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 From Montserrat to Charing Cross ... tales told with nimble feet and a quicksilver fluency

On Monday 31 October Tindal Street launched its 26th fiction title in the heart of London’s bookland. At Foyles distinguished poet E. A. Markham entertained guests with readings from Meet Me in Mozambique.

In these lovely intertwined stories, which reflect the energy of a restless globe-trotter, Markham takes his readers to Uganda, Beijing, Budapest, the south of France, London, too – and, of course, Mozambique. And, in a neat sidestep, to St Caesare – an invented twin island for the author’s birthplace of Montserrat. Spun from incident, observation and international adventures, Meet Me in Mozambique sparkles with literary audacity and challenges with its unconventional tough-mindedness.

There was an appreciative audience of writers, publishers, friends, family and diplomats from Montserrat – including Maggie Gee, Ferdinand Dennis, Margaret Busby, Mimi Khalvati, plus designer Jonny Hannah (in an outfit nearly as dapper as the author’s own). Markham read from Meet Me in Mozambique and answered questions with anecdotes about growing up in 1950s London, the intricacies of contemporary geopolitics and the pleasures or otherwise of exile. He spoke on the difference between ‘personal’ and ‘autobiographical’ in fiction – as he articulated what his mother’s thoughts could have been when, one day in her Kilburn home, she literally came face-to-face with Oswald Mosley.

Before the Foyles event, a meet-the-author reception was held at Birmingham W1, the London office of Birmingham City Council, located at Egyptian House, Piccadilly. This new facility – designed to showcase excellence from Birmingham for London clients – is managed by the NEC Group and by BCC. In this smart Piccadilly setting between the Ritz and Green Park, guests congratulated Archie on his 20th title, Meet Me in Mozambique.

E. A. Markham is available for interview. Contact Emma Hargrave (0121 773 8157 or emma@tindalstreet.co.uk) for information or to request a review copy.

Gallery 37: prints into writing into print

Gallery 37 is a city centre community arts project, modelled on a scheme in Chicago and staged by the Arts Team of BCC. This year, its seventh, Gallery 37 has included three 3-week workshops based at Island House in Eastside, where groups of young people and over-55s have the chance to surprise themselves by exploring their artistic and creative skills in a workshop setting led by two professional artists.
For three weeks in August, 17 adults in the over-55 age group worked with visual artist John Hammersley and writer Kavita Bhanot in creative writing and print making workshops focused on narrative and objects. A 56-page booklet, prints into writing into print, contains complete stories and micro-fictions by many of the participants, with a selection of prints made from objects. An exhibition at the Ikon Gallery comprised a slide sequence of prints, a sheaf of stories accompanied by the writers’ spoken recordings of them, with headphones. The stories and prints were also displayed in Island House, with photographs and text documenting the project.
The starting point for the project was two exhibitions at the Ikon Gallery, prints by nineteenth-century artist Max Klinger and woodcuts and videos from Christiane Baumgartner, a contemporary artist. Both are from Leipzig, a German city twinned with Birmingham. The Klinger prints provided particular scope for narrative speculations, taking a sinister and sometimes surrealistic turn.
Alan Mahar of Tindal Street Press assisted in planning the project with Saira Holmes of the Ikon Gallery, Tom Jones of UCE, Bournville, and Helen Tomkins of Gallery 37. He advised and supported John and Kavita, and presented a writing workshop. Kavita is a Tindal Street Press author, with her story ‘One Last Time’ published in Whispers in the Walls (2001). For her current novel-in-progress she is being mentored by prize-winning author Hari Kunzru.
This is the second time Tindal Street Press have collaborated with Ikon and UCE for Gallery 37. Last summer Polly Wright was the lead writer in a successful collaboration which produced a booklet of poems and fragments, memory boxes focused on personal objects and an exhibition of written-on furniture. This year’s participants and organisers hope that this creative partnership for Tindal Street Press with the visual arts world continues next year.