Category: Uncategorized

The launch of Richard Whittingham’s biography  Terence Keyes: Imperial Disguises will be held 6 – 8pm on Monday 21 October at the Morris Hall, Shrewsbury. This very well-researched book  is an account of the life of a remarkable soldier, diplomat and secret agent who devised a scheme to overthrow the Bolshevik regime.

During the summer of 1919, the White Movement came within two hundred miles of Moscow and the overthrow of the Leninist regime was widely anticipated and yet, in less than a year, White resistance was effectively over. Terence Keyes was one of the major players in the British Government’s involvement in the murky world of regime change. He knew many of the most colourful characters at this pivotal moment in twentieth century history and had secret dealings with Lenin himself.

Bob Fowke, Managing Editor at YouCaxton, will be chairing a workshop at the Knighton Literary Festival on Saturday 2 November at the Public Library. The workshop will provide a brief introduction to the pleasures and pitfalls of self-publishing and there will be plenty of time for further discussion and questions over coffee afterwards.

Details: from 10.00-10.45 am, Saturday 2 November, at Knighton Public Library.

YouCaxton are holding a self-publishing workshop at the Stratford Literary Festival, 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm on Friday 3 May, at the Stratford Playhouse. It’s called ‘Self-Publishing – a Useful Map’ and it’s led by Bob Fowke. YouCaxton’s Managing Editor. The workshop will give a useful introduction to the various stages of self-publishing, including marketing, design, editing and printing. The fee is £10 (£8.00 for students).

Writer Richard Hawkins has joined YouCaxton to provide a new service of advice and editing for screenplays. The service includes an honest and objective professional critique of the work, editorial support, script development and formatting, so that presentations are up to a professional standard and maximise their chance of going forward to production.

Richard has worked as a writer and producer since the late 1980s with several critically acclaimed productions to his name, including on Broadway. His first screenplay, the internationally successful The Theory of Flight, was co-produced by both the BBC and Miramax and directed by Paul Greengrass (Bourne Ultimatum, Captain Philips). It starred Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter. Richard has also worked closely alongside the acclaimed Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love, Aida).

His own directorial debut came with the enormously well received Everything, starring Ray Winstone, which quickly became a cause celebre on the festival circuit, heralded by the Sydney Film festival as ‘The perfect model for budget feature making’ – and went on to win several international awards and a prestigious BAFTA nomination for Richard himself.
‘Everything is boldly conceived and executed, the kind of film British cinema needs more of.’ The Daily Telegraph
‘A highly promising feature debut … truthful, perceptive and moving.’ The Observer

Richard has worked recently as a creative adviser for China’s emerging film industry, playing a critical role in the establishment of several on-going, long-term relationships between American and Chinese studios. He also gives support as a specialist acting coach, taking both new and established stars and working them through various castings and/or preparing them for particular film roles. Actors worked with include Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomi Harris, Domonic Cooper, Stephen Mangan, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Ed Skrein, Danny Dyer, to name but a few.