saturday night & sunday morning by alan sillitoe

He was most fond of his poems, which made him the least money. The thing that Alan was proudest of, I think, was that he had always managed to make his living as a writer.

The writing life is an uneven, precarious one. If anybody had told me, 25 years ago, (when I was teaching his short stories to my lower band fifths at Rushcliffe Comp and living in the Radford streets that he wrote about) that I would have an evening like that, I would have been astounded and delighted. We exchanged novels and he later wrote me a lovely note about The Pretender, which means a great deal to me.Īfterwards, I took him out to dinner at the Larwood and Voce by Trent Bridge cricket ground, where we talked about the writing life.

The last time we met was when he came to speak to my MA group at Nottingham Trent University last year (the photo above was taken just before the fine talk that he gave). I met him a couple of times that year and he was always friendly and supportive to me after that. I first met Alan when I persuaded him to write a short story for an anthology I edited called City Of Crime in the 90’s. It’s an interesting, varied schedule and I look forward to attending. Speakers include Alan’s son, David, novelists Gwen Grant, John Harvey and D.J.Taylor, plus readings from Alan’s poetry. The full programme for next Saturday’s Celebration of Alan Sillitoe is now online and there are still places available for the event, which will be in Nottingham’s Council House.

Saturday night & sunday morning by alan sillitoe