All posts by Bob Fowke

Book Review, News

George Orwell Daily Mail

Review of a revised biography of George Orwell by D.J. Taylor in the Daily Mail:

‘Taylor was already the acknowledged expert on George Orwell, thanks to his Whitbread Award-winning Orwell: The Life in 2003. Since then, he has discovered new letters written by Orwell and his first wife, Eileen, stashed away in various attics, hinting at previously unknown interludes, such as his possible extra-marital love affairs with his old flame Brenda Salkeld, to whom he continued to write passionately long after his marriage, and with the novelist Inez Holden — hence this New Life, 120 pages longer than the first one.’

Self-Publishing town

Shropshire’s Covid Year

 

We’re planning a book based on the personal anecdotes of Shropshire people during the Coronavirus epidemic – tales of lock-down and of resiliance, of survival. to be published in March 2021.

Shropshire’s Covid Year will not be about medical disaster, sadness or bereavement although there’s been some of that; we’re looking for tales of triumph over adversity, of humour and of how some people found ways to get by. We’re talking stolen kisses, escaped otters, love among the bike sheds, ghost choirs, badgers around the brazier, football by moonlight.

The editorial committee is holding its first meeting on Thursday and we’ll be looking for submissions shortly.

Book Review

Self isolation

Self isolation and writing sound almost like a tautology but writers are among the most gregarious of creatures. A couple of hours intense concentration then down the pub or the cafe or some other location where we can meet people. Perhaps the solution, now that a solitary life is imposed on us, is to have two books on the go, one a novel or some such very creative endeavour and another that depends more on research and organisation of the material. Here at YouCaxton we’ll be happy to offer advice and support.

 

Events

Self-Publishing Workshop Stafford

Bob Fowke, YouCaxton’s Managing Editor, will be hosting a workshop on self-publishing in Stafford Public Library on 13th May, 7.00-9.00 pm. With him will be Shirley McLellan of Perfect Proof, our associate editor.

 

This will be an opportunity to learn about all aspects of self-publishing from completing your manuscript to decisions about design and layout, through to publication and the final print-ready files. There will be a series of short presentations with plenty of opportunity for questions. If you have written a book or you are in the process of writing one, do come along.

 

Topics to be covered:

1. Editing and why it matters. 2. Preparing the manuscript and thinking about the niche, 3. Design, layout and print-ready files, 4. Printing, publication and ISBNs, 6. Distribution through Amazon, online sales, and bookshops, 7. eBooks, 8. Pricing your book.

 

Free. To reserve a place please contact:
email: Stafford.library@staffordshire.gov.uk or telephone 01785 278351.

 

Events

Opium & Pagodas – Talk

Bob Fowke, YouCaxton’s Managing Editor, will be giving a  talk entitled Opium & Pagodas Aspects of life in 18th Century India at the Church Barn, Bishop’s Castle, Sunday 23rd February at 2.00 pm,  admission free.

 

In July 1775, Maharaja Nuncomar and Joseph Fowke were tried in Calcutta for conspiracy against Governor Warren Hastings. Nuncomar was hanged for a parallel offence; Joseph got off with a fine of fifty rupees. Two years later, Philip Francis, Hastings’s chief opponent on the Council and a friend of Joseph, was caught in flagrante with a ladder beneath the bedroom of beautiful Mrs Grand, who went on to marry Prince Tallyrand while he was foreign minister to Napoleon. Two years after that, Francis challenged Hastings to a duel but neither man knew how to shoot a pistol and Francis was wounded but survived. In the meantime, Joseph gambled away his second fortune and sailed for home, having sold his Stradivarius cello and complaining about the new-fangled music of Haydn.

 

Life for British residents in Calcutta in the late eighteenth century was incestuous but colourful. Bob Fowke explores some aspects of this exotic world in his illustrated talk.

 

East India Company

Duel between Warren Hastings and Philip Francis

In 1773, Parliament passed the Regulating Act: in return for a loan of £1.4 million, the East India Company agreed to accept a Governor General appointed by Parliament and Warren Hastings was appointed to the post. In addition, the Regulating Act called for the appointment of three counsellors whose job was to oversee the Governor General. Unfortunately, these cousellors were hostile to Hastings from the start, in particular Philip Francis (lover of Mrs Grand see previous email, re ladders against windows and Prince Talleyrand). Francis sought to undermine Hastings’s authority at  every opportunity.

 

By  May 1780, Hastings had had enough. He decided that it had to be death or victory. He insulted Francis in a memorandum  to the Council; Francis took the bait and challenged Hastings to a duel.

 

At 5.30 am on 16th August the two principle members of the Calcutta Council met in the grey light of morning on the Alipur Road, both middle-aged, neither of them with much interest in exercise or fighting. Francis had never fired a pistol before and Hastings could remember doing so ‘only once or twice’. Their seconds measured fourteen paces. Hastings defered his fire while Francis misfired twice. The third time they both fired simultaneously. Francis narrowly missed but Hastings’s bullet struck Francis on the right side and lodged under his left shoulder blade. Francis called out ‘I’m dead’ and fell to the ground.

 

‘Good God, I hope not!’ Hastings called back and hurried over. Having checked on the damage, he rushed home in his palanquin and sent for the surgeon general and his own doctor. Philip Francis staged a remarkably swift recovery but he left for England that December.

 

 

 

News

Stratford Herald review

It’s Not About Shakespeare, Aspects of Ordinary Life in Stratford-upon-Avon 1775-1915 by Val Horton, published by YouCaxton Publications, has received a long and favourabel review in the Stratford Herald:

 

‘Prepare to be transfixed by chapters on slavery, insurrection, the workhouse, education, housing, suffragettes and more  … We tend to think the past is largely about strong men dominating the scene but strong women are also key in this tale and, of course, some of the financial details are fascinating – seeing how much landmark buildings once cost and realising that  the seemingly trifling sums quoted are considerable in today’s terms.

Indeed, the house that started it all was sold for the first time, a few years old, for £450 in May 1911 and in 1930 reached the giddy heights of £650 when it was sold again. But we’re drifting again into the detail.

Let’s just say this is the kind of book that is certain to add to what most of us will know of Stratford’s past, linking every aspect of life across the years. As others have said, it is brilliantly researched at the treasure trove that is the birthplace trust’s archives, with some of the evidence coming from past editions of the Herald.’