John Shapcott

Literary scholar & editor - Arnold Bennett, regional novels, silent films, the Beats, Melvyn Bragg. Honorary Research Fellow, Keele University.

[Emma Squire and Claudia Kenyatta @HE_ChiefExec]

It's brilliant to see the ceramicist Clarice Cliff honoured with a blue plaque in Stoke-on-Trent as part of our new national scheme.

We hope the plaque will inspire people, just as her creativity continues to do.

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

This week's Congleton u3a talk on the cross-over between jazz & rock music. 60 minutes playing 15 tracks & 30 minutes of talk.

[Tim Churchill @timchurchill71]

Exciting times.

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

Very gratifying that 40 members of Leek u3a Art Appreciation group turned up on a wet cold Tuesday morning this week to hear my 75 minute lecture on Canadian/Newlyn artist Elizabeth Forbes. Adult Education as we once knew it.

[ArnoldBennettSociety @BennettSoc]

It has to be said that the serial, which drew on AB's Clayhanger trilogy, Anna of the 5 Towns and The Old Wives' Tale, received mixed reactions from Bennett fans. But anything to get Arnold talked about ...

[Keele English and Creative Writing @English_Keele]

📢Next week📢Professor Nick Seager will be giving his inaugural lecture, "True Lies: Fact, Fiction and the Origins of the British Novel", Weds 24 January, 6pm, Westminster Theatre. Come along and celebrate! 🥂@KeeleUniversity @drnickseager

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

The result can be read in my 2018 edited edition published by Churnet Valley Books. Look for unexpected hints of modernism.

[ArnoldBennettSociety @BennettSoc]

100 years ago, Arnold Bennett was walking around Clerkenwell to get the details right for his story Elsie and the Child (a sequel to Riceyman Steps)

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

My detailed review of the recently published 'Arnold Bennett's Fiction', by Italian scholar Francesca D'Alfonso, appears in the latest issue of the 'Arnold Bennett Society Newsletter'.

[Keele English and Creative Writing @English_Keele]

Congratulations to our wonderful Head of School, Prof Nick Seager, whose Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe (CUP, 2022) has won the Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize for 2023! 🏆📖 @drnickseager https://t.co/iLSJfjlDU0

[Andy @CameraObscura]

#ArnoldBennett covered in #Frost this morning. #StokeOnTrent

[ArnoldBennettSociety @BennettSoc]

'On Monday MacAlarney of Famous Players called to discuss my project for a film. On the whole he warmly approved it. He showed excellent understanding of the characterisation and the psychological implications thereof' - Arnold Bennett in journal, 17 November 1920

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

My review of Dale Salwak's book is in the latest edition of the Bennett Society Newsletter. It includes essays by Margaret Drabble, J M Coetzee, & Ann Thwaite. Also, the origins,composition & critical reception of 'Riceyman Steps' are looked at in detail in this current issue.

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

At last. A new & substantial monograph on Bennett's fiction, from 'Anna of the Five Towns' to 'Accident'. My review copy is now top of my growing summer reading list.

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

My review of this entertaining, & sometimes quiet moving, collection of essays will appear in the Autumn edition of the 'Arnold Bennett Society Newsletter'. The book includes an entry by Society vice-president Margaret Drabble.

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

Saw Claybody Theatre's joyous production of The Card at Fenton Town Hall last year @claybodytheatre. So know that I am in for a real treat when I see it again tomorrow at the New Vic with Bennett Society friends. And thanks @NewVicTheatre for the display of my Bennett editions.

[John Shapcott @JohnShapcott]

My talk in Leek this week looked at the Art of Jazz. Among the many images shown was this wall art of the Buddy Bolden Band, based on the only surviving photo of the legendary cornet player, from c. 1907. Michael Ondaatje's 1976 novel lovingly recreates Bolden's tragic life.

[Barewall Art Gallery @barewall]

@fslconsult @GrimArtGroup Goodness what's the story there Dave? Still unused?

[Gyles Brandreth @GylesB1]

Yes, I reckon The Old Wives’ Tale might be the greatest novel written by an Englishman in the twentieth century …

[Keele English and Creative Writing @English_Keele]

Congratulations to our brilliant Head of School @drnickseager on the publication of the Defoe letters! This has been a labour of love, and what a beautiful volume it is!

[David Amigoni @AmigoniDavid]

So good to see this piece by Peter Davies on @KeeleUniversity arts collection and the role of #SirBarnettStross in its formation story, as we approach the 80 anniversary of @LidiceLives @AristotleKallis