My summer reading list & talking journalism to PRs (trigger alert)
Attend the Northern Literary Festival, Author scoops outstanding contribution award & Enter the Media Freedom Awards
My dear wordsmiths,
To my new subscribers - hello and thanks! You can expect a bloggish, oversharing, writing and journalism diary with added news and opportunities written from the heart of the northern English countryside. I’m Nicola, a senior editor working across a regional news organisation by day - and querying writer by night. Plus, I do a little radio presenting at the weekends..
Just in case..
I’ve triggered many people talking about the unfortunate size of my work (journalism) email inbox, including my own brother and, this week, a whole posse of PRs during a panel ‘Meet the media’ event alongside City AM’s Jon Robinson for PRCA North West at BBC’s Quay House (Media City, Salford). During this chat I pulled out a number of my head - 26,000 - the approx number of unread emails in my inbox.
I’m ashamed to say that number (read and unread) is inaccurate as reality is far, far, worse (see below pic, taken today). I’m guilty of that journalistic trait, honed by years of legal awareness and building of contacts, of keeping everything because I might need it some day. It’s the modern journalistic equivalent of having a box room stashed floor to ceiling with shorthand notepads. In case you are wondering, I do have some of those as well.
Having been with same company for ahem, many, years - my inbox is now groaning and luckily has large capacity, though admittedly I do search and remove large files sporadically. I use my inbox as a searchable database daily so it’s extremely useful - but worrying thing is I DO delete nonsense emails every day which details the volume of incoming pitches. But yes, I am Type B, you’ll be shocked to know ;-)
Anyway, a very enjoyable time was spent getting out from behind my desk and meeting real people this week including the whistle-stop day meeting colleagues in central Manchester to talk content and admiring the view from National World’s Manchester base at City Tower (floor 24). The chaotic Piccadilly Gardens in the central city is looking a whole lot better - particularly with the sunshine. Then I hopped on a tram to Salford for the evening ‘Meet the Media’ event. The quays were looking stunning and I said hi to Pudsey and the Coronation Street set before heading into BBC’s Quay House for the event. Thanks to the PRCA for the invite to speak - there’s loads of chatter about it on LinkedIn, if you are interested.
My summer reading list
(some of it, in no particular order)
FICTION
Men in Love by Irvine Welsh (the new Trainspotting novel out July 24)
This is due out in hardback on Thursday July 24 and is sure to be swooped upon - I’ve heard good things by those who have already landed a copy. Blurb: Choose life. Choose love? The Trainspotting crew fall for rave and romance in the blazing new novel from the No.1 bestseller. It is the late 1980s, the closing years of Thatcher’s Britain. For the Trainspotting crew, a new era is about to begin – a time for hope, for love, for raving. Leaving heroin behind and separated after a drug deal gone wrong, Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie each want to feel alive. They fill their days with sex and romance and trying to get ahead; they follow the call of the dance floor, with its promise of joy and redemption.
This time next week by Milly Johnson (out now on Kindle, July 11 in hardback and paperback - tomorrow)
Milly says (and I’m still giggling at this): “This story was borne out of a few things that were circulating in my brain at the time. Firstly: watching a sprightly celeb on the TV (not Davina) telling us how we should be feeling through the menopause and how the products she endorses really helped her (no shit Sherlock) and so they’d help all ordinary women, and I thought ‘She couldn’t spot an ordinary woman if one slapped her in the face’ and I would have been close to that if I’d been within breathing space. “Read more on Milly’s website
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (been out for ages)
Sometimes you have a book on your reading list that has somehow escaped you and this by Sally Rooney, the author of the standout Normal People, is on mine.
Promo by Faber: ‘Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women – his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.’ Read more via Faber and Faber here.
NON-FICTION
Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do About It by Matthew Facciani, a Post Doctoral Researcher at the University of Notre Dame.
A subject close to our hearts in journalism
Matthew says: ‘I started writing Misguided about five years ago during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. My goal was to help us all better understand why smart, well-meaning people — including ourselves — can believe and share false information, and what we can do about it. In an age where misinformation seems to be everywhere, I wanted to provide a grounded, research-based, and empathetic guide for navigating our chaotic information environment. Over the years, I’ve incorporated a wealth of cutting-edge research from misinformation scholars, along with insights from my own work in the field.”
News, events and opportunities
BOOKS: The Northern Literary Festival (July 19)
A whole day packed with bookish events, working closely with publishers, agents, and authors. There will be panels, workshops, and activities throughout the day and stalls to browse at the University of Central Lancashire’s Harrington building on Saturday July 19. The aim of the festival is to nurture a vibrant literary community in the North West with a goal of inspiring the next generation of storytellers. It includes: Young adults (NYALitFest - The Northern Young Adult Literary Festival), Kids (KIDSLitFest - Kids Literary Festival events) and Adults (LitFest - Literary Festival) There will be different panels, workshops and activities throughout the day and stalls to engage with. Register for general admission to access the venue and then register for panels. General admission is £3.
BOOKS: Author Elly Griffiths to accept outstanding contribution award
Bestselling novelist Elly Griffiths will be awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her ‘remarkable’ crime fiction writing career and ‘unwavering commitment to the genre’. Elly Griffiths is the author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries; the Brighton Mysteries, the Detective Harbinder Kaur series and an exhilarating new series featuring time-travelling detective Ali Dawson. Her intricately plotted novels told with wry humour and featuring engaging characters have sold over 5 million copies worldwide, winning her fans across the globe.
Griffiths, who has been shortlisted an impressive seven times for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year, was highly commended in 2023 for The Locked Room and served as Festival Programming Chair in 2017. She is shortlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2025 for The Last Word (Quercus Books.) The award will be presented at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the world’s most prestigious celebration of crime fiction and thriller writing, on Thursday 17th July.
The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival takes place 17-20 July in Harrogate with headliners including Lee and Andrew Child, Steph McGovern, Attica Locke, Kate Atkinson, Paula Hawkins, Kate Mosse, Val McDermid, Mark Billingham and Irvine Welsh. This year’s guest curator is Slow Horses author Mick Herron. See Harrogate International Festivals for more details.
JOURNALISM: The Media Freedom awards (Society of Editors)
Editors, news leaders and journalists have just four weeks left to enter the Media Freedom Awards 2025 and help champion excellence in campaigning journalism and the public's right to know. Now in their fourth year, the awards are open to all platforms across the breadth of the UK's diverse news industry and this year’s event will once again see some of the biggest names in the industry come together for a high-profile ceremony at the iconic Globe Theatre in London on Wednesday 12 November 2025. You can enter HERE:
Have a fantastic weekend! N