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.
MembershipNew 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 via the Contact page.
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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. |
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LATEST NEWS
AGM will be online on Saturday April 24th
The Society's AGM for 2021 will be held online due to current lockdown restrictions, on Saturday April 24th 2021. The AGM session starts at 11.00 a.m., followed at 12 noon by a talk by Dr Penny Bradshaw, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cumbria, entitled 'Nicholson on Wordsworth: Centenary Reflections'. To take part in the AGM you must be a member of the Society with your membership up to date. Details of how to join via Zoom, plus the agenda, have been circulated to members by email. If you're a member and you haven't received this information, please let us know by email to normannicholsonsociety@gmail.com. Dr Bradshaw's talk is open to all. If you'd like to attend, please email us at the same address and make it clear that it is the talk you want to attend.
posted 15/4/21
posted 15/4/21
'Norman Nicholson's Millom' - walking trails app is live!
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An app which will guide people on two walking trails around the Millom area has been launched. The app can be downloaded free of charge to the user’s smartphone and uses GPS technology to navigate the two routes.
It has been produced by Norman Nicholson House Community Interest Company, working in tandem with the Norman Nicholson Society.
The two trails are a 1.5 mile walk around Millom town centre and a 6.5 mile route from the town to the Duddon estuary, the site of the town’s former Ironworks, and Hodbarrow RSPB nature reserve. Users of the app will find information and photographs for each location along the way, along with an audio description, and extracts from Norman Nicholson’s writings.
They can also hear a welcome from Lord Melvyn Bragg, president of the Norman Nicholson Society, and personal memories of Millom’s past from lifelong local residents Brian Maggs, a former employee at the Ironworks, and Dorothy Richardson, whose father was the harbourmaster in the days when Millom was a busy port.
Funding for the app has come from Copeland Borough Council through the Government’s Towns Fund strategy.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE APP AND THE TRAILS - WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
Chair of Norman Nicholson House CIC Charlie Lambert said: ‘The app is brilliant. It’s free to download, easy to use, and it takes users on a journey through time as well as along two fascinating and uplifting routes. I’m very grateful to Copeland Borough Council for funding this and to everyone who has contributed towards making it happen.’
The trails can be found by downloading the Situate app from either the Apple Store or Google Play and searching for Norman Nicholson’s Millom.
At the same time Norman Nicholson House is unveiling a Crowdfunder campaign to raise some of the money needed for its project to buy Nicholson’s old home. Charlie Lambert said: ‘All contributions are really welcome. You can chip in by going to GoFundMe.com and search for Norman Nicholson House.’
Digital development of the app is by Agnes Control of Workington and Llama Digital of Sheffield. Graphic design by AR Graphic Design of Maryport. Content created by Norman Nicholson House CIC. Heritage consultant Marshall Mossop.
posted 29/3/21
It has been produced by Norman Nicholson House Community Interest Company, working in tandem with the Norman Nicholson Society.
The two trails are a 1.5 mile walk around Millom town centre and a 6.5 mile route from the town to the Duddon estuary, the site of the town’s former Ironworks, and Hodbarrow RSPB nature reserve. Users of the app will find information and photographs for each location along the way, along with an audio description, and extracts from Norman Nicholson’s writings.
They can also hear a welcome from Lord Melvyn Bragg, president of the Norman Nicholson Society, and personal memories of Millom’s past from lifelong local residents Brian Maggs, a former employee at the Ironworks, and Dorothy Richardson, whose father was the harbourmaster in the days when Millom was a busy port.
Funding for the app has come from Copeland Borough Council through the Government’s Towns Fund strategy.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE APP AND THE TRAILS - WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
Chair of Norman Nicholson House CIC Charlie Lambert said: ‘The app is brilliant. It’s free to download, easy to use, and it takes users on a journey through time as well as along two fascinating and uplifting routes. I’m very grateful to Copeland Borough Council for funding this and to everyone who has contributed towards making it happen.’
The trails can be found by downloading the Situate app from either the Apple Store or Google Play and searching for Norman Nicholson’s Millom.
At the same time Norman Nicholson House is unveiling a Crowdfunder campaign to raise some of the money needed for its project to buy Nicholson’s old home. Charlie Lambert said: ‘All contributions are really welcome. You can chip in by going to GoFundMe.com and search for Norman Nicholson House.’
Digital development of the app is by Agnes Control of Workington and Llama Digital of Sheffield. Graphic design by AR Graphic Design of Maryport. Content created by Norman Nicholson House CIC. Heritage consultant Marshall Mossop.
posted 29/3/21
READ THE ANNOUNCEMENT BY COPELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL HERE
MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE LAUNCH OF THE APP:
MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE LAUNCH OF THE APP:
- BBC TV NW report in breakfast bulletins on Friday April 2nd.
- Radio Cumbria reported the launch and used a clip from our chair Charlie Lambert in news bulletins also on Friday April 2nd.
- Radio Cumbria have scheduled a longer piece in the breakfast show at 0845 next Tuesday (April 6th).
- Whitehaven News report: https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/19197001.new-app-launch-celebrates-millom-nicholson/
- News & Star report: https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/19195214.new-app-launch-celebrates-millom-nicholson/
- Cumbria Crack report: https://cumbriacrack.com/2021/03/31/norman-nicholson-walking-app-launches-for-millom/
Our Lockdown Poetry event on YouTube
We are pleased to announce that the recording of our Lockdown Poetry evening, 'Poets of the Unpredicted Spring', is now posted on YouTube. Search on YouTube for Norman Nicholson Society, or go straight to the recordings using these links:
Part 1 https://youtu.be/feVdZY-VD6Y Duration 37 mins.
Part 2 https://youtu.be/SpBt1tqGLis Duration 35 mins.
posted 18/3/21
Part 1 https://youtu.be/feVdZY-VD6Y Duration 37 mins.
Part 2 https://youtu.be/SpBt1tqGLis Duration 35 mins.
posted 18/3/21
Poets join our book celebration
Eighteen of the poets who contributed to our lockdown anthology The Unpredicted Spring read their work in a live Zoom session last night, to celebrate the official launch of the book. It was wonderful to see and hear them, especially 14-year-old Mehak Vijay Chawla who joined from her home in Delhi to read her poem Saviours Burning the Midnight Oil, a compelling insight into the personal exepriences and sacrifices of people dealing with coronavirus in India. The two winning poets from our competition last year also read their work, Martyn Halsall with Learning Whimbrel, and another 14-year-old, Katie Deutsch, with Silently Ignoring the World. The event was hosted by the editor of The Unpredicted Spring, Kathleen Jones. Thank you to all those who read, and all who joined to listen.
We apologise to a number of attendees who had difficulty connecting to the event due to technical problems with the Zoom link.
posted 4/3/21
We apologise to a number of attendees who had difficulty connecting to the event due to technical problems with the Zoom link.
posted 4/3/21
Our Lockdown Poetry book is launched today!
The Norman Nicholson Society and The Book Mill are proud to announce the launch of The Unpredicted Spring, a unique anthology of poems written as the world struggled to cope with the Covid pandemic.
This collection of 42 poems represents the best of more than 200 worldwide entries to a Lockdown Poetry Competition organised by the Society in 2020. It includes the two winning poems – Learning Whimbrel by Martyn Halsall, former Poet in Residence at Carlisle Cathedral, and Silently Ignoring the World by 14-year-old Californian-born, Cambridgeshire-based Katie Deutsch.
This latest addition to the literature of the pandemic is published by The Book Mill and available from Amazon at £10.99 or at a discounted rate from the publishers who should be contacted by email in the first instance, postmaster@thebookmill.co.uk.
Editor of the anthology Kathleen Jones, who also judged the competition, said: ‘What I like about the book is the diversity; that we’ve got people from all over the world with very different experiences of lockdown; people of all age groups, and they are all writing about how they are coping and the new things they are observing.
‘Being put in situations like this does inspire amazing poetry. People can often put into words in poems things that they can’t talk about, deeply internalised things. Some people who had never written poetry before began writing.
‘Some of the poems I liked best were written by the under-18 age group. It thrilled me to see so many writing poetry – and writing good poetry, which has a fresh quality of looking at the world. That for me was one of the best things that’s come out of this book’.
Chair of the Norman Nicholson Society Charlie Lambert said: ‘What the combined forces of Government laws, peer pressure and infections can never do is to keep in check the human spirit. Imagination will not be quarantined, and we can see this in this very moving yet uplifting anthology’.
The title, The Unpredicted Spring, is taken from a poem by Norman Nicholson himself which is also printed in the book. The poem, Early March, was written during another time of national emergency, the Second World War. ‘We did not expect this,’ it begins, ‘we were not ready for this…’
He could have been writing about the coronavirus in 2020.
VIEW THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH VIDEO:
This collection of 42 poems represents the best of more than 200 worldwide entries to a Lockdown Poetry Competition organised by the Society in 2020. It includes the two winning poems – Learning Whimbrel by Martyn Halsall, former Poet in Residence at Carlisle Cathedral, and Silently Ignoring the World by 14-year-old Californian-born, Cambridgeshire-based Katie Deutsch.
This latest addition to the literature of the pandemic is published by The Book Mill and available from Amazon at £10.99 or at a discounted rate from the publishers who should be contacted by email in the first instance, postmaster@thebookmill.co.uk.
Editor of the anthology Kathleen Jones, who also judged the competition, said: ‘What I like about the book is the diversity; that we’ve got people from all over the world with very different experiences of lockdown; people of all age groups, and they are all writing about how they are coping and the new things they are observing.
‘Being put in situations like this does inspire amazing poetry. People can often put into words in poems things that they can’t talk about, deeply internalised things. Some people who had never written poetry before began writing.
‘Some of the poems I liked best were written by the under-18 age group. It thrilled me to see so many writing poetry – and writing good poetry, which has a fresh quality of looking at the world. That for me was one of the best things that’s come out of this book’.
Chair of the Norman Nicholson Society Charlie Lambert said: ‘What the combined forces of Government laws, peer pressure and infections can never do is to keep in check the human spirit. Imagination will not be quarantined, and we can see this in this very moving yet uplifting anthology’.
The title, The Unpredicted Spring, is taken from a poem by Norman Nicholson himself which is also printed in the book. The poem, Early March, was written during another time of national emergency, the Second World War. ‘We did not expect this,’ it begins, ‘we were not ready for this…’
He could have been writing about the coronavirus in 2020.
VIEW THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH VIDEO:
posted 1/3/21
Grant awarded by Architectural Heritage Fund
We're delighted to announce that the Architectural Heritage Fund has awarded a grant of £7,800 to the Norman Nicholson House Project. The money is earmarked for consultancy work from specialists in museum design and business planning.
Charlie Lambert, Chair of the Project and also Chair of the Norman Nicholson Society, said: ‘We are very grateful to the Architectural Heritage Fund – not just for the money, which of course is very welcome, but also for showing such faith in a project which is quite different from the majority of schemes which they support. This shows that a Victorian terraced house in a street in Cumbria has a value and a story which are well worth preserving and celebrating.’
The AHF is a registered charity which promotes the conservation and sustainable re-use of heritage buildings for the benefit of communities across the UK.
posted 18/2/21
Charlie Lambert, Chair of the Project and also Chair of the Norman Nicholson Society, said: ‘We are very grateful to the Architectural Heritage Fund – not just for the money, which of course is very welcome, but also for showing such faith in a project which is quite different from the majority of schemes which they support. This shows that a Victorian terraced house in a street in Cumbria has a value and a story which are well worth preserving and celebrating.’
The AHF is a registered charity which promotes the conservation and sustainable re-use of heritage buildings for the benefit of communities across the UK.
posted 18/2/21
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