Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
Author’s debut novel tells patron saint’s story
The first novel written by Darlington author Eric Foster is due to be published on January 28, based on a fictional re-telling of the life of Ireland’s patron saint.
Inspired by a long-standing love of Ireland, Becoming St Patrick has been published by Troubador Publishing and is based on extensive research conducted by Eric over several years.
Eric, a member of Darlington-based Inkerman Writers, (The Inkers), said: “I was twenty-one when I fell in love with an Irish lass and we married. I have been fascinated with Ireland’s history and people ever since.
“When I read Thomas Cahill’s book, ‘How the Irish Saved Civilisation’, I was inspired by a section on Patrick, which revealed further and far-reaching activities of Patrick’s that I had never come across in history books. Discovering a whole new avenue about Patrick spurred my desire to tell the saint’s story widely.
“I researched the saint’s history in greater depth, studied fifth century North West Britain, Ireland and Gaul and set about learning the craft of writing, booking myself onto an Arvon Course for beginners and later a more advanced course at Bloomsbury, London, supplemented by attendance of local Darlington writing groups, including Hash, Inkermans and Stop – Write - Hear. The pandemic lockdown gifted me an opportunity to seriously write, which I took with both hands.”
The novel tells how Patricius, an adolescent of the Roman-British ruling class, is snatched from a life of luxury by raiders, bound for a slave-market. A king buys him and Patrick, renamed by his master, eventually makes his way to Western Ireland where he finds God and begins his journey to sainthood.
The paperback version of the book, costing £11.99 (ISBN 978180313), has a publication date of 28th January and can be purchased at www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/historical/becoming-st-patrick or from Blackwells, Hive and many other on-line sources; or in High Street retailers from the 28th January. The ebook is available on Amazon from 10th February.
Books can also be purchased at a pre-publication presentation at St. Anne’s Church Hall, 43 Welbeck Avenue, Darlington, DL1 2DR on Wednesday 25th January, starting 6.30 p.m, or at the official book launch at Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, starting 6.30 p.m. in the Gallowgate Room.
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About
DfC
The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.
Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.
DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.
Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org
Publications
Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.
Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com
The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from
The Inkerman Writers’ latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows
The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.
Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.
Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.
The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:
“Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.
“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.
“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.
“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”
The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3
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