by Linda France, Jennifer Copley and Kath Kenny.

Jennifer Copley, BEANS IN SNOW

Childhood smells of gingerbread and hot porridge. It wears red shoes, glass slippers and seven league boots. And everyone lives happily ever after. But it is also a dark wood full of hungry giants, big bad wolves and child-sized ovens. Beans in Snow is a stunning exploration of the world of childhood, its consolations and cruelties, a book about growing up and our enduring
need for happy endings. Jennifer Copley has published two pamphlets, Ice (2002) and House by the Sea (2003), and a full length collection, Unsafe Monuments (2006).

Kathleen Kenny, HOLE

Kathleen Kenny was brought up in a family where her father and her brother never spoke to each other. Hole is the story of a lifelong struggle to understand the unspoken secrets contained in the silences of her childhood. Set against the changing landscape of the west end of Newcastle in the 1960s, it connects ‘the accidental fall from childhood’ to the violent demolition
of a working-class community. Kathleen Kenny’s previous collections include Sex & Death (Diamond Twig), Goosetales andother Flights (Koo Press), Sandblasting the Cave (Flarestack) and Firesprung (Red Squirrel Press).

Linda France, book of days

At the beginning of 2006, Linda France set herself the challenge of writing a renga verse every day for twelve months. Illustrated by Sue Dunne’s striking ceramic reliefs, book of days is concerned with paying attention to the world, natural and man-made, inside and out, the numinous and the everyday, in a time when the seasons are out of kilter. Linda France’s previous books include Red (1992), The Gentleness of the Very Tall (1994), Storyville (1997), The Simultaneous Dress (2002) and The Toast ofthe Kit Cat Club (2005).

The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Wednesday 28 October, 7pm. Free. All welcome