Norman Nicholson Society

Welcome

Welcome to the website of the Norman Nicholson Society. The site aims to provide information about Nicholson and his work and encourage the study and enjoyment of this remarkable man's writings. Here you will also find information about the NN Society which holds regular events and publishes the newsletter Comet. The Society is based in Millom, on the banks of the River Duddon and in the shadow of Black Combe, and has a worldwide membership.

Membership

New members of the Norman Nicholson Society are warmly welcomed. Membership fees are £15 per annum or £20 for a couple living at the same address, and £6 youth membership (up to age 25). Check out benefits of membership here, including how to access the Members' exclusive area of this website. Please contact us at nns.membership@gmail.com

Norman Nicholson

Norman Nicholson was born in Millom, Cumbria, in 1914 and lived there until his death in 1987 with the exception of two years in his late teens when he was sent to a sanatorium in Hampshire to recover from tuberculosis - an event which shaped his subsequent life. His writing career lasted from 1930 until his death and embraced plays, poetry, novels, criticism and essays. He is best known for his poetry and was awarded the Queen's Medal for Poetry in 1977 and the OBE in 1981.

Read an appreciation of Norman Nicholson by Fran Baker, former archivist at the John Rylands University of Manchester Library, HERE.

Most frequently-asked question: Where can I get hold of Nicholson's work? The Greetings shop, 26 Lapstone Road, Millom LA18 4BU, has a range of Nicholson books in stock. Or try Faber & Faber HERE or Amazon HERE, or click HERE for links to Nicholson's poems online.

Download our walking trails app! Android users click HERE for Google Play. iPhone users click HERE for the Apple Store.

LATEST NEWS

Christmas lunch is back on the menu!

Our annual Christmas get-together is back! After last year's enforced break we are delighted to be returning to the Netherwood Hotel at Grange-over-Sands on Saturday December 18, for a festive lunch at 12.30 for 1pm. This is open to members of the Society and their partner/guest. Cost is £29.95 per person for a three-course meal plus tea/coffee/mince pies (excludes cost of drinks). Pay the hotel on the day. Places are limited so please reserve yours in advance by emailing normannicholsonsociety@gmail.com by noon on Monday December 13, and write 'Christmas' in the subject box. The menu is reproduced below - scroll down to find it.

See you there!

posted 21/10/21

Challenging responses to poetry of the 1940s

Norman Nicholson is highlighted as an example of the regionalist movement against Oxbridge/metropolitan dominance of literature in the 1940s,in a call for papers for a symposium on Apocalypse Poetry to be held next year. Nicholson is named in publicity for the two-part symposium which will be organised by Sheffield Hallam University and Huddersfield University, taking place on March 19 2022 at Sheffield Hallam, organised by Professor John Goodby, and on November 12 2022 at Huddersfield, organised by Dr Steve Ely. The call for papers appears below. Booking details and deadlines for proposals have yet to be published.

The conference arises from James Keery's ground-breaking Apocalypse anthology, which the organisers believe has the potential to challenge the dominant critical responses to the poetry of the 1940s - and perhaps provoke a reassessment of received accounts of the narrative of 20th century English-language poetry.

posted 14/10/21

I wonder, Duddon...

This event, originally scheduled for October 27, has been rearranged for November 3 to avoid a clash with an online celebration of Dorothy Wordsworth's 250th birthday, hosted by Wordsworth Grasmere. The celebration be an online event which we thoroughly recommend - details HERE.

posted 6/10/21

Comet - autumn edition

The autumn edition of Comet has been published and is available to members in the Members' Area of this website. If you're a member of the Society and haven't yet registered for access to this exclusive section, go to the Membership page for the details as to how to do so. Among the features in this latest Comet are Ken Cockburn's talk from our online festival this summer, the latest in Brian Whalley's series on the rocks of Cumbria, and an article by Jack Threlfall Hartley on his involvement with Nicholson's work and with the people and places of Iceland. And a lot more!

posted 1/10/21

'A profoundly political writer'

There's an excellent appreciation of Nicholson on the website of the Morning Star, written by Nick Matthews who has recently joined the Society. Nick's article also mentions his visit to the exhibition celebrating the Duddon Sonnets at Wordsworth Grasmere and how impressed he was with our own contribution to it. Read his piece HERE.

posted 27/9/21

Nicholson books for sale

A splendid selection of Nicholson books, many of them first editions and some of them signed, are available to purchase from Tony Pointer who has contacted us via this website. They are:

The Lakers (June 1956) £10
The Lakers (1972) £7
HG Wells (1950, 1st edition) £10
Portrait of the Lakes (1st edition) £20
Portrait of the Lakes (2nd edition) £5
Greater Lakeland (1969, 1st edition) £10
Greater Lakeland (1975 edition) £7
Man and Literature (1943, 1st edition) £!5
The Candy Floss Tree (1st edition) £15
William Cowper (1960, 1st edition) £5
The Old Man of the Mountains (1st edition) £15
Sea to the West (1st edition) £18
The Lake District, an anthology (1st edition) £15
The Green Shore (1st edition) best offer
Cumberland and Westmorland (1st edition) £15
Five Rivers (1st edition) £20
The Fire of the Lord (1st edition) £20
The Garden of the Innocent £30

To buy any of the above, or any queries, please contact Tony direct at wallenriggfarm@gmail.com

posted 16/9/21

'Fossils' performance available to watch until end of November

Jess Dandy. photo by Clare Park.

A new musical setting by Joel Rust of Nicholson’s poem ‘Fossils’, performed by contralto Jess Dandy at the Oxford Lieder Festival on October 8th, is available to watch on demand until the end of November in the festival’s Digital Concert Hall. For more information, visit oxfordlieder.co.uk. J

Joel Rust says of the piece: 'Fossils, our very distant cousins, remind us that there have been, and will be, more ways of living on this planet than we can possibly know. Nicholson’s poem treats these creatures with respect, admiration and warmth; I wanted my setting to do the same — and to reflect the gently undulating landscape unfolding around it'. Other works include songs by Vaughan Williams, Henry Purcell, Edvard Grieg, Arnold Bax, and a new commission by Cumbrian composer, Ella Jarman-Pinto.

The event, ‘A Cumbrian Idyll’, also features the best-selling author and Cumbrian shepherd James Rebanks and pianist Martin Roscoe.

updated 10/10/21

Festival 2021: perspectives on poets and poetry

The Society's second biennial two-day festival took place over the weekend and was a resounding success. Taking place on Zoom because of continuing risks posed by the Covid pandemic, the festival attracted attendees from all over the UK as well as the USA, Canada, India and New Zealand.

The opening session on Saturday afternoon featured the Scottish poet Ken Cockburn who compared his home town of Kirkcaldy with Nicholson's Millom and demonstrated the influence of Nicholson in his own writing. Our second speaker was Jeff Cowton, Curator and Head of Learning at Wordsworth Grasmere, who gave us a wonderful visual tour of the recent developments at Dove Cottage which include a display centred on Nicholson, provided by the Society, within the Still Glides the Stream exhibition, celebrating Wordsworth's Duddon Sonnets. Between the two talks, our chair Charlie Lambert gave an update on the Norman Nicholson's Millom trails app, launched at the end of March (Android users click HERE for Google Play. iPhone users click HERE for the Apple Store).

Saturday evening consisted of a delightful evening of poetry, as 14 poets who contributed to our recent anthology The Unpredicted Spring came together via Zoom to read and discuss their work. On Sunday we enjoyed two impeccably-researched and well-presented talks by two of the Society's younger members - Laura Day, who is studying for her PhD at Durham University, and Jack Threlfall Hartley who is working towards his PhD at Oxford University. Laura examined Nicholson's poem Hard of Hearing while Jack - currently based in Iceland - explored the influence of Norse language and locations in Nicholson's work. Charlie Lambert unveiled the Norman Nicholson Audio Archive, a collection of audio recordings with people who knew Nicholson personally, plus recordings of the poet himself generously made available by permission of BBC Radio Cumbria. The festival concluded with an appreciation of the two days by Kathleen Jones, vice-president of the Society and Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.

All events were free but attendees were invited to make a donation to the Nicholson House Project. This raised a very impressive £594 through our GoFundMe campaign - thank you to everyone who contributed.

Our thanks also go to Millom Town Council and Millom CGP Trust for supporting the festival financially.

posted 28/6/21

Donation in memory of 'inspirational' Wilf Kimber

Karen Seward

Former English teacher at Barrow Grammar School and Barrow Sixth Form College Wilf Kimber has been commemorated by a wonderfully generous donation of £5,000 to the crowdfunding campaign which is raising money towards the purchase of Nicholson's old home in Millom.

The donation to the GoFundMe project comes from Karen Seward, who attended the Sixth Form College from 1981 to 1983 and remembers Mr Kimber as 'an inspirational teacher who gave me a lifelong love of the the wonderful work of Norman Nicholson'. Mr Kimber passed away last year at the age of 97.

Karen is now global head of litigation at the London law firm Allen and Overy. She said: 'The Nicholson House project will, I am sure, go a long way towards cementing for Nicholson the reputation that should be his by right, as one of the greatest of British poets'.

Charlie Lambert, who chairs both the Norman Nicholson House Community Interest Company and the Norman Nicholson Society, said: 'This is a stunning piece of generosity by Karen, and a wonderful way to celebrate the memory of Mr Kimber. It shows what a huge impact the work of teachers has on individua pupils, lasting a lifetime'.

The Nicholson House project is currently approaching major funders for the substantial six-figure sum needed to buy the house and turn it into a worthy tribute to Nicholson as well as a meaningful community facility in Millom. The GoFundMe project has a target of £10,000 which gives individuals the chance to contribute as well as demonstrating that Nicholson admirers are prepared to put their own money into the scheme. Contributions of whatever size are very welcome and can be made HERE.

posted 17/5/21