd television programme I can cope with, but other people's stories scramble my ideas. If I want to write, I need a clear head and a quiet mind.

A week ago, having finished the 7^th and final Sprite Sisters story, and in a burst of creative energy, I sat down to write the first title of a new trilogy that has been in my mind since 2006. I have made copious notes and written numerous chapters for The Earth Stories, but the ‘right time’ had not come. I had been too busy with the Sprite Sisters to engage in another big project.

Having got out the box file and looked through it, I typed, ‘The Earth Stories – Book 1 deadline Autumn 2013’, printed it out and stuck the piece of paper on the wall in front of me. I like to have a deadline.

But something surprising happened. As I sat there, staring at my new deadline, the words ‘Boudicca’s Daughters’ kept ringing in my mind. Boudicca’s Daughters, Boudicca’s Daughters . . . The words would not go away. This had been the intended title of the second volume of The Earth Stories, but I had often wondered if it would make a better stand alone novel for young adults.

So, as with the British weather and guided by some invisible force, I went with the flow. I got out a second box of notes and writing that I had done on Boudicca’s Daughters in 2010, and was surprised to see how much I had completed. Okay, I thought, I’ll write this book first.

I peeled the deadline for The Earth Stories off the wall, typed and printed out another. Now the words, ‘Boudicca’s Daughters’ stare at me from the wall, with the deadline of October 2013.

Much like our island weather, I set out to do one thing but found the pattern changed quite suddenly. I am back in ‘lock-down mode’, shutting out as much of the world around me as I can, while Boudicca’s Daughters makes its way on to the pages of my new book.

Outside the sun is shining, but I am sitting at my computer going with the creative flow.

MAGIC AT DRYSDALE'S SCHOOL

The 7^th Sprite Sister story is on its way!

It was an iron fist of a winter. For months, a biting easterly wind swept across Norfolk, chilling our bones and making us huddle indoors. When will it end, we kept asking? For months I was unwell and struggled to write. It seemed the cold would never pass and my book would never get finished.

Now, outside my window, the apple tree is covered with buds, clasped tight like tiny little pink fists. We have had the first rain in weeks – a gentle April shower. The air is bright and warming gradually. The birds are busy building their nests, the daffodils are in bloom and Spring feels as if it is finally here.

And I have finished my 7^th Sprite Sisters book, Magic at Drysdale’s School. It feels a good time to be launching what may be my final Sprite story – though I have left enough strands to carry on the series if I change my mind.

Here is the blurb for the back jacket:-

When Zak Ashworth joins Drysdale’s School, the Sprite Sisters and their cousin Verena know that trouble will follow. Zak carries within him the dark power of the screegling – one of the vile subterranean insects that he summoned to Sprite Towers and which brought terrifying danger to the Sprite family.

As Flame anguishes about having a secret magic power and Marina comes face to face with Zak, Ash is led to a mysterious stone. Soon the Sprite Sisters, Verena and Zak are drawn by an Earth power that none can escape. But where Zak goes, the screegling goes too –– and its dark magic will out.

I don’t have a jacket design to show you yet, but it won’t be long. Once that is finished, I shall publish my story as a print-on-demand paperback and as an e-book, the same as the other six titles. The magic of self-publishing is that once you have the component parts assembled, sending out your story to the world takes only a matter of hours.

The first five Sprite stories are set in one year when the sisters are aged 13, 12, 10 and 9 years. The Boy With Hawk-like Eyes – the sixth title – moves the story on two years so that Flame is now 15, Marina is 14, Ash is 12 and Ariel is 11 years old. The easiness chumminess of the sisters in the early stories has given way to teenage doubts and tensions.

In Magic at Drysdale’s School, Flame is wracked with worry about her magic power. Unable to tell her boyfriend Quinn, she feels torn between being honest – as she is, naturally, and wants to be – and having to keep secret one vital part of her being. The result is conflict.

The story follows hard on the heels of The Boy With Hawk-like Eyes and similarly the adults play a less important role. In these stories the magic must be kept absolutely secret and the sisters must make decisions for themselves.

As you might expect, much of the action takes place at Drysdale’s School. Flame and Marina are now weekly boarders at the big independent school, along with their Sprite cousin, Verena. Zak Ashworth has also joined Drysdale’s and his dark magic has followed him. Wary of Zak, the Sprite Sisters refuse to speak to him.

In the earlier Sprite stories, the sisters discovered that Sprite Towers was full of magic. They battled against the evil Glenda Glass and found the way to use their magic power to protect themselves. They discovered a plan that enabled them to travel back to the past, wrestled with an evil ghost and met a relative who had died ninety years ago. Using their magic power to travel through portals, the Sprite Sisters found a way to change the future.

In Magic at Drysdale’s School, Ash is drawn to a large stone outside the school chapel. With her power of Earth she is able to feel the power emanating from the stone. In this story, we enter the world of ley lines – known as dragon lines in China and Geisterwege in Germany. This is a story about Earth energy and magic pathways.

Will the Sprite Sisters continue? That, I don’t know at the moment. I have been approached by a production company and am confident that the Sprite Sisters will make their way to film or television in the next few years. A top Japanese agent is working hard to sell the series in Japan. Things are afoot in the world of the Sprite Sisters.

Meanwhile my creative thinking is moving to The Earth Stories. This trilogy will be set in Breckland, a wild area of West Norfolk inhabited by the Iceni tribe two thousand years ago. With a post-apocalyptic scenario, The Earth Stories will be about a small group of survivors who go back to the Old Ways and use Earth Wisdom. Their shamanic magic is challenged by another group of survivors intent on recreating technology as we know it today.

THE SPRITE SISTERS

Four sisters

Four elements

Four powers

LITERARY AGENTS AND THE DEVIL IN THE DETAIL

It might not be the most optimistic note on which to start the New Year, but I offer this cautionary tale on the subject of agents and rights. If I have one piece of advice to give – and this applies to all creative people, not just writers – never give away your rights unless you absolutely have to, and when you do give them carefully and in small pieces.

I have always tried to live my life being fair. In contract negotiation, I aim for a win-win outcome. I like to build long-term relationships and would never shaft anybody, because I believe that what you give out you get back.

In January 2007, I had the idea for the Sprite Sister books and approached Brenda Gardner at Piccadilly Press. I had worked with her before when she published my ex-husband’s first picture book in the 1980s. She liked the idea of ‘four sisters, four elements, four powers’, and a few weeks later offered me a contract for the first Sprite Sister story.

The Society of Authors helped me negotiate this, along with the second contract. I kept back the subsidiary rights such as e-book, film and television rights, which Brenda Gardner was happy about.

Then, in January 2008, as I was about to begin the third book for Piccadilly, I had an offer for a film option. This was from a producer I knew – had written a number of business features about her. However, having gone through the process of negotiating film contracts with my ex-husband for our newspaper cartoon character, I knew I would need an agent to help me. I approached three agents, all recommended by friends, and they were all interested.

As my first book hit the shops, I met with one of the agents and I liked her. She said she loved the books and would be ‘honoured’ to represent me. I was very pleased and believed we had a long, sound business relationship ahead of us. She set to work on the third book contract, but was not happy that Piccadilly had world rights to the Sprite series. Having worked for 25 years on picture books, I was accustomed to publishers having world rights: it used to be the only way they could fund the cost of colour printing. I understood that, as a small independent publisher, Piccadilly needed to make money from its rights sales. It was a break point: Brenda Gardner would not have offered the contract without world rights. That said, I had no idea of the overall ramifications of the world rights scenario.

My new agent got a slightly higher royalty percentage, but the work of placing the book had already been done. I turned down the film option offer, as I didn’t feel it was good enough and it would have tied up the books at an early stage

Fast-forward to June 2009: I was about to write the fifth Sprite Sister title, which Piccadilly said would be the last in the series. Though the books had gone down a storm in Germany (Piccadilly sold the rights to Fischer Verlag), they had not done so well here.

At this time, I was not at all well. I was having a breakdown and suffering from what would be diagnosed in 2012 as a serious and rare gastric disorder. My mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and my daughter was also very unwell. A few years before, I had gone through a bankruptcy and divorce, lost everything, and was still struggling to pay the rent. Every hour of the day was spent trying to write to survive. It was fraught – but it would pass.

On 22nd June 2009, I received an email from the agent saying she no longer wished to represent me. It came out of nowhere. There was no discussion. I mailed back, asking for compassion – but the door was shut.

It was a staggering blow, but I would cope. The long-term problem would come from the financial clauses in the contract.

You would think, would you not – from a moral point of view – that if an agent dumps you within less than 18 months that they would relinquish the right to their percentage of your royalties. Not so.

I called the head honcho at the agency and argued my corner as hard as I could. We keep the financial interest in your book rights, he told me. That is the way it is. What, even if Piccadilly sells the Sprite Sisters to the US in five years time, I asked, dumbfounded. Yes, he said, even then. But that’s not right, I said. If I dumped her, then fair enough – but she dumped me! It will preclude me getting another agent!

I could hear his shrug down the telephone.

The Society of Authors agreed with the head honcho. It was tough, but that was the way it was. The agent retains a financial interest in any rights they sell, even when the contract is terminated, they said. In my case, because Piccadilly owned world rights, it meant that any further foreign rights sales would also pass through the hands of the ex-agent. The agency financial department would check the royalty statements each year, but the ex-agent would not have to lift a finger.

In 2010, I set out to find a new agent. I approached six at literary agencies big and small and was turned down by them all. The rights situation with the Sprite Sister books was too complicated, they said. It felt as if my ex-agent had screwed me right and proper.

I knew I needed to break free of the ex-agent’s financial claim to future sales and to do that I would have to get back all the book rights. The German rights would stand: she would get her share of those sales and I would have to bite the bullet.

In Spring 2012, the first Sprite Sister book, The Circle of Power, went out of print. I asked Piccadilly if they would reprint. They said no and in the early summer agreed that the rights of all five titles would revert to me. In lieu, I bought up the remainder stock of 2000 books. At the same time, Piccadilly asked the agent to relinquish her rights in any future sales of the books and she agreed. I was free at last.

I set about re-packaging the titles, publishing print-on-demand paperbacks and e-book editions – and selling abroad.

I will have to give the agent a substantial amount of money every year for as long as the Sprite Sisters sell in Germany – and the signs are good with sales of 270,000. The experience stills galls. In October 2012, when my royalties came through, the financial chap at my ex-agency mailed me cheerily, saying, ‘We love your German sales!’ Yes, I thought, I’ll bet you do. Not bad for a year’s representation with no titles to place . . .

But I must look to the future. Recently, through the Society of Authors, I approached an agent in Japan, who is keen to sell the Sprites there. Last week I mailed an American agent recommended to me by a friend. One way or another, I will find a US agent and get them to sell the US rights.

This is an upside-down approach. Don’t have one agent – get several. Get a different agent to represent you in each territory. It means none of them will have a claim to all of your book rights.

If you have a UK agent, they will probably use subsidiary agents to sell foreign rights and you will lose another slice. If you go direct to the foreign agent, you have one slice taken off.

Brenda Gardner and I get on well and she has wished me luck in my venture. I am eternally grateful to her for giving me the opportunity to write five books for Piccadilly Press.

Occasionally I have to mail the agent and am polite. But if I ever see her, I hope she hangs her head in shame.

A few tips on rights as I see it:-

·      Read the small print: when offered a contract, get as much professional advice as you can.

·      Keep your subsidiary rights: don’t bundle them in with the book rights.

·      Negotiate a fair termination clause (if I had known, I would have tried to get a clause in which the agent relinquished their rights if they dropped me).

·      Self-publishing gives us the freedom to choose how and where we sell our work: use it to your advantage.

·      Never, ever, sign everything with one agent unless you have a very good termination clause that works in your favour, as well as theirs.

·      Be a buccaneer in your approach to self-publishing: fast, light and responsive.

·      If you agree world rights with your publisher and they sell foreign rights, it is unlikely you will see the advances from those foreign deals until the whole publisher’s advance has been earned out. Nobody tells you that beforehand.

·      If you value your sanity, remember it’s all a learning curve and there is no one ‘right’ way.

·      If you are working on a book and need financial help, ask The Royal Literary Fund. They helped me and I thank them.

SPARKS FROM AUTHORS ELECTRIC

SPARKS – A year’s journey through e-publishing

The first anthology from Authors Electric

The Authors Electric blogspot receives over 12,000 hits a month and its worldwide readership is growing. The group of 29 independent and independently publishing writers present a kaleidoscope of books, opinions and ideas aiming to entertain and inform, each posting one blog a month. Now the group is publishing a selection.

SPARKS is an anthology of blogs by a group of bloggers. It includes contributions from 41 professional authors posted between June 2011 and November 2012. Released on Kindle, SPARKS will cost less than £1. A free app will be available for download to allow the anthology to be read on a wide range of devices. A paperback version is planned for the New Year.

The idea came from Julia Jones, a former bookseller as well as a publisher, reader and writer. Fascinated by developments in the book trade, she got into the habit of reading her fellow Authors Electric members’ blogposts on a regular basis. The more she read, the more impressed she became ‘by other people’s knowledge, humour and their willingness to share their experience’. A casual remark on Facebook that she could ‘feel a collection coming on’ was met by an enthusiastic response – and SPARKS was born.

‘Anthologies have always had their place in the newspaper and magazine world – and I'm not aware of another UK blogging group that has produced anything like this,’ says Julia Jones.

With 430 blogposts to choose from, Jones selected one post from each current member, one from every former member who’d posted on five or more occasions, two guest posts and two ‘specials’.

‘SPARKS aims to present “the journey so far”,’ says Jones. ‘We are a group of authors e-publishing our own work for a number of reasons: some are disillusioned with conventional publishing; some have new work that does not fit traditional genres; we all want to keep our backlist titles in print – and for the sheer pleasure in managing our writing lives. SPARKS reflects this, as well as the new excitements and difficulties of self-publishing.’

One of the ‘specials’ selected marks the 100th review on the IEBR (Indie eBook Review), sister website of Authors Electric. An outside perspective on how media attitudes to writer-publishers have changed is provided in an interview with Scott Pack, publisher of Harper Collins imprint, The Friday Project; book trade analyst and a former bookseller.

‘SPARKS offers a perspective on a year that has seen real change in the independent e-publishing market,’ says Julia Jones. ‘The experience of the individual members of Authors Electric is probably representative of many other writer-publishers. Contributing as a group has helped all of us feel clearer about what we’re trying to do, even when we don’t agree with each other. We all feel more confident that choosing to publish our own work isn’t some form of vanity, but is a new way to connect with readers and manage our own books and our own careers without depending on the traditional “gatekeepers”.’

The paper version of SPARKS is a not-for-profit exercise and will be sold at cost, or as near cost as retailers’ (such as Amazon) pricing structures allow. Authors Electric member, Stephanie Zia (an author who also runs her own e-publishing company, Blackbird Digital), is managing this side of things. Any royalties paid to Blackbird will be put towards providing free books to journalists, reviewers, analysts and broadcasters who might be interested in discussing the group’s work.

As with all Authors Electric projects, such as its Great E-Book Giveaway in April 2012, SPARKS is a group effort.

‘Authors Electric started just over a year ago with zero readers,’ says Susan Price, group co-ordinator. ‘It's now getting 12,000 hits a month from a growing worldwide audience – all due to its writing team of highly articulate, sparky bloggers! I'm privileged to be part of it, and can't wait to see how it develops, along with e-publishing, in the future.’

The SPARKS e-anthology is published on 28^th December 2012. The paperback version will be published early in 2013. The e-anthology will be free for the first five days, after which it will retail at US$0.99 (£0.77).

Journalists who would like a copy of SPARKS to review or comment on digital books, please contact:- Stephanie Zia at Blackbird Digital Books  +44 (0)7816 491189  blackbird.digibooks@gmail.com

For further information and comment on the Authors Electric group, please contact:-

Susan Price – susanlprice@hotmail.co.uk   +44 (0) 1384 256190

AUTHORS ELECTRIC – http://authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk

CHRISTY'S PROJECT AND THE MAGIC OF READERS' LETTERS

 

There's nothing that gladdens this author's heart as much as an enthusiastic letter from one of my readers.

Authors of adult books may keep their readers for years. Genre writers, 

I suspect, keep loyal readers for decades. But as a children’s author, you capture your reader’s attention for a few years, if you’re lucky. There’s a 

small window in which your books may be cherished, then your readers are gone, grown and after new stories. But if a child likes your stories, they really like them and your characters become their world.

Chris Winn's jacket design for the new e-book

My Sprite Sister stories are aimed at girl readers aged 7-11 years. Marketing with social media is difficult with this age group. My readers are too young to tweet or use Facebook, but they write to me on my website (and I ask them to get their parents’ permission). Mostly they write once or twice, often asking for information for their book project. Sometimes they write to me, on and off, over a period of several years. Always I reply, and thank them. A connection is made, a question answered, an autograph sent.

I have received letters in German, French, Italian, and one in Japanese. Among others, there’s Ellie in Northampton, Daisy in Brighton, Sabina in Switzerland, Hi in New Zealand, Afra in India, Chioma in Nigeria, Meera in Saudi Arabia and Sharon in Myanmar.

With 200,000 Sprite Sister books sold in Germany, a high proportion of my readers’ letters are from there. Here’s a typical one:-

Dear Sheridan,
my english isn't very good, too (So I hope you can understand me). I've got a question: Are you going to film a movie about the Sprite Sisters?
That would be great! I love the sprite sisters!
And I'm waiting longingly for the 7th book.
bye Sophia
PS When you need an actor for the movie, ask me and I'm instantly there!

Recently, Christy Cheung wrote to me from Hong Kong. She was doing a book launch project in her English class at the Discovery College, and had chosen The Circle of Power, the first of the Sprite Sisters books. Christy wrote a polite letter asking a number of questions for the author biography. I replied with the information and said I would be pleased to see photographs of her Sprite Sisters merchandising idea.

I was delighted with Christy's imaginative and ingenious solution and thought that I would share it with you (with her parents' permission).

Christy's Sprite Sister merchandising object

To explain the concept of the books, the Sprite Sisters each have a magic power that relates to one of the four elements and the four directions. Flame, the eldest, has the power of the East and Fire. Marina has the power of the South and Water. Ash’s power is Earth and she stands at the West. Little Ariel has the power of Air and stands at the North. When the sisters work together, their power is balanced and strong. However they are not  always balanced and their enemy is very determined – so many adventures ensure.

Here is Christy’s introduction to her merchandising item:-

‘This is a scene from the first spectacular book of the Sprite Sisters – The Circle of Power. With all the sister's powers balanced, I thought that this scene represents the spirit of the sisters the best, all hearts united to fight for one thing together. All the sisters concentrating on their music along with the united powers, it's the best thing you could do and this leads you on to their first adventure and success in the Sprite Sisters series.’

The complete object

The green knob shows the four elements

Another view of Christy's merchandising object

Terrific, isn't it!

And, as I work through the Sprite Sister titles, another hits the digital shelves: The Magic Unfolds. This is now available as an e-book and print-on-demand paperback, with another of Chris Winn's wonderful jacket designs.

My latest e-book and print on demand paperback

Sheridan Winn is the author of the six Sprite Sister books: 

The Circle of Power, The Magic Unfolds, The Secret of the Towers, 

The Ghost in the Tower, New Magic and The Boy With Hawk-like Eyes.

You can contact her through her website: http://www.sheridanwinn.com

MY CITY - NORWICH, UNESCO'S NEW CITY OF LITERATURE

This blog was originally published on 3rd June 2012

Norwich is named as England’s first

UNESCO City of Literature

‘Do different’, they say here. There is a stubborn independence in the Norfolk character, born from centuries of invasion by Romans, Danes, Vikings, Angles and Saxons. This low-lying county, once home to Boudicca and the Iceni people, has over one hundred miles of coastline. It is a wild place of heath, flint and big skies. In some parts of Norfolk you can drive for miles without seeing a house.

Burnham Overy Staithe

And in the middle sits Norwich, the most easterly city in the UK. This former seat of the Saxon Earls of East Anglia became the capital of what was the most populous region in Norman England. By the fourteenth century, the walled city of Norwich covered an area bigger than London. With more medieval churches than any city north of the Alps, Norwich became one of Europe’s great seedbeds of religious art and architecture. As Nicholas Pevsner wrote: ‘Norwich has everything'.

Norwich Cathedral the most complete Norman cathedral, 
founded in 1096 and boasting 1000 bosses in the cloister, 
the largest in the country

It was here that, sitting in her anchorite cell on King Street, Julian of Norwich penned The Revelations of Divine Love, the first book written in the English language by a woman. The medieval Christian mystic was a contemporary of Chaucer. And close by lived the medieval Hebrew poet, Meir ben Elijah.

As you approach the city by road, you’ll see the Norwich sign with an image of the cathedral, and underneath it the famous quotation by the seventeenth century writer, George Borrow, ‘A fine city’. And it is a fine city – a city on a human scale that you can cross on foot in half an hour passing flint churches, Tudor merchant houses and the massive Norman castle. My family, on both sides, has lived here for generations and I have a sense of deep local pride.

Norwich Castle: the most elaborate Norman Keep to be constructed in England 

and the first English castle to be built on a mound 

And I would like to share its success with you – for Norwich has strengthened its place on the world literary map. On 10^th May 2012, Norwich was accredited as England’s foremost literary city by becoming its first UNESCO Creative City of Literature. It joins an elite network of cities comprising Edinburgh, Dublin, Iowa City, Melbourne and Reykjavik. The accreditation provides international recognition to Norwich’s literary heritage, its contemporary strengths and future potential in the field of literature and all the literary arts.

So why Norwich? Think of this provincial city and Nelson, the Canaries, the Norfolk Broads and Colman’s mustard will probably flit through your mind – but Norwich has a sensational literary past. It’s a place that makes a difference.

People sometimes refer to Norfolk as a slow-paced, staid backwater, but throughout its history it has been associated with poltical dissent, radical politics and Nonconformist religion.

Robert Kett, our very own Robin Hood, led the Peasants' Rebellion from Norwich in 1549. Thomas Paine, whose book The Rights of Man influenced the American Constitution, was born near the city. In 1713, the UK’s first provincial psychiatric hospital opened on Bethel Street – hence the word ‘bedlam’. Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer and philanthropist who features on our £5 note, was born in Norwich. So, too, in 1796 was the UK’s first-ever black circus proprietor, Pablo Fanque, immortalised by The Beatles’ song, ‘Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite!’

 

Norwich also has a long reputation as a city of refuge. In the sixteenth century a large influx of Dutch, Flemish and Walloon refugees brought weaving skills, which helped to build the city’s wealth and influenced its architecture. It was the Flemish who brought the canary, later adopted at Norwich City Football Club’s mascot.

 River Wensum

Until the Industrial Revolution, Norwich was the capital of England's most populous county. It vied with Bristol as the second city. By the eighteenth century, Norwich was already on the cultural map. The country’s first provincial newspaper, Norwich Post, was published in 1701. Sir Thomas Browne, the great polymath scholar, medical doctor, philosopher and encyclopaedist lived in the city. Luke Hansard, the printer who published parliamentary debates was born here. In 1758, the Theatre Royal, the country’s first provincial theatre, opened and is still the most successful today. And in 1772, Norwich was home to the first arts festival in Britain.

A century later, the local Quaker writer, Anna Sewell, published Black Beauty. Her story, which aimed to induce an understanding treatment of horses, became an all-time bestseller with sales of over 30 million books. As Sewell helped to put Norwich on the literary map, John Crome and John Sell Cotman put it on the artistic map with the Norwich School of Artists, founded in 1803.

It also has its share of heroes: Admiral Lord Nelson was schooled in Norwich. Edith Cavell, the nurse and local heroine who was executed by firing squad in 1915 for helping hundreds of allied soldiers to escape, was born near the city.

As you might expect, Norwich was one of the first cities to have a library in 1794. In 1850, it was the first municipality to adopt the Library Act. Today, the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library, housed in The Forum, is the most successful library by far in England, with over one million visitors and users a year.

 The Forum, which houses the Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library 

and BBC East, as well as restaurants and conference facilities

Norwich is also home to the country’s first – and now leading – course in creative writing. In 1971, Malcolm Bradbury and Angus Wilson founded the MA Course in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. There have been some luminary graduates including Ian McEwan (its first student), Kazuo Ishiguro, Rose Tremain, Anne Enright and Angela Carter.

So what will the City of Literature status do for Norwich? In 2016, Writers Centre Norwich, which put forward the UNESCO bid, will open a £7 million International Centre for Writing. The aim is to create a world-leading centre for creative writing. The flagship project is a partnership between WCN and the University of East Anglia, and will be housed in a building granted by Norwich City Council.

No doubt there will be more writers coming to the city. Ask any local about Norwich and they’ll tell you the old adage: ‘Norwich has a pub for every day of the year and a church for every Sunday’. We may soon be able to add, ‘And a writer a day for every coffee bar’.

 Elm Hill, Norwich

And if you are a writer living in East Anglia, you might like to join East Anglian Writers. We are a group of 240 professional writers affiliated to the Society of Authors and a jolly bunch.

On this Diamond Jubilee Day, I give three cheers to Her Majesty and three cheers to Norwich – our new City of Literature!

And if you haven't yet been to Norwich, then please visit. It's a lovely city.

My thanks to fellow EAW member John Worrall for supplying the photographs 

for this piece. http://www.anglianimages.co.uk

Sheridan Winn is author of the Sprite Sister books

 Salthouse, North Norfolk