Birkenhead Priory; Talk by Colin Simpson 21st October 2011

Birkenhead Priory: Talk by Colin Simpson
3.00 - 4.00pm
21st October 2011
Wallasey Central Library
Earlston Road
CH45 5DX

Talk on Birkenhead's oldest standing building by Colin Simpson, Williamson Art Gallery.

Birkenhead Priory is in Priory Street, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It is the oldest standing building on Merseyside. The remains of the priory are a Grade I listed building[2] and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It was founded about 1150 by Hamon de Masci, 3rd Baron of Dunham Massey for the Benedictine Order.

The Priory was visited twice by Edward I due to its strategic importance being close to the borders of Wales, and also the Irish Sea.

In 1318 the monks from Birkenhead Priory were granted ferry rights by Edward II. This allowed them to build a house in what is now Water Street to store their corn. The house was also used by travellers for shelter if the weather was too bad for the ferry to cross the River Mersey.
The priory's chapter house is consecrated as an Anglican church, and is still used for services. There is a chapel dedicated to the training ship HMS Conway. There is also a museum detailing the history of the site. The chapter house is a Grade II listed building and contains items of Norman architecture. In 2005 the chapter house was restored.

St Mary's Tower was originally part of Birkenhead's first parish church, opened in 1821 in the grounds of the priory. It is a Grade II listed building. Wikipedia

Aileen La Tourette 1st November 2011

Aileen La Tourette
Free
6.30pm
1st November 2011
Wallasey Central Library
Earlston Road
CH45 5DX

Join author Aileen La Tourette in the launch of her new novel The Saint Machine.

AILEEN LA TOURETTE was born in the USA but moved to England over 35 years ago where she currently lectures in Imaginative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University. She has written two books of poetry, Touching Base (2006, Headland Publications) and Downward Mobility (2004); two books of short stories, Oral History (2007) and, with Sara Maitland, Weddings and Funerals (1983); and two previous novels, Nuns and Mothers (1984) and Cry Wolf (1986). She has also written plays for BBC Radio 4 including, My Darling, My Darling, My Life and My Bride, a play about the death of Edgar Allen Poe. Ilura Press

Jane Costello Talk 22nd September 2011

Jane was a newspaper journalist for many years before she became an author, working on titles including the Liverpool Echo – where she started as a graduate trainee – and the Daily Mail.

Until 2007, she was the Editor of the Liverpool Daily Post, a job she held for more than four years. Jane wrote her first novel, Bridesmaids, while on maternity leave and, as well as becoming an instant bestseller, was nominated for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance.

She followed that up with The Nearly-Weds, which was named by the Romantic Novelists’ Association as Romantic Comedy of the Year 2010.

Jane’s books are now sold around the world and translated into fifteen different languages. She recently returned to the city of her birth, Liverpool, where she lives with her two young sons.

She is currently working on a fifth book. Jane Costello.com

Della Robbia Talk by Colin Simpson 20th September 2011

6.30 - 7.30pm
20th September 2011
Wallasey Central Library
Earlston Road
Wallasey
CH45 5DX

A free talk by Colin Simpson, Williamson Art Gallery.

The Della Robbia Pottery was a ceramic factory founded in 1894 in Birkenhead, England. The business was started by Harold Steward Rathbone and Conrad Gustave d'Huc Dressler (1856-1940). Rathbone, son of a wealthy local business man, Philip Rathbone, had been a pupil of Ford Madox Brown, who was one of the founders of the Arts and Crafts movement. Dressler was a sculptor, potter and also inventor of the continuous firing tunnel kiln. Giovanni Carlo Valentino Manzoni also joined the pottery in early 1894, leaving to establish his own pottery, the Minerva Art Ware Manufacturers in Hanley in July 1895. Manzoni returned to the pottery in June 1898, staying until its closure in 1906.

The pottery was established as a true Arts & Crafts pottery on the lines advocated by William Morris, using local labour and raw materials such as local red clay from Moreton, Wirral. The pottery had lustrous lead glazes and often used patterns of interweaving plants, typical of Art Nouveau, with heraldic and Islamic motifs. Read more on Wikipedia

A large collection of Della Robbia pottery can be seen at the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead.

Michael Carson Talk 5th September 2011

6.00 - 7.00pm
5th September 2011
Wallasey Central Library
Earlston Road
Wallasey
CH45 5DX

An opportunity to meet one of New Brighton's best known writers as we await the publication of his latest book about his character Benson.

Michael Carson is the pen name of British author Michael Wherly. He is best known for his Benson trilogy of novels, about a young man growing up Catholic and homosexual.

Carson was born in 1946 in Wallasey, in the north-west of England. He was brought up a devout Catholic.

After attending Aberystwyth and Oxford universities, and training at International House World Organisation in London, he spent twenty years teaching English as a Foreign Language primarily in the Arab world. He has lectured in writing at Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Liverpool and the University of Lancaster. He mentors for Crossing Borders, a project to encourage African writers. Carson won the Writers Inc prize in 2006 for his story All over the Place. He has also worked as a lifeguard.

Carson released a collection of short stories in 1993, Serving Suggestions, published by Victor Gollancz (ISBN 0-552-99586-X), which includes "The Punishment of Luxury". A further collection of short stories, The Rule of Twelfths, was published by Headland in May 2008.[4] Fifty short stories by Michael Carson have also featured on BBC Radio Four. Wikipedia

Michael Carson's books include:

Sucking Sherbet Lemons ISBN 0-552-99348-4
Stripping Penguins Bare ISBN 0-552-99465-0
Yanking Up The Yoyo ISBN 0-552-99524-X
Friends and Infidels ISBN 0-552-99380-8
Coming Up Roses ISBN 0-552-99421-9
Demolishing Babel ISBN 0-385-40431-X
Dying in Style ISBN 1-853-71817-3
Hubbies ISBN 1-853-71678-2
The Knight of the Flaming Heart ISBN 0-385-40651-7

All the above books are available to borrow at the Library. My tip is to start with the original Benson trilogy - Sucking Sherbet Lemons, Stripping Penguins Bare and Yanking Up The Yoyo.

'Irresistible' The Guardian. 'Makes you want to cheer' The New Yorker. 'A Gay Adrian Mole...the funniest novel I've read all year' Simon Callow. 'This book will always be a reminder to me of the courage of purpose, the futility of the oppressor, and, above all, the power of laughter' Michael Cashman, MEP. 'One of the freshest voices on the current scene.' The Literary Review.