What's Your Story?

At the beginning of December we began our first What's Your Story?sessions.  My initial worry that I would be speaking to an empty room proved totally unfounded.  We had an excellent turn out.   Both the taster sessions and the course itself were very well attended and attracted an interesting, creative mix of people, all keen to start writing.
So much in creative writing groups depends on the mix of people in the room and at What's Your Story? we've got a real cross section of ages, backgrounds, and experience.  This really adds something to the sessions.  The discussions were lively and interesting - because the people on the course are lively and interesting.  There was never a lull in the proceedings.  Participants always had something to say: an opinion to offer, or an insight to share and I learned as much as anyone else - even though I'm the course tutor.  That's the thing that never fails to surprise me:  how much you can learn through teaching.  I read some stories that I know really well and at each session, someone offered me an insight into the story which hadn't occurred to me before.  I really love that.  

As well as reading stories in the group we also write at each session.  We always complete one or two short writing exercises. These exercises only take about 10 - 20 minutes to complete, sometimes I just do a couple of very short 5 minute exercises.  This is intended to reduce anxiety around writing.  Many people worry that they have to produce a work of genius - that it has to be amazing, or why bother?  You can talk yourself out of writing before you even begin.  We often listen to that voice that tells us: 'This has been done before, and better, what have you got to say that's new? And who's going to be interested?'  And it stops us before we even start.  I always tell people to ignore that voice and just pick up a pen and begin.  Usually the work that they produce is much better than they imagined.  And even if it isn't, it's just a starting point, a sketch - it can be worked on and fleshed out, improved and re-imagined.  That's what the writing exercises provide participants with: a starting point, a lump of clay that they can mould into whatever shape they want.

Some of the work produced by the group so far, has been of a very high standard.  We'll be publishing the work on the website in the next few months, and the writers will be participating in a group writing project - so look out for that, too.

If you'd like to get involved in What's Your Story?  There are still some places available.  The Toxteth daytime session is full but there are still some places left on the evening course which takes place on Monday 7th January at the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre, Princes Road, L8 1TH. (6.00 - 8.00pm) There are also a few places left on the Croxteth course, which takes place on Tuesday 8th January at  Communiversity, Altcross Road, L11 0BS (10.00-12.00pm)  So why not make creative writing one of your New Year's resolutions?  If you've always wanted to write, but need some help and encouragement to get you started then why not come along to one of the groups.  We've got a lovely mixture of participants who are very warm and encouraging of each other's work.  So if you'd like to come along you'd be very welcome.  

Hope to see you at one of the groups.  Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and creative New Year!
I'm spending a bit of time writing over Christmas - I promised myself that I'd have the final draft of my novel finished by Christmas and I've missed my own deadline.  So I'll have to get busy...

Paula Currie

Pot Novel! (Just add words)

A few weeks ago an interesting looking supplement fell out of The Guardian. It was called 'How to write a book in 30 days.'  Having spent well over a year writing my own first novel, I snatched it open.   The title, it has to be said, was a bit of a con.  On reading the supplement it became clear that it wasn't a manual in how to write an actual book in 30 days, it was a guide to writing a 30 day plan for writing a book.  The final page merrily asserts that once the 30 day plan is complete, 'Only then, finally, is it time to start writing the book itself.'  Hmmm.

Everybody is anxious for a quick route to writing a novel but there really isn't one.  It takes as long as it takes and there are no real short cuts.  Some writers spend months, even years, thinking about their novel, letting ideas and characters percolate.  Other writers move into the writing process a lot quicker and prefer to work their ideas out practically, on the page.
Last year, I met the award-winning novelist Cynan Jones who blithely informed me that he'd written his first novel, The Long Dry (winner of the Betty Trask Award) in two weeks!  It's a very short novel - but it's still an astonishing feat.  I'd love to be able to tell you that his writing is careless and obviously rushed, but it's actually a stunning novel; beautifully written, which wholly deserves the acclaim that it received.

All writers go through a different writing process.  That's why I'm wary of self help books promising writing miracles.  There's no one correct way to go about it.  What works for one writer often creatively stifles another.  You may be aware that November is 'National Novel Writing Month'. (www.nanowrimo.org/ ) Writers who sign up, will attempt to write a 50,000 novel in a month.  This is an actual novel, not a plan for a novel as above.  Some writers will find this notion profoundly unsettling, it just wouldn't work for them.  But others may find that it gives them the kick start they need to get cracking on the novel they've been planning for years.  Will any of these novels be any good?  Only time will tell.  But one thing is certain: you may have an idea for novel but until you start writing, it's only an idea.  Until you have words on a page you have nothing.  Maybe it's time to write those ideas down.  Okay, so maybe you won't finish it in a month - but you'll make a start.  So go on - get cracking!

Paula Currie

A Room of One's Own

As you may know, we are currently in the process of setting up What's Your Story?  a series of free creative writing workshops to be held in Liverpool.  One of the weekly sessions will take place in the city centre and the other is going to be held in Croxteth, at Communiversity's new Creative Campus.
I hadn't been to Communiversity before, so last week I  paid them a long-overdue visit.  I had the real pleasure of meeting Sheila Sweeney and Phil Knibb, the two inspirational people who have worked so hard to make Communiversity a reality.  They've done a fantastic job with the place.  it's an amazing community resource and a real testament to what communities can achieve when they pull together.

I'm going to be running the What's Your Story workshops from their new Creative Campus and I can't wait to get started.  Phil and Sheila have provided a beautifully designed, fully refurbished building for our use, which includes a teaching room, theatre space, recording studio and - this particularly delighted me - private rooms for participants to write in!

They are beautiful and such a useful idea.  It's a nod to Virginia Woolf's notion that 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.' Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the money situation - but we can provide men and women with a room of their own to write in.   They're going to be so helpful to writers.  Sometimes it's impossible to find a space to think in - let alone write in.  Kids arguing, telly blaring, next door playing thrash metal at all hours. (And that's just in my house) So I know what it's like.  The writing rooms at the Creative Campus will provide people with a haven, a space to be creative in.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the writing rooms in use.  Sheila and Phil have done a wonderful job of creating the right environment for people to write in - so I want to ensure that the place is packed to capacity.

If you'd like to participate in What's Your Story? contact me on:
info@writingonthewall.org.uk and I'll keep you up to date with developments.


Paula Currie

Poetry plea...

Last Thursday was National Poetry Day. You will now, either stop reading immediately, or carry on enthusiastically, because like marmite, poetry seems to provoke extreme reactions from people. They either love it or hate it.
I’m firmly in the love camp, (for poetry and marmite) but I do understand where the poetry haters are coming from. I haven’t always liked poetry. Like many people, I hated it at school. We read boring poems that I didn’t understand: poems that didn’t speak to me on any level. Adrian Mitchell’s famous quote, ‘Most people ignore most poetry, because most poetry ignores most people.’ felt utterly true.

But something changed: it sounds obvious, but you have to shop around with poetry. Just because you don’t like one particular song, you would never say that you don’t like music. Yet we do this all the time with poetry. Just because we don’t like a particular style of poetry or we had a bad experience with it at school – we write off poetry as a whole. We say we hatepoetry. But we don’t. We just haven’t found a poem that we like yet. And this takes a bit of work. It’s not like hearing a catchy song on the radio and then going out and buying the album. Music surrounds us but we have to seek poetry out – although the internet has made this much easier.  It’s a hit and miss process, you’ll read loads of stuff that you don’t like but then suddenly your eye will drop onto a poem that could have been written for you. You’ll think it has been, you’ll smirk to yourself, suddenly intrigued, you didn’t realise poetry could be this good. Then you’ll read everything that the poet has written, then you may start looking at the poets who inspired your poet, and then suddenly you’re away! You like poetry.

On National Poetry day, I spent the day at a poetry reading at The Bluecoat Chambers hosted by local poet, Denis Joe of North End Writers. It was a rare opportunity to hear dozens of people reading poems of their own and sharing poems that they love with the audience. I was impressed at the range of work that was read out: witty, political, heartfelt, intelligent…. and the odd one about cats. It was a place to sit and listen, some of it would just wash over you, but then you’d hear something that stopped you cold. It was worth going for that moment: the moment when you hear something that grabs hold of you and keeps hold of you, something - a line or an image that you know will stay with you. That’s what I love about poetry and that’s why I’ll be celebrating National Poetry Day again next year.

Paula Currie

First day at Wow

This is the first of many blogs that I hope to be posting as Wow's new Writer in residence. It's the first time that Wow has appointed a writer in residence and I'm thrilled to have been selected.  I'm really looking forward to getting out and about around Liverpool and hopefully inspiring people to pick up a pen and start writing. I've been teaching creative writing in Liverpool for ten years now at The Spider Project and we've uncovered some real talent there.  Part of my job as WIR involves setting up writing workshops and over the next few months I'm sure that these workshops will uncover even more. I'm also going to be blogging about the writing process.  In 2011 I won the Writing on the Wall's Pulp Idol competition.  A competition that I can thoroughly recommend. I'd been working on the novel for years in a slightly haphazard fashion, but winning the competition really spurred me on to complete it. I'm chuffed to say that I finally finished work on the first draft in August, (I love saying that!). Over the next few months I'm going to be re-drafting it and sending it out to publishers and agents. I'm planning to blog about this process too, which will hopefully provide an insight into the difficult business of getting your first novel published. Or I might go down the internet route and self publish!  Haven't decided yet...  We'll have to see what happens. Either way it's an exciting business and I'm looking forward to getting my work out there. If you've got a novel that you're burning to publish or you would like to begin one - or you just want to start writing, keep checking the WOW website as we'll be setting up writing workshops in the next few months. I'm really keen to establish links between writers, as I know how difficult it is when you're stuck at home writing alone. Anyway keep checking the website and we'll keep you posted!

Paula Currie

A lie is halfway round the world...

A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has even got its boots on. Not an original thought, I know, but hard to get out of my mind as its never been truer than in the case of Hillsborough, and never better understood than by the South Yorkshire Police and their partners in the media – with The Sun leading the charge, the judiciary, the coroners office, the courts and all manner of politicians. That there is no smoking gun leading to Thatcher means little, there is more than enough circumstantial evidence to lay the blame for the culture amongst the South Yorkshire Police and The Sun and the other bodies mentioned above, firmly at her door i.e. firmly at the door of the top of the establishment itself.

I wasn’t at Hillsborough, but I travelled there the following day to get interviews with the fans who were there, and the survivors in hospital, for a special edition of Mersey Militant, which I and my friends were active supporters of at the time. We wanted to give the fans a voice – a chance to tell their own stories and get them out amidst the lies that were already gaining ground in the national media. In hindsight, as right as we were to do that, it was a drop in the ocean compared to scale of the deceits being prepared and which have lasted for 23 years, until yesterday.

My memories of the day are a little hazy now, but two things stick in my mind. The first was talking to a supporter who ‘died’ three times on the pitch after being pulled out of the Leppings Lane end of the ground the stand which the majority of the fans who died were in. Three times his heart had stopped and three times he’d been revived by fans and, if I remember rightly, a policewoman. The other memory is of some of the Liverpool FC team, Alan Hansen and Ian Rush amongst them, coming to the hospital and walking round the wards to talk to the fans and offer their support. The players looked shell shocked, as did the supporters, many of whom had stayed since game to look after, or comfort, friends and relatives.

Scale of deceit

And who wouldn’t have been shocked into a daze at the scale of tragedy that happened at a football match on a sunny day, the aftermath of which was played out on national TV? Well the Police, for one, weren’t in a daze, because now we know, in undeniable detail, on a scale of deceit that even drew an audible, involuntary gasp from a packed House of Commons, that the Police leadership, who could hardly raise a finger to save a life on the day, managed to work themselves into a lather when they realised just how culpable they were for the course of events that unfolded on Sunday 15^thApril.

But why a conspiracy on such a scale to smear a set of fans, guilty of nothing more than going to a match; and why did they feel so confident to be so brazen as to think they could get away with it?

Because in their eyes this was a class war and they would get all the back up they needed. The South Yorkshire force had already seen plenty of action against The Striking miners of ’84 to ’85. They were Thatcher’s favourite police force. Thatcher herself had denounced the Miners as the enemy within, but this applied also to the Liverpool Militants and to football fans, regarded and treated as little more than animals. This culture led to a complete disregard for the rights and conditions of the fans who travelled to Hillsborough, and even less regard for those who lost their lives there too.

And that’s why I’m not surprised by the revelations that came out today. I’m just not. I’ve been on too many demonstrations and picket lines, and witnessed too many times the way the police and the media (notwithstanding many fine people I personally know in the police force and the media) act when they think they can get away with it, to be surprised by what happened in the aftermath of Hillsborough. I’m sickened that anyone could stoop so low as to search for evidence of drunkenness and past criminality to try and slander the dead, and appalled at treatment of these incredible families who simply want to know how their loved ones died, but I’m not surprised.

I was in no doubt as to what the verdict of the panel would be today. We all knew anyway. In my mind I couldn’t imagine what else it could do but vindicate the fans and reveal the lies that so many had laboured to conceal. But still, with all that in-built cynicism and belief, as the news filtered out over the radio and on the internet and the scale of the cover up was finally publicly revealed, I found myself holding back tears and wanting to punch the air with joy.

Wave of relief

I think I’m right in saying that many people across the city will have felt the way I did today, surprised and amazed at the waves of emotion that ran over me, a mixture of grief, anger and relief, which just kept coming and keeps on coming even now as I write these words. It really does feel as though a collective weight has been lifted from the city. We feel vindicated, and step lighter than we did before yesterday.

You cannot stop time, and yet this is what was attempted by the coroner who established the ridiculous 3.15pm cut off time – in my mind one of the clearest indicators that the establishment was closing ranks behind the judicial process. After 23 years The Hillsborough Justice campaigns have achieved the impossible, they have forced the hands of time forward again, and opened up a world of possibilities.

But already on the news tonight, legal experts are pontificating about how difficult it will be to hold anyone truly to account for the lies and the conspiracies that have now been proven. True, there are some very strong voices calling for prosecutions, but if you listen hard enough you can almost hear it – ‘it’s a long time ago, people won’t really be able to remember what happened, who said what, and on, and on, and on.’ As though to say that if you can dodge the courts for just enough time, then you should simply be granted a free pass.

Did anyone hear that mentioned when Asil Nadir returned to face the music for his multi-million pound theft after absconding for 17 years? No, because Money never forgets, it always gets its due. The Hillsborough families had no money. The City Council stepped in to cover the train fares for them to be able to travel down to the judicial enquiries at the House of Lords.

Accountability?

The families, the campaigners and the Independent Panel have finally unearthed the truth. Justice, in the form of new enquiries and re-shaped verdicts you would imagine should be almost a formality. Hopefully, for the families and the survivors this report will bring some closure. But accountability – I’m not so sure.

One of the local radio talk show hosts remarked today that the families had won. My question is: If that is the case, why do the only casualties still seem to be from those on the 'winning' side?

But in saying all the above, that is the process the families will follow now that the truth is out.

Another truth is that it was the people themselves, the families first and foremost, the justice campaigns, and many other organisations and thousands upon thousands of individuals who refused to let this issue be swept under the carpet that finally exposed one of the biggest cover ups in British legal history. Yesterday was their day, one they had earned through love, dedication and solidarity.

YNWA JFT96.

Writer in Residence

Recession - what recession? The world is going to the dogs but Writing on the Wall is running like the Usain Bolt of the Writing Olympics (not too far fetched as metaphors go - literature was an Olympic discipline up until 1948, although no gold medals were awarded!) and has just announced that it is going to employ a Writer in Residence from September 2012 until March 2013, with a big chance that the post will be extended. The best Writer in Residence post I've ever heard of was based in a hotel in Dubhai. The writer received a beautiful room, all meals and drinks, and only had to deliver one workshop and read out one of their own pieces of work....in three months! You may have worked it out by now, but if you haven't, then I'm sorry to say that our Writer in Residence post ain't going to be quite like that. We can't even guarantee any sunshine, for chrissakes. But still, we want it all - a good writer, someone who can inspire new writers, support them and help them get their work up to the highest standard, who is active and can engage with local communities and diverse audiences, and someone, we hope, who can also use this opportunity to develop their own writing. We want a writing champion - medals or not, who can catch our spirit and match our ambitions. This is a point we have worked so hard to get to, and we're immensely proud that we will be stepping up our work in developing new work and hopefully, as we did with 'Disappearing Home' author and Pulp Idol finalists, Debbie Morgan, helping new writers get published. WoW are launching a whole bunch of new initiatives, including 'What's Your Story?' and 'Ink in the Sink', which our new Writer in Residence' will play a big part in developing. All details can be found by clicking here or emailing WoW at info@writingonthewall.org.uk.
What a job - I'd apply myself, but sometimes I like to give others a chance.....

Owen Jones

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Waiting for Brando, by its second night, has received an outstanding review from Liverool Student Media, which is great for WoW too as there's nothing we like better than premiering the best of new writing from Liverpool. You can read the review by clicking here.

The final week of the festival looms large and each event looks to be full. Friday's Titanic event will see the best writers who have released books on the Titanic this year come together to put the Titanic on Trial. Francsis wilson, Nic Compton, Steve Turner and Alan Scarth. And a string quartet too, playing ragtime and other melodies from that era.

Owen Jones seems to be everywhere at the moment. We wonder if he is one of triplets. You can catch himm in the flesh at WoW next week, with The Farm frontman Peter Hooton, discussing Chavs, Scavs and Hijabs. Tickets are flying out so be warned, if you want to be in on the debate, get your tickets now - here.

So many events & so little time...

It has to be one of WoW's greatest achievements getting four generations of the Garrett family to our event to launch the George Garrett Archive Project. We covered a lot of ground witht he speakers, Tony Wailey, Frank Boyce and Ken Worpole discussing different aspects of his life and work, but the highlight really was in the discussions with his family afterwards, some of  whom had travelled over from Sheffield for the event, and gleaning bits of information to follow up for the future. Well done to them, and it bodes well for the project over the coming year.

Are we done with the Titanic? Titanic fatigue? It's possible, and even likely judging by one email we received this week, and accordingly we have shifted our event to the Bluecoat and reduced the ticket price. But, if you have some interest still, then you won't want to miss this one - brilliant writers at the event, which really is a one-off.

Waiting for brando is a complete sell-out (some say they sold out some time ago ), which is great for the show and lousy for all those promised comps who aren't going to get them, but such is life. We'll let you see some of the reviews as there's no point in me writing one as I am unashamedly biased. But, good luck to the actors who have put in a tremendous amount of work and thanks to WoW for the support - to infinity and................

Sinister Synchronicity

Propping up the bar in The Attic with Peter Hooton and Tom Watson MP following the fantastic event on Phone Hacking with Tom, Rebecca leighton and Graham Johnson, I gave a (slightly drunken) thought to the weirdness of the timing of some of the events around the festival which keep coinciding with our events.  We planned all the Titanic stuff, that much is obvious, but had no idea that the phone hacking event on the Sunday would be preceded on the Thursday and Friday with Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooked (Lol) being grilled by Leveson.

And then, this morning, the day before our event on Bloody Sunday and the Children of Conflict, and after a great night in croxteth looking at Derry 2013, this video report appears on The Guardian website, featuring one of our guests for Tuesday night, Eamonn McCann, talking about the problems of the dissident group,, The RAAD (Resident Action Against Drugs), that is targeting young men involved (allegedly) in drugs and either shooting them or forcing them into exile outside of Derry. It's well worth a watch and you should get yourself along to the Blacke-E on Tuesday 15th, 7pm, to hear Eamonn and Phil Scraton discuss all the why's and wherefores of the whole issue.

Click here for details about the Bloody Sunday event.

Time flies when you're having fun

What day is it? Thursday. OK, so it's 99% and Peter Hitchens. Well yes, but no. Hitchens has pulled out. Was he frit?  In fairness he warned us from the start that often urgent stories came up and he may well have to cancel at short notice. So no, I don't think he was scared off by us or our esteemed panellists Danny Dorling and Lyndsey German (who are both still coming and expect to see you there). Shame, but there you go - proof again that WoW is a living festival.

Highlights? The War Tour - Brian Turner was something else- not someone standing and reading poetry, but someone who seems to embody their work within them, in such a way that, like a plucked string on a musical instrument, their words seem to reverberate long after they have been spoken. 'Here, bullet' has the force of a bullet, and is still bouncing around the inside of my skull.

Another highlight - 'Spare Rib to Slutwalks'. A very strong panel representing many and varied aspects and attitudes of the women's movement. No space here to get into detail, but I felt that what it achieved more than anything was a space where potentially conflicting views - pornography would be the best example - could be aired and argued, without the feeling that anyone would put themself outside of the women's movement. A lesson for the left, I feel, which offers little space for that at the moment.

I'm sitting on the couch (working from home, honest) watching ex-News of the World editor and ex-communications advisor to David Cameron, Andy Coulsen , being grilled at the Leveson inquiry. I'm not a praying man, but.....please Lord, take him away in handcuffs :).

An unlikely event I think, but you do not want to miss Tom Watson MP, Rebecca
Leighton and Graham Johnson on Sunday in the Black-E at 6pm. I've just read Watson' 'Dial M for Murdoch', and it is sensational. Did you know that a few years back the Police conducted a raid on a desk of a NOTW journalist at the HQ in Wapping. Such was the response of the NOTW the Police had to retreat in fear of their own safety. By the time they returned a number of items had been removed by staff so the Police couldn't get hold of them.

Unlike the rioters, etc. that didn;t make front page news. Wonder why?

Twelve slightly miffed men

Where to start? It's not often someone recounts their first racist attack, and makes you laugh, but such was the beauty of Benjamin Zephaniah's Rebel Rant last night, delivered softly spoken, with a blend of the personal and the poetic, that it didn't feel out of place. Hit on the back of the head with a brick when only 8 yrs of age, his attacker screaming at him to 'Go home you black bastard', the only part the young Zephaniah didn't understand, when he got home to his also black mother, was the word 'Bastard'. Though nervous about speaking Benjamin was on fine form. My favourite: why is it that the right-wing always rave on about Anglo-Saxons - the clue is in the words - two cultures, more than one, therefore, Multi. Over 300 people turned out for a great launch event for the festival. No surprise really. When the right-wing press (Daily Mail, I think) ran a headline asking 'Would you let your daughter marry this man?', after Benjamin had been awarded an honourary degree, he told us that while people in his home city were upset, and in London, angry, in Liverpool people turned out to demonstrate on his behalf and then invited him for a three year residency. He seems to like Liverpool. He likes classic cars too, but that's for another time.

I got home after a very busy day and was about to continue reading 'Dial M for Murdoch', The MP Tom Watson's book about the phone hacking scandal. Then I switched on the news, and, like the book had come to life, there was the Murdoch clan and hangers on getting their arses well and truly kicked by the House of Commons committee that has been conducting the inquiry into their behaviour. Forget about the Tory sideshow for a moment on their refusal to support the issue of their suitability for governance of major corporations, this is the real deal, and begs the question: they have admitted being involved in covering up illegal activity, therefore, why are they not under threat of arrest? Contrast their treatment with that of those rioting last year. Now don't get on your high horse, no-one here is condoning rioting, etc. regardless of their view on cause and effect, etc. You see, the real story here is not about Murdoch - he's been caught red-handed (talking about red, anyone seen Rebekah Wade anywhere?), the real story is the collusion of the Police. This ain't over....

One person last night pointed out the make up of the mayoral cadinates for Liverpool. All men, all white, all middle-aged. That's why, regardless of their politics, the mayoral election does not represent Liverpool - either its make up or its politics.

WoW is bang on the money right now with the issues being represented at the festival - phone hacking, Feral britiain, Piracy, etc. It's all there. Try not to miss out this time....

We are Sailing...

So, after months of trimming the gibbets, scrubbing the sails and polishing the deck (I know, easy to tell I'm really a land-lubber), the good ship WoW finally set sail on Saturday with a launch party on a Tall-Ship we comandeered just for the occasion.

Thanks go out to Cap'n Liam and his merry crew on the Stavros S Niarchos from Cap'n Mad (pictured) and her Motley Crue at WoW for ensuring that it was a smooth send off (Up until we hit Peter Kavanagh's, but that's another story). 

We press-ganged, sorry, were joined on board, by a couple of superb performers, including Jess Green, Sarah McLennan and, performing her specially written piece for the launch, Below Decks, the one and only, with a wig like a Xmas Tree, Julie McNamara. Great performances all round were met with great applause and calls for more and more rum, and that was just from Cap'n Mad.

Top prize for fancy dress go to the newly-wedded Captain Dan and First Mate Cal, with Paul J a close runner up (!). Arts Council Rep, Alison Boyle, sent us on our way with a merry wave and we sailed into the sunset with a...No, not really - they kicked us off at 9.30pm (The hardy crew of the Stavros were sailing at 6 the next morning), so we spent our shore-leave pay on grog and smokes and women a'plenty, and other illicit cargoes in PK's and a mysterious house in a south end park, and the rest we just wasted.

And so we begin tonight with the Rebel Rant of Benjamin Zephaniah and sail right on throughout May with words a plenty. There's still time to get on board, just check out the programme and apply for a boarding pass. The big question isn't, which events are you going to, the questions is, which ones do you dare to miss?

Another Hunt to bite the dust?

The Murdoch family really are the gift that keeps on giving. At yesterday's appearance at the Leveson Inquiry into Phone Hacking, James Murdoch, son of the cream cake dodging uber media magnate, Rubert, pretty much served up Culture Sectretary Jeremy Hunt on a plate. For now his advisor, Adam Smith, has fallen (been pushed) onto his sword, but whatever happened to 'Advisors advise, Ministers decide'? Surely Hunt too will fall within the next few days. The question must be asked - just how far up the chain does this collusion between the Tories and Murdoch go? The answer is simple - all the way to the very top. How far does knowledge of the phone hacking go? Again, all the way to the top. No doubt. I can't wait to hear from Tom watson MP.  You can keep up to date with Tom's stuff at his website, www.tom-watson.co.uk, but you can hear it directly from him and Rebecca Leighton the nurse falsely accused of murder and vilified by The Daily Mail when they speak at the WoW Festival on Sunday 13th May at The Black-E.

Achtung Antiques

Who would have thought that the NF had such a sense of humour? I opened Peter (So insignificant he's named himself after the shop he used to own) Quiggins' page in the Mayor manifestos and laughed out loud. Besides the usual nonsense of their 'manifesto' he talks about how the NF celebrate the 'friendliness' of Liverpool - this if from the guy who was on the emailing list of Norway's mass murderer Anders Breivek (According to the Liverpool Echo he refuses to discuss why he's on the list), and who is standing for one of the least friendliest parties ever - unless you're pure Aryan I imagine. Not too happy about him wanting to get rid of Festivals like Writing on the Wall, but pleased he's angry enough to want to, and I'm looking forward to his festival - Morris Dancing ahoy, I imagine. Bet all those fabulous young people, Goths, etc. who campaigned for Quiggins before Peter Q revealed himself, won't be going to it.

If you really want to know something about Multiculturalism, catch Benjamin Zephaniah at WoW, Tuesday 1st May, 7.30pm, St Georges Hall. Tickets available at www.writingonthewall.org.uk.

Sea Odyssey & Titanic - Slow Giants & Fast Ships

There have been and will be many events around Titanic this year, from the good, Sea Odyssey, the bad, ITV's appallingly written four-parter, and the ugly, The Adelphi's questionable building of a replica of the Titanic bow in their lobby with the offer of 'Kate and Leo' posed photo opportunities.

This weekend there will be a stunning spectacular in Liverpool, delivered by Nantes based street-theatre company who bring their giant marionettes to Liverpool for Sea Odyssey, a three day festival of hope and resurgance in commemoration of the centenary of the sinking of The Titanic and the loss of over 1500 lives.

The Sea Odyssey story is based on an unopened letter from a young girl in Kensington to her father, who never read the letter and never returned. The Spider in Liverpool in 2008 was pretty amazing, but Sea Odyssey, in my opinion, will rival The Olympics for spectacle as The Giant Girl's Uncle returns from the sea bringing the letters from Titanic that were never delivered.

Writing on the Wall participated in the letter-writing campaign, organisang workshops in Croxteth, Liverpool 8 and the City Centre. We were amazed by the amount of interest in the workshops, and how the issue encouraged people to become involved in creative writing. Some of those people, who had never written before, have gone on to enter our Flash Fiction 'At the End of the World' competition and to volunteer for Sea Odyssey and the Writing on the Wall Festival in May.

One aspect of this that some seem to have forgotten, is that this was a major tragedy, brought on by a number of issues/mistakes, etc. but compounded by the arrogance of wealth, a disregard for health and safety, and the desire for speed at all costs.

Writing on the Wall, with the Festival theme of 'Below Decks', is holding two events to explore the legacy of Titanic and its contemporary relevance.

On Tuesday 9th May Tony Wailey and Ian Morris discuss the arcane shipping laws, control, deference and voices of dissent aboard ocean going liners in '77 RPM – The Titanic, the Clock and the Dock', 7.30pm, The Casa, Hope Street.

On Friday 25th May at The Mersey Maritime Museum WoW presents'Titanic on Trial', a discussion with Frances Wilson, author of How To Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of Bruce Ismay (2011) and winner of the Rose Mary Crawshaw prize in 2009; Nic Compton, author of Titanic on Trial, former editor of Classic Boat magazine, photographer and author of several books on nautical subjects; Alan Scarth, former curator of the Titanic exhibition at the Maritime Museum and author of Titanic and Liverpool; and Steve Turner, author of The Band that Played On (2011). There will also be Ragtime music of the time played by the fabulous Liverpool-based, Corelli Quartet.

For anyone interested in the Titanic these two events, along with Sea Odyssey, really are unmissable.
You can find all details at www.writingonthewall.org.uk

Anders Breivik - self defence & Multiculturalism

Anders Breivik admits killing 77 people but pleads not guilty on the grounds of “pre-emptive self defence,”. I don't think he should be on a public trial in the way it is being conducted in Norway - to determine whether he should be jailed for life in a mainstream prison or in a mental institute.

He has pleaded guilty. Some form of panel of experts should deal with the rest. He is clearly loving his role and the resultant publicity. Being declared mentally unfit would rob him of his desire to claim some form of status as a political prisoner. I'd support anything that strips him of that delusion.

His argument that the young people he killed were targets because they, in the future, would have careers in the political spectrum where they too would exercise tolerance, is stunning, frightening and bizarre; a sick and tragic twist on the Philip K. Dick's Minority Report (or the Tom Cruise film if you prefer).

This issue looks set to be one of the most important of our time, more so as the economy stumbles from crisis to crisis. Here's an article whch deals with the issue in some detail: From Multiculturalism to Interculturalism: A Reply to the British Political Elite. And of course, you can come along to WoW's Rebel Rant, 'Multiculturalism or Muscular Liberalism' with Benjamin Zephaniah on Tuesday 1st May. Click here for details.

Patriotism and Scoundrels

Muscular Liberalism; a headline – grabber for Cameron, or a sea-change for relations in the UK?

David Cameron chose to reopen the debate on Multiculturalism with a speech espousing the new philosophy of ‘Muscular Liberalism’.

"Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism," the prime minister said.

Something else happened on that day – Saturday 5th February – The EDL, the right-wing fascist group which is almost interchangeable with the British National Party, was holding one of its biggest demonstrations in Luton.
A coincidence, or was Cameron doing the age-old pander by the Conservatives to to maintain their standing on the right-wing. Hard to believ that Cameron’s advisors at least weren’t aware of the demonstration. If they did, why wasn't some form of reference to it made in his speech? But no, not a word for them from Cameron; nothing about their non-Britishness, etc. Which once again makes it appear that Muslims are being singled out with the label of extremism, whilst publicly declared extremists walk the streets, with often Muscular protectionism from the Police (I know, cos I’ve been there).

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of Muslim youth group The Ramadhan Foundation, said: "The speech by British Prime Minister David Cameron MP fails to tackle the stooge of the fascists EDL and the BNP. Singling out Muslims as he has done feeds the hysteria and paranoia about Islam and Muslims.’

This is a live debate, and one that can have a deep impact upon the daily lives of all those living in the UK.

That’s why writing on the Wall, always keen to keep people informed of relevant, cutting edge issues, has invited one of the UK’s greatest poets, Benjamin Zephaniah, to deliver its 2012 festival Rebel Rant on ‘Multiculturalism or Muscular Liberalism’

Benjamin contacted us a couple of days ago after picking up on some of the news from Liverpool that there are three right-wing candidates standing for Mayor.

Benjamin writes:

‘I’m really looking forward to being back in Liverpool.  I was Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective back in 1987 and I have a real fondness for the city.  It’s kind of ironic that I will be speaking on Multiculturalism on the day of the Mayoral Elections.’

I understand there is a NF candidate, no doubt calling for British jobs for British people and all that rubbish.  Don’t  get me wrong I’m angry  at rising employment and the fact that a whole layer of young  people are being consigned to the scrap heap but immigration is not to blame.’

‘If people really understood the facts and the benefits of multiculturalism and what it’s done for this country they would know it’s a good thing. Can you imagine the NHS without immigration?  I accept that people are angry. So am I, but we need to focus that anger on the people who’ve caused the current economic mess with their infinite greed and not on each other.’

Join the debate with writing on the Wall and Benjamin Zephaniah on Tuesday 1st May at St Georges Hall, 7.30pm.

Venue: Small Concert Room, St Georges Hall
Tickets are available from
The Unity Theatre box office,
1 Hope Place,
L1 9BG
Tel: 0844 873 2888 or Click Here to buy online.

Flash Fiction - The End of the World

Just to prove the point that Writing on the Wall gets you published, every few days up to the Festival we are featuring a different Flash Fiction story from the entries to our competition. The competition, which will be judged by Mike Carey,  the writer of the Felix Castor novels, who also
completed critically acclaimed runs on X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four andLucifer, is open to all writers. The theme is 'The End of the World' and your story can only be a maximum of 500 words. Deadline date is 30th April. We've already had some fabulous entries and it'll be stiff competition for the prizes. You can read all the entries here:http://www.writingonthewall.org.uk/flash-fiction-submission.html

Laws of Nature

There is an immutable law known only to event organisers the world over. It goes like this: no matter how long you work on proof-reading a brochure, or any other form of printed promotional material (Fortunately law doesn't apply to digital world - except for Facebook posts), no matter that you pass it  around people in the office,  then email a couple of trustees, pass it on to a professional proof-reader and every employee in their company, cut up the brochure into individual events and assign each member of your family to one event, and they then cut it up further and assign their children, their children's children, and then their future children to each individual word and then each letter, then call in the guinness book of records and form a line of people to make the longest ever line-up of people proof-reading a brochure, then, once said record is established, you get the biggest ever photocopier and blow up each page and put in a call to NASA and the spacemen on the spacestation train the Hubble telescope upon the brochure and then beam it through space to a recently discovered planet habited only by the copy-proof people, who have a copy-reading King and Queen who are able to instantly assimilate all said data and send return copy back faster than the speed of light, which on its way is picked up by a choir of angels who put in a prayer to St Peter, who calls out the newly invented patron Saint of Copy-Proofing, St Canon of Epson, who not only proofs it but also passes it to the Holy Trinity, who then, along with you, all the staff and all the aformentioned people above, kneel in constant prayer and abstinence as the final proofs are signed off by the living spirit of Mother Nature herself, after she and every blade of grass have given it a final once over before sending it to the printers, no matter that you do all that, the law states that you will always, always, always discover, as soon as you open up the brochure, that there is a glaring error/mistake/balls up, that no-one from all of the above picked up on. There is a second law of nature known only to events organisers: as soon as you sign off a brochure and it is with or on its way back from the printers, someone either cancels, changes the details of their event, or wants to add something else, but that's another story.
MM

The Band That Played On

There are some moments when the past suddenly shines a light on to the present. I had such a moment while reading a fabulous book The Band That Played On, by Steve Turner, which incredibly is the first book ever written about the eight musicians that famously carried on playing on deck as the Titanic sank.

Or maybe it’s not so incredible. The eight musicians were just that; working musicians at a time when live music was still the only gig in town, before recorded music was portable and some way before the digital nirvana we are experiencing today. There were thousands of these violinists, cellists, pianists, etc; all, to one degree or another, talented, and certainly proficient. The musicians on Titanic had a songbook containing over three hundred numbers. Passengers would call for a song by its number and expect the band to know what the song was, hence the origin of the phrase ‘to play a number’. The book deals with the disagreements over what number the band were playing as the ship sank (Nearer My God To Thee comes out favourite, with Autumn a close second.), exactly where they played, etc., but one thing not in doubt is that they did actually play on as the ship sank, with finally only the violinist remaining before he too was swept to his death. A courageous act or one of folly? The press at the time made much of their heroism, but dissenting voices such as novelist, Joseph Conrad, and Playwright George Bernard Shaw, who argued that they played to pacify when urgency was required (Ragtime replaced by Hymns), and that it wasn’t heroic to die without resistance for another’s folly. Regardless, it’s still an extraordinary tale from an extraordinary event that threw up many such acts from an array of passengers who, upon realising that there were not enough lifeboats, chose to die with dignity rather than face what looked like certain death in the icy waters. The ship was going too fast in waters they had been warned were full of icebergs, there weren’t enough lifeboats, and some lifeboats pulled away half-empty with rich passengers bribing others so their boat wouldn’t turn back for survivors. But once your dead, well, we’re all equal then, aren’t we? Mmmm, well, no actually. You may know the survival rate drops off markedly from 1^st class to 3^rd and down to crew, but did you know that when the Mackay-Bennet, the ship charged with collecting and embalming the dead from the water, ran out of embalming fluid, they chose to collect only the bodies of the first class passengers and send the rest to a watery grave? And this is my point on the musicians. Leave aside that they played for 1^st class passengers; these were working men, and once their funerals had been held (thousands turned out for the funeral of the acknowledged leader of the musicians, Wallace Hartley, in Colne in Lancashire), who then was interested enough to invest time and money into following up their story? There was little glamour, or even trace of their lives, and the only real point of interest was in their collective final act. And this, I suppose, is my point, where the light shines on the present. The Titanic was a perfect floating mirror of the class system in Britain, and with a few shifts here and there, is probably still a pretty close representation of it today. And without making too crass a point, doesn’t the reaction of the wealthy today remind you of something? They were all in that boat together, but when it came to surviving the figures ‘show stark differences in the survival rates of the different classes aboard Titanic. Although only 3 per cent of first-class women were lost, 54 per cent of those in third class died. Similarly, five of six first-class and all second-class children survived, but 52 of the 79 in third class perished’. And today, unless they have some sort of sensational story, who is really interested in those at the bottom, struggling to keep their heads above water?

MM

Steve Turner will be appearing at ‘Titanic on Trial’, Friday 25^th May, Merseyside Maritime Museum. Click here for ticket details.