Flaming Nora

If you know a young person thinking of applying to  Sunderland University to study Creative Writing this year... ...and they're from Sunderland and the first in their family to attend University, please encourage them to apply for this.  It's the  Glenda Young Creative Writing Award , with the University of Sunderland.    All details here ___ Glenda Young Twitter: @Flaming_Nora Facebook: GlendaYoungAuthor Website: GlendaYoungBooks.com

This month is Local History Month and there are heritage and history events going on all over the country. If you're in Sunderland, the booklet with all events is here. We're only ten days into the month of May as I write this but already I've been on three events with another to follow later this month. Elephant Tea Rooms, Sunderland High Street I've been on a guided walk around Sunderland’s Historic High Streets to discover the fascinating history of Fawcett Street and High Street West, the principal shopping streets during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the historic buildings that remain today. This was followed by a Sunday stroll along the river Wear looking at Bygone Transport and Industry. It was a brilliant riverside walk setting off from Cox Green and learning more about local sites like the wonderfully named Girdle Cake cottage and the Victoria Viaduct whilst keeping a keen eye out for wildlife like otter and kingfisher. And on Wednesday thi...

May is Local History Month and I've been out and about this afternoon on a vintage bus. And I know I'm getting old when a 'vintage' bus is one that I remember from my youth. Off we went - and yes, I sat on the top deck at the front.  The bus tour was to Sunderland's Places of Worship.  As someone who only ever goes to church for hatches, matches and dispatches, having a neb inside some of Sunderland's churches and finding out more about them was intriguing indeed. Our first stop was St. George's United Reform Church on Stockton Road.  It was big, as churches usually are. It had an organ, as many do. There were pews, stained glass. So far, so usual, so churchy.  But then we were told about its Sunderland roots. The shipyard owners who bought the land and built the church. The stained glass windows dedicated to those owners with names like Steels and Bartrams. And the contempory glass art work dedicated to the life of Sunderland woman Margaret Drybru...

Sunderland Literature and Creative Writing Festival 2016 drew to a close last night. I'm going to miss it, a lot. This year is the first that there's been a Creative Writing side to the Sunderland Literature festival and I made the most of every single event that I could.  These were as follows: I met and chatted to local author Amanda Revell-Walton. Under the name Nancy Revell she's been given a six book deal to write about women who worked in the Sunderland shipyards during WW2. I bought her book, which she was there to talk about and we had a long chat about the soap I'm writing for The People's Friend magazine. Another local author and singer-songwriter Celia Bryce held a creative writing session . There were only three of us who turned up for this, so it was very intense, personal and we all learned a great deal.  I was really chuffed when Celia told me my writing had a poetic quality afer I read out a piece I'd written in the session. I walked ...

There's a new book published today, Monday October 31st.  It's a book called Wear'd Tales and it's a collection of supernatural stories about Sunderland based on myths and tales from the past. I have a short story included in this book. My story is based on the myth of The Ghostly Solider of Ryhope Village Green .  As I was born and bred and Ryhope this seemed the best tale for me to take and make a story out of. You can buy it from Amazon here. Find out more about my books. Click on the image below : I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

As part of this year's Heritage Open Days, we visited the River Wear Commisioner's building, in Sunderland. It's a building that I've wanted to have a look around in for a very long time. And today was the day. The chap who showed us around the building, sadly, wasn't a tour guide as such and hadn't been briefed on what to say about the history, the context or the importance of the building. The River Wear Commissioners played a vital role in Sunderland's economic development. They transformed the Wear into a navigable river and supplied the infrastructure that allowed ship-building and commerce to thrive.  The building is a little-known gem, a monument to the River Wear Commissioners with the image of a sextant emblazoned above the doorway amid decorative mouldings. And the board room, well, can you imagine the decisions that were made in that room, around that table? Even the ladies loos were worth a visit although I wonder how many women w...

To the Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days event for the second time this week.  Earlier we had visited the Mayor's chamber at the local council - you can read about that here and see some pictures too.  This time it was a vintage bus pub crawl around heritage pubs of Sunderland that we joined.  Well, as you can see from the above picture, the vintage bus didn't arrive, unless the vintage was circa 2014. A slight disappointment but nothing that would spoil the afternoon. Dun Cow exterior Dun Cow interior Pub 1 - The Dun Cow (1901) After lunch in The Dun Cow, we had a look around upstairs with our guide Ron from the Sunderland Antiquarian Society. There was a good group of approx 30 of us on the tour, a friendly mix of men and women and we were off to a good start.  Rightly listed in CAMRA's good beer guide. Mountain Daisy exterior Mountain Daisy interior Pub 2 - The Mountain Daisy (1901) A proper drinking palace, built for working men, and de...

Today I went on a walking tour of Sunderland's East End. It's where Sunderland first started, down by the docks, the muck and the water, the river and the ships.  There are still a lot of old buildings down there and it's definitely worth a look around.  The walk was organised as part of Local History Month in Sunderland.  It started at Holy Trinity Church, an amazing old church full of curiosities: This plaque commemorates the birthplace of Sunderland hero Jack Crawford.  It's from his heroic actions at the Battle of Camperdown that the term 'nail your colours to the mast' originates.  Read all about it here.  Some wonderfully camp and kitsch artwork on the walls of the church.  And more... This thrills me enormously. Not just the antiquity and symmetry of the switches in the church, but the fact that they all have their original labels on them. Faces watch you at every turn in the church... ...making sure that you don't nick what...