The Writers’ Toolkit 2011 – Speaker Details
The Writers’ Toolkit 2011 – Speaker Biographical Details
Aysha Afridi – Relationship Manager, Learning, Arts Council England, West Midlands
Aysha Afridi is the Relationship Manager Learning at Arts Council England, West Midlands. Her role is to work with arts organisations, local authorities and other sectors to help develop work for, by and with children and young people across the region. Before working at ACE, Aysha worked at a number of museums and art galleries in both the UK and America, focusing on participation and engagement with socially excluded groups, obtaining an MA in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester in 2006. Aysha is passionate about arts engagement, and has a keen interest in the development of work for young audiences across the cultural sector.
Chris Arnot – Writer & Journalist
Chris Arnot has been a national freelance journalist for over 20 years, working mainly for the Guardian but also contributing to the Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Observer and – briefly – Radio 4. Last year he co-wrote The Archers Archives for BBC Books with script-writer Simon Frith, and last month (October 20) his book on Britain’s Lost Cricket Grounds was published by Aurum Press. Chris was born in Birmingham, went to university in Lancaster and worked in London and Nottingham before moving back to the West Midlands in the early ‘80s as features editor and columnist on the Coventry Telegraph. As a freelance, he has gone up in the world. His office has moved from a garden shed to an en-suite loft. www.chrisarnot.co.uk
Jenn Ashworth - Writer & Mentor, The Writing Smithy
Jenn Ashworth set up the Writing Smithy – an editing and mentoring service for prose writers and poets – in partnership with the poet Sarah Hymas at the beginning of this year. She is also a novelist – her first novel A Kind of Intimacy was published in 2009 and won a Betty Trask Award. Her second, Cold Light was out earlier this year. In 2011 she was featured on the BBC’s Culture Show as one of the UK’s twelve best new novelists. www.writingsmithy.co.uk www.jennashworth.co.uk
Jo Bell – Writer & Director, National Poetry Day
Jo Bell pops up all over the UK poetry scene. She is a poet, project manager, producer and promoter. Since 2006 she has directed National Poetry Day in the UK. This year she was the co-programmer of Ledbury Poetry Festival, the UK’s largest, with Jonathan Davidson. She has been a poet in residence for Glastonbury Festival and for the Royal Derby Hospital. Jo produces and performs in poetry shows including Fourpenny Circus, nominated for the Ted Hughes Award in 2010, and is currently working on a production called Riverlands with the storyteller Jo Blake. She was the co-creator with David Calcutt of the eavesdropping/ writing project Bugged and is poetry editor at the online journal, Word Gumbo. www.jobell.org.uk
Cathy Bolton – Director, Manchester Literature Festival
Cathy Bolton is the director of Manchester Literature Festival. She completed an MA in Writing at Sheffield Hallam University in 2009 and her poetry collection A Fool’s Height Short of Heaven won the Hallam Ictus Prize. Her poems and short stories have been published in a wide range of literary journals and anthologies.
Ruth Borthwick – Director, The Arvon Foundation
Ruth Borthwick is the newly appointed National Director of Arvon. She was won over by Arvon when she went to Lumb Bank in 1997 to be tutored by Jenny Uglow and Hermione Lee, and the experience still sings. Ruth was formerly Head of Literature & Talks at Southbank Centre where she worked with the world’s finest writers, including Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney, Doris Lessing, Toni Morrison, VS Naipaul, Harold Pinter and Derek Walcott. She’s also worked as a commissioning editor, and is Poetry Editor for the journal Soundings, a board member of Wasafiri and on the steering committee of The Complete Works, a mentoring scheme for Black and Asian poets.
Luke Brown – Senior Editor, Tindal Street Press
Luke Brown is Senior Editor at Tindal Street Press, who have a reputation for publishing prize-winning literary debuts, such as Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost. In 2011 Tindal Street Press have published two number one Amazon and Kindle bestsellers.
Wes Brown – Information Manager, National Association of Writers in Education
Wes Brown is a 25 year old writer and critic based in Leeds. He works freelance as Information Manager for the National Association of Writers in Education and the National Association of Literature Development. He is the Editorial Director of the Arts Council funded Dead Ink, a digital publishing press, and Arts and Culture Editor at Politics on Toast. He has worked as a bookseller and founded The Cadaverine, a digital literature project for the under 25s. Wes’s poetry, short stories and reviews have appeared online and in print. Including Route Compendium, Poetcasting, Culture Wars and Aesthetica. His debut novel, Shark, was published in 2010 by Dog Horn.
Jane Commane – Poet, Writing Tutor & Co-editor of Nine Arches Press
Jane Commane was born in Coventry in 1983 and is a poet, editor and writing tutor. She is Co-editor of Nine Arches Press and Under the Radar magazine. She has taught poetry in numerous community workshops in a variety of interesting settings, including at the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth and along the River Avon. Jane has also worked in museums education and in archive conservation since 2005. She has been most recently published in Best British Poetry 2011 (Salt Publishing) and in various magazines, including Horizon Review, Tears in the Fence, Iota, Anon, Litter and Hand +Star.
Bernie Corbett – General Secretary, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
Bernie Corbett is a British trade unionist and former journalist. He has been General Secretary of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain since 2000. Bernie has been chief sub-editor of The Guardian (London) and chief features sub-editor of The Independent (London). Throughout his journalistic career Bernie was an activist in the National Union of Journalists and remains an expert on the UK media and an experienced negotiator with all the main newspaper and broadcasting organisations. In his role as General Secretary of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain he conducts extensive negotiations with the BBC, ITV, independent producers, theatre managers and others. He covers TV, film, radio, new media and print publishing. Bernie is a skeptical humanist and lives in unfashionable South-East London. www.writersguild.org.uk
Helen Cross – Writer
Helen Cross writes novels, stories, plays and scripts. She is the author of three novels, including the award-winning ‘My Summer of Love’, and most recently ‘Black Coffee Spilt Milk’ (Bloomsbury 2010), which she is currently adapting for the screen. Her latest play for radio is a drama-documentary, ‘Blue-Eyed Boy’, which was broadcast in November 2010 on Radio 4. Her original screenplay, ‘Stratford Road’, is scheduled to begin filming in Birmingham shortly, directed by Emily Young. www.bloomsbury.com/authors/details.aspx?tpid=522
Jonathan Davidson – Chief Executive, Writing West Midlands
Jonathan Davidson is Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands and Director of Midland Creative Projects Limited. He is on the Arts Policy Committee of the Belgrade Theatre and the Board of Artspace (both in Coventry). www.writingwestmidlands.org www.midlandcreative.co.uk
Steve Dearden – Director, National Association for Literature Development
Steve Dearden is the Director of NALD, the National Association for Literature Development, and the Writing Squad a two year programme for writers aged 16-20 across the north of England. Steve is Associate Producer for imove, a Cultural Olympiad programme for Yorkshire, and Associate Producer of Leeds Canvas, an Artists Take the Lead collaboration between Leeds’ eight major arts organisations and the Brothers Quay. He has produced his own found literature, international exchange and online projects and an e-collection of his short stories, Single Skin, is about to be published by Smith Doorstop. As a consultant he has worked with a wide range of literature and cultural organisations on their organisational and strategic development. Before this he was Literature Officer for Yorkshire Arts and Director of the Ilkley Literature Festival. www.stevedearden.comwww.nald.org
David Edgar – Playwright & President, Writers’ Guild of Great Britain
David Edgar is a playwright and President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. His plays include ‘The National Interest’, ‘The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs’, ‘The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby’, ‘Maydays’, ‘Pentecost’ and ‘Albert Speer’. He is the founder of the University of Birmingham’s MPhil Playwriting course. He was born – and still lives – in Birmingham. His most recent play, ‘Written on the Heart’, premiered at The Swan Theatre, Stratford, in October 2011 where it runs until 10th March 2012. www.rsc.org.uk/whats-on/written-on-the-heart/
David Gaffney – Writer
David Gaffney lives in Manchester and Durham. He is the author of Sawn Off Tales (2006), Aromabingo (2007), Never Never (2008), Buildings Crying Out, a story using lost cat posters (Lancaster litfest 2009), 23 Stops To Hull, a set of stories about every junction on the M62 (Humber Mouth festival 2009), Sawn off opera a set of operas with composer Ailis Ni Riain (Radio Three, RNCM, Liverpool philharmonic and tete a tete festival London 2010), Destroy PowerPoint, stories in PowerPoint format for Edinburgh festival 2009, the Poole Confessions stories told in a mobile confessional box (Poole Literature festival 2010), Station Stories, in which six writer linked to the audience with wireless headphones performed short stories in Manchester Piccadilly railway station (Manchester Literature Festival 2011) and he has written articles for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Prospect magazine. His latest collection of short stories, The Half Life of Songs, is out now, his sound installation for Birmingham Book Festival, Boy You Turn Me, ran in October 2011. www.davidgaffney.org
Brian Gambles - Director, Library of Birmingham
Born and educated in Liverpool, Brian Gambles graduated in History from Oxford University in 1976. He joined Birmingham Library Services in 1987 after spending several years in university libraries in London, Plymouth and Sunderland. Since then he has taken on many roles, focussed on planning and service performance, ICT strategy and resources management, and service innovation. Brian is Project Director for the Library of Birmingham, one of Europe’s foremost cultural developments, and has recently been appointed as Chief Executive of the newly formed Library of Birmingham Development Trust. Due to open in June 2013, The Library of Birmingham will rewrite the book for library and archive services. Brian has a long-standing interest in new models of library service for changing times and changing communities. He is passionate about the need for radical change in the library service to secure its position in the 21st century urban landscape. Brian has a national profile in public libraries, has authored several articles and has delivered many conference presentations in the UK, Europe and the USA, on the future of libraries and their impact on learning, skills and economic regeneration.
Roz Goddard – Writer & Board Member, Writing West Midlands
Roz Goddard is currently involved in a writing residency at Birmingham Prison. She works extensively as a writer in educational settings. She has been commissioned by The Herbert Gallery in Coventry to write a series of poems linked to the George Shaw exhibition due to open in November 2011 and was recently awarded an Arts Council writer’s bursary to work on her next collection of poems. She regularly contributes to national conferences on literature policy and sits on the Board of Writing West Midlands. Her most recent collection of poems is: The Sopranos Sonnets and Other Poems, pub Nine Arches Press.
Tracey Guiry – Chief Executive Officer, Cyprus Well
Tracey Guiry is the CEO of Cyprus Well, the literature development agency for the South West of England and an NPO of the Arts Council. Starting out in the film industry she now leads the development and fundraising strategies for literature in the region supporting the development of networks which can sustain activity in more challenging times. Through a combination of persistence, tenacity and pig-headedness she has raised around £8million in the past 6 years for projects ranging from community reading groups through to large-scale capital projects in the visitor attraction sector. As a charity Cyprus Well provides funding to anyone who wants do great work with reading or writing in the South West, and they lead ‘Read South West’, the network of library officers in the region, as well as the new Writer-in-Residence network and the emerging Festival organisers’ network. Tracey also provides mentoring support to several other projects and small businesses around the region, advising on fundraising, evaluation and social/economic impact. She is currently leading a NESTA/Innovation Network funded project known as ‘The Future of Publishing’, which focuses on 30 publishing and design industry SME’s/Businesses and which aims to survey the current industry scene. The project will identify the key issues and aspirations of the sector and establish a publishing advisory network in the SW region which will map the industry landscape and create a space where digital suppliers, publishers and writers can work more effectively together – and where Tracey can continue to try to keep up with the speed of change. The research culminates in ‘Publish’ a large symposium in Bristol on 8th December.
Jessica Harris – Relationship Manager, Arts Council England, West Midlands
An experienced manager and developer of cultural services, Jessica Harris started out as a manager of touring theatre, with a particular focus on encouraging new writers. She moved to head up Sandwell Council’s Arts Service where, amongst other art-form developments, she encouraged poetry, literature and creative writing programmes, working in partnership with authors, libraries and community organisations. Following a number of years as Strategy and Development Manager for Sandwell’s Cultural Services, she moved to MLA where she ran national programmes to help museums, libraries and archives make greater use of digital technologies to engage audiences, and to build workforce skills and capacity. She has recently taken up the post of Relationship Manager, Libraries, for Arts Council England, and is looking forward to working with libraries in the West Midlands region, through championing their role and helping build links with the wider arts and cultural sector.
Matt Holland – Director, Swindon Festival of Literature
Sometime boy gaucho, farm worker, exporter, modern linguist, tutor in Literature, and book reviewer, Matt Holland, MA (Oxf), works and lives at Lower Shaw Farm, a centre for educational, cultural, and recreational activities, on the edge of Swindon. He is founder and director of the Swindon Festival of Literature and works in Literature Development for the town. Among other things he also takes seriously are tennis, singing, running, and poultry-keeping. www.lowershawfarm.co.uk www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk
Sarah Hymas – Writer & Mentor, The Writing Smithy
Sarah Hymas lives in Lancaster. Her writing has appeared in magazines, anthologies, a single collections, multimedia exhibits, dance videos, lyrics, theatre programmes, pyrotechnical theatre shows and as an improvised opera. Her poetry collection, Host, is published by Waterloo Press. She is the co-founder of the Writing Smithy, one of the poets who write for Tailormade Poems, works as a freelance editor and facilitator, and was the founding editor of Flax, Lancaster Litfest’s publishing imprint. More information at http://thewritingsmithy.co.uk/
Philippa Johnston – The Writers’ Compass
Philippa Johnston is the Professional Development Director of The Writer’s Compass. The professional development arm of The National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE), it runs a workshop programme for writers in education and provides a range of information and advice services for writers generally including a weekly jobs and opportunities e-bulletin. It also runs Compass Points, a professional development planning and coaching service, which is open to all writers. www.nawe.co.uk
Charlie Jordan – Writer & Performer
Charlie is a poet, radio presenter, event host and workshop facilitator. She’s presented on Radio 1, Radio 2, BBC London, LBC, Capital FM and Heart FM to mention but a few. Charlie has hosted many events all over the UK and also hosts workshops for children of all academic levels. Charlie was Birmingham’s Poet Laureate for 2007/8. Her first show ‘Buddhism and Ben and Jerry’s’ was showcased at the Bristol Old Vic and has also been performed at The Birmingham Rep and The Custard Factory in 2010.
Anna Kelly – Assistant Editor, Hamish Hamilton/Penguin
Anna Kelly is Assistant Editor at Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books. Hamish Hamilton publish a wide range of literary fiction and non fiction and also an online literary magazine called Five Dials. www.fivedials.com
Ian Kennedy – Writer, Producer & Creative
A writer of varied plays and nearly 150 episodes of BBC radio drama, Ian is currently developing web video initiatives for Studio B15 and other partners. Ian is Communications Coordinator for the Producers’ Forum, script editor or producer for several clients, and delivers further creative projects and websites for others. More on Ian and his work can be found at www.iqkennedy.co.uk.
John Laidlaw – Executive Director, Live & Local
John worked at Warwick Arts Centre technical department fron 1980 for five years. From thence as technical and production manager to Tic Toc Theatre Company who toured, ran Edinburgh Festival venues, an alternative comedy club and eventually owned a multi-purpose venue in Coventry. John has been with Live & Local since it began in 1991 and is the current chair of the national Rural Touring Forum.
Laura Longrigg – Joint Managing Director, MBA Literary Agents
Laura Longrigg worked as an editor, mainly in the genre of popular fiction, for HarperCollins, Heinemann and Penguin. She became an agent in 1994, working first with Jennifer Kavanagh and in 1997 she joined MBA. Since becoming an agent, her interests have broadened to include literary fiction and non-fiction, including history, biography, travel and also self-help, health and parenting. She also has experience of working with children’s authors.
Sandy Mahal – Programme Manager, The Reading Agency
Sandeep Mahal is Programme Manager at The Reading Agency, an independent charity with a mission to get more people reading more. The agency’s work includes policy, research, advocacy and national programmes (with an emphasis on innovation). Since The Reading Agency came into being in 2002 it has led some powerful national reading programmes, including the Summer Reading Challenge, the nation’s biggest annual promotion of children’s reading. Sandeep previously worked as Outreach Services Manager at Sandwell Library and Information Service, where she began her public library career 13 years ago. In 2006, she was chosen as one of the top 10 young librarians of the future.
Candi Miller – Writer & Lecturer, University of Wolverhampton
Candi Miller is a fiction writer and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She teaches Creative and Professional Writing at the University of Wolverhampton. Her debut novel, Salt & Honey, (2006. Legend Press) was runner-up in the Spread the Word World Book Day award in 2008. It was reprinted this year by Tindal Street Press, along with its sequel, Kalahari Passage, http://www.tindalstreet.co.uk/books/kalahari-passage , which is currently doing well in Amazon Kindle Saga sales charts. Candi Miller is the UK Tertiary education advisor for the Kalahari People’s Network where she mentors young San writers. http://kpn.posterous.com/
Philip Monks – Writer & Chair, Writing West Midlands
Philip Monks is a playwright and poet based in Birmingham. He is a founder member of Hoopla! Productions, specialising in music theatre for young people and has written over 20 plays for children and family audiences. He works extensively in schools and with youth groups, as well as with theatres and other organisations, including residencies and collaborations and also as a visiting lecturer in creative writing. He is currently poet-in-residence at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. He is chair of Writing West Midlands.
Clare Morrall – Writer
Clare Morrall was born in Exeter and now lives in Birmingham. She works as a music teacher and has two daughters. Her first novel, Astonishing Splashes of Colour, was published in 2003 and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She has since published Natural Flights of the Human Mind in 2006, The Language of Others in 2008 and The Man Who Disappeared in 2010, which was selected for the TV Book Club. Her new novel, The Roundabout Man, is published by Sceptre early in 2012.
Henderson Mullin – Chief Executive, Writing East Midlands
Henderson worked in business publishing for several years before joining Index on Censorship in 1998, an NGO which publishes books and magazines in support of freedom of expression. As its publisher, and then Chief Executive, Henderson worked to introduce new writers and voices to cultural and political issues alongside established writers such as Margaret Atwood, Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, Philip Pullman, John Le Carré, Günter Grass, Umberto Eco and others. He has worked in local, national and international partnerships finding new audiences for writers and artists using digital and physical forms of expression and in projects giving voice to marginalised groups. He was a member of The Rhythm Writers, a performance writer’s collective, based in London. Henderson has contributed to various advisory boards including Writers and Scholars Educational Trust, Open Air FM, Human Rights House Network, and the Free Word Centre for Literature, Literacy and Freedom of Expression. He is currently a Regional Artist Advisor for Artists taking the lead – Arts Council England’s flagship project for the Cultural Olympiad.
Paul Munden - Director, National Association of Writers in Education
Paul Munden is Director of the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE), a membership organization supporting writers and writing of all genres in all educational settings throughout the UK. He has worked as a creative writing tutor in schools and universities. His poetry has received an Eric Gregory Award and has appeared in many anthologies, including the ‘Faber Book of Movie Verse’ and Faber’s ‘Poetry Introduction 7’. A collection, ‘Asterisk’, will be published in 2011. For the British Council, he has been the Writer-in-Residence at several Anglo-Swiss conferences, most recently on the Role of Cultural Relations in Addressing Conflict (Geneva, 2010). He is the editor of ‘Feeling the Pressure: Poetry and Science of Climate Change’ (British Council 2008). www.nawe.co.uk.
Campbell Perry – Writer
Campbell Perry is a freelance writer, musician and story teller. He is, principally a theatre writer specialising in work for young audiences but also has a feature film screenplay currently under development. He is working with a Ludlow based theatre and film company to develop two touring plays for young audiences. He has also recently returned to making music and is working as part of a three piece band, who made their debut as part of Warwick Words Literary Festival. Campbell also works extensively in schools i the Midlands as a writer/musician/dramatist.
Bohdan Piasecki – West Midlands Coordinator, Apples & Snakes
Bohdan Piasecki is the Programme Coordinator for the West Midlands. Working from the offices of Punch Records, in Birmingham, his job is to organise events, provide development opportunities for artists, and promote spoken word poetry in the region. Bohdan is a poet himself, and he has been active on the European circuit since 2003. He founded and hosted the first poetry slam series in Poland, and has toured around the world with several devised poetry projects. Bohdan has a keen interest in literary translation and ways in which it can be used to complement performance, and actively pursues collaborations with artists from fields such as photography, video, music, and dance
Lara Ratnaraja – Cultural Consultant
Lara Ratnaraja is a consultant with extensive experience in the Creative, Cultural and Digital Industries. She currently manages a new project for cultural organisations called Creative Bridge and works with both the public and private sector to develop new initiatives to support the growth and sustainability of the creative industries. An advocate for the sector she is also on the Boards of Grand Union and Stans Cafe.
Prof. David Roberts – Head of School of English, Birmingham City University
David Roberts is Professor and Head of English at Birmingham City University. A theatre historian and literary critic, he has written numerous books and articles on seventeenth-century drama and fiction, including, most recently, a biography of the actor Thomas Betterton for Cambridge University Press and an edition of Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year for Oxford University Press. His next book, The Library of a Seventeenth-Century Actor, is forthcoming in 2012. David is a board member of the National Academy of Writing and a Fellow of the English Association.
Ros Robins – Regional Director, Arts Council England
Ros Robins is the Regional Director of Arts Council England. She started her career as a performer before running a Community Arts Centre in Bristol. She then worked as a Theatre Administrator for a number of years, firstly at the Liverpool Everyman and more recently at the Birmingham Rep where she also managed a major refurbishment of the Theatre. Ros joined the Arts Council in 2001 initially as Director of Management Services and more recently as Director of Arts, responsible for supporting arts development in the region. Ros has recently been appointed as the new Regional Director as part of the latest re-structure of the Arts Council, taking up this position in April 2010.
Jenny Stephens – Freelance Theatre Director, Radio Producer & Writer & Partner, Hoopla Productions
Jenny is a theatre director, radio producer and writer. She has both written and directed for BBC radio. As a radio drama producer she’s directed many afternoon plays, plus classic serials, Woman’s Hour dramas and drama series for BBC Radio 7. She also regularly guest directs for The Archers and Ambridge Extra. As a writer for radio, Jenny has had three drama series broadcast on BBC Radio 7 (now Radio 4 Extra); these were Jefferson 37, Project Raphael and Project Archangel . Companies she has worked for as a theatre director include Bolton Octagon, GB Theatre, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, E15, Great Eastern Stage and The Worcester Swan Theatre (where she was Artistic Director for eight years). Her productions have toured nationally and internationally. She has a particular interest in new writing and has premiered many new plays. She is a co-founder of Hoopla, a company dedicated to creating music-theatre for children; earlier this year her production of The Night Queen by Philip Monks (inspired by The Magic Flute) was produced in collaboration with The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and then toured nationally. She wrote The Speckled Monster, produced by Birmingham Repertory Theatre and has been commissioned by them to write another play Wounded, to be produced next year.
Nick Walker – Writer & Producer, Top Dog Productions
Nick is a Perrier nominated writer and director. He is staff writer with Talking Birds, a Coventry-based theatre company whose work has been presented across the UK, Europe, and the USA, and whose most recent theatre show, We Love You City, had a sell-out run at the Belgrade Theatre. He has worked with some of the country’s leading new work theatre companies including Stan’s Cafe, Insomniac, and Debbie Isitt’s Snarling Beasties, and is an occasional visiting lecturer in theatre and creative writing at the University of Warwick, and Queen’s University, Belfast. His plays and short stories are regularly featured on BBC Radio 4, including 3 series of The First King of Mars (starring Peter Capaldi), and 3 series of The Bigger Issues. He is director of independent radio company Top Dog whose series The Music Teacher is nominated for a Writers Guild of Great Britain award for best comedy. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels Blackbox (“his characters are brilliant, his dialogue sparkles and it’s hilarious” The Guardian) and Helloland (“Walker deserves to be huge” Time Out), with a third, Boomtown, out in 2012, He is currently working for on a new drama series for BBC1, and on a screenplay with Black Camel pictures.
Mary Ward-Lowery – Radio Producer, BBC Audio & Music
Mary Ward-Lowery has worked for the BBC since 1989 on an unusual mix of documentary and drama. Her first feature was the story of a racing greyhound. Her first play was the improvised story of a tragic love affair, with a cast of twelve year-olds from St Pauls in Bristol. She’s worked regularly with children and animals since then (recently in the drama-documentary ‘Blue Eyed Boy’ by Helen Cross) and just to make things really straightforward, mostly records on location (casting a Welsh mountain as K2 and a woodland clearing near Farnham as the prairie in ‘Little House on the Prairie’). She’s worked with some of the best-known radio playwrights, including Mike Walker, Hattie Naylor, Steve May and Sarah Daniels. She has also introduced established writers John Godber and Julia Blackburn to the medium. Recent documentaries include ‘Red Arrow Rookies’ about the gruelling process of becoming a Red Arrows pilot and ‘My Empire of Dust’, the story of a man who collects dust from historic buildings.
Amanda Whittington – Playwright
Amanda Whittington’s plays include ‘Be My Baby’, ‘Bollywood Jane’, ‘Ladies Down Under’ and ‘Satin ‘n’ Steel’. She has written extensively for radio, most particularly for the Afternoon Play slot. Work includes Once Upon A Time and The Nine Days Queen. Her current work includes new commissions for Nottingham Playhouse, Splice Productions and Theatre Writing Partnership. Amanda has also adapted Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, which was showcased at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2009.