Kay Syrad Blog

CUCKMERE WINTER WRITING WORKSHOP

2011-12-11T08:10:00.001-08:00

‘…what lies before me is immense, a glittering and shining expanse, both limit and release…’ (from Thomas A. Clark’s In Praise of Walking). On 3rd December I ran a writing workshop at the beautiful and iconic number 5, Coastguard Cottages, overlooking the Seven Sisters at Cuckmere Haven.The day began with a look at how other writers have been inspired by landscape and the sea. Then we went go out to explore the beach and grassland, gathering ideas, taking notes. It was low tide, so we were able to cross the river and walk under the cliffs. After a delicious lunch cooked by Robb and Lucy who live at the Cottage, the 12 writers looked out to sea and wrote haiku, poetic sequences and prose, which later they read by candlelight round the fire. What everyone produced was startling in its clarity. One of the participants described it afterwards as 'a truly magnificent day'. I'll be running similar workshops next year, in March, June, September and December. For more details and booking, email cuckmerecottage@gmail.com

2011-09-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

I'm running a Creative Writing course at the lovely independent KEMPTOWN BOOKSHOP in Brighton.Tuesdays 7 – 9pm - 10 weeks -starting 20th September, no class at half term (25th Oct), finish on 29th November. It will be an open and friendly course where you will be able to explore the essentials of good fiction writing such as the dynamics of a sentence, story, plot, characterisation, point of view, and using your senses to bring your writing to life. The two hour sessions will comprise both a taught element and time for people to read and get feedback on their own work. Phone the bookshop on 01273 682110 to book your place - hurry!http://www.kemptownbookshop.co.uk/

ART IN TOUCH

2011-06-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

I've been collaborating with an artists' collective, ART IN TOUCH, writing the catalogue essay for their exhibition at the Crypt Gallery, under St. Pancras Church in Euston Road, London. See http://www.artintouch.co.uk/

ARTS & CIVIL SOCIETY - A CONFERENCE REPORT

2011-02-01T02:32:00.000-08:00

See my article on the National Association for Literature Development site (www.nald.org), for all the exciting links, and the CODA on language.

The Milliner and the Phrenologist

2010-12-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

'A truly singular piece of writing...the rhythms and diction are never less than vital and springy, and often they soar into passages of real beauty. The characters, the wit, the convincing historicity...high-aiming, high-achieving craftsmanship...'
Julian Bell, artist and writer

'I have read your book with great enthusiasm. It is extremely different from most other novels. Your style is distinctive and deserves recognition.'
The late Beryl Bainbridge

'...could not put it down - delighting in the taste of every sentence - was totally inhabited by its world - strange magical intense and so beautifully constructed - poignant - it has filled me with images and dreams.'
Miranda Tufnell, dancer and choreographer

These are just some of the many positive comments that have been made about The Milliner and the Phrenologist. Perhaps one of your friends or family would like a copy for Christmas? And if a few more are sold Cinnamon Press might be able to print a second edition next year.

Buy a copy from http://www.cinnamonpress.com/ or http://www.amazon.co.uk/ or Waterstones or your independent bookshop.

HEAD TO HEAD - literary event

2010-03-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

Eastbourne Festival - Wednesday 7th April, 7.30pm - Eastbourne Central Library

Kay Syrad and Mick Jackson, Booker-shortlisted for The Underground Man will read from their novels and talk about the process of writing and their fascination with the eccentricities of Victorian England.

www.mickjackson.com

Doors open 7pm. £3.00 (refreshments included) Tickets from Library (0345 60 80 196)

or online at www.leweslivelit.co.uk

Phrenology at the Wellcome Foundation IDENTITY show

2009-11-23T02:04:00.001-08:00

The Milliner and the Phrenologist –
posing questions of identity.

An exhibition at the Wellcome Trust opens this week to grapple with the vast subject of identity – what makes us who we are. One room is dedicated to Franz Joseph Gall, a pioneer in the Victorian pseudo-science of phrenology; pursued with the serious aim of trying to discover where character was to be found. By measuring the skull, every shape was thought to reveal personality traits from creativity to aggression, even criminality and the extent to which someone could be deemed normal, or not.

This fascinating exhibition coincides with the launch of The Milliner and the Phrenologist, a remarkable debut novel by Kay Syrad, which taps into our present fascination with IDENTITY through the story of Alice Heapy and John Motton, milliner and phrenologist in 1860s London: a period of discovery, competing ideas and rigid social hierarchy. Intrigued and astonished by their encounter, the characters come under each other’s exacting and increasingly hostile gaze only to reveal, and attempt to conceal, their own characters. Playing out ferocious Victorian tensions between social classes, men and women, science and art, faith and reason that persist today the book is a witty commentary on identity, drawing the reader into its sensuous imagery and subtle humour, eager to know where it will lead.

Jan Fortune-Wood, editor and founder of Cinnamon Press, a dynamic small press that started five years ago and which has seen several books short listed for or awarded prestigious prizes, said that everyone at Cinnamon is thrilled to have published The Milliner and the Phrenologist. ‘This is a fantastic book. The characters of Alice Heapy, a gifted craftswoman struggling with her own past and character, and John Motton, the outwardly confident, but ultimately flawed phrenologist, are brilliantly observed human studies, full of vibrancy and wit. Identity is at the heart of this novel and the questions it poses are as live today as they were for our Victorian counterparts. It’s an exciting, humane book that deals with important issues, but is also a real page-turner.’

For review copies or to arrange interviews or readings contact Kay Syrad through her web site or email mike@cinnamonpress.com

Cinnamon Press,
Meirion House,
Glan yr afon,
Tanygrisiau,
Blaenau Ffestiniog,
Gwynedd,
LL41 3SU.
01766 832112

author photo © Katie Vandyck

Title: The Milliner and the Phrenologist, Author: Kay Syrad
Extent: 176 pp paperback, ISBN: 978-1-905614-71-4
Price: £8.99 www.cinnamonpress.com
ENDS

News, events, poems

2009-10-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

“Registering their flora,/their fauna”*

(from Elizabeth Bishop, Crusoe in England)

The fog-harvesting beetle has smooth, peaked surfaces
with troughs of water-repelling wax –
it tilts its back and water-droplets roll into its mouth;

the larvae of the stag beetle live inside dead oak for five years;
in the iridescent blue beetle the scales are stacked,
layer upon layer, light accumulating;

only in polarised moonlight can the dung beetle
roll its ball in a straight line;
and the water-beetle carries fish eggs on its fins:

and so she makes you wait,
her colours placed, geometry in the fold-up
chairs in lantern light - two different lanterns, the lights

swinging, and there - the rose red rock roses;
listening, and waiting, not even waiting – until all
the winged Madeira beetles have been blown out to sea.

© Kay Syrad

First published in Poetry Review, Vol.99:2, Summer 2009

The poem is also a prize winner in the 2009 Second Light

Poetry Competition, judged by Pauline Stainer.