About this Event
Join us for an exciting double bill author event at Chester Lane Library! We are joined by North West authors, Jane Claire Bradley and Ashleigh Nugent.
Ashleigh Nugent is a writer, performer and director at RiseUp, based in Liverpool. We will be discussing his debut novel, Locks.
About Locks
‘1993 was the year that Stephen Lawrence got murdered by racists, and I became an angry Black lad with a “chip on his shoulder”’
Aeon, a mixed-up and mixed-race teenager from a leafy Liverpool suburb, is desperate to understand the Black identity thrust upon him. He grows dreadlocks and immerses himself in ‘gangsta’ rap. But Aeon’s journey of self-discovery is hampered by the fact that the only Black people in his life are his dad and his cousin, Increase.
Aeon’s ambition to find his place in the world takes him to Jamaica. Here, Aeon soon finds that smoking loads of W**d, growing messy locks and wearing massive red boots don’t necessarily help him to fit in. Within days of his arrival he is mugged, arrested and banged up in a Jamaican detention centre. Seen as the ‘White boy’, he finds that his journey of self-discovery has only just begun – and he’s going to have to fight for the respect and recognition he deserves . . .
Jane Claire Bradley is an award-winning queer, working-class writer, performer and educator living in Manchester. We will be discussing her debut novel, Dear Neighbour.
Five strangers. Four weeks. One letter that will change everything…
My debut novel tells the story of Alice, a single mum living in Leeds, her next-door neighbour Bill, a widower still grieving his wife’s death a decade earlier, and the other residents of their street. It’s a novel about surviving austerity, the power of community and found family, and the real definition of home.
Jane says, for her, politics, identity, creativity and community have always been interconnected, and Dear Neighbour is a love letter to all those impacted by austerity and housing insecurity, and to the necessity of resilience, resistance and empathy.
This event is part of New Writing North’s Northern Bookshelf.
Books from both authors will be available to purchase on the night from our wonderful friends at St Helens Book Stop.
TICKETS: £8, £7 (St Helens Library Card Holders), £5 (Concessions).
Chester Lane Library - Free parking, ramp access, accessible toilet
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Chester Lane Library, Four Acre Lane, St Helens, United Kingdom
GBP 5.00 to GBP 8.00
