A Manchester Circuit

A busy couple of days: on Monday worked pretty solidly on finishing my preparations for the University of Salford reading and workshop and then in the evening went to see Michéle Roberts give a talk at the University of Manchester's new writing school. I met a surprising number of acquaintances both from the live and virtual worlds: Jenny Newman and her partner Dave Evans, Patricia Duncker, Elizabeth Bains (all of these novelists) and Alison Leonard - a children's novelist and now working on a adult's novel, and Fran, a very pleasant MA student at Manchester Metropolitan University. It was good and made me feel part of something, somehow...



Michéle Roberts seems to have had quite a life; when she was a young struggling writer she used to live in a commune in London and was generally impoverished - and in 'pre-AIDS' London had many sexual adventures. I felt very boring in comparison. My only similarity was living in relative poverty (although only relative to my life now and not in comparison with most of the people in the world). Michéle Roberts was determined to write come what may. I admired her bravery. I suppose I was more scared and cautious - always taking a more sensible route 'just in case'. She was told it was about time she wrote her memoirs and so she has; they are collected in a book called PAPER HOUSES - an inspirational read for aspiring novelists.

Then today I went to the University of Salford ('a greater Manchester University'). To make this journey I (rather ludicrously) had to catch three different trains and a tram each way - a total journey time of five hours - and it is only about fifty miles away! However it was worth it. The students were very receptive and I enjoyed talking to them and teaching them very much. They came up with some really good ideas.