Book Club

Associate lecturer Dr Edward Hadley has secured a contract to write the first book-length critical study of the works of Andrew Motion, the former Poet Laureate.

Due to be published in 2013 by Liverpool University Press, Andrew Motion: A Critical Study will draw upon both published and unpublished works, together with manuscripts and correspondence.

Edward, who teaches a number of OU English literature courses in the London and East of England regions, says the book will aim to offer a 'fair and comprehensive appreciation of the works of an often divisive poet'.

Edward has previously published The Elegies of Ted Hughes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and is the founding editor of The Ted Hughes Society Journal.

 For the interest of anyone (like me) starting AA100 The Arts: past and present in October, the globe theatre are playing Doctor Faustus for the first time between the 18th June and the 2nd of October. Also on the 13th, 15th, and 20th of September they are presenting pre-show lectures.

Please find a link to their webpage below:

http://www.shakespearesglobe.com/theatre/on-stage/doctor-faustus

Lauren Wagstaff 

What and when did you study with the OU?
I started my studies in 1999 with S103 Discovering Science, because I wanted to refresh and expand my knowledge of general science. At the same time, I was researching my first booklet about ghost stories and legends from my home town and I found myself becoming increasingly interested in the ways in which people experience the world. For example, why do some people believe they see ghosts while others don’t? It seemed to me that learning more about psychology would increase my understanding of the processes involved and so I studied DSE202 Introduction to psychology followed by the other three core psychology modules (ED209 Child development, D317 Social psychology, and D309 Cognitive psychology). I rounded off my studies in 2004, covering all the bases with A103 An introduction to the humanities, and graduated with a first class BSc (Honours) in Psychology.

Did you always want to be a writer? And how did your OU studies help you?
I suppose I did always want to be a writer, yes. I’ve certainly always seen writing as something I could do, from as far back as being in primary school, and I’ve always been drawn towards scribbling away in one form or another. One particular teacher at my middle school – Mrs Whitman – went out of her way to encourage me to write and I owe her a debt of gratitude.

More recently, my OU studies have definitely helped me in several ways.

To begin with, understanding more about psychology has helped me to appreciate that much of my favourite subject matter (ghosts, legends, and the “fortean”) cannot adequately be understood in black and white terms of whether or not such and such an event really did occur. There are all sorts of subtleties involved, such as the ways in which people perceive and recall events and the ways in which they then describe what they experienced, and the ways in which all of these factors feed back into each other. And that’s before you even get to the question of whether or not “ghosts” are supernatural manifestations – on which subject I remain stubbornly agnostic.

Secondly, I’ve found that my OU studies trained me to think more critically about things in general, and that is a very useful ability as regards researching and planning writing projects.

Also, the simple self-discipline that’s so necessary in studying with the OU is invaluable when it comes to sitting down and forcing yourself to write on those days when you’d rather do anything but!

You have written several books relating to London’s ghost stories and legends. Where does your interest in this area come from and where do you get your inspiration from?

I’ve always been interested in ghost stories, mysteries, and all manner of weird goings-on, and am probably a bit too curious for my own good, so I wanted to look more deeply into what was causing the sort of reports I enjoyed reading about. This was many years ago and at the time I naively thought that it would just be a matter of visiting “haunted” locations and waiting for something to happen. It soon became apparent that this was too simplistic.

After a lot of long, eventless, and often very cold nights in allegedly haunted houses I came to realise that, regardless of whether or not the ghosts supposed to haunt these places were real, the stories told about them definitely were. Those stories were things I could actually find out more about.

Have you ever seen a ghost?
No, although it’s not for want of trying! There’s no doubt whatsoever that “ghosts” exist, but considerable doubt as to whether or not ghosts are spirits of the dead, as in the popular conception. The more you look into the matter, the more you realise that ghosts represent a more complicated concept than most people realise.

All sorts of different experiences get labelled as a ghost, including feeling cold or nauseous, catching a whiff of an unexpected scent, hearing a creaking sound at night, taking a photograph that shows an odd-looking effect, and so on. Actually, this illustrates another benefit of studying psychology – it has helped me to appreciate how we impose artificial categories on the world, and how those categories often have very fuzzy boundaries.

How important is research?
For what I write about, it’s absolutely vital. For one thing, understanding the historical background of a ghost story enables me to put that story into its appropriate context. For another, research can sometimes reveal deep problems with a story that has passed into popular mythology. There is, for example, an oft-repeated tale about a phantom monk that haunts Buckingham Palace. The monk is supposed to have died after being locked up in a punishment cell of a priory that stood on the site long ago, and which was destroyed after the dissolution of the monasteries in the mid-sixteenth century. When I tried to find out further information about this priory from the Museum of London, I learned that no priory or monastery had ever existed on the site. The closest religious establishment had been the leper hospital of St James, which stood on the site of the present-day St James’s palace. So perhaps the phantom monk has a connection to that hospital, or perhaps this ghost only exists within the story told about him.

Who are your favourite authors?
There are so many, but to pick two who have been among my favourites for as long as I can remember, I would have to say Stephen King and Michael Moorcock.

As a writer and proof reader, what have you found the most challenging things about your career?
Writing is a very solitary pursuit and I know a lot of writers would say that the enforced isolation is a challenge, and I guess that would go for proof readers too. To be honest, though, I rather enjoy that aspect of it!

However, coupled with the isolation is the problem of staying motivated without colleagues around to push you on. That can be a real challenge, but I suppose that’s why God invented deadlines.

You write a column in ‘The Morton Report’ – can you tell us more about this?
The Morton Report is an online pop-culture magazine based in the US but with a worldwide readership. The Morton in question, by the way, is the famous celebrity biographer Andrew Morton.

I was contacted by the magazine shortly before their launch earlier this year. The launch was timed to coincide with the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton and the editors were looking for someone to write an article about ghost stories connected with locations such as Clarence House and Westminster Abbey. They must have been reasonably pleased with the result because they subsequently asked me to contribute a regular column.

My column is now one of The Morton Report’s featured columns, under the title “Notes from a Weird World: Pondering the paranormal, the unexplained, and the just plain odd”. My articles appear every Tuesday (Tuesday evening in the UK) and your readers are more than welcome to visit the site for a weekly dose of weirdness!

What else would you like to achieve in your writing career?
My next specific objective is to see our book about the Battersea poltergeist in print. It’s an incredible tale – certainly one of the most bizarre real-life stories I’ve ever read about, let alone had the opportunity to look into. (James has recently co-authored a book with Shirley Hitchings about the poltergeist that troubled Shirley's family in Battersea, south London, for a number of years beginning in 1956.)

Thinking long-term, I would love to get paid to write fiction one day (I write fiction solely for my own pleasure at present) but for the moment I’m happy to continue using writing as an excuse to explore strange stories, strange behaviour, and strange ideas.

What advice would you give OU students who want to become published authors?
Write. There’s no point in just planning your book, or reading articles about how to write – you have to do it, and you have to keep on doing it, in much the same way that athletes have to continually keep up with their training. Luckily, a writer’s training also involves reading a lot, and as any good writer must necessarily love reading that has to be good news.

For many people, I think joining a writers’ circle would be a good way of getting useful feedback. Personally, though, that’s not for me – I’ve never been much of a social animal!

Finally, I heartily recommend a book by Stephen King called On Writing. Part memoir and part practical advice, it’s the most inspiring book on the subject I’ve ever read. In fact, I rather fancy reading it again now.
 

• Find out more about James's work

 This book has been in the best sellers on Amazon UK and Amazon USA since 2010. It has been praised by The British Psychology Society and by other leading medical professionals. The book is a true account of over 20 years of severe child abuse that included rape, murder attempts, burning, knifing and repeated abuse after intense grooming.

The book details a true account of the consequences of the abuse and the ambiguous care at a psychiatric unit afterwards. Both the police and the medial professionals are amazed that the author survived.

The book has received significant messages of thanks from both leading professionals such as solicitors dealing with child abuse cases and social workers as well as care professionals. The public have sent messages of thanks for helping them to understand their friends, family or relatives. The author also received numerous letters of true accounts where people sadly did not survive the trauma of their lives from relatives and friends. This brings home the significance of true accounts of trauma, as better understanding can lead to improved management and care. 

The book has received many positive reviews together with a few negative reviews. Although the book has been criticised by a minority for not being written to a higher standard in english, it is still important for the significance of the content that has been described as inspiring and has helped many people and also given hope to some. 

Websites www.afineline-lisawb.co.uk

www.amazon.com/dp/B00457XMGS

lisawb.wordpress.com/

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00457XMGS

www.facebook.com/pages/A-Fine-Line-by-Lisa-W-B/86821382949

I thank anybody for taking a look as I am passionate about helping other people and also this book may help to prevent some accounts of child abuse in the future. Early symptoms and signs are so important and even a small account of insight may help.

A big thanks to the OU as they have been brilliant in supporting myself towards my psychology degree.

Kind regards,

Lisa WB

The July/August 2011 Platform Book Club Review is written by OU psychology graduate Lisa W.B. A Fine Line: A Balance to Survive is based on a true story, a tale of childhood abuse and survival against the odds.

The book was suggested by Platform's student blogger Carrie Walton. Carrie says: "The book got good praise from those in the medical profession and Lisa did a BSc in Psychology with the OU, presumably to back up her own experiences of dealing with psychological troubles. I absolutely tip my hat to people like that, it's amazing to go through something like that and come out the other end smiling at your graduation!"

You have until August 30 to grab/buy/borrow a copy, read the book and post your review here on this forum – whether you loved it, hated it or only skimmed the first few chapters before giving up, we want to hear from you. The review we find the most insightful scoops £20 in book vouchers. So get reading!

And don't forget to add your suggestions for future book club reads here.







 

Keith Scrivener's first novel, Viking Sword Saxon Shield, has already reached the top 100 in the American historical thriller charts - and he wrote the first chapter of the book while studying a creative writing course at The Open University.

Find out more in this article in Keith's local newspaper, the Essex Chronicle.