Sunday 25 April 2010

Stanley Middleton May 8

The memorial event for Stanley Middleton, being held in Nottingham on May 8th (date corrected following comment!) is now full up. A report will follow on this blog in due course.

5 comments:

David Belbin said...

That's May 8th, Ross. There is a waiting list. Don't forget to vote!

Dave Lull said...

I wonder what you think of Boyd Tonkin's comment in "How Nottingham rebels broke the kitchen sink":

"The prolific Nottingham teacher Stanley Middleton (44 novels prior to his death last year, and a joint Booker win in 1974 for Holiday) dug deeply and delicately into the same small patch with all the tender insight of an East Midlands Eric Rohmer."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/boyd-tonkin-how-nottingham-rebels-broke-the-kitchen-sink-1958035.html

Ross Bradshaw said...

I saw this earlier and hadn't a clue who Eric Rohmer was. I now know, but have never seen any of his films. Another gap in my limited education. What do you think?

Dave Lull said...

The only thing I know about Mr Rohmer is that friends of mine think highly of his films. What I was hoping to find out is whether someone who loves the novels of Mr Middleton and knows the films of Mr Rohmer thinks that Mr Rohmer's films display a "tender insight" similar to Mr Middleton's novels.

Anonymous said...

I'm an admirer of both (and a Nottinghamian), and I can certainly see similarities - not least in the way that both use the minutiae of everyday life and interactions to explore the profundities of human emotion. They have different concerns (and I think, perhaps surprisingly, that Stanley Middleton's may be broader), but I can see a proximity of style and tone and a similar empathy (Tonkin's 'tender insight') for their protagonists and their problems.