THE MINER AND THE VISITOR

Walter Brierley of Waingroves, the author of Means Test Man (1935), was for a time spoken of in the literary company of Walter Greenwood who wrote Love on the Dole and George Orwell, who published The Road to Wigan Pier in the same year as Walter’s Sandwichman (1937). But Walter could not make literature pay, and after 1940 he became silent.

As things ended for Walter, a poet arrived in Derby via Worksop – he was Kenneth Hopkins. And while Kenneth spent the days at Normanton Barracks he spent his spare time publishing poetry. Long after the war when Kenneth turned to writing thrillers he send his characters back to Derby.

In this talk we will discover the lives of two writers and place them in the county and beyond. Derbyshire – who knew there had been so much literature in it?

This is a free event although you will need to book…