#126 June 2020
Credits
Contents
Stay Al Ert Alan Gilby (alan.gilby@leftlion.co.uk) Editor-in-Chief Jared Wilson (jared.wilson@leftlion.co.uk) Editor Ashley Carter (ashley.carter@leftlion.co.uk) Assistant Editor Emily Thursfield (emily.thursfield@leftlion.co.uk) Editor-at-Large Bridie Squires (bridie.squires@leftlion.co.uk) Events and Food Editor Eve Smallman (eve.smallman@leftlion.co.uk)
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Sub-Editor Lauren Carter-Cooke
Sister Cities
With holidays off the table for the foreseeable, we take a virtual trip around Nottingham’s sister cities, without an airport queue in sight
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Breaking Ground
As redevelopment work comes to a grinding halt amid reported financial problems, we explore the troubled history of the intu Broadmarsh Centre
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Battlefield Notts
As the final clash of the War of the Roses, and taking place on Notts’ only registered battlefield, we look back at The Battle of Stoke Field...
Designer Natalie Owen (natalie.owen@leftlion.co.uk) Sales and Marketing Manager Adam Pickering (adam.pickering@leftlion.co.uk) Creative Digital Assistant Curtis Powell (curtis.powell@leftlion.co.uk) Videographer Georgianna Scurfield (georgi.scurfield@leftlion.co.uk) Web Developers Tom Errington (tom.errington@leftlion.co.uk) Hamza Hussain (hamza.hussain@leftlion.co.uk) Art Editors Laura-Jade Vaughan (laura-jade.vaughan@leftlion.co.uk) Rachel Willcocks (rachel.willcocks@leftlion.co.uk) Fashion Editor Anna Murphy (anna.murphy@leftlion.co.uk)
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Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
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Great Danes
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On The Farm
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Home is Where the Art is
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Working Wonders
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Little Miss Lockdown
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Out of Time: Tim Birkin
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Literature Editor Kate Hewett (kate.hewett@leftlion.co.uk) Music Editors Eileen Pegg (eileen.pegg@leftlion.co.uk) Becky Timmins (becky.timmins@leftlion.co.uk) Screen Editors Jamie Morris (jamie.morris@leftlion.co.uk) George White (george.white@leftlion.co.uk Stage Editors Rebecca Buck (rebecca.buck@leftlion.co.uk) Dom Henry (dom.henry@leftlion.co.uk) Sports Editor Gemma Fenyn (gemma.fenyn@leftlion.co.uk)
To celebrate our #CloughChallenge campaign, Rich Fisher looks back at his involvement in the Brian Clough statue campaign
Often overshadowed by Robin Hood, we talk to Dr Rebecca Gregory about the significant role the Vikings played in Nottingham’s history
Lockdown hasn’t just affected us humans, you know. We check in with White Post and Stonebridge City farms for an animal update
Our Arts Co-Editor Laura-Jade Vaughan looks at some of the local artists selling work online, and how you can support them during these difficult times
From gardening and bird-spotting to fire-making and bread-baking, we find out what lockdown life is like for an 11-year-old Notts resident
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Featured Contributor
Photography Editors Fabrice Gagos (fabrice.gagos@leftlion.co.uk) Tom Quigley (tom.quigley@leftlion.co.uk)
Writers Amelia Aston Jagoda BrownPolanowska Will Channell Hannah Cooke Molly Dodge-Taylor Jason Edgar Rich Fisher Matt Miller Sam Nahirny Daniel O’Neil Kate O’Shea Nick Parkhouse
Photographers Sandra Bartley Rich Bell Jonathan Flint Jerome Grant Robin Husen Catalin Juncan Kate O’Shea Tom Wragg Illustrators Raphael Achache Leosaysays Agnes Papp Ali Taylor-Perry Kate Sharp Emmy Smith Alex Vine Carmel Ward Jay Wilkinson
If you’d like to advertise, contact Adam on 0115 9240476, email adam.pickering@ leftlion.co.uk or visit leftlion.co.uk/rates
Letters of Constraint
We talk to Dr Martin Glynn, writer in residence at the National Justice Museum, about creating a written legacy of lockdown life
At the Coalface
Notts filmmaker Jay Martin discusses Red’tBlue, his new documentary investigating why Mansfield turned Tory during the last General election
Local writer Joshua Helmer talks to Kate Hewett about his debut book, the self-published dystopian novel Dark Wonders...
As the wealthy son of Nottingham lace manufacturers, Tim Birkin turned his back on the family business in search of racing superstardom
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Thanks to All Our Supporters Julian Bower, Frances & Garry Bryan, Nigel Cooke, Caroline Gilby, Rachel Hancorn, Rhys Hawkins, Friday Club Presents, David Knight, D Lawson, Ben Lester, Barbara Morgan, Ron Mure, Reg & Lynette, Livi & Jacob Nieri, Dr Lesley Prince, In memory of Jenny Smith, Jed Southgate, Spicer, Steve Stickley Storyteller, Ivy House Environmental, Nigel Tamplin, Helena Tyce, James Wright
Cover Andreas Schlechtriemen
Interns Megan Hill Alex Mace Emilie Mendham Christopher Post
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Hard Day’s Flight
Flights cancelled, money running out and lockdown looming. These are the stories of those trying to get back to the UK during COVID-19
Kate Sharp Kate is a freelance illustrator with a dream of becoming a published children’s book author/illustrator. After graduating university last year she moved back to Nottingham to focus on writing and illustrating her own books. Her style is bright and colourful, with most of her work being based around animals. She first got involved with LeftLion after she noticed the magazine's arrival was the highlight of everyone’s month at her job at Savoy Cinema. After reading every article (several times) between serving customers she knew that she wanted to illustrate for the magazine.
Love reading a free, independent magazine every month? Become a LeftLion Supporter. We’ll post you every print issue, plus treats. leftlion.co.uk/supporters
You can see Kate’s illustrations on pages 23 and 24
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Editorial I’m genuinely terrified of the inevitable conversations coming my way once things go back to the way they were pre-COVID. Whether it’s in two, four or twelve months time, freshly re-populated offices up and down the country are going to be filled with passive-aggressive conversations about how people filled their lockdown time. The prospect of hearing ‘I actually learnt Italian from scratch, so that was nice… or should I say, bene,’ and ‘Me? Oh, I read the entire works of Orwell’ or, worse still, ‘I discovered that I actually had a natural knack for baking. I’m thinking of starting a little pop-up sourdough cart in Hockley’ fills me with dread. When the barrel finally points my way, all I’ll be able to do is take a nervous gulp and mumble something about the mini-golf course I built out of empty toilet roll tubes and unused weights or teaching myself how to play Lizzo’s Truth Hurts on the piano. Even that’s a lie; it wasn’t even a real piano – just a goofy app on my iPad. Lockdown has taught me more about myself than I had anticipated. It’s a bit like being young, seeing adults walking around with hats, umbrellas and fancy sandwiches. ‘One day I’ll be one of them’, you think to yourself, ‘and I’ll have a tie and people will call me Mister and I’ll actually enjoy coriander.’ But then you grow up and realise that, unlike Pokémon, people don’t evolve into new versions of themselves. You’re just the same idiot you were then (only bigger), but now you worry about tax and germs and making sure you buy the right type of cheese. Lockdown is just the same, and with all the additional free time in the world I’m just the same as I was before (only bigger). The things I’ve been putting off for years, telling myself I didn’t have time, are still being ignored because I didn’t actually want to do them in the first place.
Life can be a bastard sometimes, especially when you’re constantly exposed to the carefully edited highlights of people’s days on social media, and the pressure to constantly improve or achieve can feel like drowning in a sea of self-help to-do-lists. Not to sound like a Poundland Mark Manson, but the unrelenting quest for self-optimisation isn’t always healthy, especially during a global health crisis. More now than ever I think it’s fine to just do the things you want to do, even if that is just nailing a hole-in-one via a 4kg dumbbell in your living room. Until the next one...
While this bummed me out for the first month or so, I’ve started to see it as a bit of a relief recently. Letting go of the things I’ve been telling myself I wanted to do for years has been freeing, and it’s given me much more mental space to focus on the things I actually want to do.
Ashley Carter, Editor ashley.carter@leftlion.co.uk
“If I don’t see you through the week…” Tom Wragg – @tom_wragg_photography
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Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? Jerome Grant - @jjpolarized
Androcles takes his daily walk Robin Husen - @robinh808
Notts Shots
Notts Shots
Sunset session Tom Wragg – @tom_wragg_photography
“We’re at less risk, apparently” Rich Bell - @richerich
Late-night sausage strolls Jonathan Flint - @flintafus
All above board Tom Quigley – tomquigley.co.uk
Stay alert Catalin Juncan - @the_jonny_studio
Want to have your work featured? Send your high-res photos from around the city, including your full name and best web link, to photography@leftlion.co.uk
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Notts Goss with Jenny Joss Want the scoop? I’m not one for wicked whispers, but I must admit that I’ve been savouring the sweet gossip of this town to satisfy my sizeable craving for spectacle. It’s clear to this doll that being locked inside has driven you lot to your wits’ end; lockdown restrictions might have forced me to retire any physical detective work, but my little dickie birds have been working overtime to bring me a slice of all the outlandish outbursts that have occured. After the unfair dismissal of MP Nadia Whittome from her role as a care worker, folk began spitting feathers after she showed support for cancelling debts for struggling countries on Twitter, furiously yelling into the ether that she’d done nothing for local constituents. My absolute favourite quip came from the man who pondered how these “sixth form Marxist club intellects” became MPs. C’mon, Dave – get with the times. Communism is so 1960s. The madness didn’t stop there, either. The middle of the month saw a few ‘mass’ protests against the Government take place, one of which attracted a total of five people with a homemade sign so small it was barely
Nottingham’s most opinionated grocers on...
Brian Clough He was a fantastic manager in his prime and he really did put both Nottingham as a city and Nottingham Forest on the map. He was a good footballer too, although he didn’t get long to prove that. When Clough and Peter Taylor were together they were an unbeatable team – it was just when they parted that the cracks started to show. He really should have got the England job though, but then England doesn’t have a history of appointing strong football managers.
legible. My hero of the month, however, is the darling Chris Tregenza (@tregenza) who supplied us all with a live-tweet thread of the Wollaton Park protest with photo and video evidence. Highlights include a pair of “morons” demonstrating against 5G with a sign about as big as an iPhone, his joy when “a few of the angry white gammon types” turn up, and the discovery that one of them had put a tinfoil hat on their dog. It’s well worth the scroll.
Nottingham’s Twin Cities There’s one in Poland and one in Germany, from what we can remember. But let’s face it, it’s all a bit of a public relations exercise for local governments. They should start acknowledging the twin suburbs of Nottingham instead. Mapperley Park and Basford aren’t far apart and they have loads of similar road names. They should join those together and they can have a party in Sherwood.
I’m also sad to report that LeftLion’s former office-dwellers have been struggling in solitude, missing each other deeply. That is, apart from a certain Food and Listings Editor, who has abandoned her work family to spend an increasing amount of time with her mouse-like friends on Animal Crossing. We’re anticipating her resignation and retirement to her virtual creation in the very-near future.
Pubs Our favourite pub in town is The Dragon and our favourite near here is The Gladstone. We’d say we can’t wait for a pint of Adnams in The Dragon, but I think the landlady stopped serving it before lockdown began. So we might have to settle for a London Pride in The Gladstone instead. We also like The Ram in Arnold, Ye Olde Trip and Ye Olde Sal and that new Six Barrel place next to Victoria Centre. Maybe we should go on a pub crawl when they all open?
Anyhow, that’s it from me this month, lovers. We’ll speak soon. Remember – keep your lips loose, your ears to the ground and your eyes on the goss.
JJ x
illustration: Carmel Ward
Town has been a bit quiet as of late, so we’ve had a peek at all of the goofy, weird and wonderful comments you lot leave on our social media pages and picked out some of our highlights…
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“Get your Overheard in Notts featured on the main page #lifegoalcompleted”
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ia e m ed ean th ’t lean m u o n Y “ s lly doe r? Is n o r m a o r t h e ot h e h e t y a n one w r first day o e? ” c u n o a y h c is th by a ny t e n r inte
“Can you play som e AB BA fo r my ma te? ”
m it of ru lit tle b h rou gh a h it t “W e it n m ak we c a t ” h th e nig
“That’s a serious haircut”
“ L ef t L io shado n is a pale w of it e n te r s tainin form er g self ”
is th e ‘W hat ideal of a ic n o t pla ip? ” ion sh fanfic t
“Th ose o f us w h o live in Derby a re q not to be uite happy visited b y th e vermino us , ridden in plague habitants Snotting of h am”
“I like the English rap”
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“Yes, yes w e h a ve all seen pic tures of a n e m pty street be fo get excit re. No need to ed”
“ Weth e A rd e r r s p o o ns h a ne th e v namin great e done Joh n h g him . H th eir New onour of ark p u e’d be b s o p ro a f te r u d”
“Your face is back to front Will”
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“W h ere are people w th ese 40 he a real gig n we’re playing ?”
“That is eerie. I feel sorry for the lions all alone”
“*Trie s fl ag e to find red m oji* ”
“Dunno wh rem em b y, but I always er Notts co th is Overh eard in m m ent fr om man issues a y go: ‘You wipe we n ot p o o e to poo to wee’” ,
interview and photo: Georgianna Scurfield
‘
Wilfred Broomfield Sometimes I get sad that I can’t wear trousers. I can’t help seeing the jeans, the suit trousers, the corduroys and especially the cargo shorts strutting past me and I feel like somehow I’m missing out. I try and stay positive, try and accept my body the way it is and live for me, you know? But it’s a work in progress. I love having a purpose. It feels good to dedicate my life to a worthy cause, and have people appreciate me. Like, there’s this family that comes every week, they put a Boris Johnson mask on me and take it in turns to punch my head. That's a real special time because it’s really clear that I’m making a difference to people’s lives, I’m providing a service here. That’s what matters, right? That being said, I’m really looking forward to stepping back from public service: the pressure, the scrutiny and the politics. Perhaps I’ll work the fields instead, it would be nice to spend some more time with nature. Maybe that’ll be when the pandemic is over, or maybe it’ll be in three years when they choose a better bunch of people to lead the country. All I can do is dream of the day the NHS staff and key workers feel appreciated without my help.
Pick Six
This month we’ve tasked Alchemilla head chef and owner Alex Bond with choosing a few of his favourite things...
Song Hurt by Johnny Cash I absolutely love Johnny Cash and Hurt, originally written by Trent Resner of Nine Inch Nails, is a meeting of two geniuses. Cash recorded this track not long after his wife June died, and you can just feel every ounce of his pain. It’s utterly moving.
Meal Ynyshir In my humble opinion Ynyshir, the Michelin Star eatery located near Machynlleth in Wales, is the greatest (well, second greatest…) restaurant in the UK. It’s always a mind-blowing experience and the chef, Gareth Ward, is an absolute gent.
Film Mulholland Drive David Lynch has long been a favourite of mine ever since I first watched Twin Peaks. Mulholland Drive is super trippy and beautifully eerie in a way only he, and maybe one or two other filmmakers, can capture.
Notts Spot Wollaton Park I got engaged to my now-wife, Anna, in a very special corner of the park. Needless to say, we love going back there, especially now that we have kids. They love spending the day at Batman’s house.
Book CHAOS by Tom O’Neill I don’t really get much time to read but I am currently balls-deep in this twenty-year research project by Tom O’Neill that dives feet-first into the misconceptions surrounding the Manson killings, contradicting the narrative set out in Helter Skelter.
Holiday Destination Ko Pha Ngan Ko Pha Ngan is an island in the south-east of Thailand. There’s not really much to say other than there’s phenomenal food, pure white sand, straw huts on the beach and beautiful weather.
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My First...
family holiday
When I was eight or so, we went for a weekend at the seaside, and for the three-hour journey I was looking after my Tamagotchi. It was the first one to survive more than a week. They were bloody high maintenance, weren’t they? About five minutes before we got there, I was feeling chunks of Little Chef sliding up my throat. Dad stopped the car, but it was too late. I threw up all over the window. I frantically wound it down, but unfortunately we had stopped near a wasp nest. The pile of puke was swarmed, and I was stung. When we eventually cleaned up and got to the bed and breakfast, it turned out to be a dingy building that definitely was the base for some dodgy dealings. By this point, mum had had enough. She turned the car around and we went back home in the sick smelling car. At least we got a nice view of the coast – albeit briefly. Male, 22, Radford
I guess I was about six or seven and we were staying at this tin-pot resort in Menorca. It was the summer that 21 Seconds by So Solid Crew was out and every man and his perro were singing it. My sister had met some famous footballer at the airport on the way out and he’d autographed her arm. I don’t think she even knew who he was, really. She refused to go swimming in case it washed off and it ruined the holiday a bit to be honest. Well, not as much as I ended up doing. This irritating Welsh lad at the same resort was playing a crappy little ukulele terribly, so I stuck little bits of gravel in my ears to block him out. Turns out they’re pretty hard to fish out without a trip to the hospital, and I had to fly home early with my Dad. Two multiplied by ten, plus one – our holiday was done. Male, 28 Clifton
The first time we ever went abroad as a family was to Tunisia. My sister was sixteen with blonde hair, so all of the men there were obsessed with her. We had all sorts of offers to buy her, and if my Dad could figure out a way to get a dozen camels home he might have taken them up on it. I used to drag her around shopping with me every day because you could buy fake football shirts for about a quid, maybe less if she did the bartering. It wasn’t nice of me, but I wanted that Intre Milon shirt. One guy made a comment that was a step too far though, and I told him to apologise. I realised that my mouth had written a cheque that my fighting ability could not cash, however, when he stubbed a cigarette out on my head and I ran away crying. It’s as humiliating remembering it now as it was then. Male, 33 Hockley
Having a caravan in Wales meant we were bundled into the car for the two-hour drive at least ten times a year. One Easter, when I was about seven, we decided to do something different, leaving early morning to make the journey down to Devon for a few days so my dad and sister could attend a surf class. The many years of long car journeys meant my mum was prepared – packed lunches were her speciality, and I’d been promised that I could tuck into my tin-foil wrapped sausage sandwich at 6am. We were driving along the winding roads when the clock struck six, and I – overwhelmed with excitement – leapt up into my dad’s rear view mirror and exclaimed “SAUSAGES!” much to everyone's bewilderment and amusement. They still talk about it to this day. Female, 32 Beeston
illustration: Alex Vine
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THINGS ARE WEIRD. WE MISS YOU ALREADY. RUNNING PUBS AND BREWING BEER IS WHO WE ARE. FOR MANY OF US, IT’S ALL WE’VE EVER KNOWN. WE’LL BE BACK AS SOON AS WE CAN BE. IN THE MEAN TIME, LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH. LOVE ALWAYS, TEAM CRB x
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FOLLOW US FOLLOW, SUPPORT AND ENJOY YOUR CASTLE ROCK LOCAL VIRTUALLY LET’S CHAT. IF YOU’RE VULNERABLE, ANXIOUS OR JUST BORED, GIVE YOUR LOCAL A MESSAGE. JOIN IN WITH LIVE PUB QUIZZES, TASTING SESSIONS AND MORE . @CRBREWERY // CASTLE ROCK BREWERY // WWW.CASTLEROCKBREWERY.CO.UK
THE HARDSHIP FUND THE HOSPITALIT Y INDUSTRY HAS BEEN HIT HARD BY CV-19. WE’RE DOING EVERY THING WE CAN TO PROTECT OUR EMPLOYEES WITH A HARDSHIP FUND FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE. GOFUNDME.COM/F/CASTLE-ROCK-HARDSHIP-FUND
W W W. C A S T L E R O C K B R E W E R Y. C O . U K
A Professional Footballer in Notts My Mum had five boys, which couldn’t have been an easy thing for her. We were a big football family, and my Dad played semi-professionally, so we’d go and watch him play at the weekend. Football was always on in the house whenever we weren’t out playing, and my poor Mum would get so annoyed at us kicking a ball at her windows. I moved to Nottingham at a really young age and one of the highlights of my career was scoring on my club debut at the age of eighteen. It was just a dream come true. Being young meant you didn’t need to do much preparation; you could just fall out of bed and start running about. An average training day would end at around 2.30pm, so trying to fill your day up could be quite difficult. When you’re young and you’ve got that much time on your hands, it’s human nature that you’re going to find some way to get yourself in trouble. I was lucky that I started to learn to play the guitar from the age of sixteen, so that kept me entertained and away from the gambling and other problems that younger players can get involved in. An average week would consist of training Monday and Tuesday, a day off on Wednesday, training Thursday morning, then doing some light training and opposition work on Friday. By then, you’d already done all of the physical preparation, so you’re more focused on getting yourself ready mentally. Then Saturday comes around and it’s fantastic. I always loved waking up knowing that I was going to be playing at 3pm – it was just so special. It starts as a nervous, excited feeling then, when you get to the stadium at around 1pm, everything starts to get a bit more focused. Once you’ve got in the changing room, had a bit of a chat and listened to some music, that’s when things get really, really serious. You’re mentally preparing for a battle, visualising yourself against whoever you’re going to be playing that day. You just want to win so much. I was fortunate enough to play in some of the biggest derbies all over the UK, and the Forest vs. Derby rivalry is right up there. They’re the games that everyone is looking for when the fixtures are released, and there’s always so much build-up to it. I was somebody that took a lot of corners and set-pieces, so when you’re away that means getting a lot of stick from opposition fans. They usually have a few choice words for you, but you have to take it with a pinch of salt. The games themselves aren’t usually known for their quality, but the intensity makes
them great to play in. There’s a real grit and edge to them, and you have to be focused because things happen really, really quickly. You can feel the excitement all over the East Midlands, and it’s great to have the opportunity to get one over your local rivals and get hold of that Brian Clough trophy. Even when I left Nottingham, I kept a house here. I love the area, and the fans were always good to me. The strangest thing I ever saw throughout my career, without a doubt, happened on the morning of a really important match. Eight or nine of our key players came down with food poisoning, and there were all sorts of rumours in the media that we’d been poisoned deliberately. It was utterly bizarre. Football is in a weird position at the moment with the COVID crisis. Players came under a lot of pressure to contribute financially early on, but I don’t think anyone should be forced to give a percentage of their wages for anything. That’s a personal choice – it’s their hardearned money, and they’re entitled to make whatever decision they want with donating it. It looks like we’re getting to the stage where it’s safe to start playing again now, but there are still so many issues surrounding it. Numbers are starting to drop, and you can see how they’ve managed to reintroduce games in Germany without any issues. Obviously football is not the same without the fans, but it’s a balancing act between bringing the game back and keeping people safe. We still need to keep a close eye on testing, and consider that the disproportionate level of risk facing BAME players, or those with family members with health issues, has to be taken into consideration. We just need to take things slowly and trust the science, but there’s nothing surer than the fact that football will be back stronger than ever. It might take some time, but you can’t keep it down. The game has too much of a hold on the world to just fizzle out. There’s a big misconception about the type of people that play football professionally. You hear the stories of certain things happening, or players being in the papers for the wrong reasons, and money has had a negative impact on the game in many ways. But 95% of footballers are really down-to-earth family men, who like to go home to their wives and kids after training. Football doesn’t discriminate, whether you’re a workingclass kid from a council estate or from a middle-class
background, if you love the game and work hard, you’ll get just as much enjoyment from it. The lowest points of my career came with my injuries. It’s so difficult watching everybody else going out to train, or playing in matches. People look at footballers, and look at the money and the adulation, but there’s another side to it, and it isn’t a particularly nice one. It’s difficult for players to deal with. Some people look at footballers and think ‘what have they got to be depressed about?’ But they don’t understand that it’s an illness, and professional footballers can suffer the same as anyone else. There are so many issues surrounding gambling, alcohol and mental health – there are real pitfalls out there, particularly for young players. My injuries eventually led to my retirement and, I’m not going to lie, it was a difficult time – probably the most difficult of my life. I really struggled with it, and couldn’t comprehend what it meant. It’s all I’d done since the age of fourteen and suddenly it was all gone. All that’s left is, ‘What am I going to do now?’ But you’re still young, relatively speaking, so you’ve got to find your way and attack whatever you do next with a strong mental attitude. If you do find it difficult, it’s really important that you talk to people and find the help that you need. I moved into coaching after retirement and, to be honest, I have really lofty ambitions. I’m still in the infancy of my learning as coaching is so different from playing, but I eventually want to coach at the highest level. I always want to learn, and I feel like I’m getting better all the time. It’s an ongoing process, but I want to shoot for the stars and see how high I can go. There is a specific moment on a match day: it comes after the teams have come out, the players have shaken hands and the captains are doing the coin toss with the referees. There’s a few seconds where you’re standing there, looking around and realising that the game is about to start. That was the feeling I loved, and it’s the feeling I miss the most now that it’s gone. Whether you’re having a kick about in the park with your mates or playing in a stadium packed with thousands of fans, football gives you the same amount of enjoyment. That’s why I love it, and why I consider myself so fortunate to have been a professional footballer. There’s no better job in the world.
It’s all I’d done since the age of fourteen and suddenly it was all gone. All that’s left is, ‘What am I going to do now?’
illustration: Ali Taylor-Perry
Meet me by the leisure centre. On either side are twisting octopus arms, those roads that reach up and over the hills and down past the yellow metal play parks, a maze, each adorned with homes, houses, separate boxes, someone’s utopia once, this all future once, remedy for bombs, high-density slums torn apart for motorways We cross the roundabout and everything’s old stone. Sudden quiet village removed from roads. Past the old school and renovated dovecot, take the path to the left, past storm damage, splintered trees, our only worry then, that February of storms! Before the month that was to come. In the graveyard by the hall, it’s an anxious kind of peaceful. Like a spinning top in the stomach. Inside the church, someone else’s utopia, once: there on the wooden dais, gilded gold, an altar, more than 400 years old, we’re told, found in the 60s beneath the boards, hidden from Henry’s royal raiding hoards. In the next future after this, can there be space for both homes and golden things to nestle and glisten? Can there be no raiding or destroying, just building? Octopus arms over hillsides, connecting. The ring of daffodils around the old oak by the dovecot will bloom. There will be a future, removed from floorboard hiding, shining.
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Snap Notts #22
These photos were collated prior to lockdown procedures being in place
poem: Matt Miller photos: Sandra Bartley location: Clifton
Ghent
Wrzesnia
belgium
POLAND
Population: 263,000 Miles from Notts: 240 Notable natives: Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, footballer Kevin De Bruyne and cyclist Bradley Wiggins Once a prominent city-state in the Middle Ages, the pretty port city of Ghent in northwest Belgium has more than just sisterhood in common with dear old Notts. As well as being a University town and something of a cultural hub, Ghent was once known as the heart of a thriving lace industry, with roots in the craft going back to the 15th century. It’s also one of the most cosmopolitan areas of Belgium, with over a third of its residents originating from outside of the country. A skyline dominated by medieval architecture, including the famous Saint Bavo Cathedral (home of the Ghent Altarpiece), is complimented by a host of charming bakeries selling mastellen, a doughnut-shaped bun that’s something of a local delicacy.
Population: 31,000 Miles from Notts: 784 Notable natives: Paralympian Mateusz Michalski, singer Anna Jantar-Kukulska and architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski Easily the smallest town we’re twinned with, Września’s entire population is less than the amount of students that live in Nottingham. Located in west-central Poland, the town has had a turbulent history, having been burnt down by Sweden in 1664, annexed to Prussia in 1793 and occupied by Germany in 1939. Września is perhaps most well-known for the school strike that took place there in 1901, when Polish children boycotted their education in protest of the Germinisation of the curriculum, which prohibited the Polish language. It might be small, but Września is a proud, quaint town with enough history to rival most European cities.
Karlsruhe
germany
Population: 313,000 Miles from Notts: 500 Notable natives: Mercedez-Benz founder Karl Benz, footballers Oliver Kahn and Sead Kolašinac As another city that boasts an impressive creative community, Karlsruhe joined UNESCO’s network of Creative Cities as a City of Media Arts last year, and the city is home to two of Germany’s most prestigious cultural institutions in the ZKM (Centre for Art and Media) and the Academy of Fine Arts. According to legend, it was founded after Charles III William of Baden-Durlach dreamt of creating a new city in order to get away from his wife, and the name Karlsruhe translates to “Charles’ peace.” Having been visited by Thomas Jefferson during his days as an American envoy to France, the city’s maps were taken back to the newly founded United States to be used as a guide to laying out Washington, D.C. And you can see why – elegant, classical architecture and two huge botanical gardens make the city something of a tourist haven.
sister Cities Grumbling about your lack of hollibobs will make you look like a bit of a prat during the current climate, and rightly so. But with everything that’s going on, the prospects of sipping sangria on the Spanish coast are looking fairly slim for the foreseeable future. With real-life tourism off the table, we’ve decided to take a virtual tour around Nottingham’s sister cities, transporting you lot on a round-the-world trip to the places who we have historic, economic, cultural or just good old-fashioned friendly relationships with, without a lost passport, queue of screaming kids or overweight suitcase in sight…
harare zimbabwe
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leftlion.co.uk/issue126
Population: 1,521,000 Miles from Notts: 5350 Notable natives: Entrepreneur William Sachiti, singer Takura and cricketer Graeme Hick We checked in to Zimbabwe’s capital just in time to watch the sun set over the stunning dusty red landscape. For a metropolitan city, Harare has plenty of indigenous plants, including countless purple jacaranda trees that line the streets, giving it a bizarrely alluring otherworldly feel. As well as loads of great restaurants, museums, craft markets and bars, Harare is home to a thriving creative scene, with the city hosting the International Festival of Arts. Considering it’s Zimbabwe’s most populous city, it definitely has an overall feeling of being really laid-back and welcoming.
Nancy
Minsk
france
belarus
Population: 105,000 Miles from Notts: 435 Notable natives: Artist Joseph Ducreux, filmmaker Eric Rohmer and footballer Michel Patini It’s clear to see why Nancy has a reputation for refinement. A resplendent central square lined with gardens, museums, bars and shop windows glistening with crystal is complemented by the 18th century architecture that leaves you in no doubt that you’re walking through a part of history. However, the city’s motto is “Non inultus premor,” Latin for “I am not injured unavenged,” suggesting that, for all its beauty, Nancy is not a city to be messed with.
Population: 1966 Miles from Notts: 1150 Notable natives: Chess grandmaster Isaac Boleslavsky, UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski and former world No.1 tennis player Victoria Azarenka Home to eleven theatres, sixteen museums, twenty cinemas and 139 libraries, Minsk is Belarus’ major cultural centre. Located on the south-eastern slopes of the Minsk Hills, the Belarusian capital has overcome a fairly negative reputation to establish itself as one of the most progressive, clean and modern cities in Eastern Europe. Having been bombed and occupied by Germany during World War II, and later recaptured by Soviet troops, the city centre was once totally remodelled to Stalin’s specific tastes. From a post-war population of just 50,000 people, Minsk is now home to just under two million residents and has a thriving transport infrastructure, including Belraus’ only underground metro system, to match.
Timisoara
romania
Population: 333,000 Miles from Notts: 1117 Notable natives: Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller, football manager Ștefan Kovács, Olympian Iolanda Balaș Romania’s third largest city is one of the country’s most elegant, aesthetically-pleasing areas. Built around a string of beauteous renovated green spaces and picturesque parks, Timișoara is informally known as ‘Primul Oraș Liber’ (the First Free City), it was there that the first protests against Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu began, which ultimately led to his toppling and execution. Often used by tourists as a base to explore the Banat region, Timișoara is another city that boasts a bustling creative community, and will serve as the European Capital of Culture in 2021. With a backdrop rich with creativity and rebellion, it’s fair to say the Romanian city has much more in common with Notts than just being twinned…
Ningbo
china
Population: 8,202,000 Miles from Notts: 5760 Notable natives: Billionaire Ding Lei, artist Chen Yifei and shipping magnate Yue-Kong Pao For some cities, being twinned with Notts is just something to stick on their Wikipedia page. But the good folk of Ningbo take the relationship much more seriously. Having twinned up less than fifteen years ago, the city proudly displays an exact replica of our Robin Hood statue in their new Cultural Plaza district, a Nottingham literature collection in Ningbo New Library and shops, signs and little ducks all over the city representing NG. Located on the east coast, around two hours south of Shanghai in the Zhejiang province, Ningbo is considered a medium-sized city by Chinese standards, despite being home to over eight million people. If you get a chance, go and see what the place is all about. Tell them you’re from Notts and you’ll be guaranteed a warm welcome.
Krasnodar
russia
Population: 1,000,000 Miles from Notts: 1872 Notable natives: Film writer Nina Agadzhanova, Soviet war hero Pyotr Gavrilov and cosmonaut Gennady Padalka When Catherine the Great, the 18th century Empress of Russia, travelled south to visit the lands conquered from the Turks, her lover Potemkin built pretty façades to hide the downtrodden hovels that made up the newly-founded city bearing her name. Originally known as Yekaterinodar (Catherine’s Gift), it’s fair to say that those facades are no longer needed, as Krasnodar is home to a lively, beautiful city centre filled with shops, cafes and restaurants. Dubbed ‘Little Paris’, the Russian city has an elegant European feel, and is perfect for a short stay.
Ljubljana
slovenia
Population: 288,000 Miles from Notts: 850 Notable natives: Footballer Jan Oblak, politician Dimitrij Rupel and skier Petra Majdiĉ
Slovenia’s capital city boasts an eclectic skyline that combines well-preserved Roman, Middle Ages, Baroque, Venetian, Art Deco and modern architecture, most of which has remained standing despite the several huge earthquakes that have decimated the area over the centuries. The Ljubjanica River cuts through the heart of the city, providing a hot spot for treasure hunters who have found relics from the Stone Age to the Renaissance during dives. As well as several picturesque green spaces and the charming Prešeren Square, Ljubljana is known for its beguiling array of bridges. Home to over 10,000 cultural events each year, the city has museums, festivals and art galleries to match any of Nottingham’s twin cities.
BREAKING GROUND
From slums and skate parks, to shopping centres and abandoned residential plans, the intu Broadmarsh Centre has long proved to be a problematic piece of architecture in Nottingham’s cityscape. Plans have come and gone, ownership has changed hands, and promises have been made. As work on the latest development plans by current owners intu grind to a halt, Dan O’Neill explores the turbulent history of the Lister Gate location... At the turn of the twentieth century, long before the Broadmarsh shopping centre was built, the streets just south of Nottingham’s city centre formed a large slum. A police report from 1892 described the backto-back houses of the Broad Marsh area as being in a “dilapidated condition” and residents of the neighbourhood as being “very poor” but “respectable”, apart from two houses of thieves. Mixed in with the houses stood a school, a Methodist chapel and various industrial buildings, such as John Player’s first tobacco factory which he bought in 1877. The area’s population tended to work in Nottingham’s nearby lace and hosiery industries, as well as cleaning, labouring, hawking and peddling. They formed a lively working-class community where residents took an interest in each other’s lives and children played together in the streets. Running through the middle of the area and lined with shops and traders, Sussex Street served as a hub for this community. In 1928, Nottingham artist Hilda Smith
recorded her encounter with the locals as she sat and painted in Sussex Street: “Immediately I sit down they surround me; myriads of urchins of different sizes and different states of cleanliness or dirtiness… The children all surge round and I have to keep elbowing them away, telling them I can’t breathe. They move for a second and then approach again. One knocks over my water jar. ‘Shall I fill it?’ they cry. I say ‘Yes please’ and an urchin grabs it and runs off. He returns with it filled with clean water and I proceed… As the sketch progresses the older ones comment. More honest and scathing criticism I have never met.
Distinctive British skate spots are also being lost, replaced with contemporary architecture which is no longer experimental and communal but efficient and defensive ‘Sort o’ scribbly, ain’t it?’ ‘Could drorit better mesen…’ [Later] the critics become less scathing. They even begin to like the picture as they recognise various doorways and windows. ‘That’s our lavatory door.’ ‘Not bad, is it, considerin’ she’s a woman.’ ‘There, she’s finished. Now ain’t it good. She’s a real artist.’” The poor housing conditions and overcrowding of the Broad Marsh area provided a significant problem for Nottingham Council and they took the decision to clear the slum during the thirties, replacing the dilapidated back-tobacks with
new council housing on Cliff Road. The area thus retained its mix of housing and industrial sites until the sixties, when ambitious new plans for Nottingham were unveiled. Like most other major towns and cities in Britain, Nottingham looked to redevelop and renew its city centre during the fifties and sixties. British society was changing during this period as wartime austerity and rationing gave way to affluence and mass consumption. The council looked “to replan Nottingham to meet the needs of the future”, stressing that the city risked becoming “bedlam” if it didn’t change to meet the needs of increasing car ownership. One solution favoured by councils and postwar planners was the pedestrianised shopping centre. Here, shoppers could park up and walk safely around these modern cathedrals to consumption, away from the grime and din of the city’s busy roads. The mid-sixties saw plans for two ambitious developments for Nottingham being unveiled: the Victoria Centre to the north of the city centre, and the Broadmarsh Centre (or the Arndale Centre as it was initially going to be called) to the south. Originally, both developments were designed to be commercial and residential in scope. Alongside the American-style shopping malls, both the Victoria and Broadmarsh centres were to provide a large number of new council flats contained in high-rise tower blocks. The sixties were a period when architects and city planners idealistically sought to create ‘streets in the sky’ via high-density housing projects. High-rise blocks of flats, with people living in close proximity to one another, were seen as a solution to the problem of maintaining a sense of community in the face of slum clearances and the spread of city populations outwards into the suburbs. In 1965, Ian Fraser and Associates, the architects responsible for the Broadmarsh project, initially put forward a design which kept the shopping area to one floor of the building and included three high-rise towers positioned on top of the centre’s roof. These were to provide the city with an additional 360 council flats and the architects talked romantically of people living in the “air space” above the shopping centre. Social amenities for the flats were to include a créche, a garden and two children’s playgrounds; one on the building’s ground floor and the other just to the east of the shopping centre at Sussex Street.
words: Dan O’Neill illustration: Agnes Papp Unlike the Victoria Centre, however, the final Broadmarsh Centre did not include any social housing. The absence of the three tower blocks from the completed building reflected changing attitudes towards high-rise housing developments. In May 1968, a gas explosion blew out one of the supporting walls of a newly built tower block in East London, killing four residents. Decades before Grenfell, the Ronan Point tragedy starkly demonstrated the safety issues affecting many of these quickly-erected blocks of flats. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Ministry of Housing announced it would discourage the building of any more high-rise housing developments. With the plan for residential tower blocks in tatters, the Broadmarsh scheme faced a further challenge. A series of public enquiries was held into the treatment of various historic roads and sites under the proposed development, after objections had been made by various members of the public. Revised designs for the shopping centre made a greater effort to accommodate the caves to the north east of the site, but it was decided that historic streets like Drury Hill would still be demolished. The revised plans reflected the ambivalence of city planners in the sixties towards historic sites. In the rush to modernise the city centre, little consideration was given to places of historic interest other than grander structures like churches and townhouses. For instance, St. Nicholas Church on Maid Marian Way had, at one point, a graveyard attached to it. In preparation for the building of the Broadmarsh centre, the graves were dug up and the bodies moved to Wilford Hill cemetery and the now-empty graveyard transformed into a car park. In 1970, the council expressed their concern that the new, towerless plans for the Broadmarsh centre had removed the “ancillary features” originally envisioned for the site, but admitted that they did not think that any “worthwhile useable space” could be made out of the now leftover area in Sussex Street. Nevertheless, as the Broadmarsh centre was constructed between 1971 and 1974, Broadmarsh’s architects decided to press on with building the proposed playground. Despite the lack of housing included in the revised Broadmarsh scheme, the Sussex Street site could still serve both the shopping centre and the existing social housing around the corner at Cliff Road. The playground had a unique design, thanks to Broadmarsh’s architects. It featured six earth mounds covered in bricks, the two largest of which were connected by a bridge. One featured a ladder and slide for children to play on. The site also included what the architect’s plans called a “totum [sic] pole”, on which were secured several sculptures of historical figures such as William Shakespeare, Robert Burns and, regrettably, Cecil Rhodes. The plans indicated that these came from Burton’s, which may have been a reference to the grocery shop whose premises were in Smithy Row, by the Market Square. The Sussex Street playground reflected, on a far smaller scale, the experimental design and concern for civic identity which was characteristic of the so-called ‘brutalist’ style of architecture that was popular during the post-war period. The playground echoed the banked surfaces of buildings like London’s Southbank Centre and the Barbican’s brick curves. Unfortunately, as early as 1975 landscapers working on the Sussex Street playground noted the “vandalism problem of the area”. The bridge between the mounds had been broken and was removed, and
damaged trees were replaced. The playground was surrounded by the ascending road on one side and a railway viaduct on the other, isolating it from the outside world. The site typified a problem that architecture from the sixties and seventies suffered from. Critics would argue that the blind spots and labyrinthine walkways of post-war buildings acted as incubators for crime and anti-social behaviour. This apparent problem could, however, act in a positive way. From the late seventies onwards, Sussex Street became a hive of activity and creative energy. Secluded from the public and the rest of the city, the space was colonised by skateboarders and BMX riders who interpreted the playground’s unique design in their own way. The brick banks’ unconventional contours made for a unique spot, with the humps challenging skaters in a way that few other skate spots could. Becoming known as the ‘Broadmarsh Banks’, the Sussex Street space featured in videos and on the front cover of national magazines.
While the current redevelopment of intu Broadmarsh stalls due to the uncertainty around the coronavirus and the purported financial situation of current owners, the next phase in the site’s history seems unclear Much like London’s Southbank skate spot, the Broadmarsh Banks moulded generations of Nottingham skaters and they became a recognisable space which attracted visitors from around the country. The colonisation of the banks was an example of what urban theorist Jane Jacobs has referred to as “healthy street life”; skaters and BMXers brought liveliness and camaraderie to a marginalised part of the city, self-regulating the spot and discouraging more anti-social behaviours and crime. Sadly, the banks were demolished in 2009 as the then owners of Broadmarsh, Westfield, attempted to redevelop the site and wrongly suspected that there was a heating pipe underneath the skate spot. The destruction of the Broadmarsh Banks reflects a wider trend within British cities. Many buildings from the sixties and seventies are now being demolished, as they cease to be useful and their upkeep costs become prohibitive. Along with the disappearance of these buildings, a host of
distinctive British skate spots are also being lost, replaced with contemporary architecture which is no longer experimental and communal but is efficient and defensive. Architects now design spaces to be explicitly uninviting to ‘undesirable’ groups. Grooves are cut into ledges and railings are placed on banks in order to prevent skateboarding. Metal studs are placed on windowsills and on floors to prevent homeless people from sheltering there. Architect David Knight argues that these design strategies privilege dominant users of the city (primarily middle-aged, professional and able-bodied men) and consequently hinder the access to urban space of young people, women, the differently-abled and people from lower income groups. While the current redevelopment of intu Broadmarsh stalls due to the uncertainty around the coronavirus and the purported financial situation of current owners, the next phase in the site’s history seems unclear. The council has reiterated its commitment to the project, which includes plans to remake Sussex Street into a more open public space. The current redevelopment presents an opportunity to embrace the area’s past and create a space which has real value, in a non-commercial sense. Creating skateable architecture in Sussex Street would encourage young people to engage with their city in a meaningful way, bringing fun and joy as well as “healthy street life” back into a neglected part of Nottingham. If the council are serious about creating a “liveable” city, then they need to engage with the uses and values that residents of all ages and backgrounds can draw from their public spaces. Only then will real vibrancy be brought back to Broadmarsh.
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Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day As we celebrate the genius of Cloughie through LeftLion’s #CloughChallenge campaign, Rich Fisher explains how Nottingham’s Brian Clough statue came to exist… Standing at the point where King Street meets Queen Street and gazing down upon Slab Square, the Brian Clough statue is now a firmly established Nottingham landmark – so much so that it’s hard to imagine a time when it wasn’t there. The reason it is there is a story of eighteen months of hard graft from a group of ordinary Nottingham Forest fans. And I’m probably as good a person as any to tell that tale – because I was one of them... The whole thing was started by a gentleman called Marcus Alton, founder of the tribute website brianclough. com. During the early part of the millennium, Marcus had been running a high-profile crusade to get a Knighthood for Cloughie – with his efforts including hand-delivering a petition of 7,500 signatures to parliament. Sadly, Cloughie’s death in 2004 pretty much ended any possibility of the great man ever becoming Sir Brian – as it turned out the government only gives out posthumous honours for gallantry. But Marcus and his partner Sarah began thinking of different ways to build upon the momentum they’d started – and hit upon the idea of raising money for a statue in the city centre. The Clough family gave the idea their blessing and, having looked into the logistics of actually getting a statue made, Marcus and Sarah learned it would probably cost around £60,000. Needless to say, raising such a large amount of money would be a massive challenge – and in early 2005 they decided it might be sensible to get a few more hands to the deck and create a fundraising committee. This is where I came in. At the time, I was writing for a Reds fanzine called Blooming Forest. Marcus and Sarah felt it’d be useful to have someone on board from the fanzine world, while other folk were quickly brought into the fold too including Paul Ellis, who was Chairman of the official Forest Supporters Club at the time. Our first move was to talk to the local authorities. Back then, Nottingham City Council was led by Councillor Jon Collins, and he was fantastic – giving us his personal assurance that if we could raise £60,000, he’d guarantee a suitable location for a statue somewhere in the city centre. It was all quite exciting. The six of us on the committee immediately started working on plans for how we were going to try and raise the cash – and the Brian Clough Statue Fund was officially born in June 2005 with a
words: Rich Fisher
media launch on board Nottingham’s Brian Clough tram. Pleasingly, the launch event generated loads of publicity, and the idea of a statue gained a very positive response from people in Nottingham and beyond – with numerous cheques arriving through the post within days. However, we were well aware that we couldn’t sit back and expect £60,000 to just come rolling in. We knew we had to actively raise the cash – and so began a very hectic but enjoyable eighteen-month period, in which fundraising pretty much took over our lives. Our first scheme was to create a metal pin badge in the shape of Cloughie’s famous green sweatshirt, which was a great success and sold in its thousands at £2 each. We followed this with a bucket collection outside the City Ground prior to a Forest home game. Once again, this showed us the depth of feeling for Cloughie and the idea of the statue, with many fans throwing in not just coins, but £10 and £20 notes and a total of over £4,000. Our next move was a second piece of merchandise – green Cloughie style sweatshirts at £20 a pop – and by Christmas 2005, six months after the fund had been launched, the total amount of money raised was in the region of £20,000.
The idea of a statue gained a very positive response from people in Nottingham and beyond – with numerous cheques arriving through the post within days But there was never time to stop and pat ourselves on the back – we were too busy working on our big plans for 2006. We launched more merchandise with a second badge design, and also keyrings. We were also starting to maximise the increasing potential of the Internet. This included persuading ltlf.co.uk, an unofficial website for Forest fans, to set up an online shop for us allowing fans to buy our merch online, or simply make a donation. This was a significant development, as suddenly it was easy for fans anywhere in the world to support what we were doing. We also began to use eBay very successfully, something which all began when the council allowed us to have the giant banners that had been hung around Market Square as part of the memorial service held shortly after Cloughie died. Each banner featured a photo
of the great man and one of his famous quotes and, after deciding to test the waters and list one of them on eBay, we were amazed to see it go for a whopping £970 following a furious bidding war. Over the course of our fundraising campaign we also organised a series of events to raise money, our biggest being a formal dinner held in May 2006, which came about after the council offered us use of the Council House ballroom for one night at no cost. It was a great night, with several members of Brian Clough’s family attending – including his wife Barbara. Also present were various legends from the Forest team of the late seventies such as John Robertson and John McGovern, who both shared some brilliant Cloughie stories during the evening. Along with money generated from people buying tickets to attend the dinner, we made further cash on the night through a raffle and an auction – and by the end of the evening, we’d added another £9,000 to our growing total. By December 2006, just eighteen months after we’d launched the fund, we achieved that £60,000 target. It was a proud moment – however, there was still the small matter of agreeing a location for the statue and finding the right person to recreate Cloughie in bronze. Dozens of sculptors tendered for the job, and it was Hampshirebased Les Johnson who was eventually chosen following a lengthy consultation process involving both the public and the Clough family. Les duly spent much of 2008 working on the statue, and the ‘big reveal’ finally happened at 1pm on Thursday 6 November 2008 – with an estimated 5,000 people turning up to get a first look at Cloughie. An immediate and spontaneous outbreak of applause from the crowds told us everything we needed to know about what the public thought of Les Johnson’s stunning creation. It was a proud moment for all of us who had made it happen. I only hope Cloughie remains a prominent landmark in our city for many decades to come – helping future generations learn about a brilliant man and everything he did to help put Nottingham on the map. Rich Fisher is author of the Forest fan memoir ‘The Church of Stuart Pearce and other stories’, which includes a chapter going into more detail of how Nottinham’s Brian Clough statue came to exist. The book is available to buy on Amazon, and you can find out more about it by reading the LeftLion feature from its release in 2018.
We’ve all been there. You’re abroad on holiday, and a taxi driver or barman asks where you’re from. ‘Ah, Nottingham? Robin Hood!’ While our city’s pairing with a figure whose existence hasn’t been proven is interesting, it’s often at the expense of the cultures that helped shape the landscape of Notts, including the enormous, lasting impact of the Vikings. We talk to the University of Nottingham’s Dr. Rebecca Gregory, author of Viking Nottinghamshire, about Nottingham’s Norse legacy… Why do you think Nottingham’s Viking history isn’t as well known or discussed as other time periods? I suppose you could say it’s dominated by Robin Hood, and how popular that story is worldwide – and I can understand why people identify with that story. In comparison to places like York and Lincoln, where the Viking presence is so strong, Nottingham has less to show in terms of archaeology. The Medieval town is now all under a big urban area, and there haven’t been any excavations since the seventies, so we haven’t had the opportunity to really see what’s there. What would classify as the Viking Age? There are so many different definitions depending on where you are in the world and what your focus is. But in Nottinghamshire, and the wider East Midlands, we are looking at a period from the mid9th century to the 11th century, when the Normans arrived. It started with a period of invading, which then turned to settling. It’s easy to forget that settling comes after an invasion, and people are looking for new homes and just getting back to the regular business of everyday life, but with the additional difference of new cultures and people. What were some of the key events at that time? The first thing most people know about from an English context is the raid on Lindisfarne [Northumberland] in 793. That wouldn’t really have affected Nottinghamshire, or even been in people’s consciousness. It wasn’t until 865 that the Great Heathen Army, a mixture of warbands and their entourage from Scandinavia and elsewhere, landed in East Anglia and started to maraud around the country. We get the most concrete involvement of Nottingham in 868 when the army wintered here and the area came under Viking rule. Then in 878, King Alfred ‘The Great’ won a victory over Guthrum, one of the leaders of the Great Heathen Army and the two sides agreed a treaty that saw the Vikings take control over much of Eastern England. The area later became known as the Danelaw, and stretched from London to the Mersey, including Nottinghamshire. What was the lasting impact of the Viking presence in Nottinghamshire? It’s a difficult question to answer as a lot of the impact is not tangible. On a broader regional scale the impact is massive, but not necessarily dramatic, and ranges from patterns in religious expression and symbolism to place names and economic and trading practice. In Viking Nottinghamshire I tried to find the local things that a modern member of the public, who doesn’t necessarily have specialist training, can see for themselves and find interesting. From reading your book, it seems like a lot of that comes from street names? Absolutely. One example would be street names that end in the word ‘gate’. Many of those would
have originally come from the Old Norse word ‘gata’, meaning street. Some of the street names in Nottingham that end in ‘gate’ were named long after the Viking Age ended, which shows how the language continued to be influential. You can also see people’s names in place names, which gives you a very vivid snippet of ongoing settlement in the area.
You can definitely say that Vikings are having a cultural moment Has the popularity of shows like Vikings and The Last Kingdom created an increased interest in the time period? It’s hard to measure things like that, because it’s hard to know with certainty where interest comes from. But you can definitely say that Vikings are having a cultural moment, and that is coming not just from TV series, but from video games and books too. We’ve had a strong interest at the University of Nottingham since the eighties, and our undergraduate courses in English have lots of choices in Viking and medieval studies. Also, we’re currently offering a free trial of our new online MA programmes that are launching in September, including a taster of some Old Norse and some place-names. As an academic in the area, do you watch shows like that? Or do the historical inaccuracies make it too difficult? I have colleagues at both ends of the spectrum: some love them, and some avoid them altogether. I think I’m somewhere in the middle. I haven’t seen The Last Kingdom, but that’s only because I haven’t had time, but I did watch the first two seasons of Vikings. I really like the fact that it’s gone back into the popular consciousness, especially from a teaching perspective as it gives you something to draw on. You have comparisons to talk about and, even if they’re not historically accurate, students still have a starting point of knowing something. Speaking of historical inaccuracies, what are some of the biggest misconceptions about Vikings that you come across? In general I think people tend to focus on the wrong aspects of the Viking Age rather than misunderstanding it. Like the raping and pillaging parts – there was certainly violence and ransacking of monasteries, but they weren’t the only things that happened. A lot of recent work has focused on everyday people rather than the big single events. Battles and individual figures are often the easiest parts to pin down from documentary sources. Part of it comes from how we view the period historically: the Victorians really liked the Vikings, they’re the ones who gave them horned helmets, so a lot of
the modern ideas of Vikings actually come from the Victorian representations of them. How did you begin the process of writing Viking Nottinghamshire? The starting point was assembling what I thought I knew already, and then finding the evidence that speaks to the story. It’s one thing to write a narrative about what you think happened, but it’s another to actually show people how we know – I think that’s really important in history. So there were plenty of visits to churches and looking at stone sculptures, which was brilliant as I love an excuse for a field trip! I talked to a lot of people who had worked on the subject, and read and re-read, before working out how to weave everything into a narrative that is accurate and doesn’t play into stereotypes. Personally, I’d had enough of the war and conquest focus, and just wanted to write more about the Viking influence on Nottingham itself. The book is part of the wider East Midlands Viking Project. Can you tell us a bit more about that? It started back in 2017 as the brainchild of two of my colleagues, Judith Jesch and Roderick Dale. They received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to create a project that brought the Vikings back to the East Midlands, with the aim of creating and embedding awareness of the Viking Age in the region. There was an accompanying exhibition at Lakeside that had actual artefacts, as well as information and interpretations of the Viking Age locally. There are a series of lectures on Viking areas, which are still available online along with loads of digital resources in what is essentially a virtual museum which is all free to access. Whether it’s teachers and universities, or just people interested in history, there are items from private collections, from other museums, from all over the place really. It’s a way of bringing lots of stuff together for people to access in their own time, on their own terms. Is there anything else people interested in the era should know? There have been ongoing excavations in the area that were the subject of a Channel 4 documentary called Britain’s Viking Graveyard, and there’s going to be an equivalent Viking Leicestershire book released later this year. Also, Judith is giving an online talk about Viking Invasions and Settlement in the East Midlands on Wednesday 3 June. Viking Nottinghamshire is available through Five Leaves Publishing fiveleaves.co.uk/product/viking-nottinghamshire emidsvikings.ac.uk @EMidsVikings
interview: Ashley Carter illustration: Raphael Achache
On The Farm
illustration: Kate Sharp
The sun has been shining, the flowers have been blooming, and the lambs and chicks have been born. You’ve been able to feel the warmth on your skin and sweet scents as you’ve walked around your neighbourhood. Yes, spring has definitely come and gone, but the annual ritual of heading down to the farm to check out the newborns remains incomplete. Nottingham’s community farms haven’t been able to enjoy spring as much as usual, as lockdown has seen their income disappear entirely at a time when visitor numbers would have been at their peak. We speak to Anthony Moore from White Post Farm and Stonebridge City Farm’s Peter Armitage to find out how they’ve been coping during COVID, and how you can help support them… We’re extremely lucky that in Nottinghamshire, whether you’re in the city or tucked away on the outskirts, these two brilliant farms are easily accessible. They both provide entertainment and education for the local communities and strive to make these aspects as brilliant and rewarding as possible, while providing a home for their animals. It’s fair to say that White Post and Stonebridge City Farms are essential parts of Nottingham’s identity, and both have had a lot to be proud of throughout the years. Stonebridge City Farm’s General Manager Peter Armitage explains, “In 2019, we had over 1000 school children visit Stonebridge on a structured educational visit, and we have grown our volunteer group from ninety to 140 in two years.” 2019 also saw the farm launch an urgent appeal for donations that raised £126,000, demonstrating the vital role it plays in the community. Anthony Moore, Farm Manager at White Post Farm, tells me, “One of the things I’m most proud of was organising White Post’s thirtieth birthday nearly two years ago – it was such a cool event, we had music and it had a real festival feel.” He continues, “It was such an amazing feeling knowing that people wanted to celebrate with us.” Their animals have also had their share of viral hits: In 2009 Darren the Waving Goat had several offers of stardom, including an offer from Britain's Got Talent. “That was my favourite ever headline from the BBC,” he laughs, “It was 'Nottinghamshire Waving Goat Snubs Simon Cowell’ – they turned into some kind of ridiculous personal attack from a goat!” Both farms also nurture a sense of belonging with its staff. “I think that one of the reasons why we're so successful is because of the family feel that you get at White Post Farm,” Anthony attests. “We're genuinely friends! Everyone at the farm is there because they love animals and, because of that, they're happy. Customers notice that.” Stonebridge also fosters a close-knit community – the vast majority of their volunteers have learning difficulties or mental health challenges, and the farm aims to help them increase their independence, social skills and wellbeing. Peter tells me, “For people who are more vulnerable, more marginalised in society and in Nottingham, we give them an opportunity to live a life such as you and I might wish in terms of work opportunities.” Having such an emotional connection to what they do has made the struggles they’ve faced during COVID-19 even more difficult. Unlike most businesses that can wind down their shutters and utilise the furlough scheme for staff, the farms
cannot simply shut down. Their animals still need constant care, be it cleaning, well-being checkups or feeding, and money for their food usually comes from visitors, which have obviously stopped completely during lockdown. Anthony explains, “Our owners have got the stress of trying to work out how they can sustain the business as well as looking after the animals – they're the ones who are out feeding, doing health care for the animals… The farm industry seems to be a weird anomaly that hasn't quite had the help we thought we would,” he tells me, voice shaky with emotion. “While we’re closed it's still costing us around £20,000 a month. We are so close to not being able to open at all.”
The affirmations that we got from donations and knowing that people love the farm put us in a more secure position in terms of surviving Wanting to at least make sure the animals had food, White Post put a call out for donations of fodder, and were amazed to get enough for three months’ worth. Anthony explains, “We did a live video on our social media, and I walked past our storage barn to show everyone what the money had done. It's full of these giant bales of hay and straw, bedding and food. This situation has been mentally draining, but the affirmations that we got from donations and knowing that people love the farm put us in a more secure position in terms of surviving.” As well as this, White Post has been really active on social media, hosting quiz nights and bedtime stories for its Facebook supporters – which you can access for just £3.49 a month. Stonebridge has also had to adapt to a new set of challenges. Peter tells me, “We’ve worked on the basis that if you can’t come to the farm then we will bring the farm to you. We devised a new website and had it up and running within ten days of lockdown so that we’re able to post much more regular news, pictures and resources of what’s going on at the farm.” If you missed seeing the new woolly members of the farm, they covered that too: “When the lambs were born we put videos of them out so that the public, who would have normally come to the farm, could still see them, albeit remotely.”
As well as providing educational resources for schools that would normally be toddling off to see them this time of year, Stonebridge has been providing welfare resources for its volunteers, as regularly working at the farm is a huge part of their activities: “We send out weekly resource packs to them, we have one-to-one calls, we have workshops. The feedback we’re getting in terms of how useful people are finding it in helping them to reduce social exclusion and maintain their best state of mental well-being is extremely positive.” He continues, “The farm might not be open at the moment but the work we do as a charity and achieving the social outcomes we seek is still very much ongoing.” The farm has also been donating meals, flowers and produce it would normally sell to local organisations in the area. While these times have clearly hit the farming industry hard, these two Nottinghamshire organisations still have positive, passionate attitudes. “It’s just so unusual to see the farm empty because of the buzz that we would normally have – the sound of laughter, the families and the children who can spend as much time as they wish on the playground, with the animals, in the gardens,” Peter elucidates. “But I am so impressed and proud of the team and what they’ve been able to do in terms of working and supporting people remotely.” Looking to the future, they’ve both been making preparations for re-opening. Prior to lockdown, White Post acquired a zoo licence and had built a bird of prey falconry centre as well as a wallaby walkthrough system. “It does mean that we will have this amazing attraction once we can re-open,” Anthony declares. “I think we'll re-open as a very different attraction in terms of capacity, customer flow, proper hygiene and social distancing measures, but it will still be an amazing experience – if we can go ahead soonish.” But they aren’t counting their chickens just yet – this all relies on them being able to re-open, which still isn’t a guarantee for either of them. Whether you can spare pennies, pounds or a like and share online, anything you can do to help them stay alive will definitely be greatly appreciated. Of what they’ve had so far, Anthony concludes, “The support from the public we’ve received has made us even more determined to go above and beyond – we're just sincerely and genuinely grateful.” whitepostfarm.co.uk stonebridgecityfarm.com
illustration: Kate Sharp
Our Editor-in-Chief is keeping himself busy by time-travelling through Nottingham’s past. Can you spot Jared waiting for the 9.07 to Skeg at Nottingham Victoria Train Station?
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Thought last month’s quiz was too easy? Good news, we’ve decided to ramp up the difficulty this time around to see how many of you really know NG... 1. Who was the Nottingham-born detective responsible for putting the Krays in jail? a) ‘Whipper’ Weed b) ‘Nipper’ Read c) ‘Chipper’ Mead d) Apollo Creed 2. In what century did the Viking Great Heathen Army occupy Nottingham? a) 8th b) 9th c) 10th d) 11th 3. Which of the following is not a Jeanie Finlay film? a) The Great Hip Hop Hoax b) Orion: The Man Who Would Be King c) Lost at Sea d) Sound it Out 4. What type of animal did architect Watson Fothergill carve into his bank buildings as an inside joke against the profession? a) Monkey b) Pig c) Goose d) Dragon 5. What is the name of Vicky McClure’s character in Line of Duty? a) Kat Flarnsworth b) Kim Flanagan c) Kate Fleming d) Katherine Flenton 6. Which Nottingham band had a song featured in The Sopranos? a) Amber Run b) Tindersticks c) Sleaford Mods d) Fudge Tunnel 7. Which boxer did Carl Froch famously stop with fourteen seconds remaining in the twelfth round in their 2009 fight? a) Jermain Taylor b) Mikkel Kessler c) Andre Dirrell d) Andre Ward
8. Which Nottingham Panthers fanfavourite #44 was part of the infamous bench-clearing brawl against the Sheffield Steelers in 2001? a) Lee Jinman b) Pasi Hakkinen c) Claude Savoie d) Barry Nieckar 9. Which former Forest player swapped shirts with Diego Maradona after England’s infamous ‘Hand of God’ defeat to Argentina in the 1986 World Cup? a) Peter Shilton b) Viv Anderson c) Chris Woods d) Steve Hodge 10. Which American Motown legend was living in Nottingham at the time of his death in 2003? a) Edwin Starr b) Marvin Gaye c) David Ruffin d) Eddie Kendricks 11. In 1931, J.V. Joshi – a student at University College, Nottingham – received a visit from his famous uncle. Who was the uncle? a) Franklin D. Roosevelt b) Pablo Picasso c) Warren Zevon d) Mahatma Ghandhi 12. Which of the following Nottingham celebrities does not have a tram named after them? a) Erica Beardsmore b) Mary Potter c) Sam Clarke d) Colin Slater 13. The UK’s first radio phone-in was on Radio Nottingham on 4 February 1968. What was the topic? a) The Beatles b) The Vietnam War c) Goose Fair d) Pest control
illustration: Raphael Achache
14. In 1955, ‘Syncopating Sandy’ Strickland set the world record for doing what for 133 hours and 14 minutes in Sutton-in-Ashfield? a) Dancing b) Press-ups c) Playing the piano d) Playing darts 15. Who scored the winning goal when Nottingham Forest beat Hamburg in the 1980 European Cup final? a) Trevor Francis b) John Robertson c) Garry Birtles d) Ian Bowyer 16. What is the Nottingham City Council House bell named? a) Dry Edgar b) Humble Jeremy c) Little Ben d) Tony Chocolonely 17. Eastwood resident James Brown has a museum entirely dedicated to what? a) Vacuum cleaners b) Legendary moose pelts c) Kites d) LeftLion 18. In 1180, Nottingham became the first place in England to register what? a) Its name as a trademark b) The temperature c) A dog as their mayor d) An earthquake 19. How did Bella Ramsey’s Game of Thrones character die? a) She was crushed by a giant b) A catapult fired her into the sea c) She was eaten by a dragon d) She was executed by Jon Snow 20. Which area of Nottingham is located the furthest west? a) Hyson Green b) Stapleford c) Carlton d) Clifton
See you got on by checking the answers at the bottom of page 47... leftlion.co.uk/issue126 25
Home is Where the Art is
Back in mid-March, before our lives took an unexpected turn, Nottingham Contemporary hosted a fair celebrating all things print. It was my last cultural day out, and with a variety of workshops and some thirty stalls to browse, it did not disappoint. The fair introduced me to many talented makers based here in Nottingham, and now, without galleries to visit, it’s a great time to bring art into the home, while supporting Nottingham’s creative community. Here are a few of the featured artists, whose works are available for purchase… CurrentlyKimmy You can’t help but marvel at the incredible craftsmanship and imagination of CurrentlyKimmy (aka Kimberley-Rose Gardner). Using a 0.05mm black fine liner pen on white paper, her illustrations are composed of a meticulous assemblage of dots. Kim’s inspirations are vast, depicting subjects that pique her curiosity including the beauty and strangeness of nature and fantastical tales from folklore and myths. In the Ttlji tree series, each tree is diverse in form, yet they all have a sense of personality and a commanding presence. ‘Ttlji’ is a language created by the artist based on spirituality, and the ideas of trees having a voice to communicate with one another. As affordable A5 prints, the works lend themselves to being displayed as multiples in a woodland configuration. CurrentlyKimmy’s hybrid fantasy series takes inspiration from mythology, giving characters extraordinary forms befitting their epic tales. Medea, the Greek sorceress, is part-octopus, part-frog; Pasiphaë, Queen of Crete, is both minotaur and sea creature; and Atargatis, the drowned goddess, is fated to be part-woman, part-fish. Despite layered interpretation and complex forms, each image is unashamedly minimalistic – every tiny dot exists for a reason. etsy.com/uk/shop/CurrentlyKimmy Lawrence James English The line drawing illustrations of Lawrence James English primarily feature an assortment of tangled and contorted bodies. The artist takes inspiration from the energy of music; you might recognise his art from murals on the walls of Rough Trade, or from the artwork of the Nottingham band, Kagoule (Lawrence is the drummer). In creating the visuals for Kagoule, the artist developed a distinctive style reflecting the sound. A sense of tension and discomfort runs through the work, as well as rhythm and raw energy. In the Buoys series, illustrations arrange bodies with strong outstretched limbs upon vibrant background colours. The figures convey points of tension; representing the fine line between dancing and straining, sinking and floating. In some prints, the subject fights to hold a powerful stance, while outstretched arms pull them against their will. It reminded me of a mosh pit, where you are at once held up and pushed down. Lawrence is inspired by tattoo designs – he also provides tattoo design commissions if you are looking to decorate your body. lawrencejamesenglish.com/shop-1 Katrina Sophia Working primarily in watercolour, Katrina Sophia’s aim is to celebrate the wonder of the natural world. In her online shop you can expect to find prints of quirky cactuses in colourful pots, beautiful delicate wildflowers, as well as butterflies and beetles. Katrina collects ideas from her wild garden, countryside walks, natural history books, and through her abundance of houseplants. Each illustration shows a fascination with the details of nature, from the faint patterns on a petal, to the intricate wings of a butterfly. To anyone looking to bring the wondrous outdoors into their home, the product range includes prints, ceramics, stationery, greeting cards, and accessories, with free UK shipping. It would make a particularly heartfelt gift for anyone craving nature, and the vast greeting card range is beautifully designed, joyous and playful. katrinasophia.com
Geri Draws Japan Sushi, bonsai trees, koi fish and kimonos – Geri Coady, aka Geri Draws Japan, illustrates iconic aspects of Japanese culture. As well as prints, her shop also sells accessories: sew on patches, art pins and stickers, representing “kawaii” – the Japanese concept of cuteness. Geri’s artworks are born from a lifelong passion for Japanese travel, food, and culture, and each illustration is invested with a sense of excitement and a fascination that could only belong to a non-native. The 100 Days of Japan series includes a range of subjects from pop culture, traditional icons, nature, and aspects of everyday life. Each print is on square paper, a bit like origami sheets, and uses an exuberant pop art style with a colourful palette and flat planes. My favourite illustration series profiles thirty influential and inspirational Japanese women in both modern and ancient times, spanning a range of disciplines. Each woman appears surrounded by symbols of their achievement, depicted in a style more reminiscent of Japanese woodblock prints. The women include Murasaki Shikibu, the world’s first novelist, Komako Kimura, a prominent early 1900s suffragist, and (embarrassingly) the only figure I recognised, contemporary artist Kusama Yayoi, known for her polka-dotted wonderlands. geridrawsjapan.com/shop
Rachel Mahon The inspiration for Rachel Mahon’s prints comes from the plants her green-fingered husband grows in their home and garden. Each print has a contemporary edge, representing a range of plants through abstracted shapes, emphasising form. She illustrated the large oval leaves of a rubber plant, the finger-like leaves of the blue star fern, and the small draping leaves of a peperomia. Rather than being predominantly green, the artist uses a vibrant palette, and overlapping ink gives the illusion of light passing through varying densities. Her designs can also be found on greeting cards (each printed on kraft paper) and notebooks. On Rachel Mahon’s website, you can also download free colouring-in sheets for entertainment during isolation: “Stay home – your plants need you”. etsy.com/uk/shop/RachelMahonPrint
words: Laura-Jade Vaughan
Chain Reaction
interview: Rachel Willcocks
In a bid to inspire creative communication through traditional, tangible methods, Tracy Meek is combating loneliness and isolation the old-fashioned way. We caught up with the artist to discuss Isolation Art Mail, her community art intervention project that encourages people to share a collaborative chain letter of unfinished artwork... Conversations through the digital sphere today feel like we've zoomed fast-forward into the future, but without the high-definition holograms and human-like intelligent machines. There are so many new experiences moving online that are supposed to help us feel less isolated: quizzes, classes, dates, talks, parties, workshops, weddings, graduation ceremonies – you name it, it's probably happened on Zoom over the last few months. But for all the benefits technology has brought into our lives, it’s made it increasingly difficult to turn away from our screens. Step in artist Tracy Meek, who’s taking notes from the past by getting familiar with a good old-fashioned letter, with an arty twist. The Isolation Art Mail project was set up by East Midlands artist Tracey Meek. Her work is spontaneous, playful and inspired by the subtle in-betweens in life, seemingly unimportant moments and happenings that translate into a captured memory. The project takes shape in a collaborative chain letter/art trail. It starts with a letter through the post in the form of a piece of unfinished art that participants are invited to contribute to. It's a way of connecting creatively, sharing experience and feeling like we are part of something. Firstly, what was your inspiration for such a unique project? When I came up with the concept, it was more of a response to the idea of isolation rather than the COVID situation alone. I wanted to help, but it made me think of the people who live with loneliness every day. I am a very tactile person, I love a handwritten letter in the post, and it's been a long time since I sent or received one. I guess in a way, it was part of my coping strategy. I talked through my idea with my friend Lauren and we decided to try it out, just me and her, and it was a lot of fun! How many people have signed up so far, and where are they from? 62 now, and counting! People have signed up from all over the country, and internationally as well: US, Canada, Australia and South Korea. The majority of people have found me on Instagram through relentless rooftop shouting. Do you think this has brought people together, and why? Definitely. When I started, I wanted it to be almost like sharing a moment with a stranger, bringing a voice to an otherwise quiet table. What's nice is that people are really connecting with their fellow art mailers. They're sending little notes of motivation and sometimes silly little gifts like seeds to plant and badges. The feedback has been so nice, it feels really good to know that I am helping in some way.
What kind of feedback have you been getting from people? I've had a few lovely messages from people telling me how much it has helped. I had an artist get in touch the other day to tell me that it had helped get her out of a creative rut. And the support has been reciprocated. I had to step back for a week as a very close friend passed away, so of course, I let mailers know what was happening so that they weren't left hanging. I had so many nice emails though, offering condolences.
This crisis has given us a chance to slow down, not just physically but mentally Have you faced any challenges, and how have you overcome them? Working from home has been a bit testing. At times my living room has been an explosion of coloured papers and envelopes. It took me a little while to figure out data protection, as it's impossible to not have addresses in a chain letter. At the moment, it is mostly a self-funded project, so if each chain came back to me to send out again, it would prove very difficult. The first few went out with a kind of disclaimer when signing up, and then I decided to give everyone code names. This has actually been fun in itself and I think it has added to the charm. Do you think that sending letters, cards and other forms of communication via post to people is more important now than previously? It has always been important, we've just forgotten how important it is to be tactile. We're so digital, even my daughter and I often communicate via text, even when she is just upstairs. This crisis has given us a chance to slow down, not just physically but mentally. I'm hopeful that mindsets will have some kind of permanent change in that respect. I think it works with what we are experiencing now because we have no real sight as to when all this will end, the prospect of something so nice finding its way to you through the post is quite special. Where does the project go from here? Oh, you name it, I have some big ideas up my sleeve! I'm hoping to develop further in schools. I'm also setting up a kind of art 'pen friend' pack, which will be aimed at individuals wanting to connect with their own friendship groups or families. These will be available on my website in the coming weeks. There will be an exhibition when social restrictions are lifted and when the art mail has found its way home. It will be really great to see all the work together, and hopefully a chance to meet those that have been involved! traceymeek.com/art-mail
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Battlefield Notts It was the battle that finally ended the War of the Roses, the bloody civil struggle for control of the throne that plagued England for decades, and has been described as one of the defining moments in the country’s history. With this month marking the 533rd anniversary of the events that took place on Nottinghamshire’s only registered battlefield, we take a look at the story behind The Battle of Stoke Field… When George R.R. Martin first started writing A Game of Thrones, there was one period in English history that he drew upon above all others for inspiration. Over a half a millenia later, it’s almost impossible to envision just how devastating the impact of the War of the Roses was on the country. Lasting over three decades, the series of dynastic civil wars fought between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, both branches of the same royal House of Plantagenet, featured inescapable brutality; during the Battle of Towton alone, 3% of the entire male population of England was killed during a single day. Though they included no fire-breathing dragons or walking undead, the events of the long-running conflict featured a string of weak or nefarious monarchs, chivalrous princes slaughtered in their prime, plenty of cloak-and-dagger scheming and the complete destruction of the male lines of both families. In every sense, the War of the Roses was one of, if not the definitive turning point in the history of England, bringing an end to both the Middle Ages and the Plantagenet reign – which had endured for over three centuries – and establishing a Tudor dynasty that would radically and permanently alter the course of English history. The details of the war itself could fill this entire magazine, so complex and eclectic were the array of characters, houses, events and battles. But
suffice to say, three decades of sporadic civil war had seen King Henry VI murdered, lengthy periods of instability, the involvement of Scotland, France and Burgundy, the crown of England changing hands six times and twenty major military engagements which had led to most of the key figures who had initiated the conflict murdered, executed or killed in battle. To return to the Game of Thrones analogy, think Season Eight (without the terrible writing): Ned, Robb, Ramsay, Joffrey, Tommen, Stannis, Tywin, Roose and Robert are all dead and gone, but the carnage continues unabated.
The stage had been set, and it would be all or nothing for Lincoln and the Yorkists in Nottingham While the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 is often seen as the war’s definitive latter-period engagement, owing to the defeat and death of Richard III, the last king of the House of York (as well as the last English monarch to die in battle), the war rumbled on. The victor at Bosworth, Henry Tudor – now King Henry VII – sits uneasily on the throne. His attempts to gain the acceptance of the York faction through marriage to their heiress, Elizabeth of York, hasn’t had
the desired effect, and his clasp of power remains far from secure. Next in line on the seemingly endless conveyor belt of Yorkist claimants to the throne was the Queen’s cousin, Edward, Earl of Warwick. The young boy was brought to the attention of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln who, having previously been named as royal heir under Richard III, saw an opportunity for revenge and lent his support to the cause. Except the boy they had wasn’t actually Edward at all, but rather an imposter named Lambert Simnel. Unbeknownst to the would-be rebels, the real Edward, who had displayed signs of a mental disability and was described by chronicler Edward Hall as not being able to “discern a goose from a capon”, had been locked in the Tower of London by Henry. Ten-year-old Lambert was nothing more than the son of a baker or tradesman, and had inexplicably been selected as the figurehead around which to mount one last chance of snatching the English throne for the House of York. Ireland had always been a hotbed of Yorkist support, so it was there that Lincoln and his cohorts headed in May 1487, recruiting 4,500 Irish mercenaries and drumming up the support of the Irish nobility and clergy. Less than three weeks after arriving, Lambert Simnel, the imposter boy-King, was crowned King Edward VI in Dublin, before the newly bolstered ranks sailed back to Lancashire. After being joined by a number of local gentry, the Yorkist army covered over 200 miles in five days during a series of forced marches. Their ambitions were clear: to catch Henry Tudor off-guard and seize the throne before he
had the chance to mount a suitable defence. A skirmish outside Tadcaster resulted in an overwhelming victory for the Yorkists, and Lincoln further outmaneuvered Henry’s army by drawing elements of them northward with a diversion that left the route south open for the bulk of his forces. Nearing Doncaster, they encountered Lancastrian cavalry who, after three days of skirmishing through Sherwood Forest, were forced back toward Nottingham. But the cavalry had done enough, providing Henry sufficient time to receive desperately-needed reinforcements. Those three days proved crucial, as Henry’s army now not only outnumbered Lincoln’s, and were better armed, better equipped and under much more experienced leadership. Both sides had done all they could to prepare for what would be the final battle of the War of the Roses. The stage had been set, and it would be all or nothing for Lincoln and the Yorkists in Nottingham. East Stoke was a quiet village about half a mile east of the River Trent, and about six miles south-west of Newark. Once the site of a Roman settlement, it had since become a quaint, relatively insignificant town surrounded by rolling arable farmland. But on the evening of 15 June 1487, it was host to Henry VII, King of England, and the next day it would witness one of the bloodiest battles in the country’s history. After hearing news that Lincoln had crossed the Trent, King Henry set his battle lines, under the command of the Earl of Oxford – who had masterminded the victory at Bosworth – in three sections. Before the day’s killing had begun, a series of unusual lights in the sky were interpreted as ill omens by some of the Lancastrian soldiers, leading many to flee in panic. Oxford was able to restore a semblance of order, and soon the army of around 12,000 men was in good array. The battlefield, surrounded on three sides by the winding Trent, was set. The Yorkists, assembled in a single concreted block of some 8,000 soldiers, had seized the high ground but found themselves under the devastating assault from volley after volley of Lancastrian arrows. The mercenaries they’d picked up in Ireland were mostly kerns, whose light armour made them highly mobile but extremely vulnerable to missiles. Deciding to surrender their vantage point, they launched forward in attack, hoping to break the Lancastrian line and roll Henry’s army up like a carpet.
With only the vanguard engaged, the Yorkists found themselves heavily out-numbered, but their core of what Colin Pendrill described as “well-trained foreign mercenaries” fought bravely, concentrating their attacks with discipline and ferocity. Badly shaken but holding, thanks to Oxford’s rallying, the fight was bitterly contested for over three hours. Henry’s mercenaries weren’t the only Europeans on the field, as Lincoln was able to bring 2,000 German and Swiss troops, many equipped with the latest handguns and under the command of Martin Schwartz, into the fray.
have run red for three days after the battle.
The final death toll is thought to be over 7,000 and to this day the ravine is still known locally as the Bloody Gutter, with the Trent said to have run red for three days after the battle
When the last body had been stripped of its armour and valuables, and the blood had finally washed clear from the killing grounds, England was left pondering the outcome at Stoke Field, something medieval historian Dr. Emma Wells calls, “history’s greatest might-havebeen.” Henry VII’s claim to the throne had been tenuous at best, and it’s testament to the decimation of the royal lineage over the previous thirty years that he was ever in a position to become King. But his reign is remembered as successful, restoring faith and strength in the monarchy, reinforcing the judicial system, bolstering the treasury and successfully denying all other claimants to his throne. He left the crown in a much healthier position than he found it, and it’s impossible to imagine how different England would have been had he not established the Tudor dynasty. A change of outcome at Stoke Field would mean his successor, Henry VIII, would never have been king; no Henry VIII means no break from Rome, no Reformation and no Church of England. It’s clear to see that the lessons of betrayal, security and ruthlessness learnt at so expensive a cost to the father were not wasted on the son.
But it was the presence of the more traditional archers in the Lancastrian army that made the decisive impact, repeatedly firing volleys of arrows into the Yorkist position, just as they had done at the battle’s opening. Attrition would be the deciding factor, as the relentless shower of missiles finally caused Lincoln’s army to break and flee. Trapped on three sides by the Trent and unable to retreat, the German and Swiss mercenaries fought on valiantly, but were eventually slaughtered along with their commander Schwartz. According to Jean Molinet, by the end of the battle they were “filled with arrows like hedgehogs.” The surviving Yorkists fled in blind panic towards the Trent and down a ravine, where the day’s most barbaric slaughter took place. Most of the soldiers were butchered mercilessly, including all but two of the Yorkist commanders. Neither of them were Lincoln, who was found amongst the dead at the battle’s end. The country had seen three decades of war, and craved a definitive conclusion; no matter how, the War of the Roses was going to end on Stoke Field. The final death toll is thought to be over 7,000 and to this day the ravine is still known locally as the Bloody Gutter, with the River Trent said to
Victorious, Henry Tudor, now undisputed King Henry VII of England, captured the ten-year-old Lambert Simnel. Realising he was merely a puppet in the attempted coup, he was granted a full pardon and, in acknowledgement of the lack of threat he now posed, given a job in the royal kitchen. The same can’t be said for the real Edward, however, who was beheaded at the Tower of London, the last victim of that elongated, blood-stained struggle for power.
But Henry VII did win, establishing a royal Tudor house that would change the face of England more than any other before or since. The what-ifs and might-have-beens died along with 7,000 men, Lancastrian hopes and the Plantagenet dynasty on that one sanguinary June day on the blood-soaked fields of Nottinghamshire.
words: Ashley Carter illustration: Jay Wilkinson
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Let the Games Begin A few months ago, the thought of joining all your friends on conference call software to partake in a quiz probably would have baffled you, but for most of us it’s now the norm. But if the thought of yet ANOTHER Zoom quiz fills you with dread, fear not – as we’ve got the best ideas for hosting a games night during lockdown, without a pub quiz in sight. Solo/Couples Even if you’re isolating alone or in a couple, you can still join in on the fun. There are a whole host of games, quizzes and puzzles available at your fingertips. Starting online you can find just about any quiz, with hundreds of sites dedicated to them. One of our favourites includes Buzzfeed quizzes, where you can test your knowledge on anything from iconic TV couches to guessing popular desserts. Another favourite is Sporcle, which claims to be the world’s largest quiz site. Here you can try your luck in timed challenges to name all fifty US states or identifying screengrabs of films at the half-hour mark. There is literally something for everyone on Sporcle, and even if there isn’t, you can submit your own quiz. Moving on to your TV (if you don’t have a smart TV or HDMI cable, just use your laptop), YouTube has a plethora of games at your disposal. As you’d imagine, they mainly centre around music, from naming theme tunes of sitcoms or Disney films, to guessing eighties hits based on a two-second intro. Now, for one thing, you might not have immediately considered for your games night… our good old friend Alexa – she’s not just useful for telling you the weather or setting your egg timer, she can also host a mean quiz night. She has games that cover pretty much every topic: geography, music and even favourites like Trivial Pursuit or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Although be warned, Alexa can sometimes require a little patience…”sorry, I didn’t quite get that”.
Groups
Virtual
Those of you lucky enough to be isolating with a group, whether it’s housemates, friends or family, round them up! With numbers on your side, it’s the perfect excuse for a games night. Dust off the board games that haven’t made an appearance since Christmas. Monopoly, Cluedo, Trivial Pursuit – whatever it is, bunker down for a good old-fashioned games night. While playing Monopoly wouldn’t usually be your first choice of how to spend a Saturday night, it’s now the perfect time to reignite your love for financially ruining your loved ones.
If you’re tired of the repetitive pub quizzes happening every other night (no offence, Jimmy Carr), here are a few more ideas to refresh your muchneeded group catch-ups. Bingo – it’s not just a game for your nan. Switch it up by having everyone take their mobile number and remove the 0. Then put the remaining numbers into pairs, like 75/34/02/21/05. Have the Bingo caller select the numbers – you can use an online generator for this – and the first person to call Bingo has to text from that number to the quiz master. No cheating allowed on this one...
It’s also the perfect time to pick up another classic: the humble pack of cards. From Rummy to Go Fish, a simple pack of cards can provide hours of fun. If you don’t already own a pack, or are struggling to get some online, most corner and convenience shops sell them. And if you’re by yourself, there are tons of YouTube tutorials to help you learn card tricks. By the time this is all over you might just find yourself appearing on the next season of Fool Us.
Take inspiration from some of the greatest TV game shows for your next games night. Our favourites include The Price is Right: take common household objects and ask your friends to guess the price (you can even ask them to submit their answers via a Google Form if you’re feeling all fancy). Countdown also works well, though you may need some genius friends to crack the maths rounds. You can pose as Carol and host your own version, or use an online generator if you want to keep things simple.
If these suggestions are a little tame by your standards, you can always ramp things up by adding alcohol into the mix. Reminisce your uni days with some drinking games, like Ring of Fire, or a game of Most Likely: ask a question such as ‘who is most likely to get arrested?’ or ‘who is most likely to become Prime Minister?’; and the person with the most votes has to – you guessed it – drink. You can also adapt any board game, quiz or card game into a drinking game: get sent directly to jail without passing Go? Take a shot. Buzzer went off while trying to remove a charlie horse? Finish your pint. You get the picture...
UNDER COVER ARTIST
You should now have enough ideas to throw the ultimate games night, but if you really must host a pub quiz (and there’s nothing wrong with that) then try jazzing it up by having different people host different rounds, focus on specific themes, or ask people to donate prizes for winners. May the best man win.
words: Hannah Cooke
Classics like Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, Street Fighter and Sonic are all just a Google search away, and come with the added bonus of being packed full with nostalgia
Sieburg-based artist and regular Notts visitor Andreas Schlechtriemen fills us in on what inspired his robinthemed cover artwork… Tell us a bit about yourself… I'm a freelance graphic designer and illustrator from Siegburg in Germany. A few years ago my best friend moved to Nottingham and since then I’ve been visiting him regularly. The city and the people really grew on me and I always enjoyed reading LeftLion when I was in town. What was the inspiration behind the cover? Literally the view from my kitchen window. There’s a bird feeder placed outside and even though I live in the city centre, all sorts of birds visit me every day, the robin being my favourite one. Birdwatching may sound middle-class, but to me the local wildlife is a constant source of inspiration. Over the years I’ve made a series of illustrations of these birds – it’s like keeping a diary. That’s why I often include little things I find on my journeys, such as tickets or receipts. For the LeftLion cover I used pieces of a paper bag I got from a coffee shop in Istanbul. What was the biggest challenge that you faced in creating the piece? The biggest challenge was giving the drawing a casual appearance. Often when I’m being too pedantic, drawings can end up looking stiff. I want to illustrate the bird as authentically as possible and scientifically correct, but in a way that it doesn’t look like it’s been copied from a biology book. Tell us about some projects you’ve worked on in the past… Some of my pictures have been displayed at exhibitions specialised in ornithology in Germany and internationally. I have worked a lot in graphics over the past twenty years, from classical graphic design to editorial design and online content. An ongoing project that I enjoy is giving lectures in calligraphy at a local School of Design. Calligraphy is one of my passions. What have you got planned for the future? I´ve been saying this now for some time, but I finally need a proper online presence and get my social media account sorted. So watch out, Instagram! Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers? The past few weeks have been very difficult and challenging for all of us and it looks like it will take some time before our lives will be back to normal. The robin is a symbol of new beginnings, of hope and joy which I wish to all of you. Never give up and enjoy the beauty of nature. Hopefully I will return to Nottingham very soon. kunstkabine.de andreas.schlechtriemen@web.de
With social media and the endless cycle of 24-hour news, it’s easy to get lost in the stories of how COVID-19 has affected adults. But with schools reportedly opening sooner than most of society, eleven-year-old Jagoda Brown-Polanowska describes her experiences of lockdown… I am an eleven-year-old girl, I am in Year 7 and so far I have found lockdown quite boring and lonely. I quite enjoyed it at the beginning because I had one week of learning and then two weeks of Easter break. I didn’t have to get up early every morning, or wear my uncomfortable school uniform, rush for the bus or carry my heavy bag. I could just enjoy the company of my loyal friend, my kitten Mela. Whenever I’m doing my homework she sits on my windowsill, or squeezes in-between me and my chair, and falls asleep. After a while I really started to miss my friends, and found myself getting quite bored. My school is still setting me quite a lot of work, and when I was at my laptop I could see the sun shining outside, which made it difficult to know that I had to stay inside. By the time I’d finished my work for the day, it was already going dark and my eyes were starting to hurt. Every morning my mum and I would go on a short bike ride to the Forest Recreation Ground which is close to my house and in the evening, once we’d both finished our work for the day, we’d go on a short walk. I love climbing trees and nature so whenever we went out I’d always look for new trees to climb. One day, while climbing my favourite tree, I saw a pigeon sitting on a branch just above me. After it flew away I clambered up higher and saw a nest with an egg, just slightly smaller than a chicken’s. When I looked up later, the pigeon had returned and was sitting in the nest.
words: Jagoda Brown-Polanowska Illustration: Emmy Smith
I’m trying to do lots of other things during lockdown – aside from climbing trees. In my spare time, when I’m not doing schoolwork, I like making small fires and trying to cook things like baked potatoes or simple bread made from flour and water (all supervised by my Mum!). I also made some small accessories for cooking on the fire, like a simple kettle that I boil water in to make my tea. I love drinking the tea that I make from boiling nettles. I’ve also taken up some different crafts, like making friendship bracelets, sewing, drawing and painting.
I am really missing my friends, being able to travel freely to see family in Poland and just being close to people. But for now, I make sure I talk to my neighbours over the fence whenever I see them going to the park or to the shop There is an old Victorian cemetery near my house, and in the farthest corner of the graveyard there is a large section of graves from the beginning of the 20th century. One day I decided to go out and have a closer look, and discovered that they were mass graves with twenty or
more names on each headstone. The dates were from the time of the Spanish Flu, and they were in a separate area of the cemetery with no other graves around them. What a discovery to make during another health crisis! I’ve enjoyed bird-watching during lockdown, and have recently noticed a pair of wrens building a nest in my birdhouse. In my garden alone I’ve also seen blue tits, great tits, blackbirds, swifts, robins, wood pigeons and swallows, as well as a mallard in my neighbour’s pond. One day I even saw a skein of geese flying above my house. The extra free time has also given me the chance to do a bit more gardening, and my neighbours and I have both planted sunflowers, and are racing to see which of us will grow the tallest and prettiest flower. I’ve grown quite a few little tomato plants for my neighbours too. Before the pandemic, I had created a little business called Blast from the Past, where I sold parchment paper, origami envelopes, bookmarks and maps, all made with my own secret design. I sold quite a few before coronavirus, but sadly I have not sold any items since it started. I have very friendly neighbours who I enjoy talking to and are always eager to buy things that I make. I’m saving all of the money I make from this business to buy a laptop. I am really missing my friends, being able to travel freely to see family in Poland and just being close to people. But for now, I make sure I talk to my neighbours over the fence whenever I see them going to the park or to the shop.
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Those who had holidays booked as the COVID crisis began to escalate were faced with a difficult decision: to go ahead with their plans and risk getting sick or stranded, or give up their hard-earned holidays and take the financial hit. But for some, the situation was out of their control, as they were already abroad by the time the health crisis had become a serious issue. With panic starting, misinformation spreading and lockdown looming, they faced a ticking clock to get back to the UK before it was too late… “We felt desperate and could not see a way out,” Pete tells me. “We’d heard that Russian newspapers were blaming COVID on British tourists deliberately spreading the virus around the world, and you could tell that people just wanted us to go away.” Pete and his wife Karen have been visiting Goa in India, for sixteen years, but this was the first time they had ever felt unsafe in the area. Chemists and shops had denied them entry, local residents had crossed the street to avoid them and the man they had hired a motorbike from had informed them they could no longer use it. “He told us that it would be him that got the beating from the police if we got stopped as he was the registered owner,” Pete explains. Unable to get food or medicine without a lengthy journey on foot, and unsure whether they would even be granted access on arrival, they made the difficult decision to cut their trip short and return to the UK as soon as possible. It was a situation thousands of Brits found themselves in as the true impact of the COVID crisis became apparent. But with the entire world in a state of shock, unsure of what was safe, getting back home wasn’t going to be easy. “We’d tried to get flights for two weeks prior to lockdown, but they were only available from Mumbai Airport, which was several hundred miles away,” Pete remembers. Unable to get transport, this was not an option for the couple, but the Qatar Airways website listed an office located fifteen miles away from where they were staying: “When we finally got to the office there was a note on the shutter door saying that they had moved several years previous.” Rob and Marie also found themselves in Goa as lockdown measures came into effect. Having been there since early January, they monitored the situation closely before deciding to cut their four-month trip short. “We discovered that our return flight had been removed,” Marie describes, “but no notification had been sent to us.” They managed to book tickets on another flight with Air India, only for that to be cancelled too. “By this time we were beginning to panic,” she explains, “but we finally managed to book a third flight back to London via Qatar.” Pete and Karen were less fortunate however. Having contacted the World Health Organisation, they were sent a digital form to complete that required their National Insurance numbers as well as the use of a computer. “I was told that I could complete the form on my phone, only to find out that wasn’t true,” Pete recalls. “And how many
people know their National Insurance number while on holiday?” After enlisting the help of their son back home, the forms were eventually completed, but the situation still remained unclear, as their place on any potential flight couldn’t be guaranteed. “We just felt that we’d be refused a flight because there was so much uncertainty,” he says. “We felt so much stress, hopelessness, embarrassment and anger.” And even if they could get a flight, they still had no way of getting to the airport: “The internet was full of people in the same boat as us,” Pete says, “Taxis could only travel with a police pass, which we didn’t have.”
We’d heard that Russian newspapers were blaming COVID on British tourists deliberately spreading the virus around the world, and you could tell that people just wanted us to go away Todd Franklin was in the last two weeks of a sevenmonth working holiday in New Zealand, along with his partner and a friend, when the COVID crisis first started to escalate. “The NZ Government had been so good that things didn’t seem to really affect people that much,” he tells me. “We were keeping up to date with the reaction back in the UK and it just seemed laughable in comparison.” That all changed, however, when the announcement was made that the country would be going into lockdown within 48 hours. “That’s when shit got real for us,” he remembers. Making the decision to leave the house in which they’d been staying, they checked in to a hotel in Auckland. “We decided to book it for two weeks,” Todd says, “there weren’t any cheaper options, so we just had to suck it up.” As was the case all over the world, the biggest problems arose from the lack of information, as well as the constant risk of flights being abandoned. “People were spending thousands of pounds on flights that were getting cancelled,” he remembers, “we only had enough on my credit card to book one flight home, so we had to make it count.” With time and money running out, they knew they had to get a flight back to the UK as soon as feasibly possible.
“There was no cash flow,” Todd says. “The only hot meals we could have were Asian noodles with boiling water, but that soon got too unhealthy.” Making the decision to email Lillian Greenwood, their local MP back in Nottingham, they finally had a breakthrough. “She was great,” Todd explains, “she immediately emailed me back to say that she had put our concerns up the Governmental chain to add more pressure.” Ten days into their two-week hotel stay, Todd finally managed to book a flight home. “There was still some weariness from us though,” he recalls, “not until the wheels of the plane had left the tarmac could I be certain that we were leaving.” After being told that their flight had again been cancelled, Rob and Marie were to discover that it had, in fact, just been oversold, and they were the unlucky ones missing out. “The airport was utter chaos,” Marie recollects, “We managed to get ourselves on a flight the next day, which was then cancelled again.” With desperation setting in, and the Indian lockdown just eight hours away, they refused to move from the desk until they were given a seat on a plane. “They eventually let us check in,” she tells me, “but there were at least fifty people left behind.” Their flight took off just thirty minutes before lockdown began. After the rigmarole of booking a seat, stranded Brits were soon to find that the flights themselves were as bizarre as getting on them had proved difficult. As Marie says, “It was a very strange experience. No one on the plane was speaking – it was just a silent flight.” Having finally managed to get themselves on a flight home, Pete and Karen found the flight equally odd, “We were issued with two litres of water and a can of coke and told it would have to last the entire flight,” Pete remembers, “Even the toilet paper in the cubicle ran out and they refused to replace it.” Fortunately, all three parties made it back to the UK safely, although that wasn’t where their problems ended: “We were told that only people from our household could collect us from the airport,” Pete tells me, “But that wasn’t possible, so we had to pay £127 for a taxi.” But for Rob and Marie, the price of travelling back paled in comparison with the feeling of arriving safely in the UK: “We felt lucky to be home, but strange because we arrived back the day before Boris announced the UK was going into lockdown,” Marie remembers. “We just lived in the hope that we had made it through virus-free. To date we still consider ourselves very lucky.” leftlion.co.uk/issue125 40
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With the aim of encouraging people to reflect on their lockdown experiences to create a written legacy of the COVID crisis, the National Justice Museum’s new Letters of Constraint virtual exhibition is looking for your participation. We talked to Dr Martin Glynn, the museum’s writer in residence, about how you can put pen to paper and be part of Nottingham’s lockdown story... The National Justice Museum is inviting Nottingham residents to share their experiences of lockdown as part of their new Letters of Constraint virtual exhibition, with your contributions helping to provide a lasting snapshot of life during the pandemic. The exhibition aims to bring together a broad range of experiences from people of different backgrounds, perspectives and viewpoints to show later generations what life was like during this difficult, but historically significant, time. Leading the project is Dr Martin Glynn, a criminology expert and the museum’s new writer in residence, who believes that Letters of Constraint can help people to process the utter madness of this whole situation. “The objective is to create a platform for people in the wider community to creatively engage through letter writing, so that they can express their thoughts on Covid-19,” he says. “The project provides a space for people to embrace their emotions and come to terms with life in lockdown. Writing letters has provided a source of escapism for countless people throughout history, Martin says, “Whether it was the Black Death or the Fire of London, people have always written letters as a way of overcoming difficulties in the world… Hopefully people will find it therapeutic to get involved.” As an avid letter writer himself, Martin is vocal about the benefits of putting pen to paper: “I’ve been writing letters for over five decades. I have written to prisoners and people on Death Row, I even write to people who are no longer here, like Oscar Wilde, to imagine what I would say to them if they were still around,” he muses. “I find it relaxing to get things off my chest. Letters are really impactful, but with the growth of online activity we seem to have forgotten about the joys of writing.” The Letters of Constraint campaign encourages people from across the city, and the country, to take a moment to reflect on current circumstances and note down their thoughts and feelings. Whether hand-written or typed, anonymous or signed, the National Justice Museum is keen to get as many letters as possible for their virtual exhibition, to guide subsequent research and build an insightful time capsule for the future.
So far, plenty of people have been getting involved, sharing their thoughts on coronavirus and explaining how their life has changed since the outbreak of the pandemic. “We’ve had a fair few letters come in,” Martin says. “They’re mostly autobiographical, with people talking about who they are and how they’re feeling during this period. Some letters are uplifting and some are quite sobering, but they’re all important artefacts showing how people thought during this time.
Folks in Nottingham have until Friday 12 June to send in their letters, and can do so by email, Twitter, the NJM website or a good, old-fashioned Royal Mail delivery.
I was concerned that this moment would come and go without an analysis of how people actually feel; politics has threatened to obscure the human experience of the crisis, but this exhibition will make sure there is a legacy piece showing how people coped, grieved and got through.”
“It’s vital that exhibitions involve the people of the city and the UK in each stage of conception, production and delivery. It’s important that museums include and represent people and their experiences with empathy and respect, in order for us to better connect with one another,” she says. “These projects are crafted to create the right conditions for connectivity, shared opinions and the discovery of new perspectives.”
The project provides a space for people to embrace their emotions and come to terms with life in lockdown As well as contributing to the virtual exhibition, people’s letters will be used to create an audio artwork that encapsulates the key themes and feelings of the nation. Martin’s main job is to create a “letter writing mashup”, which involves deconstructing each letter, looking at their key messages and presenting these as a “letter to coronavirus” that summarises how the country has been feeling throughout this period. Extracts from some of the letters will be shared anonymously on the National Justice Museum Twitter account with the hashtag #LettersOfConstraint, to help share people’s experiences and create a sense of solidarity and community while we remain separated. The museum is still hoping for more contributions though, having found that a lot of people are unwilling to share their experiences. “What’s interesting is how many people have tweeted that they won’t write a letter because they don’t want to be vulnerable,” Martin says. “I worry that we’ve become so insular that we no longer open up. I’m hoping this project can bring some sensitivity back to people.”
Getting people from the area more actively involved in the museum is something that Andrea Hadley-Johnson, the National Justice Museum’s Artistic Programme Manager, has been trying to promote since she came into the job eighteen months ago.
This is echoed by Martin, who hopes that the Letters of Constraint exhibition will provide a springboard for a more interactive, community-led experience at the museum. “In the early stages, I felt that some people came and looked at stuff but didn’t really experience the exhibitions. I was a bit concerned that they had a slightly voyeuristic approach to justice,” he admits. “I wanted to help provide a more immersive, holistic experience. Hopefully this project encourages wider engagement within the museum - and museums more generally. We’re looking to combine nostalgia and memories with something more shiny and new, so it can become a destination for people to come back to because they have a connection to the place.” One thing that certainly isn’t constrained is the museum’s ambition, with the museum team hoping to provide unique, enjoyable experiences once the world starts to open up again. In the meantime, virtual exhibitions such as Letters of Constraint provide an interesting outlet for contemplative minds – and a chance for the people of Nottingham to become part of history. nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk/lettersofconstraint @justicemuseum
words: George White
deliveroo Review: Boo
It’s easy to gravitate towards restaurants you’re familiar with when it comes to ordering takeout. Whether it’s a late night order, a pigout with friends, or you just can’t be bothered to cook, there’s not many situations which result in a delivery where you’d be happy with a dud pick. Sometimes it’s not worth the risk of picking somewhere new, so we get stuck in a rut of re-ordering Wagamama’s katsu curry until we’re sick of the sight of the stuff.
keeping it green Amid a global pandemic, it’s easy to forget that we’re still facing another world-wide crisis: climate change. While being eco-conscious can sometimes come with cost and inconvenience, Sneinton social enterprise Foodprint makes doing the right thing super easy, selling low-cost food that’s been saved from supermarket scrap heaps. We speak to physical marketing manager Izzy Corlett about how the shop is coping at the moment...
However, the influx of ‘Deliveroo only’ establishments popping up as I scrolled down the app made me curious. Some are small, independent businesses using it as a way to launch their product to the masses, and others are just folk cooking in their mam’s kitchen, trying to earn a few more coins. Boo has a physical store in Leicester but is available on Deliveroo only in both Manchester and Nottingham, the latter from a base in Lenton.
With stacking the shelves, serving customers and sorting out stock, supermarket workers have been key in keeping our shops running smoothly and helping create some level of normality. While big chains dominate the press, it can be easy to forget the smaller, local shops that are having to cope with challenges of their own. Foodprint is run by students from the University of Nottingham, who have been juggling keeping the shop functioning in the midst of their exams. “When COVID-19 was announced as a pandemic, our uni went online, and we had this mad rush where we were shifting business operations and working out how to run everything,” Izzy says. “We had a moral dilemma between helping out those in Sneinton – because it’s a low-income area, we have to make sure that we are providing food to those that needed it – and saving food waste, which is one of our main points of agenda, as well as keeping people safe.”
The Nottingham community and surrounding areas have really come together to help out the store There was no question as to whether they would stay open or not: “There was such a big demand for food that we had no other option but to keep running, keep getting food in and selling it on to those who needed accessible food.” One key change has been the way the shop functions: Instead of perusing the wares, you have to tell the volunteer manning the stall outside the door what you want, who then collects it from the shelves inside and brings it to you.
A glance at their Instagram quickly confirmed they were legit, and learning they’re also a stockist of Doughnotts proved that they have good taste. Interest spiked, their pictures sealed the deal – I’ll challenge you to find anyone who wouldn’t be tempted by those expert shots of crinkle fries and shiny brioche buns with cheese topping every morsel.
All the profits from the shop then go to the redistribution of the food – something that is especially key during these times when people are struggling to afford food or get to the supermarkets themselves. Izzy continues: “We're supplying food to food banks, homeless shelters, and food parcel providers, which is impacting 850 people. We're also providing food parcels, reaching 51 people across two retirement villages.”
We went for the Boo for 2 deal, which includes two 6oz triple-stacked burgers of your choice, two fries, the choice of eight buffalo or sticky chicken wings, and a choice of two house dips – all for £25. I have an unwritten rule of judging a new burger establishment by their classic cheeseburger, which in Boo’s case includes Angus beef, round leaf lettuce, tomatoes, gherkins and American cheese – it was everything the picture had hyped it up to be, each mouthful as succulent and decadent as a burger should be.
As the students are largely operating Foodprint from their homes at all different ends of the country, they are largely relying on volunteers to facilitate it all. Tasks undertaken by volunteers include unpacking the shop’s weekly delivery of surplus food on Friday, and serving customers when the store is open on Saturday. “We’ve been lucky to get loads of new volunteers recently,” Izzy says. “The Nottingham community and surrounding areas have really come together to help out the store.” If you’ve got spare time on your hands and are thinking about becoming a volunteer yourself, there’s plenty of reasons to give it a go. Izzy concludes, “It's a great thing to be part of, in terms of saving food waste and making food accessible to many people. The store itself is part of the community, which is really lovely too.” Next time you find yourself ambling in Sneinton on the weekend, why not pick up ingredients for your next few meals? After all, food that is tasty and sustainable is a recipe for success. foodprint.io @foodprintio
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But, surprisingly, it was the chips that really stole the show for me: somehow smoky and sweet at the same time, there’s just something ultra-satisfying about the taste of a crinkle ‘ziggy’ fry. With £2.70 delivery, the two of us were stuffed for just under £15 each, which is no mean feat. Their Leicester store has since expanded to serve up coffees, plus breakfast and lunch deals – let’s hope Notts gets a slice of this action soon. Amelia Aston
deliveroo Review: THE filthy vegan
My phone goes off – it’s probably my family wondering why I’ve skipped the last eleven Zoom catch-ups. Wait, no. It’s a notification from Deliveroo. They’ve put a new contactfree service in place in order to minimise the ri…
Tough Mary's bakehouse - cookies There isn’t a scent that can bring joy quite like ooey, gooey chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. Luckily, the wonderful folks at Tough Mary’s Bakehouse have got an amazing recipe to satisfy all your sweet tooth needs. Share them with friends, drop them outside nan’s house, or just scoff the whole batch yourself… words and photo: Kate O’Shea
That’s all the information I need, thank you. My brain had hardly finished processing the information before the app is open and I’m scrolling through what, just moments before, felt like the most forbidden of fruit. My eyes land on The Filthy Vegan, who are offering a superb £25 Payday Bonanza special. This is kismet. The deal included two giant meat-free kebabs (each is meant to serve two), curly fries and a milkshake. Jesus, a vegan milkshake. It’s been too long my friend.
I tell myself that the serving size is probably just hyperbole, and convince my wife of the same. “Let’s just share one,” she argues, sensibly. “But you don’t like cucumber,” I counter, “And I can’t possibly have a kebab without cucumber. Plus, it’s a DEAL!” An impressively short amount of time later, and I’m staring at a mountain of food that would embarrass Mr Creosote. With a deep breath of fake confidence, I assure my wife, who I’d just inadvertently entered an eating contest with, that we haven’t been excessive, still clinging to the cucumber argument like a lifebuoy. As intimidating as this edible Everest is, the first mouthful is sublime. Moist, delicious soya meat is complemented with sriracha and mayo, all topped with enough salad to feed a farm. Without wanting to tiptoe into hyperbole, the soya kebab pieces were one of the nicest meat replacements I’d ever eaten. And while naan bread is notoriously bad at travelling, this retained all of the warmth and softness you’d expect at a restaurant, wrapping around the generous filling like a big delicious duvet. I made it about three-quarters of the way through before my hubris was punished with an admission of defeat. This was Man vs. Food, and food had won. Comprehensively. The pain of greed was only matched by the agony of knowing how much of that incredible kebab wasn’t going to get finished. As I glanced over to my wife, proudly displaying an empty plate with a wry smile, my humiliation was complete. Same again next Friday, yeah? Jason Edgar
Makes about 19 cookies at 50g Ingredients 185g Unsalted butter, soft 140g Soft light brown sugar 105g Caster sugar 1 Egg 3g Vanilla paste 4g Baking powder 5g Bicarbonate of soda 2g Salt 250g Flour 140g Chocolate chips Method 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Cream the butter and sugars together until lighter in colour. Add the egg and vanilla paste and combine. Whisk the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt together in a bowl and add to the wet ingredients. Add your chocolate chips. Ball up into cookies (I weigh them so that they are all the same size. It sounds picky but this way they'll bake in the same time in the oven and expand to the same size on the tray). Refrigerate overnight. Bake at 160℃ (fan oven) for 12 mins, turn tray and bake for 1 or 2 mins more. I like them when they're a bit under in the middle and just going golden around the edges.
Substitutions Flour: Use whatever flour you want or have. The first time around I used strong white bread flour, then the second time I used einkorn. The einkorn ones spread out a bit more but were still super tasty. You can even use a mix of different types. Also, if all you've got is self-raising flour, then maybe leave out the baking powder. Chocolate: Use whatever chocolate you want, and perhaps throw some nuts in there too. You can also pay homage to Milk Bar and put pretzels and crisps in your cookies (after all, sweet/salt = delicious). toughmarysbakehouse.couk leftlion.co.uk/issue126 39
At the Coalface
interview: George White
After decades as a Labour stronghold, Mansfield decided to elect a Conservative MP in the 2017 General Election. The result, which came as a shock to many, led local filmmaker Jay Martin to make Red’tBlue, his upcoming documentary which explores why the ex-mining town turned Tory…
I was toying with the idea of doing a documentary solely focused on Mansfield’s mining history but I also have a strong interest in local politics, so I decided to combine the two
How did you get into filmmaking? I have always had an interest in storytelling, whether that was through films, novels or even music, so I eventually decided to study a BTEC in Film and TV Production at Confetti. I made two films while I was there. One was a documentary called NG2 on Nottingham’s first serial killer, Mark Martin (I’d like to emphasise he’s no relation to me), and another was a narrative film called Catharsis, which follows a businesswoman who struggles to deal with the loss of her daughter. Confetti was a really good place to study and I fell in love with filmmaking while I was there.
left behind as pits were closed and jobs were lost. I wanted to bring that to light.
Who have been your main creative influences? Ashley Carter was a big inspiration for me, especially with his documentary Shaun Barker: One More Time. He showed that you can make high-quality local documentaries on a small budget, while keeping them approachable for the target audience. More broadly, I’m a huge fan of Nick Broomfield’s work. His run and gun approach is really interesting, and he has a natural ability to insert himself into his work without feeling intrusive. I was lucky enough to hear from him during one of Confetti’s Industry Weeks, which was great.
Did you hear many interesting stories during filming? Absolutely. I had so many raw, honest interviews about what it was like down the pit and I formed a real emotional connection to everyone I spoke to. One of the interviewees talked about how her uncle lost his leg in an accident. That really highlighted how dangerous the work was. What was fascinating, though, was that lots of the former workers still spoke positively about their time in the mines, despite how difficult it could be. It was strange, really, because it was like they were talking about a different world; an era that’s almost been forgotten. You couldn’t imagine any of their stories happening now.
What made you want to make Redt’Blue? I was born in Nottingham but I’ve lived in Mansfield most of my life, so I have a real connection to the area. The mining industry had a massive impact on the community, and the Clipstone Headstocks are like a ghost watching over the town. I was toying with the idea of doing a documentary solely focused on Mansfield’s mining history but I also have a strong interest in local politics, so I decided to combine the two. I think the shift from Labour to Conservative really expresses the change in the attitude of the town, as they feel they’ve been
How did you come up with the name? ‘Red to Blue’ was always the working title of the film, as it is a succinct way of telling you what the film’s about – and it perfectly mirrors the narrative arc of the movie. But I was in the pub with my mates and one of them had the idea to shorten it down, so it would better reflect our dialect. I thought that was a brilliant idea and helped to give the film more of a clear identity.
Do you think more working-class stories need to be told on the big screen? I actually think we are getting better with it. Places like Nottingham are becoming great hubs for filmmaking. There are now a lot of talented people wanting to tell working-class stories, such as Luke Radford, whose documentaries bring attention to things like the rise of food banks in the area. The BFI Academy at Broadway is also great for bringing through new talent in Nottingham.
I will say that I’d like more people focusing on regions outside of the city, in places like Mansfield and Bulwell. I hope that movies like Redt’Blue can help to establish more of a filmmaking base within these smaller communities. Why should people check out the film? One of our aims is to be educational. We want to let people know the real story behind the shift in voters’ decision-making in areas like Mansfield, and I think there will be interest in that both locally and nationally. The film is also a celebration of the town – we used a lot of iconic places in Mansfield during shooting. I think this is one of the first movies to focus on the community since the 1970s. It’s a place that’s often forgotten about, and can sometimes be the butt of the joke in Notts, but there are a lot of interesting stories to be told there and I think this is one of them. How can people support the project? We’ve launched a Kickstarter to help generate enough money to release the film. We’re looking to raise £2,500 to pay for our archived footage. The BBC has given us a generous rate, but without paying them we can’t bring Redt’Blue to audiences. I’ve already put £3,000 of my own money into the project but we need that little bit of extra backing to get over the line. Supporters on Kickstarter can get fantastic benefits, including digital posters and copies of the film, an album of the original score and an invitation to the cinema premiere and after party. You can keep up-to-date with Red’tBlue on Facebook, and support them via their Kickstarter page, which launches on June 1 facebook.com/ redtbluedocumentary
Our new regular feature delves back into the LeftLion and Overall There is a Smell of Fried Onions archives to find what Notts was up to back in the day...
From the pages of Overall magazine... Music Festivals It was approaching festival season in Nottingham, but before the likes of Splendour, Hockley Hustle and Dot To Dot everything was a bit different from today. Landmarks was a Top Valley-based festival with a carnival and samba band, promising a music line-up of jungle, techno, rappa, hiphop reggae and rave. The Nottingham Guitar Festival was a celebration of the six-string, featuring some of the best riff, lick and shred merchants from around the globe including US jazz merchant Stanley Jordan and Remy ‘The Doctor’ Ongala from Tanzania. Film Batman Forever (dir. Joel Schumacher) Apollo 13 (dir. Ron Howard) Once Were Warriors (dir. Lee Tamahori)
Theatre Alan Bennett’s 1980 was showing at Nottingham Playhouse with Likely Lad James Bolam in the lead role. Overall’s reviewers felt it had “stood the test of time, seeming perhaps more relevant now than at its opening.” Netflix: Quantity Over Quality?
Dance The bi-annual Nottdance was in its infancy bringing shows like Wired (“vacuous nonsense, leather trousers and a video projector does not a show make”), Short Stay Visitors (“stayed too long for their own good”) and Company Malachi (“after starting thirty-five minutes later they made up for it with some great moments”).
From the pages of LeftLion... Elections The 2005 General Election saw a lot of seats changing across the UK, as Tony Blair won his third term. However, Nottingham managed to buck the trend by staying entirely unchanged. Local Labour trio of John Heppell, Alan Simpson and Graham Allen all held their seats comfortably. Completing an all-white all-male line-up of local leaders were Ken Clarke, Nick Palmer, Vernon Coaker and Patrick Mercer. Daytime TV host Robert Kilroy-Silk ran for UKIP in Erewash and was thoroughly beaten – his biggest public humiliation since a man in Manchester chucked a bucket of manure over him.
In many ways, Netflix has been the saviour of lockdown, helping to provide a constant stream of new movies while cinemas have been forced to close their doors. The likes of Extraction and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend have kept us entertained or, failing that, have at least given us the chance to waste a couple of hours and get one step closer to the end of all this.
Film Batman Begins (dir. Christopher Nolan) Lord of Dogtown (dir Catherine Hardwicke) Mr and Mrs Smith (dir. Doug Liman) Music Joe Buhdha and Mista Jam were in our magazine talking about their UK Takeover gigs, which were bringing the best of the new UK hip-hop scene to the city. Local bands that were delighting us at that time were the Magic Heroes, Left of the Dealer and Hellset Orchestra. These were the days before we had such good local promoters, and LeftLion were putting on monthly gigs at the Malt Cross and the Orange Tree to showcase them. Local dance promoters we miss from these times are Psycle, Pure Filth and Kombination Funk.
Film Three Lions (dir. Chris Morris) Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich) The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (dir. David Slade)
The streaming service has made a name for giving its filmmakers almost complete freedom over their work, enabling them to attract big-name directors such as Martin Scorsese and Alfonso Cuarón, with the former highlighting the importance of “having the backing of a company that says that you will have no interference.” Yet for every Roma or The Irishman, there are a thousand cringeworthy rom-coms with truly awful names, with the last twelve months seeing the release of Love Wedding Repeat, The Knight Before Christmas and Falling Inn Love to name but a few. This begs the question, should Netflix really greenlight every idea that comes their way, or should they solely focus on the good stuff?
From the pages of LeftLion... ScreenLit Festival Broadway Cinema launched their ScreenLit festival, which was to celebrate writers and screenwriters in film. Alan Partridge and The Day Today writer Armando Iannuci was one of the early winners and did an interview with us where he talked about Alistair Campbell’s influence on Malcom Tucker in The Thick of It. We wonder what he’d have made of Dominic Cummings...
For every Roma or The Irishman, there are a thousand cringeworthy romcoms with truly awful names
The Great Dane Having signed for Notts County under the fake Munto millions, Kasper Schmeichel lasted a bit longer than Sven Goran Eriksson and Sol Campbell, by seeing out a whole season at the club. They went on to win the League Two title and he kept a record number of clean sheets. He did an end-of-season interview with us where he basically said his goodbyes to Nottingham. Then he went onto Leicester (via Leeds United) and won himself a Premier League title instead.
There is no doubting that there is an audience for easy-to-watch teen movies, but when Netflix tries to make top quality, award-worthy films, they often succeed – with their titles picking up an incredible 24 nominations at this year’s Oscars. In an era of reboots and sequels, film fans have been calling for studios to give genius directors more creative control, and Netflix has the potential to answer those calls if it invests its money more wisely.
If you fancy a bit more Nottstalgia, head over to read these issues in their entirety online: leftlion.co.uk/magazine overallmag.com
The company recently announced that it will raise $1 billion to fund new content, and I hope that a good chunk of that goes on producing proper, authentic films. They have shown they can make genuinely good stuff, now they need to do it more often.
words: George White words: Jared Wilson
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Nursing the Blues Away Few musicians out there have the ability to bathe a room in warmth the way Mollie Ralph does. A local rising star, she’s been charming crowds up and down the country for a few years now, her luscious blend of pop and soul providing the backdrop for a voice that is quite remarkable – it’s depth recalling the likes of Amy Winehouse. Yet this is only half the story; by night, Mollie takes to the stage with all the glamour and glow of Norah Jones, but by day, she works on the frontlines of the NHS as a community nurse... This unique duality underpins a recent moment of magic from Mollie: #GiveItUpForOurNurses, the dedication of her 2019 single Give It Up to NHS frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic. The dedication of this golden track has involved an online fundraiser – which has already exceeded its target – and a seriously heartwarming video composed of clips from Mollie and her band performing the track in their respective homes, and her colleagues and friends singing along. “It was pretty amazing – I had the idea on Sunday, and by the following Friday, it was released,” Mollie tells me. “My band members and I are always up for a challenge, and to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves. Thankfully, I am surrounded by wonderful colleagues who support my music, and so were willing to participate by sharing video clips. I actually might need to create an extended version at some point, because I have received so many clips!”
Many of us have never experienced anything like this pandemic before in our lifetimes… So the fact I’ve been able to spread a little bit of joy is brilliant Lyrically, Give It Up could not be more apt. Lines like “I wanna be your hero when the days get rough” and “I’m gonna be your hero when it gets too much” strike an uncanny chord right now, and you could be forgiven for thinking Mollie had penned the song in direct response to the current crisis. “I often have lengthy discussions with my dad about where to take my music next, and we were thinking about ways I could help people with my music right now,” Mollie explains after I ask when the idea for the dedication was born. “The lyrics to Give It Up really lend themselves to how frontline workers and those close to them are feeling. Particularly from my perspective as a nurse – as well as a scared civilian and a musician – it is very true that many of us ‘wanna be your hero’ right now.” The video has gained over 10,000 views since it premiered on YouTube last month, and it is no surprise – footage of nurses singing into hair brushes sparks joy in the most communal of ways. “Many of us have never experienced anything like this pandemic before in our lifetimes – it’s a huge shift in how we live as a society. So the fact I’ve been able to spread a little bit of joy is brilliant,” Mollies says, overwhelmed by the reaction the video has received. “I think its success demonstrates how we needed a change from the daily doom and gloom. It truly is a wonderful thing to be a part of – to be able to show some recognition for those on the frontline working tirelessly to end this pandemic.” While it is a largely cheerful watch, some of the participants’ stories aren’t quite so sunny, serving as a stark reminder of the impact of the pandemic on our community’s most vulnerable. “I knew it was extremely important to remember why we want to be heroes – to protect those most vulnerable in our society,” Mollie tells me. “A number of them appear in the video: Mia, my cousin who has cystic fibrosis; my sister who gave birth at the end of March; and Cibele, a wonderful friend of mine still receiving treatment for cancer. They are the reason why this lockdown is so extremely important – if we adhere to it, we can save lives. It is also a sad reminder of those vulnerable people who have died, and why it is essential we keep working hard.”
words: Becky Timmins photo: Sam Nahirny
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On her experience juggling her role as a musician and a community nurse, Mollie reflects: “It has been a pretty intense few years – within the same month, I started my Adult Nursing degree and went to my first open mic night – so both careers have grown together. As a newly qualified community nurse, I provide care for those unable to leave their homes. In times like these, those who are self-isolating are extremely vulnerable, and we are their first point of call. It’s a little scary and puts a lot of pressure on us, especially when we don’t have the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment.” The crushing reality of the coronavirus pandemic has left no corner of Nottingham unaffected. Even more reason to turn to music for solace and, in doing so, Mollie certainly isn’t alone. Despite the enormous rift that coronavirus has torn in our city’s music community, it is putting up one hell of a fight. “I’m really proud of where I come from right now – a lot of my musician friends are dedicating their live streams to raising money for the NHS or local hospitals, and that selflessness is really wonderful,” Mollie smiles. As far as inspirational acts go, however, #GiveItUpForOurNurses is way up there, and marked by the same glamorous affability that characterises Mollie’s music. justgiving.com/fundraising/mollieralph-forournurses
Various Artists [featured review] Notts Very Long Songs (album) Forty tracks – each just thirty seconds long – make up the latest release from the I’m Not From London crew; if anyone was going to pull off something so barmy but brilliant it was always going to be these guys. All proceeds help our local heroes too, donated to key workers as nominated via the Nottstopping festival. Perfect for when our attention spans are waning, there’s no genre left uncovered in this patchwork quilt of creative skits. Responding to the same brief, outputs range from Barry Paul H’s dream-state jazz number, Postcard From My Living Room, to the adrenaline rush of Mindset’s Goosefair. The singalong guitar strums of NHS SONG from Myles Knight offer a more obvious tribute, alongside the soothing sounds of Charity Stow’s Right Now. Richard C. Bower treats us to some grounding spoken word in Tonight, where Tim Trampeater pushes things to the limits in the 15-second, I Love My Mum. Eileen Pegg
Various Artists Circle of Light (Album)
Lawrence Country Frailty of Humans (Album)
Nearly a year on from when these young adults started what would become a life-changing and career-forming summer workshop, the fruits of their labour are now ready to listen to in physical form (or digitally, if that’s what you prefer, duck). Twenty eclectic tracks, united by a remarkably honest approach to baring all in each song – it’s been hard to ignore this busy youth music charity group since the beginning, and with this record, they’ve created a slab of local cultural history. Eileen Pegg
Combining the sound of Americana with stories from their native Notts, this is the third album from the newly re-monikered six-piece, Lawrence County. Using gentle banjo, guitar and fiddle sounds, they switch seamlessly from traditional folk songs to contemporary politics, with a certain US president in their sights on Bye Bye Americae. Full of foot-stomping tales of local life – Dry Stone Wall and Lights Go Out are highlights – it's a stellar record that defies genre. Bagthorpe bluegrass, perhaps? Nick Parkhouse
Bakes Peace Garden (Album)
TJ Mystique Love Hurts (single)
There’s been a clear evolution in Bakes’ sound, from grime-inspired hip-hop he first released, to the low-fi trip hop of Peace Garden. Featuring collabs with Harvs Le Toad, Lazy Eyez and Slacs Bianci, he combines poignant lyrics with skilled musicianship and eclectic sampling. Smoke Away establishes the album’s easy-going mood while standout track, Magical Koi, takes us from Japanese pop culture to a haunting saxophone lament, to the peace garden referenced in the album’s title. Molly Dodge Taylor
Described as ‘upbeat indie-soul’, funky basslines blend with melodic harmonies, offering a contrast to the melancholic lyrics that tell the story of heartbreak. From funky R&B soul to guitar riffs reminiscent of Mac DeMarco, the relaxed sound disguises the bitterness of the lyrics. As TJ Mystique’s third single, Love Hurts is both impressive and a promising look at what’s in store for this relative newcomer to the scene. Molly Dodge Taylor
If you’re from Nottingham and want to get added to our music writers list, or get your tunes reviewed, hit us up at music@leftlion.co.uk
NUSIC BOX
Your new Notts music tip sheet, as compiled by Nusic’s Sam Nahirny. Want more? Check out the fortnightly podcasts and live sessions on the Nusic website.
Jack Wolff Funk-soul-genius-vibes is the best way to describe JW. Funky as owt, and one of those types of musicians that makes you go, ‘I can’t even ace the recorder, how can this guy play 57 instruments?’ A flick through his diverse back catalogue will have you funkin’ through lockdown, as well as pulling some pretty saucy bass faces. And if you’re thinking, ‘funk ain’t my vibe’ don’t worry, as the pop sensibility means we could see him having a Tom Misch-style explosion. jackwolff.uk/music
TIGGS Born out of the ashes of CAMARO, TIGGS is the ethereal indiepop duo of Tiegan and Carl. Mixing odd (in a good way) sounds with these big building soundscapes, this new project is very different to their former releases, but bloody heck is it good. There’s something quite hypnotic about their choruses, too; Sympathy especially has us finding ourselves singing in an almost metronome-like state. Whether they’re brain-washing us, or just making big tunes, they’re doing something right. facebook.com/wearetiggs
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WORKING WONDERS With life currently feeling like it’s been torn from the pages of a dystopian novel, now seems like the perfect time to release a novel exploring themes like technology, society and the future. Luckily for us, that’s just what Joshua Helmer has done with Dark Wonders. We caught up with the Nottingham writer to discuss his self-published debut novel...
What influenced you to write Dark Wonders? My novel started as a bunch of short stories, but I realised they all tied together. I decided that once I'd written two of the individual stories, there was something behind them that I was trying to say. A wider view of how humans and technology are interacting, the rapid pace of change that is going on all the time and what happens when our capacity to make new things overtakes our capacity to cope with change. Dark Wonders is about considering the changes that are coming in the future. I was inspired by what happened around the time of the last general election campaign, I wrote a lot of this book at that time. That very much influenced the ethos behind how we look at information and how information is divulged at different points of time. Does your work draw any conclusions about what the future might hold? I wouldn’t say there are any specific conclusions to be drawn. I think that the general message is to be careful as things happen in the future. We can see the future coming towards us but it doesn’t mean we are all prepared for what happens when it hits you, there are all these changes that are going to come and land on our doorstep. It’s a meditation on the idea that we should be prepared for change and try to understand its impact. If you don’t think ahead then you are not really putting yourself into a good position as a society. Are there any specific writers that influenced Dark Wonders? I have been emboldened by writers such as Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut. They present these fantastical scenarios in real-life situations. Also, I want to make sure there is a strong element of humanity, when I write I don’t plan to write these types of scenarios – it just so happened that way this time. Why did you choose to self publish your novel? Did social media have an impact on your decision? I have friends who were in the publishing
interview: Kate Hewett
industry, and they’ve supported me through this. The publishing world has gatekeepers, and they play a vital role in ensuring there are ways for quality to be found and produced. There is a part of me that thinks I should go through the gatekeepers for validation.
I read that published books sell an average of 186 copies. As long as I sell more than that, I will reach my initial target However, I just want to write books and make stories and I want to create things that people can enjoy. I don't think I need to put any limitations on myself if I’m capable of finding ways to make this happen. On this occasion, I decided to be self-published. It’s not that one is better than the other, but I had a friend to do the artwork and another one who edited the book for me. I had enough support around me to have a go at publishing it myself. I am going to be reliant on social media to build upon the kind reviews that have come in about my book. In terms of pushing myself further, I started with people who surround me and who were interested in my book. After that, I released the book to everyone. Social media is also going to be huge in terms of promotion. One of the great things about the platform is that it has enabled people to take control and release their creations into the world. How has being in lockdown affected the process? I had a first draft completed at the start of the lockdown, and I knew I would have to be very disciplined about my use of time. Also, with the technology we have, I am still able to start advertising my novel and edit a second draft. Although lockdown is very draining and comes
with a large emotional strain, it has afforded me more time. How would you describe your writing process? I’m a creature of habit and, for me, my best periods of writing came when I had the resources to write every day. I would write all day Monday to Friday and, as I went through the week, I would gain momentum. By Friday I would be writing my best work. Did you have a target audience and a specific genre in mind during the writing process? I did have a target audience, which is people who are interested in technology, the future and the human interaction with change. I started off by writing a story I would like to read, and I would classify this novel as Speculative or Dystopian fiction because the novel is set in the world we are in, rather than a grander departure from our reality. What are your future plans? I’ve got pages and pages filled with outlines and a few thousand words for different novels. However, now I am aiming to start and finish projects. At the moment I have started a novel titled What Never Burns, it’s the story of a mother and daughter caught up in illegal farming in the southern United States in a semi-abandoned world with a food shortage. The mother and daughter go on the run and have to find a way to be safe. Are there any particular milestones you’d like to reach with Dark Wonders? I read that published books sell an average of 186 copies. As long as I sell more than that, I will reach my initial target. But my overall aim is to turn writing into a full-time career. Dark Wonders is available to buy now joshuahelmer.co.uk/darkwonders
L ockdown L iterature words: Kate Hewett
Book Review
Our Literature Editor runs down some of the books that have kept her busy during lockdown... During these challenging times, a book can help transport your mind somewhere else, even if it is just for a short while. Although in-person shopping has been unavailable, plenty of bookshops have been offering a delivery service to make sure Nottingham’s readers keep their reading lists topped up. Having been unable to find Glennon Doyle’s new book Untamed in any of the major online retailers, I got in touch with the good people at Five Leaves Bookshop, who were able to get hold of a copy from their supplier and post it out. It’s a great way to support Nottingham’s independent community as well as getting a book that, without their help, I wouldn’t have been able to get hold of. It’s next up on my reading list, and I expect it to be an honest, reflective and organised memoir of Doyle’s experiences of discontentment, womanhood, love and marriage. My first non-fiction recommendation is Tova Leigh’s delightful F*cked at 40. Although not the longest read on my list, Leigh’s narrator is a semi-fictionalised version of her own voice, and is extremely charming and funny. It’s a lovely, daring and candid book unafraid to discuss sex, motherhood and reclaiming the female body. I also enjoyed reading Cheryl Strayed’s Wild. The writer led a turbulent life for several years following her mother’s sudden illness and death, and Wild tells the story of a woman who fights her way back from the brink of addiction and misery through embarking on an ambitious journey. Taking place as she hikes the famous Pacific Crest Trail, Strayed’s story is one of power, enlightenment and strength. My final non-fiction recommendation isn’t necessarily a specific book, but rather an entire genre. With lockdown providing many of us the opportunity to try our hand at cooking and baking, cookbooks have come in far more useful than ever before. The list is pretty endless, but books from the likes of Nigella Lawson or Tom Kerridge are filled with personal anecdotes and touches from the author. The interconnection of the individual and the collective societies’ connection to food is evident in both the past and the present, and the contemporary cookbook is dual purpose: one to provide recipes, and the other to connect people together through cooking and eating. My next pick sits somewhere between fiction and non-fiction: The Apology by V (the writer formerly known as Eve Ensler). It takes the form of a letter of apology, as the title suggests, written to V from the abusive father she grew up with. Although based on real events, Ensler never actually received an apology from her father before his death and therefore wrote her own. This work is a careful and calculated act of both truth-telling and fictionalising an inner world for the father that, after his death, will remain forever unknown. Next up is Evelyn Lau’s short story collection Choose Me. Lau, who served as Vancouver’s poet laureate between 2011-14, has collected a set of emotionally-driven and endlessly fascinating shorts covering a range of complex themes, including dysfunction and the liminal space between truth
and lies. I’ve read this collection several times and have, without fail, found a different appreciation for Lau’s evident talent and craft, as well as the stories themselves, each time. Jessie Burton’s T he Confession is a mystery and a half. This novel was intricately set out from the start, as the reader moves through the web Burton has laid out for them there is no option than to be sucked into the narrative. Set over two time periods – modern-day England and London/California in 1980 – the story tracks Rose Simmons on her quest to find her estranged mother, while simultaneously following her mother before Rose’s birth. The two stories are read side-by-side before coming together in an eventful ending. My final fiction recommendation is Michael J. Sullivan’s multi-part fantasy series Legends of the First Empire, which is a prequel to the author’s other series, all set in the universe of Elan. The first book in the series, The Age of Myth, is a fun and vibrant adventure of a poor young man known as the Godkiller and his unlikely sidekick. Sullivan’s fantasy universe is rich in history with its own compelling personality, featuring magic, sword fights and, on occasion, a talking tree. Both this and the other books in the Elan universe are perfect to read while sipping a drink outside or sitting by a window, disappearing to another world. If you’re more in the mood for some poetry, my next recommendation is The Ground Aslant, edited by Harriet Tarlo. This anthology is an exciting collection of radical landscape poems skillfully engaging with the relationship between people, nature and the changing natural landscape. In addition to the poems, Tarlo writes an interesting introduction which acts as a great way into both the anthology and the radical landscape poetry. Frank O’Hara’s poetry has stood the test of time after his death in the mid-sixties, and he’s gained more recognition for this work posthumously. A firm favourite that can be found in The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara is Having a Coke With You. As a well-known face in the New York art scene of the fifties and early sixties, this upbeat poem combines O’Hara’s knowledge garnered from being an art critic with his skill as a poet. It’s clear to see why his work is still widely read internationally. My third poetry recommendation is D enise Riley, Selected Poems. Known for her ability to weave together philosophy, history, feminism, and lyrics, I’ve always found that Riley’s poems sit with you long after the book has been returned to the shelf. A reading of her work requires you to think and let yourself move where the poems move. My final recommendation is Spells edited by Sarah Shin and Rebecca Tamás. Another anthology that’s focussed on contemporary occult poetry, this collection is filled with punchy poems that dare to tackle themes of justice, selfhood and history with a healthy dose of witchery at its heart. It's fantastic either as a first step or a continuation of your journey into occult poetry.
words: Will Channell Shell Paula Rawsthorne Trapped in a body that is destined for the grave, or trapped in a body that doesn’t entirely belong to you – that appears to resist your every command? ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’! I hear you say. Well, not quite. ‘Frankenstein!’ Again, close—but, still, no. This, in fact, is Paula Rawsthorne’s Shell. The third of four award-winning novels, Shell follows the story of Lucy Burgess: a young female with terminal cancer who, thanks to the seemingly charming Doctor Leo Radnor in his mysterious clinic in the “middle of nowhere”, survives the world’s first full-body transplant. Owing to the illegality of her operation however, Lucy – now living under the guise of Renee Woodhouse – finds herself compelled into hiding her new identity or risk losing her parents to the American authorities. While Rawsthorne, I think it can be assumed, probably didn’t conceptualise Shell quite like Mary Shelley conceptualised Frankenstein – inebriated on opium in the Swiss Alps – the story she tells is equally as bizarre; but in the most intensely gripping way possible. It is clear that Rawsthorne knows her target audience – the young adult – and she does a fantastic job of engaging them: providing pace and drama at every turn of the page. This is best exemplified in the first few chapters after Lucy wakes up from her operation. Rawsthorne’s prose in these chapters is incredibly sophisticated and has no trouble showcasing her authorial prowess in regards to the genre in which she engages. Every line conveys Lucy’s confusion and anxiety surrounding her situation, leaving the reader feeling just as suffocated and trapped as she herself feels. In these few chapters, I almost felt myself figuratively tripping over each sentence, each full stop, as Rawsthorne grasped my hand with her words and led me blindly (albeit eagerly) into the labyrinthine complex of Lucy Burgess – or Renee Woodhouse. Should Rawsthorne’s literary hand reach out to you at some point, grab it with both hands – you won’t be disappointed.
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Refusing to follow his father into Nottingham’s lace industry, Sir Tim Birkin’s eclectic life was full of exhilaration and tragedy, from flying planes in World War One to becoming one of the most famous names of the Vintage Racing era... “You are all a lost generation,” Ernest Hemingway wrote in the epigraph for The Sun Also Rises, his novel about post WWI expats. This generation had their innocence shattered by the unimaginable horrors of the global conflict that changed everything. The 1920s has since been recontextualised as a wildly extravagant time of drinking, partying and a general laissez-faire approach to living, but for those who lived and served through Flanders Fields, Gallipoli or Palestine, those who had seen their loved ones butchered in their prime, they were truly lost. Disoriented, directionless and wandering, they struggled to find meaning in an unrecognisable world, and the ambitions and comforts of their parents’ generation just weren’t enough.
time and the means to ensure they lived life to the absolute extreme as a result.
The Birkins were well known in Nottingham long before Tim made his name in motor racing. Sir Thomas Stanley Birkin had inherited the successful lace business his father had built, headquartered at Broadway, Nottingham, before expanding internationally with large factories in Saxony and Pennsylvania. Marrying Margaret Diana Hopetoun Chetwyndm they had two sons, Archie and Henry, the latter gaining the nickname ‘Tim’ from the popular children’s comic book character Tiger Tim, owing to his boundless energy and enthusiasm for adventure. The moniker would stick for the rest of his life.
Undeterred, Tim Birkin continued his pursuit for racing perfection, coming to the conclusion that results were to be found in getting more speed from a lighter model by fitting a supercharger to 4.5 litre Bentley. When the manufacturer refused his wishes, he decided to develop it privately. Having spent his entire personal fortune on the project, he was forced to seek financial backing from Dorothy Paget and, despite setbacks, the 242 bhp Blower Bentley was born.
A private education set Tim, the eldest of the two Birkin boys, on the path to take over the lace empire his father had continued to grow before the outbreak of war in Europe put their plans on hold. Aged just eighteen, Birkin was commissioned into the British Army’s Royal Flying Corps, serving in Palestine as a young Lieutenant. But it wasn’t the enemy planes that posed the most risk to his wellbeing, but rather the malaria he contracted there, which would plague Birkin for the rest of his life. Like many of his generation, the prospect of a normal life post-WWI held little appeal and, despite the outpouring of scorn from his family who begrudged his self-indulgence, Tim made the decision to enter the world of racing. Purchasing a Bentley in 1928, he discovered an affinity with the model and eventually found himself graduating to the car manufacturer’s official racing team. During the 1920s, Bentley found itself floundering as a marque racing car manufacturer. Having been bought out by wealthy diamond magnate Woolf “Babe” Barnato, their fortunes were to turn, and their new-look team soon boasted a host of wealthy British motorists who came to be known as the Bentley Boys. They were the heirs to some of Europe’s biggest fortunes, and many had seen action during World War One. They’d witnessed the fragility of life throughout those four years of hell, and had both the
That fragility was to be exposed on a more personal level to Tim in 1927. His younger brother Archie had followed him into the racing world, and counted himself among the elite Bentley Boys, though became more known for his love of motorcycles. During an early morning practice session for the 1927 Isle of Man TT races, Archie was killed while swerving to avoid a collision with a fish van. Inexplicably, practice sessions were still held on open roads then, and the incident became a catalyst for change, ensuring that all sessions would be held on closed roads from 1928 onwards. Birkin’s Bend exists on the TT course to this day.
He was regarded as the embodiment of the spirit of the Vintage Racing era: fearless, extravagant and, most importantly, fast As the world’s oldest active sports car race, Le Mans has long been seen as the most prestigious automobile event on the calendar. Having won the 24-hour event in 1929, Birkin was determined to do it in a car of his own design, and by 1930, the Blower was ready to race. It was here that Birkin solidified his reputation, not because he won (he was forced to retire) but because of the relentless, pulsating and utterly ruthless hounding he gave Rudolf Caracciola’s Mercedes-Benz SSK. The clash elevated Tim from wouldbe racer to legitimate star, and he was soon regarded as the embodiment of the spirit of the Vintage Racing era: fearless, extravagant and, most importantly, fast. If his Le Mans performance made him a star, his subsequent performance at the French Automobile Club du Midi’s race made him a legend. Driving what was ostensibly an ultrafast, stripped-down road car not built for racing, his Blower Bentley lined up against the cream of the motor racing
world, all driving cars built for optimum performance, including legendary driver Louis Alexandre Chiron. Bullying the pack with his much larger car – which had become known as the Brooklands Battleship – Birkin chalked up a first for professional racing when he forced Chiron out of his way by furiously blowing his horn. His 2.5-ton, flamespewing Bentley screamed past a furious Chiron, allowing Birkin to secure a seemingly impossible second place. But 1930 saw a monumental change for Birkin. First, Bentley withdrew from racing and owner Barnato sold the company to Rolls Royce a year later. Then, long-time sponsor Dorothy Paget withdrew her financial support, leaving his racing future hanging in the balance. He persevered with a new partner, still refusing to succumb to a life lace-making back in Nottingham, winning the 1931 Le Mans while driving an Alfa Romeo, causing fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to send him a congratulatory telegraph, who claimed the win as a victory for Italy. After setting a new speed record of 137.96 mph with his trusted Blower Bentley in March 1932, Birkin found himself competing at the Tripoli Grand Prix in 1933, where he raced Bernard Rubin’s Maserati 8C. During a routine pit stop, Birkin burned his arm on the car’s searing hot exhaust pipe, and the wound turned septic. The result of that accident, combined with the lingering effects of the malaria that continued to trouble him from his war days in Palestine, led to his death on 22 June 1933, aged just 36. His gravestone reads simply, “A Racing Motorist of International Fame.” In a time when the British public much preferred the innocent simplicity of comic book heroes like Biggles and Dick Barton Special Agent over the shell-shocked husks of men who had returned from the war, Sir Tim Birkin represented something in-between. He was a real-life hero who had filled his short time with exploits that fizzed and bubbled with giddy delight in the minds of young boys all over Britain. He was the handsome heir to a wealthy family, drove glamorous racing cars with absolute fearlessness and was part of one of the most famous racing dynasties of all time in the Bentley Boys. His fans were legion, and fame followed him wherever he went. At least that’s how he’s remembered in legend. In truth, his life was plagued by the malaria he’d contracted in Palestine, the memory of the brother who had been killed racing at just 22, and an inability to settle into the relatively tranquil routine of lace-making that had seen his father and grandfather prove so successful. We’ll never know whether his racing exploits were simply thrill-seeking adventures or, as one of the countless number of lost young men, a quest to find purpose in a seemingly meaningless post World War One world.
The Big Notts Quiz Answers 1. (b) 2. (b) 3. (c) 4. (a) 5. (c) 6. (b) 7. (a) 8. (d) 9. (d) 10. (a) 11. (d) 12. (c) 13. (d) 14. (c) 15. (b) 16. (c) 17. (a) 18. (d) 19. (a) 20. (b) How did you do? 0-4 – Pain Meadows 5-9 – Poorvil and Dean 10-13 – Tryin’ Clough 14-17 – Robin Good 18-20 – Sleaford God
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