News
A new year and old friends
The scene outside may be a little bleak but it has been a very cheery start to the 2018 as I start to make contact again with poets I knew during my bookselling days in Ulverston. There was a lot of literary activity in the town at the time with South Cumbria...
CALLING CUMBRIAN POETS!
A New Anthology of Cumbrian Poetry Handstand Press invites poets currently living or who have lived in Cumbria to submit three poems (maximum 60 lines) for inclusion in a new and exciting anthology of best contemporary poetry. The selection panel will be looking for...
We didn’t win but….
The Lakeland Books of the Year were announced yesterday at a literary lunch at Armathwaite Hall on Bassenthwaite Lake. It is an event that everyone in the Cumbrian book world looks forward to with hope (maybe this year we have won something!) and because it gives...
HANDSTAND AUTHORS TAKE PART IN LOCAL HISTORY MONTH
A series of events is being organised by libraries in Cumbria this May to celebrate local history month. Local history is what Handstand is all about so I am delighted we have been invited to take part. Kerry Darbishire is giving a talk about Kay’s Ark in Kirkby...
Plans for 2017
We’re more than half way through January in this new year and I’ve been slow to get into gear. I’ve had one of those horrible colds that seem to be afflicting so many at the moment and the motivation to do much more than feel sorry for myself has been woeful. ...
A REAL GEM, AFFECTION SHINING THROUGH
This is just one of the comments received in response to Kerry Darbishire’s book, Kay’s Ark. Letters, emails and tweets have been arriving over recent weeks, full of praise for her memoir of her mother’s life. It is a lovely feeling to have given such pleasure. Here...
We’re getting very excited
Kerry Darbishire and I met yesterday to make final preparations for the launch of Kay’s Ark. It will be on sale from September 19th – not long now! To say that this book has been a labour of love sounds like a cliché, but in this case it truly has. Kerry tells the...
KAY’S ARK in CUMBRIA LIFE
Have a look at the September issue of Cumbria Life Magazine. Mary Ingham, who interviewed Kerry Darbishire just over a month ago, has written a lovely piece which summarises perfectly what it was that made her mother, Kay Callaghan, such a charismatic person and how...
Book Signing for KAY’S ARK
Sam Read’s Bookshop in Grasmere is the venue for the first book signing for KAY’s ARK. Kerry Darbishire will be there on Thursday 22nd September from 2.30pm. Sam Read’s has a wonderful reputation. It has been trading since 1887 and was the winner of 2006 the...
New Handstand Author – Kerry Darbishire
KAY’S ARK by Kerry Darbishire will be going to print very soon. It is the story of her mother, an amazing and resourceful woman who came to the Lake District from London in the early 50’s with three small children and little else. The café she opened at Skelwith...
CUMBRIA – The Land of Literary Opportunities
I’m just home from London. There’s so much going on down there of course but my friends there are incredibly impressed with the amount of literary activity we have on offer here in Cumbria. Coming up later this month is the Kendal Yarns Festival of New Plays. This...
Kay’s Ark Coming Soon
We are hard at work preparing Handstand Press’s next publication. KAY’S ARK is the lovingly told story of Kay Callaghan who escaped London for the Lake District in 1950. With three children, no money, a failing marriage and abandoned acting career she began a new...