Awake Awake author Fiona Mozley, centre, with Little Apple Bookshop proprietors Tim Curtis and Philippa Morris during her book-selling shift back on familiar book turf
FIONA Mozley returns to her York roots for her first novel in five years, Awake Awake.
Now living in Edinburgh, she headed back to her home city for a promotional day earlier this month, combining face-to-face interviews with a two-hour book-selling shift at Little Apple Bookshop, in High Petergate, where she worked behind the counter from 2016 to 2019.
“It was my favourite ever part-time job, and I’m still friends with Tim Curtis and Philippa Morris, who run it,” says Fiona, settling into a window seat at Waterstones, in Coney Street, where she would give a talk and sign books later that evening.
“Elmet sold 1,000 copies at Little Apple Bookshop alone and it remains their biggest ever-selling selling book.”
After rising to Booker Prize-shortlisted acclaim with that 2017 debut novel, set in Yorkshire, and following it up in 2021 with Hot Stew, set in a Soho brothel, Fiona roots her third novel almost entirely in the York of the 2000s, where her heroine Mary’s father works at York Minster.
“In a five-year period I wrote two and a half novels, and Awake Awake was the one that gained ground,” says Fiona. “Some writers have a ‘difficult second novel’, but mine was already on the way when Elmet came out, though I did ‘um and aarrgh’ because I had a number of ideas and was pursuing them all at once.
“Again, with this new novel, it started as a tandem project, which was that I’d always wanted to write a novel set in the early 2000s, following a bunch of teenagers negotiating those personal and political times.
“I was born in 1988, so in 2002-2003, I was 14-15, when my generation grew up thinking that everything was going to get better; that ‘history’ was over; that conflict had been eradicated; the economy would go from strength to strength and jobs were plentiful. How wrong we were.”
Fiona wanted to examine that moment of optimism and how the world came crashing down as 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq led to a “readjustment of the perception of where we were going”. She would do so through the eyes of teenagers “because they bring an insight and earnestness”, leading to activism and Stop The War marches.
“I decided to set it in a place outside the global capitals, so why not York, which made the perfect setting as I grew up here,” she says. “All my writing is rooted in long history and place – I studied History at King’s College, Cambridge – so the second strand I explored was an examination of the way we think about the past, in particular memories of the Second World War and memories of family histories.
“Awake Awake is very much fiction, but I wanted to think about the story of my grandfather, on my mother’s side, who was born in Leeds and was an officer in the Royal Amy Medical Corps.”
Her grandfather was from the Orthodox Jewish community, but hid it from his wife and his children, prompting Fiona to ponder how and why he did this.
Fiona toyed with the concept of writing in a “counter-fictional” mode – a narrative or thought process that opposes or subverts the established rules, traditions and tropes of a specific story, genre or fictional world. “I was interested in playing with the idea from Quentin Tarantino’s [2009 black comedy] Inglourious Basterds, which I thought went over the top, but I was keen to see how those ideas spoke to each other.”
In 2023, Fiona and her partner spent a month in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “While I was there, I wanted to read some big American novels, so I read some Philip Roth, who I absolutely love and absolutely hate, but he’s never boring,” she says.
“Reading his books gave me permission to go ‘wild’ in my writing, to not shy away from something that might be controversial. I was struck by how he mixed the personal with the political and the international. Reading him, although I’m a hugely different person and writer, it gave me the opportunity to push in that direction.”
Explaining its impact on Awake Awake, Fiona says: “People are often curious about the relationship between real and fictional, and my response is that I find myself unable to write things as I perceive them and write down events as they happen. I would be a terrible lawyer, an unreliable witness, because for me the process of writing is immediately creative and a new world emerges in the telling.
“I looked into this, and a lot of memory is constructed. It’s a creative act, so what I wanted to do was to exaggerate that. Put in the most stark terms, the [central] character is totally overcome by fictional memories – and the book is also about how our identities are totally informed by those memories.”
Awake Awake, by Fiona Mozley, is published in hardback, audio and ebook by John Murray Press.
The cover artwork for Fiona Mozley’s Awake Awake
Five talking points in Awake Awake
The war novel: How can contemporary novelists write about war?
2000s’ nostalgia and optimism: Anti-war movement of early 2000s was the backdrop to Fiona’s teenage years in York. How has that shaped how she and her generation think today?
Memory and mental illness: The novel’s heroine and her brother both suffer from mental ill-health as Fiona traces a “kind of intergenerational trauma”
Second World War: Fiona has Jewish heritage. Her maternal grandfather was from the Orthodox community in Leeds but hid it from his wife and children. How and why did he do so? Fiona brings family history into the novel to speculate on what might have happened to him.
Activism: Backdrop to the 2000s’ sections of the novel is the Stop The War movement and marches.
Author Fiona Mozley. Picture: Aleksandra Maciejewska
Fiona Mozley: back story
FIONA grew up in York, appearing in multiple theatrical productions before studying History at King’s College, Cambridge. Worked behind the counter at Little Apple Bookshop, in High Petergate, York, from 2016 to 2019.
Debut novel Elmet, published in August 2017 by JM Originals, was set in the claustrophobic rural West Riding of Yorkshire, exploring themes of family bonds, revenge, land rights, modern society and the ultimate price of freedom. Shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize, it was published in the USA in December 2017 and reissued in a JM Classics edition in 2025.
That year too, Elmet was adapted for the stage by Bradford-raised writer-director Javaad Alipoor for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, presented by the Javaad Alipoor Company at Loading Bay, with music by North Eastern folk luminaries The Unthanks & Adrian McNally and movement by Ad Infinitum’s Deb Pugh.
Playing like an ancient tragedy reflected in shards of memory, the world premiere ran from October 22 to November 2 2025 with its story of Cathy and Danny living apart from the world with towering bare-knuckle boxer Daddy, who has built them an idyll amid the trees on a land “made of myths”. However, a great reckoning is coming, led by all-powerful landowner Mr Price, threatening to smash apart everything the trio holds dear.
Second novel Hot Stew, published in 2021, was set in Soho, London, where sex workers Precious and Tabitha fight an eviction order from a real-estate heiress. Third novel Awake Awake was published in June 2026 by John Murray Press.
Fiona has won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Polari Prize and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, the Ondaatje Prize and The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. She has been longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Women’s Prize too.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Writer Alexander McCall Smith: Taking part in York Festival of Ideas 2026. Picture: Alexander McCall Smith Portraits
NOT only a festival, held on university soil, is full of ideas. So too is Charles Hutchinson in his list of fruitful artistic pursuits as June blooms.
Festival of the fortnight: York Festival of Ideas, Place & Space, until June 12
YORK Festival of Ideas 2026 explores Place and Space in more than 200 mostly free in-person and online events designed to educate, entertain and inspire.
Led by the University of York, the event features world-class speakers, such as Nicola Sturgeon, Dame Kelly Holmes, Alexander McCall Smith and Stuart Rose, performances, exhibitions, tours, family-friendly activities, a Michael Morpurgo celebration day and much more, with topics ranging from archaeology to art, history to health, politics to psychology, football to Manchester’s Music Soul. For the full programme, go to: yorkfestivalofideas.com.
Holly Sumpton’s Ewen Montagu in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, on tour at Grand Opera House, York. Picture: Matt Crockett
Musical of the week: SplitLip in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
THE year is 1943 and we are losing the war but, luckily, we can gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Singin’ In The Rain meets Strangers On A Train in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat, the Olivier and Tony award-winning musical take on the unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us the Second World War.
Bursting at the seams with chaos beyond invention, the question is: how did a dead body, a fake love letter and MI5 operative Ian Fleming come together to wrong-foot Hitler? Let Christian Andrews, Holly Sumpton, Seán Carey, Charlotte Hanna-Williams and latest recruit Jamie-Rose Monk tell the tale. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Rosalinda at the double: Alexandra Mather, left, and Olivia Turner sharing the principal role -two performances each – in York Opera’s Die Fledermaus. Picture: David Kessel
Opera of the week: York Opera in Die Fledermaus, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday to Friday, 7.30pm; Saturday, 4pm
YORK Opera is marking two milestones with John Soper and Elizabeth Watson’s production of Johann Strauss II’s party opera Die Fledermaus: the company’s 60th anniversary and its 40th year of performances at York Theatre Royal.
When lavish host Prince Orlofsky seeks fresh amusement at his New Year’s Eve party, what better place for disguises, deception and revenge served with chilled champagne? Alexandra Mather and Olivia Turner share the role of Rosalinda; likewise, Stephanie Wong and LaLa Marais both play Adele, alongside Molly Raine’s Orlofsky and Ian Thomson-Smith’s Falke. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
The book cover artwork for Fiona Mozley’s Awake Awake
Book event of the week: An Evening with Fiona Mozley, Awake, Awake, Waterstones, Coney Street, York, June 4, 7pm
“WHAT if you can no longer trust your memories,” asks York author Fiona Mozley in her third novel, Awake Awake, published on June 4 by John Murray.
Booker-Shortlisted for her debut Elmet, and now resident in Edinburgh, Fiona returns to her home roots to discuss her new meditation on memory, loss and moral courage in a York-located story that revolves around a woman haunted by vivid memories of things she suspects never could have happened.
Her hour-long talk will be followed by a Q&A between Fiona and the audience and a book-signing session will be held afterwards. Tickets: £6, Waterstones Plus Card members £5, at https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-fiona-mozley-at-waterstones-york/york.
Writer-performers Molly Whitehouse and Dan Poppitt in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ premiere of Love At First Bite
Premiere of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Love At First Bite, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 4 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOSH Woodgate directs Dan Poppitt and Molly Whitehouse’s seductive new work Love At First Bite, wherein dating can be hell, but what if one of them were a creature of the night? What happens when Alan and Minnie meet at a speed-dating night? A spark flickers. Dates follow. Laughter lingers.
“Yet beneath the rhythms of a familiar rom-com, something waits in the dark,” say Poppitt and Whitehouse, who play the lovers in York company Black Sheep’s premiere. “One of them is a vampire – but the secret shifts. Each night, the actors trade fangs and the audience is left to wonder who is hunter, who is prey.” Blending sharp-fanged wit with a brush of gothic shadow, their play toys with romance, rewrites folklore and invites audiences to consider what it means to love…and to hunger! Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Sofia Romano in Silver Stage’s murder mystery Club Mistero at Helmsley Arts Centre. Picture: Freya Chaston
Immersive murder mystery of the week: Silver Stage & Solent University present Club Mistero, Helmsley Arts Centre, Friday, 7.30pm
LOSE yourself inside the dazzling but dangerous Club Mistero in 1920s’ New York City, where a flighty barman, outspoken diva, secretive showgirl, neglected wife and an owner with eyes on every corner all become suspects when someone is, seemingly, nowhere to be found. Clutch your pearls, ol’ sport, murder is afoot.
In the heart of a speakeasy, surrounded by deception and secrets, a web of betrayal, revenge and power is spun, whereupon tensions rise as the line between friend and foe is blurred, but who will survive the night? Silver Stage’s Evelyn Foy, George Mclean, Niamh Boyle, Sofia Romano and Borna Vitlov will keep you guessing to the very end. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Alchemy Live! pay tribute to Dire Straits at Malton’s Milton Rooms on Friday
Tribute gig of the week: Alchemy Live!, Milton Rooms, Malton, Friday, 8pm
FORMED in 2020 by lifelong Dire Straits fans Martin Ledger and Neil Scott, Alchemy Live’s debut in York was delayed until May 13 2022 by the pandemic lockdowns. By January 2023, they were progressing to theatre shows.
Frontman Ledger says: “It has always been the ethos to concentrate on getting the music and sound right, rather than just putting on headbands and shiny jackets. Dire Straits themselves were always about the music first and we are fully committed to upholding that. Mark Knopfler has these little percussive flourishes in his playing, which are really difficult to re-create but without them it’s just not Knopfler.” Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.
Rick Astley: Opening the summer season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Let the seaside season begin: Rick Astley, TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Friday, gates open at 6pm
IN the wake of 2025’s number two album, Are We There Yet?, last November’s paperback edition of his autobiography, Never, and April’s Reflection arena tour, Newton-le-Willows crooner Rick Astley opens the 2026 season at Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
Now 60, Astley has enjoyed two chapters of success, kicking off with Never Gonna Give You Up topping the charts in 1987, leading to BRIT award success and further hits with Together Forever and Whenever You Need Somebody. After stepping away from the limelight, he marked his half-century by returning to the top spot with his comeback album, 50, and has never looked back, playing Glastonbury and the Royal Albert Hall and performing The Smiths’ songs with Blossoms and Frank Sinatra and swing classics at Henley Festival. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.
Director Courtney Brown in Pickering Musical Society’s Let’s Do It!, The Cole Porter Songbook
Musical kicks of the week: Pickering Musical Society in Let’s Do It!r, The Cole Porter Songbook, Kirk Theatre, Pickering, June 9 to 13, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
IN a sparkling showcase of wit, romance, sophisticated melodies and clever lyrics, Pickering Musical Society celebrates the joyous Cole Porter Songbook, performing beloved songs from Anything Goes, Kiss Me, Kate and High Society and such hits as You’re The Top and I Get A Kick Out Of You under the direction of Courtney Brown.
The Sarah Louise Ashworth School of Dance’s vibrant tap, jazz and contemporary routines combine stylish choreography, glamorous costumes and a tribute to the Great American Songbook. Box office: 01751 474833 or kirktheatre.co.uk.
Who’s who and what’s what at York Pride 2026 at Knavesmire
FESTIVALS full of Pride, ideas and comedy are the headline acts in Charles Hutchinson’s selection of culture in colourful bloom as May turns to June.
Putting the unity into community, love and equality: York Pride 2026, Knavesmire York, today, 11am to 7.30pm
THE 90-munite York Pride parade sets off from Parliament Street to Knavesmire at 12 noon for a full day of Pride, protest, visibility, music, cabaret, family entertainment and community celebration.
The main stage line-up features Nadine Coyle, Joe McElderry, Urban Cookie Collective, Nicki French, Michael Marouli, Roxanne Cooper, Sweet Like Sabrina, Heavenly Bodies, Jordan Smart, DJ Rory Hoy and York Stage’s cast of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. For full festival details, go to: yorkpride.org.uk. Entry is free.
Alexander McCall Smith: Discussing his books at York Festival of Ideas on June 7 at 6.30pm in Room PZA/103 in the Piazza Building, Campus East, University of York. Picture: Alexander McCall Smith Portraits
Festival of the fortnight: York Festival of Ideas, Place & Space, today until June 12
YORK Festival of Ideas 2026 explores Place and Space in more than 200 mostly free in-person and online events designed to educate, entertain and inspire.
Led by the University of York, the event features world-class speakers (such as Nicola Sturgeon, Clive Myrie, Dame Kelly Holmes, Alexander McCall Smith, Sally Wainwright and Sian Williams), performances, exhibitions, tours, family-friendly activities, a Michael Morpurgo celebration day and much more, with topics ranging from archaeology to art, history to health, politics to psychology, football to Manchester’s Music Soul. For the full programme, go to: yorkfestivalofideas.com.
Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Hosting the finale to Pocklington Arts Centre one-day Comedy Festival today
Comedy event of the week: Pocklington Comedy Festival, today, from 1pm
POCKLINGTON Arts Centre’s Comedy Festival opens with Seeta Wrightson’s work-in-progress (WIP) Fringe Preview of Middling at 1pm, followed by Out Of The Box at 2pm and Brennan Reece’s WIP Fringe Preview of New Jokes at 2.45pm.
Marcel Lucont presents Les Enfants Terribles – A Game Show For Awful Children at 4pm. Then come Tom Neenan’s WIP Fringe Preview at 4.30pm; Sarah Roberts’ WIP Fringe Preview at 6.15pm and the Mixed Bill finale at 8pm, bringing together Lou Wall, Marcel Lucont, Tal Davies, Pravanya Pillay and Raj Poojara, hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLean. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.
“You sit here,” says Pierre Novellie, who will be standing over there at Theatre@41, Monkgate
Novellie idea of the week: Pierre Novellie, You Sit Here, I’ll Stand There, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, today, 5pm, tickets available, and 8pm, sold out
IT’S time for Pierre Novellie to do stand-up! It’s time for you to watch! “Why not just embrace that, for God’s sake?” he ask on his return to Theatre@41, Monkgate. “All earthly glories fade!
Novellie is co-host of the Frank Skinner, Budpod and Button Boys podcasts and has been seen and heard on World’s Most Dangerous Roads (Dave), The Mash Report (BBC2), Stand Up Central (Comedy Central), The Now Show and The News Quiz (BBC Radio 4). Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
The ELO Experience: Celebrating 50 years of Jeff Lynne songs at York Barbican
Tribute gig of the week: The ELO Experience, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm
IN 2025 Jeff Lynne’s ELO performed their last live shows on the Over & Out Tour. Now tribute act The ELO Experience are mounting their own 20th anniversary tour with a set of greatest hits and album gems spanning more than 50 years of Lynne’s music.
Between 1972 and 1986, ELO achieved more combined UK and US Top 40 hits than any other band, including 10538 Overture, Evil Woman, Living Thing, The Diary Of Horace Wimp, Don’t Bring Me Down and Mr Blue Sky. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
The book cover artwork for Fiona Mozley’s new novel, Awake Awake
Book event of the week: An Evening with Fiona Mozley, Awake, Awake, Waterstones, Coney Street, York, June 4, 7pm
“WHAT if you can no longer trust your memories,” asks York author Fiona Mozley in her third novel, Awake Awake, published on June 4 by John Murray.
Booker-Shortlisted for her debut Elmet, and now resident in Edinburgh, Fiona returns to her home roots to discuss her new meditation on memory, loss and moral courage in a York-located story that revolves around a woman haunted by vivid memories of things she suspects never could have happened.
Her hour-long talk will be followed by a Q&A between Fiona and the audience and a book-signing session will be held afterwards. Tickets: £6, Waterstones Plus Card members £5, at https://www.waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-fiona-mozley-at-waterstones-york/york.
Molly Whitehouse and Dan Poppitt in rehearsal for Black Sheep Theatre Productions’ premiere of Love At First Bite
Premiere of the week: Black Sheep Theatre Productions in Love At First Bite, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, June 4 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Saturday matinee
JOSH Woodgate directs Dan Poppitt and Molly Whitehouse’s seductive new work Love At First Bite, wherein dating can be hell, but what if one of them were a creature of the night?” What happens when Alan and Minnie meet at a speed-dating night? A spark flickers. Dates follow. Laughter lingers.
“Yet beneath the rhythms of a familiar rom-com, something waits in the dark,” say Poppitt and Whitehouse, who play the lovers in York company Black Sheep’s premiere. “One of them is a vampire – but the secret shifts. Each night, the actors trade fangs and the audience is left to wonder who is hunter, who is prey.” Blending sharp-fanged wit with a brush of gothic shadow, their play toys with romance, rewrites folklore and invites audiences to consider what it means to love…and to hunger! Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Charlotte Hanna-Williams, left, Jamie-Rose Monk, Seán Carey, Holly Sumpton and Christian Andrews in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical. Picture: Matt Crockett
Musical of the week: SplitLip in Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Grand Opera House, York, June 2 to 6, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees
THE year is 1943 and we are losing the war but, luckily, we can gamble all our futures on a stolen corpse. Singin’ In The Rain meets Strangers On A Train in SplitLip’s Operation Mincemeat, the Olivier and Tony award-winning musical take on the unbelievable true story of the twisted secret mission that won us the Second World War.
Bursting at the seams with chaos beyond invention, the question is: how did a dead body, a fake love letter and MI5 operative Ian Fleming come together to wrong-foot Hitler? Let Christian Andrews, Holly Sumpton, Seán Carey, Charlotte Hanna-Williams and latest recruit Jamie-Rose Monk tell the tale. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Sofia Romano in Silver Stage’s murder mystery Club Mistero, on tour at Helmsley Arts Centre
Immersive murder mystery of the week: Silver Stage & Solent University presents Club Mistero, Helmsley Arts Centre, June 5, 7.30pm
LOSE yourself inside the dazzling but dangerous Club Mistero in 1920s’ New York City, where a flighty barman, outspoken diva, secretive showgirl, neglected wife and an owner with eyes on every corner all become suspects when someone is, seemingly, nowhere to be found. Clutch your pearls, ol’ sport, murder is afoot.
In the heart of a speakeasy, surrounded by deception and secrets, a web of betrayal, revenge and power is spun, whereupon tensions rise as the line between friend and foe is blurred, but who will survive the night? Silver Stage’s Evelyn Foy, George Mclean, Niamh Boyle, Sofia Romano and Borna Vitlov will keep you guessing to the very end. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
Navigators Art’s poster for On Location, on show at City Screen Picturehouse from June 7
Exhibition launch of the week: Navigators Art presents On Location, York Festival of Ideas, City Screen Picturehouse, York, June 7 to July 3, from 10.30am each day
ON Location, a free art exhibition of some of York’s finest visual artists, explores ideas of place and space, venturing widely beyond conventional landscapes. Open every day in the cafe and upstairs gallery from 10.30am, the show will be launched officially on June 8 from 6pm to 8.30pm in the gallery (free admission, no booking required, all welcome).
The Gold brick road leads to York Barbican for Shalamar on their 50th anniversary tour
Gig announcement of the week: Shalamar, The Gold Tour, Celebrating 50 Years, York Barbican, July 2, 7.30pm
FORMED in Los Angeles in 1976, Shalamar became a defining force in late-1970s and 1980s’ R&B, funk and dance music with 18 UK Top 75 hits, 11 Top 40 singles, four Top Ten hits and more than 25 million records sold worldwide.
Body-popping Jeffrey Daniel and Howard Hewett, from the classic 1982 line-up, are joined by Carolyn Griffey, the female lead vocalist since 2001, to perform A Night To Remember, Take That To The Bank, The Second Time Around, Make That Move, Dead Giveaway, There It Is, Friends and Dancin’ In The Sheets et al. Special guest will be Gwen Dickey, The Voice of Rose Royce. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
York Opera cast members for Die Fledermaus: back row, David Hartley, Olivia Turner and Stephanie Wong; front row, John Soper and Alexandra Mather. Picture: John Saunders
Birds of the week: Matt Sewell exhibition for RARE Collective at WET, Micklegate, York, from June 4 for six week
SHROPSHIRE artist, illustrator and author Matt Sewelll is the latest street art luminary to be showcased in RARE Collective’s collaboration with WET wine bar, in Micklegate, York, in aid of SASH (Safe and Sound Homes), the York youth homelessness charity.
“We’re really chuffed to have Matt return to York,” says RARE Collective exhibition organiser Sharon McDonagh. “If you came to the Vandalfest charity street art show last year, you would have seen his cracking bird mural on Floor 3 of the big disused office block in Low Ousegate.
“The exhibition opens on Thursday, June 4 at 5pm, but please note there is no preview party. Matt’s fabulous Riso prints will be on show and you can buy directly from the RARE online shop from Friday, June 5. A percentage of all sales will go to @sashyorks.”
Artist Matt Sewell
Sewell is an avid ornithologist, contributing regularly to the Caught By The River website and publishing the books Our Garden Birds, Our Songbirds, Our Woodland Birds, Owls, Penguins and A Charm Of Goldfinches And Other Collective Nouns.
He has illustrated for the Guardian, Barbour, V&A Museums, BBC, National Trust, Greenpeace, Big Issue and Levi’s and painted walls for Helly Hansen, Puma and the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds). He has exhibited in Great Britain, New York, old York, Tokyo and Paris.
Under RARE Collective’s partnership with WET, artists and photographers exhibit their work in a six-week solo show. As well as at WET, work can be bought online both during and after the exhibition run at rarecollective.co.uk.
Sewell is also a musician, performing as Sewell &The Gong with Chris Tate and as the deep-cut compiler of the compilation series A Crushing Glow.
In Focus: York Opera in Die Fledermaus, York Theatre Royal, June 3 to 6, 7.30pm Wednesday to Friday; 4pm, Saturday
YORK Opera is marking not one but two milestones with John Soper and Elizabeth Watson’s production of Die Fledermaus next week.
This year is the company’s 60th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of its first appearance at York Theatre Royal: hence the summer production choice of Johann Strauss II’s party opera, wherein lavish host Prince Orlofsky seeks fresh amusement at his New Year’s Eve party. What better place for disguises, deception and revenge served with chilled champagne?
On an earlier occasion, Doctor Falke had been humiliated by his old friend Herr Eisenstein, who persuaded him to dress for a party as a bat [Die Fledermaus]. After much amusement and ridicule, eventually he was abandoned to wander the streets of Vienna.
Falke plots his revenge with a cocktail of hidden secrets, mistaken identities and a splash or two of champagne that leads to a comedy of errors that soon takes flight. Will the bat be revenged?
For an opera deemed the ideal introduction for those new to the genre, the cast includes an exciting mix of singers new to the group and familiar faces, singing an opera full of memorable tunes and comic moments in English.
Alexandra Mather and Olivia Turner will share the role of Rosalinda; likewise, Stephanie Wong and LaLa Marais both will play Adele, after the decision to double cast the lead roles was made in response to the high calibre of talent displayed at the auditions.
The cast also features Molly Raine (Orlofsky); India Ashberry (Ida); Hamish Brown (Eisenstein); Karl Reiff (Alfredo); Ian Thomson-Smith (Falke); Mark Simmonds (Frank); Alex Holland (Dr Blind);Helen Tomlinson (Melanie); Katie Cole (Faustine) and Lilah Payton (Felicity).
Directors Soper and Watson say: “Prince Orlofsky states ‘when you have seen one opera, you have seen them all’. This is definitely not the case with a York Opera production. Our Die Fledermaus bubbles with lively choruses, memorable music and revenge – served chilled – just like flowing champagne.”
They are joined in the production team by conductor Edward Venn. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
In Focus too: National Centre for Early Music presents Olivia Chaney, Sons Of Art: Purcell Revisited, York Festival of Ideas, NCEM, York, June 5, 7.30pm
Olivia Chaney
OLIVIA Chaney, York musician, Grammy nominee and haunting voice of Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights”, plays a sold-out concert for York Festival of Ideas tonight.
Olivia’s deep connection to the music of Henry Purcell runs throughout her life. Now comes Sons Of Art,her latest performance and album project highlighting the deep affinities between the Baroque composer and the modern singer-songwriter: a shared immediacy, a delight in word-setting and a fearless mix of high art and street culture.
For Olivia, this is not classical crossover but a radical reclamation – a conversation across centuries that feels startlingly fresh. Tonight’s show is part of a tour heralding the upcoming Purcell album, as this modern English songwriter, now 44, reimagines Purcell’s works in a refreshingly natural and contemporary way, alongside original compositions and a chamber ensemble.
“It’s kind of a home show, as I’ve lived in York for seven years,” says Olivia. “My now husband [George Younge] was a lecturer in medieval history at the university, but he’s quit to be a furniture designer and maker, with his workshop in Escrick, though we may be moving from York.
“For this concert, I’ve been corresponding with Delma (NCEM director Delma Tomlin] and thought how nice it would be to combine with the York Festival of Ideas.
“I’ve played a few shows in York before, but usually at the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall [at the University of York].”
Olivia, however, also took part in a poignant concert on February 28 at the NCEM, where Eliza Carthy and Special Guests performed The Songs of Martin Carthy in celebration of the Robin Hood’s Bay folk titan’s 60-year legacy.
“It was a really emotional night, and I did something – I wept,” she recalls. “We’d just done The Life & Songs of Martin Carthy, a huge event at EartH Theatre, in Hackney, in September put on with Jon Wilks, with all the great and good of the folk world, Maddy Prior, Billy Bragg, Peggy Seeger, Martin Simpson, Eliza, Martin, and video contributions by Paul Weller, Van Dyke Parks and Bob Dylan. That one was particularly moving, Dylan saying Martin was a huge influence on him.”
Since then, Olivia had been to America to record her next album. “I came home, jumped in the shower and headed to the NCEM to pay tribute to Martin. I hadn’t expected him to be there [given his health], but then I saw him shuffling out of the green room to watch the concert. It was such a moving night.”
Now, Sons Of Art finds Olivia renewing her creative partnership with New York producer-pianist Thomas Bartlett. “The first album I made with him was called Shelter,” she says. “I’d written it on the North York Moors at Hawnby – before I lived in Yorkshire – when I’d been touring heavily in America and wanted to get away from everything. I had a Bechstein piano that my friends helped me transport there, then I had this surreal experience of writing songs in this bucolic setting and then recording them in mid-Manhattan!”
The release of next album Circus Of Desire, was delayed by Covid’s intervention, being held back until 2024. In the hiatus, her Six French Songs EP emerged in 2023.
“My third album with Thomas [the aforementioned Sons Of Art] will come out next year, and this season’s shows are a signposting of the start of the project: one that I’ve wanted to do for more than a decade, revisiting Purcell.”
Meanwhile, Olivia’s profile has been heightened by the presence of her stark, haunting rendition of the 19th century traditional folk ballad Dark Eyed Sailor in a pivotal scene in Emerald Fennell’s outre film “Wuthering Heights”.
“In a sense, I can’t answer completely how it came about in that the director ‘stumbled across the song’, like how after I made Six French Songs, French director Andre Techine – who had Catherine DeNeuve in all his films – found my song Auprès de ma Blonde, one of the first things I put on YouTube, which I then re-recorded for him.” she says. “The film was premiered at Cannes but never got taken up, so I’ve never seen it.”
Back to Emerald… “Having seen other movies by both Andre and Emerald, I think they were each looking for music to drive their narrative, so maybe that’s why Emerld settled on Dark Eyed Sailor, which she decided would be in “Wuthering Heights” right from the beginning.”
What’s more, Emerald was insistent on using the version she had first heard, rather than a new recording. Namely, Olivia’s recording to harmonium accompaniment for BBC Radio 2’s The Folk Show, made on May 22 2013. “There’s something about the rawness of radio sessions, and that was my first ever live session for Mark Radcliffe’s show,” she says.
“I remember painting my nails on the way to the studio, and I guess that session was the beginning of me finding my sound, delving back into folk music.
“In a way it’s a surprise that Emerald hasn’t chosen something from my albums, but she ended up using the song twice, once when Cathy realises she has married the wrong man, and then later an instrumental version, orchestrating out my harmonium.”
How did Olivia react when she attended the premiere. “What was a big surprise was that I thought it might be a little bit imperceptible, or be swamped by all the other music [by Charli xcx], but I was struck by how spare it was, so that you could hardly hear my harmonium,” she says.
“Emily Brontë’s novel is in my top ten, and I thought, ‘how can they use this happy song?’, but Emerald uses it so cleverly, where it’s seven years since Heathcliff went away and has now returned, so the theme is fidelity, as so many songs about sailors and soldiers are.”
Olivia reckons Fennel’s previous work, Saltburn, is superior. ““Wuthering Heights” is so ambitious, so hard to pull off, but where it maybe fails is in its humour,” she says. “But then there is no humour in my work. I’m not into humour in my art. I like humour but I want to be moved by art.”
Olivia Chaney, Sons Of Art: Purcell Revisited, National Centre for Early Music, Walmgate, York, June 5, 7.30pm. SOLD OUT.
Olivia Chaney: back story
BORN in Florence to a writer and painter-turned-academic, Olivia grew up listening to everything from Prince to Joni Mitchell to Henry Purcell.
This eclectic mix of influences sparked a passion for song-writing that she nurtured at Chetham’s School of Music and The Royal Academy.
After showcasing at SXSW and a stint as lead singer for electronica outfit Zero 7, she signed with Nonesuch, leading to collaborations with Kronos Quartet and a Grammy nomination for Offa Rex, The Queen Of Hearts, a collection of Fairport Convention-era classics made with Portland, Oregon band The Decemberists in 2017.
Olivia’s first solo album, 2015’s The Longest River, produced by Leo Abrahams, was followed by 2018’s Shelter, recorded in New York City with producer-pianist Thomas Bartlett. Both explored inherited trauma, the clash of tradition and modernity and the paradoxes of love.
In 2023 came Six French Songs, her spontaneous set ofFrench chanson, from medieval ballad to 1960s’ pop, made over two summer evenings at Reservoir Studios with Bartlett and violinist Sam Amidon.
The book cover for Tim Murgatroyd’s novel The Electric. Illustration by South Bank architectural artist Elliot Harrison, alias @york.360, who says. “My first book cover, so I’m really pleased it worked out well and totally suited my illustrative style that also matches my other York cinema prints. It was great working with Tim and I wish him success launching this title”
YORK author Tim Murgatroyd is launching his latest novel, The Electric, in a series of events spread over October, starting this evening.
Published by York independent publishers Stairwell Books, this work of historical fiction depicts a young pilot returning from war. Can music, cinema, love – and a curious cat – heal his wounds?
“Each event is very different, with a special focus on the glamorous, lost world of silent cinema,” says Tim, whose writing spans historical novels, a dystopian trilogy and a poetry series, as well as being a former columnist for The Press, York.
Combining romance, tragedy and offbeat comedy, The Electric is set in 1919 when young pilot David Young returns from the First World War, scarred physically and mentally.
A gifted concert violinist, he drifts into a humble job accompanying silent movies at The Electric, a fleapit cinema in provincial York, joining a diverse cast of misfits, each with secrets and tragedies of their own.
A detail from Elliot Harrison’s cover illustration for Tim Murgatroyd’s historical novel The Electric
“These strangers, and a chance meeting, hold the key to regaining his lost hopes as the world of silent cinema meets the glamour of the Downton era in Britain’s most popular tourist city,” reads the publicity blurb.
As part of The Big City Read 2022 collection, Tim’s book will be the subject of an entertaining hour of readings, wine and discussions at York Explore Library and Archive, in Library Square, Museum Street, this evening from 6pm
Tim will explore bringing silent cinema back to life and love, with assistance from award-winning poet Ian Parks. Afterwards, Tim will be hosting drinks in the Eagle & Child on High Petergate.
Tickets are available on the door or by pre-booking at: eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-the-electric-with-tim-murgatroyd-tickets-403289819707?aff=odcleoeventsincollection&keep_tld=1. A Pay What You Can policy offers four options: £0, £2.50, £5 or £7.50.
Pianist Neil Brand: Improvising his piano accompaniment to The Phantom Of The Opera at City Screen Picturehouse on October 28. Picture: Julie Edwards.
On October 26, in An Evening With Tim Murgatroyd at 7pm at Waterstones, in Coney Street, the focus will be on Ghost Cinemas of York: Bringing silent cinemas back to life.
Prepare for surprising facts and stories about the characters and picture palaces of York that brought Hollywood glamour to a city recovering from war. Through images, music and film clips, Tim will show how the ghost cinemas of York haunt us still, and how silent cinema was never really silent at all, as he explores those lost cinemas and their legacy.
In addition, he will explain how he wrote The Electric in an evening led by Dr Rob O’Connor, from York St John University, in association with York Literature Festival.
Tickets are on sale at Waterstones, Coney Street, York or at waterstones.com/events/an-evening-with-tim-murgatroyd/york. The £5 admission qualifies buyers for a 20 per cent discount on the book price.
Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin in Rupert Julian’s 152-minute silent classic The Phantom Of The Opera, showing at City ScreenPicturehouse later this month
The book launch trilogy will culminate in a night of romance, horror and suspense at a gala performance of the silent classic The Phantom Of The Opera (PG), with live improvised piano accompaniment from Neil Brand, at City Screen Picturehouse, Coney Street, on October 28 at 6pm.
Lon Chaney, “the man of a thousand faces”, gives his most famous performance in this first version of the oft-filmed tale, drawn from Gaston Leroux’s novel. Chaney’s Phantom haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera, where he falls in love with the voice of a young opera singer (Mary Philbin). Infatuated, he kidnaps her, dragging her to the depths below, where she will sing only for him.
Directed by Rupert Julian, this lavish 1925 production launched the Hollywood Gothic style, one that can be appreciated all the more in the British Film Institute (BFI) Photoplay restoration that carefully reinstates the film’s dramatic colour techniques.
The screening will be preceded by a short Q & A with pianist and broadcaster Neil Brand and author Tim Murgatroyd about music in the silent cinema and its impact on audiences. Please note, a British Sign Language signer will be on hand at the Q & A; the BSL accessible viewing seating will be on the left-hand side of the auditorium.
Tickets can be booked at: picturehouses.com/movie-details/000/HO00012085/the-phantom-of-the-opera-1925-with-neil-brand?date=2022-10-28&cinema=018
Tim Murgatroyd: Author of The Electric
The author
TIM Murgatroyd was brought up in Yorkshire. He read English at Hertford College, Oxford University, and now lives with his family in York. He is the author of several novels of historical fiction, a poetry series and a trilogy of dystopian novels.
The verdict on The Electric
“AN evocative, almost poetic, love letter to 1920s’ York and the silent movie era. Poignant, charming and wryly funny, with a cast of beautifully drawn and unforgettable characters. Not to be missed.” Emma Haughton, author of The Dark.
“Fascinating…the ending was a lovely surprise – romantic but in a completely unexpected way.” Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures.
Did you know?
THE Electric Theatre, on the north-east side of Fossgate, was the first purpose-built cinema in York, opening in 1911 and later being renamed the Scala, closing in 1957. Converted into a furnishings store, Macdonalds, that shut in early 2016. Since 2017, it has housed the Cosy Club York bar and restaurant.
