Unwrecked England by Candida Lycett Green

Books compiled from magazine or newspaper columns occasionally struggle to offer the cohesion of a coffee table book written with that end in mind, but this isn’t the case with Candida Lycett Green’s Unwrecked England.

Selected from 17 years-worth of her columns from The Oldie magazine, Unwrecked England is a vast, deep pool of a book that you’ll want to dip your toes into, wade up to your waist in or dive head-long into.

Candida’s passion for England’s wild places was passed down to her by her mum Penelope and dad, St John Betjeman, and in her preface to the book she writes of happy childhood memories spent exploring the countryside.

Far from being a simple travel-guide, the book is a celebration the best of England’s unspoilt areas, from entire villages to a single oak-tree, so that while her entry on Ashdown is largely factual, other pieces are a glorious mishmash of impressions supplemented with quotes from diverse sources ranging from modern-day horse traders and pub landlords to historical diarists, artists and poets.

Candida paints vivid portraits with her words, not just of places but of the people who inhabit them. She brings in local mythology, architectural descriptions, and a wealth of curious observations on everything from the “bone-shakingly good” toboggan rides of Beverley, Yorkshire, to the bell-ringing mute swans of Wells, Somerset and the delicious dialect of Clun, Shropshire, where taxy-waxy, crod and kwank are all part of everyday conversations.

Candida has an eye for the intriguing details that capture the spirit of a place. While many of the places she’s picked out are well known, others are pleasant surprises to both us and Candida, as she rides on horseback down a half-hidden country lane, turns a corner and discovers Exton, “all of it built of the same honeyed stone”, North Bovey, where “the village grows from the landscape,” or Rame in Cornwall, “where a hanging sign sticks out into the road saying ‘Rabbits, pet or plate.’”

Earlier in the volume there’s an entire entry devoted to the Bowthorpe Oak, more than 1,000 years old and with a 40-foot girth, its trunk complete with a roof and door. Storytelling is clearly in her blood as thickly as the poetic heritage that may have helped spawn descriptions such as the one on Rousham Gardens in Oxfordshire, where: “paths snake down the hill through haunting groves, giving sudden and unexpected views of sculptures, temples, pools and a long sinuous ribbon of water in a stone rill.”

These portraits reveal more about our countryside than any travelogue or historic account could alone. Many seem written directly from Candida’s heart, glowing with quiet energy and emotion and revealing a passion for her subject that’s indubitably contagious.

One of the most evocative entries is Batcombe, Somerset, which begins: “Barcombe is dream England. It is a place we would be happy to reach by chance at the end of a long day’s journeying.”

Quite frankly, this entire book made me feel rather like that - as though I’ve reached a destination that may not be the one I expected, but is more than welcome all the same.

Unwrecked England by Candida Lycett Green is published by Oldie Publications (£25) and available from Amazon

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Candida Lycett Green

Candida Lycett Green is the author of over a dozen books including English Cottages, The Garden at Highgrove (with the Prince of Wales) and Over the Hills and Far Away. She has written and presented documentaries for the BBC and is a contributing editor at Vogue. Since 1992 she has been writing a regular column about England’s unspoilt places for the Oldie, and her latest book is a compilation of 100 of her columns. She talks to us about avoiding the poetry of her father Sir John Betjeman, and her insatiable thirst for exploration.

What inspired you to become a writer?

Having to get a job and earn my living. I was quite good at English at school and writing was part of my parents’ trade so it seemed obvious. I saw it as a craft I could do rather than being inspiration-driven.

What influence, if any, did your father’s poems have on your own writing?

I didn’t read his poetry properly, nor my mum’s books, until I was old enough to no longer be covered in embarrassment. Because I knew them so intimately I felt couldn’t judge their work objectively until after they’d died.

How did you find your first work as a writer?

I went round all the magazines until I got a job writing captions for £8 a week.

Did you face much rejection initially?

My first book was a children’s book that was commissioned by a publisher who collapsed before it was finished, so I then had to tout it round. It was rejected by five or six publishers. You don’t get published just because you’re the daughter of famous writers.

How did you come to write for the Oldie?

I have worked for Richard Ingrams, the editor of the Oldie, on and off for fifty years. I acted in his review at the Edinburgh festival and help him to staple together the first copy of Private Eye. He created the Unwrecked England column for me when he started the Oldie. He sold the idea to me that when I’d written 100 columns he would turn it into a book. We actually did that several years ago, and this is the second collection. This time round I had the luxury of having 500 columns to choose from.

What is it about England that you love so much?

I feel connected to it. I feel it’s part of me - I’m part of England.

I’m happy to go abroad for holidays but I don’t feel conjoined to other countries the way I do to England. I suppose it’s in my gut!

Do you have any favourites among the 100 places you selected for Unwrecked England?

My homeland is in the Berkshire Downs close to Ashdown and the Uffington White Horse, which I can see from the window as I speak. That’s definitely a favourite.

You mention in our preface to the book that you prefer to do your travelling on horseback. Why is that?

That’s how I like finding places. If you arrive by car, you don’t get any of the atmosphere of a place until you stop and get out. Arriving by horse on a track at the back of a place is pretty wonderful. You get a more encompassing view of a place

What are the biggest challenges of writing?

Sitting down and starting.

What do you enjoy most about it?

Carrying out the research that I do for the column. The exploring came before the writing - the need to explore feeds the column, rather than the other way round. I love finding my way about and meeting the people who make a place what it is. Finding new tracks or roads is like opening presents.

Where do you carry out the majority of your writing?

Wherever I am I take notes, and I also have a recorder when I’m on horseback. You can’t just write about it in retrospect - I have to feel a place through describing it. The point of the place is the setting, the trees that surround it, nature…

When I get home I type it up on my laptop and I print it out every so often if I’m doing a book and I email to my editor or agent to store in case of fire and so on. My friend Susan Hill taught me to do that.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

I edited my dad’s letters and prose as well as I could and I hope I did him proud.

What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?

Anyone can write, everyone has a story. It’s simply a question of application. Nothing else.

What are you working on now?

I have a friend I ride with and we’re planning to ride through the Lune Valley, Lancaster, or maybe the Welsh Marches up in Hereford.

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May Yao

May Yao is an Associate Publisher and director at Intellect Books, an independent academic publisher in the fields of creative practice and popular culture, publishing scholarly books and journals. The publishing company has offices in England and North America. May tells us about her search for academic authors presenting new ideas in new ways.

How did you come to work for Intellect Books?

I’ve always been interested in the process of communicating and disseminating ideas. After completing a degree in Art History and Economics at the University of Toronto, I decided to take a Postgraduate Publishing course at the University of Plymouth in England.

Internships were a part of the course, and one of mine was at Intellect. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to stay on, and luckily they liked me enough to offer me a full time position.

What is your role with the company?

I am Associate Publisher and a Director at Intellect. At the moment, I’m based in Toronto, Canada, and am responsible for Intellect activities in North America. My role is very diverse, and includes everything from project management to acquisition, marketing to managing people.

Did you receive any formal training?

The Postgraduate Publishing course really helped to give me a good overview of the publishing industry, and was a solid base on which to build my experience.

Publishing is a constantly evolving industry - especially in the current climate of increasingly rapid technological innovation, and there are always exciting opportunities and new developments, which make it a great challenge!

What makes Intellect Books different to other publishing houses?

Our strategy is to publish authors who have new ideas, new ways of expressing their ideas, or cover new topics not established within academia. These ideas may not be appreciated by mainstream academic publishers whose focus is on established topics along university departmental boundaries and textbooks for specific courses. Although we may give an author editorial guidance, we don’t commission authors to write books for us.

Overall, we have very little editorial intervention in comparison to other publishers. We represent the author rather than the reader in the editorial process, which means that the author’s message is authentically articulated.

However, because our books are not catered to the reader, they probably will not be as widely read. Our role is to support the author by making each book as strong and as professional as possible, while staying true to the author’s voice.

What kind of books does Intellect Books publish?

We aim to publish books that exemplify our mission as publishers of original thinking. We like to work with authors who can clearly identify with their book and are motivated to support it through all its stages of development. We have found that there is a real demand from authors and editors to get their original material published and to get their ideas heard.

The focus of our publishing programme covers topics related to creative media: art, film, television, design and international culture. Books that are multidisciplinary within our range of topics are preferred.

What happens to a submission once it reaches your office?

We assess proposals based on the following criteria: is it original? Will it have academic value? Is it within our subject areas?

How can a new author get past the slush pile?

We don’t have a slush pile - we assess every proposal based on the criteria mentioned above.

Once you have accepted a manuscript for publication, how do you prepare it for publication?

The main production stages are peer review, copyediting and typesetting. The cover design, images and index must also be negotiated during the production process. As we are an academic publisher, all our books are peer-reviewed.

This process is intended to ensure a level of academic quality as well as providing feedback to the author on how the book might be improved. We try to involve the author in every stage of the production process, from copyediting through to cover design.

What do you look for in a submission?

The best way to submit a proposal to us is by completing our author questionnaire as thoroughly as possible. The questionnaire requests information about the content and structure of the proposed book, as well as marketing information and biographic information about the author. Potential authors should bear in mind that we do not publish Ph.D. theses, although such research can, of course, be an excellent starting point for a book.

We publish original material, so surveys or collections of previously published material are not for us. In essence, we are looking for authors presenting new ideas that don’t yet have an established market or readership and are keen to get their ideas heard!

What is your favourite part of this process?

I love the variety of work that publishing offers, as well as the satisfaction of seeing a finished book. I also enjoy working with authors, and helping them to disseminate their ideas.

What is the most challenging part of it?

Working with authors! The most challenging, and the most enjoyable.

Whose writing has excited you recently?

We have a book coming out in the spring, called The Film Paintings of David Lynch. It delves into the relationship between commercial film, avant-garde art, and cultural theory. It’s written by Allister Mactaggart, who is a film and art history scholar at Leeds Metropolitan University. Should be an interesting read…

What would you say the main challenges are for an aspiring author?

Finding the right publisher, and then promoting yourself, as well as your book.

What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?

Before submitting proposals, spend some time researching publishers to find the right one for your work.

For further information please visit www.intellectbooks.com

Other publishing houses and imprints interviewed for this series include Parthian Books,Tonto Books, Dedalus Books, Alcemi Books, Gomer Press, Trapdoor Books, Seren Books,The Friday Project, Chicken House, Wild Wolf Publishing, Anderson Press, Biscuit Publishing, Tangent Books and Libros Libertad

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© Ove Tøpfer

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is recruiting Investigative Journalists. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is a new venture with charitable backing that aims to carry out investigative journalism of the highest ethical standards. It will also search for sustainable business models for investigative journalism’s long-term future.

The successful applicants will have significant experience in sustained and thorough investigations, with a history of writing compelling stories in the public interest. This is old-style journalism with a hint of Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure.

If you have a background in print, online or broadcast journalism you are encouraged to apply, providing you understand how to conduct long term investigations, have a grasp of media law and are able to work both independently and heading up a small team.

Skills such as an ability to understand financial data, how to carry out FOIs and languages are all assets.

How to apply for this journalism job

Please send your CV and a brief covering letter to jobs@tbij.com,
with INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST and your name in the subject matter line.

The submission deadline is Sunday November 29th 2009.

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North Bovey, Unwrecked England

The coming week is packed with news and ideas at EssentialWriters.com. Whether you’re keen to explore possibilities as an academic writer, want to find out about ghostwriting, have written a play you’d liked to see performed or simply want to indulge in your love of England’s unspoilt areas, we’ve got plenty to intrigue and inspire you.

Take a look at the Jobs etc section on Monday for a great opportunity for investigative journalists seeking work.

On Monday afternoon you can read my interview with May Yao, an associate publisher and director at Intellect Books, an independent academic publishing house with offices in the UK and North America. She talks about the submissions that excite her, and how you can make your ideas stand out from the crowd.

I’ve been dipping in and out of the gorgeous new coffee table book Unwrecked England by Candida Lycett Green, and have fallen in love with some of the locations she describes. It’s a real treat of a book - perfect to escape into on gloomy afternoons. You can find out more about what I think of it on Tuesday. In the afternoon you can read the interview that resulted from a lengthy and very pleasant conversation with Candida, and find out what drives her urge to explore the English countryside.

On Wednesday you’ll be able to find out details of an exciting new competition for playwrights, with the prize of having your script staged at the Edinburgh Fringe next August – a fantastic opportunity!

This week our Friday feature has been written by Mary Harboe and provides an intriguing insight into the world of ghostwriting – which means writing on behalf of others rather than writing ghost stories. It’s a lucrative and highly skilled writing job, so take a look and see if you think it could be the career for you.

Mary is our latest in a growing stream of contributors. If you write in a particular genre or sector we’d love to hear from you. We’ve always got room for genre, how to and opinion pieces, as well as reviews and interviews from and with talented writers, so let us know if you’d like to write for us. You can get in touch by sending an email to Judy@EssentialWriters.com or head to the forums to let us know what you think and write about.

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Carey Mulligan and Peter Saragaard star in An Education

Whether you remember the sixties or are still rollicking through your teenage years, there’s something about this film that will fill you recognition. Sixteen year old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is bold, vivacious and intelligent enough to run rings around her father, played by Alfred Molina, in the opening scene, but she’s also like the rest of us were at that age, ready and willing to be swept along by the promise of a more exciting life.

The film is loosely based on the memoir of Lynn Barber, one of the UK’s most renowned writers and journalists, with a capability of getting the most unwilling candidate to open up and spill their deepest secrets. Though Nick Hornby has deftly fictionalised the screen-play to allow plenty of artistic license and prevent the blushes of those involved, there are rich seams of truth to be discovered, both about Lynn, about England at that time, and about adolescence in any time.

The film is aptly named, as Jenny meets David (Peter Saragaard), a thirty-something charmer who shortcuts her awakening from naivety into sexual and political awareness. Through mixing with his small circle of friends, discovering the shadier part of his business dealings, and a thorough introduction to jazz clubs, romance and even Paris, Jenny learns enough about the wider world to decide that school is pointless, her teachers ‘dead’, and her parents even deader. At one point Jenny says to David: “You have no idea how boring everything was before I met you.”

We’re shown her small world through her eyes, and realise just how limited choices were back then, especially for girls who were only expected to go to university to find a husband. As the headmistress played so magnificently by Emma Thompson points out, teaching’s not the only career option - there’s always the civil service…

One of the key elements of the film’s success is how utterly believable everything detail is, from the 1962 décor to the feelings and actions of the characters. Carey Mulligan proves herself to be an actress with chameleon qualities - on her first date with Peter she looks positively childlike against his glamorous friends, while later, in Paris, she is a sophisticated and sensual as a young Audrey Hepburn. In fact, before the end of the film we’re as seduced by Jenny as she is by Peter, which means we’re rooting for her right to the closing credits.

This is a coming of age story that succinctly captures the essence of an era on the brink of enormous change, a pleasing parallel with the main character’s development from girlhood to womanhood. It’s a film that’s set to become a classic, to watch endlessly on Sunday afternoons and fill us with nostalgia for the time when we were that naïve, and that filled with hope.

Director Lone Scherfig

Starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Saragaard, Alfred Molina, Emma Thompson

Showing at Watershed, Bristol, and cinemas nationwide

To submit a review of a book, course, film, magazine or website, please email judy@EssentialWriters.com

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© Peder Fugl

Short story writer and novelist Suzanna Stanbury asks us to consider the origin of our ideas, and to rest assured that the law is on our side when it comes to protecting our creations, so you don’t need to keep your writing safely under lock and key. After all, what’s the point in writing something no one will ever read?

As writers, do any of us know the rules that govern us when we put pen to paper and fingertip to keyboard?

How can we be sure our words are fresh and new or remarkably similar to some already written? We all have wonderful moments when an story or feature idea comes to mind fully formed and ready to be written down, but there are subliminal pitfalls to the creative process. How can you sure that your stroke of literary genius isn’t something you once read or viewed emerging from our subconscious disguised as an original idea?

Check your ideas really are yours

Here in techno world, we’re lucky to have the internet to help us to check the origin of our creation, and a quick check on Google is likely to let you know if you’ve unwittingly stolen someone else’s stroke of genius.

However, there’s always the fear that the web can also blight us by allowing the global community to siphon off our words for their own use if we publish our work online.

The Internet, with its forums, e-zines and blogs, all are all fertile ground for those who seek to acquire content for their own use. Just think of all those homework plagiarists at work right now lifting the information for their ‘Green Issue’ essay for class tomorrow.

It is no longer just a charge of plagiarism or a matter of ethics to use another’s work whether consciously, or unconsciously. The law also states it contravenes intellectual property rights to snaffle the creative work of another writer, be they living or dead.

Intellectual Property

The term Intellectual Property was first coined in the nineteenth century and more recently has been used as a legal term in the US and is now in common usage in the UK. Intellectual Property or intangible assets are defined as affording exclusive rights to those who created a work of literary, musical or artistic worth.

Now you’ve written your work of fiction you may want to protect your Intellectual Property rights by copyrighting it. Copyright laws exist to protect the work of those who wish to share their creation with the world at large. Personal copyright on content, as opposed to corporate or anonymous content, belongs to the author for a period as defined by the laws of the land, the standard being between fifty and 100 years after the author’s death. After that time the work will pass into the public domain.

Creation equal copyright

Copyright is automatically in place at the point of creation, although there is no actual requirement to register a copyright against your work, if you deem your handiwork to be of great potential value then do obtain copyright or make use of ‘poor man’s copyright’ by posting a version of it to yourself and leaving the package sealed.

And for the longer term, the ownership of the work, plus any derivatives thereof belongs to the creator - unless the copyright is relinquished, transferred or waived.

So, in a nutshell, you write it you own it, unless someone already wrote it before you or you sell it to a bloke down the pub.

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Mitzi Szereto © Eric Schneider

If you’ve always fancied turning your creativity towards writing erotica, author and anthologist Mitzi Szereto may be just the woman to help you out.

American-born Mitzi Szereto writes across the literary genres, with a popular blog Errant Ramblings, and steamy novels including In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed and Getting Even: Revenge Stories.

Mitzi has taught erotic writing workshops at venues as varied as the prestigious Cheltenham Festival of Literature to the Greek islands, and now she’s offering a weekend course of erotic writing on the Isle of Wight.

There’s something about rural villages and island locations that seems to bring out the inner harlot in the most sensible of people, making the ancient village of Shanklin, just a few minutes walk from the beach, ideal for this venture.

The writing course takes place at The Old Grange in the heart of the village from Friday November 13th until Sunday November 15th, and costs £75 plus accommodation.

“Literotica is designed for those interested in erotic writing for personal or professional exploration as well as for writers looking to integrate the erotic into another body of work,” Mitzi says. “I started teaching erotic writing because I felt there was a major vacuum when it came to approaching this kind of content from a more literary perspective. There is a real need for writers to pursue this as a more serious form of writing, as opposed to churning out disposable top shelf fare. Hopefully by taking my workshop, writers will expand their horizons, get rid of their fears, and avoid the Guardian Bad Sex in Fiction award!”

The course will consist of lectures, group discussions, writing exercises, and workshopping of material. An overview of the marketplace will be provided for those considering publication, making this ideal for beginners and experienced writers alike.

To find out more or book a place on the Literotica writing course, write to The Grange, 9 Eastcliff Road, Shanklin, Isle of Wight PO37 6AA, telephone +44 (0)1983 867644 or email info@thegrangebythesea.com and mention that Mitzi sent you.

If you have attended one of Mitzi’s courses, let us know what you thought by emailing Judy@EssentialWriters.com

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Susan Grossman

Following closures of media publications around the world, more freelance journalists are flooding the market than ever. Putting together a compelling feature pitch is a distinct skill that marks out the successful freelance journalist from those struggling against increasingly fierce competition for commissions.

If you find it a challenge to successfully pitch feature ideas you may be able to increase your earning potential through a workshop by writing coach Susan Grossman, to be held on Saturday November 14th 2009.

Susan says the course is designed to help you to “looking to impress editors, get commissions, explore new outlets and rework published materials.”

This one-day course will cover writing compelling synopses that result in commissions, match your story angles to a target audience and find the right publication.

The course is designed to help editors moving into freelancing, media professionals, and published journalists looking to impress editors and wanting to learn to re-work published material for further financial gain. Susan will also provide feedback on past or current pitches.

Susan is a writing coach, travel Writer, magazine editor, BBC broadcaster and a visiting lecturer in journalism at Westminster and City universities. The one-day course takes place at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), 66 Portland Place, London W1 and costs £105.

For further details, please contact Susan on +44 (0)20 7794 0288 or susangrossman@tiscali.co.uk,or visit www.susangrossman.co.uk

If you have attended one of Susan’s courses, let us know what you thought by emailing Judy@EssentialWriters.com

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