Authors & Reviews
Northerners: A History, from the Ice Age to the Present Day
We all know that Northern England, home to the Industrial Revolution, has been a land of great engineers. Does that mean it must be second rank when it comes to poets, musicians and artists?
Read the full story..Book Review: Deceit by Yuri Felsen, translated by Bryan Karetnyk
Potentially, at least, the author is a time traveller, and the novel their time machine, one which – Tardis-like – contains the whole of their fixed point in history while being simultaneously their means of stepping outside of it and into the future.
Read the full story..Book Review: 100 Voices edited by Miranda Roszkowski
Like many women I know, there have been times when I have struggled to voice my achievements. Perhaps this is because they haven’t seemed big enough or the right sort of accomplishment.
Read the full story..Poetry Review: Unexhausted Time by Emily Berry
While reading Emily Berry’s new poetry collection Unexhausted Time, I am reminded of those moments when a less than lucid mind sparks fresh perspectives on intrusive thoughts. The dark and pungent soil of experience is raked over in this book.
Read the full story..Book Review: Dream Girl by Laura Lippman
It is hardly unusual these days to find that the protagonist of a widely admired paperback is a writer.
Read the full story..Book Review: Bosh! on a Budget
Bosh! on a Budget. Its promise is affordable plant-based recipes at roughly £1-£2 per person. Convenience isn’t cheap and neither is eating animals. We all know that by now, right?
Read the full story..“It was a story I needed to tell.” Portico Prize-winning author Sally J Morgan on gender inequality, friendship and the North
A staple of Manchester’s cultural and literary life, The Portico Library is situated above The Bank pub on Mosley Street. The 19th century library houses more than 25,000 books and is filled with archives covering 450 years. While The Portico is a subscription library, it works with diverse communities in the region to create events, exhibitions and learning programmes. It is also the home of The Portico Prize, established in 1985, a biennial award which accepts submissions across all literary formats and gives £10,000 to an overall winner.
Read the full story..Book Review: The Reactor by Nick Blackburn
Reading is my way of making sense of the world around me.
Read the full story..Into the Zone: Nick Blackburn writes about his debut memoir, The Reactor
Last year, I used to come home to the North. This year I’m working in London mostly, and I miss it.
Read the full story..Book Review: The Stasi Poetry Circle by Philip Oltermann
If the past is, in L.P. Hartley’s endlessly quoted observation, a foreign country, then how much more disorientating must it be to attempt to find one’s bearings doubly lost, adrift both in the past and a foreign country?
Read the full story..Editor's Picks
- Review: British Pop Archive, John Rylands Library, Manchester
- Art Review – The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
- “Where language is beyond some individuals, music becomes that language.” Manchester Camerata’s dementia programme
- “I feel like an imposter waiting to be caught out by other writers.” Tim Firth talks to Northern Soul
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"If the library in which it’s housed is Enriqueta Ryland’s gift to Manchester, the British Pop Archive is Manchester’s gift to the world." Review: British Pop Archive, John Rylands Library, Manchester northernsoul.me.uk/review-bri… @desmondbullen @TheJohnRylands pic.twitter.com/Nk3dndVntT
"outstanding...and an excellent summer cultural offer for the region" Art Review – The Tudors: Passion, Power and Politics, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool northernsoul.me.uk/art-review… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ @walkergallery @franyeoman @NPGLondon pic.twitter.com/XDCxzgcOMk
Bits in Books: We love second-hand books, those treasures with inscriptions from previous owners, hidden postcards, school certificates, lost keepsakes. #BitsInBooks twitter.com/alanmckeanpoet…
Bits in Books: We love second-hand books, those treasures with inscriptions from previous owners, hidden postcards, school certificates, lost keepsakes. Do your bookshelves harbour these gems? If so, we want to know. Here's one from @ClaireFleetndle #BitsInBooks pic.twitter.com/WXJ0IdMMcR
South Queensferry ginnel ('Vennel') #GinnelWatch #ShowUsYourGinnels pic.twitter.com/oG8EqKR3lx