Staff Writing Guild
Founded by staff members Rebecca Beloe, Amy Johnson and Thomas Jenkins, these weekly meet-ups are a chance for staff to join together to write creatively, whether you're a complete beginner or avid writer.
These sessions take place on Wednesdays from 5.30 pm – 7 pm in the Culture Lounge, at NTU Music Centre on the City campus.
They are led by Guild members, with support from WRAP Director Dr Becky Cullen. Come along to explore your ideas and writing styles, support each other in your writing and help with editing and critiquing. You can even join online.
It doesn't matter if you have experience of writing or not, if you're an NTU staff member and like writing then join in!
Contact Thomas Jenkins to find out more.
Staff Book Club
Join Tracy Lowe online every second Wednesday of the month for our staff book club.
Tracy works in the library on our Brackenhurst Campus and loves her job (her words!). Basically she loves books. Buying them, reading them, reviewing them, sharing them and talking about them. Join Tracy at these sessions for chats all about books, and look forward to some relaxed friendly book chat throughout the year.
All our book clubs are open to all staff and are free to attend. Please share with your work friends and colleagues who may be interested. Let's get talking about books!
Date and time: Wednesday 10 April, 12 - 12.45 pm
Location: Online via Teams
Information: No need to book — Join online. April's choice is The Lido, by Libby Page.
A tender, joyous debut novel about a cub reporter and her eighty-six-year-old subject—and the unlikely and life-changing friendship that develops between them.
Kate is a twenty-six-year-old riddled with anxiety and panic attacks who works for a local paper in Brixton, London, covering forgettably small stories. When she’s assigned to write about the closing of the local lido (an outdoor pool and recreation center), she meets Rosemary, an eighty-six-year-old widow who has swum at the lido daily since it opened its doors when she was a child. It was here Rosemary fell in love with her husband, George; here that she’s found communion during her marriage and since George’s death. The lido has been a cornerstone in nearly every part of Rosemary’s life.
But when a local developer attempts to buy the lido for a posh new apartment complex, Rosemary’s fond memories and sense of community are under threat.
As Kate dives deeper into the lido’s history—with the help of a charming photographer—she pieces together a portrait of the pool, and a portrait of a singular woman, Rosemary. What begins as a simple local interest story for Kate soon blossoms into a beautiful friendship that provides sustenance to both women as they galvanize the community to fight the lido’s closure. Meanwhile, Rosemary slowly, finally, begins to open up to Kate, transforming them both in ways they never knew possible.
In the tradition of Fredrik Backman, The Lido is a charming, feel-good novel that captures the heart and spirit of a community across generations—an irresistible tale of love, loss, aging, and friendship.
Date and time: Wednesday 8 May, 12 - 12.45 pm
Location: Online via Teams
Information: No need to book — Join online. April's choice is Momo by Michael Ende.
At the edge of the city, in the ruins of an old amphitheatre, there lives a little homeless girl called Momo. Momo has a special talent which she uses to help all her friends who come to visit her. Then one day the sinister men in grey arrive and silently take over the city. Only Momo has the power to resist them, and with the help of Professor Hora and his strange tortoise, Cassiopeia, she travels beyond the boundaries of time to uncover their dark secrets.
Date and time: Wednesday 12 June, 12 - 12.45 pm
Location: Online via Teams
Information: No need to book — Join online.
Tom Michell is in his roaring twenties: single, free-spirited and seeking adventure. He has a plane ticket to South America, a teaching position in a prestigious Argentine boarding school, and endless summer holidays. What he doesn't need is a pet. What he really doesn't need is a pet penguin.
But while on holiday in Uruguay he spots a penguin struggling in an oil slick and knows he has to help. And then the penguin refuses to leave his side...
Clearly Tom has no choice but to smuggle it across the border, through customs, and back to school. He names him Juan Salvador.
Whether it's as the rugby team's mascot, the housekeeper's confidant, the host at Tom's parties or the most flamboyant swimming coach in world history, Juan Salvador transforms the lives of all he meets - including Tom, who discovers a compadre like no other...
Date and time: Wednesday 10 July, 12 - 12.45 pm
Location: Online via Teams
Information: No need to book — Join online.
In the midst of a mysterious environmental crisis, as London is submerged below flood waters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, the family is forced to leave their home in search of safety. As they move from place to place, shelter to shelter, their journey traces both fear and wonder as Z's small fists grasp at the things he sees, as he grows and stretches, thriving and content against all the odds.
This is a story of new motherhood in a terrifying setting: a familiar world made dangerous and unstable, its people forced to become refugees. Startlingly beautiful, Megan Hunter's The End We Start From is a gripping novel that paints an imagined future as realistic as it is frightening. And yet, though the country is falling apart around them, this family’s world – of new life and new hope – sings with love.
Date and time: Wednesday 14 August, 12 - 12.45 pm
Location: Online via Teams
Information: No need to book — Join online.
Sixteen-year-old Frieder’s plans for the summer are shattered when he fails two subjects. To be able to move up to the next year in the Autumn, he needs to resit his exams. So instead of going on holiday with his family, he now faces the daunting and boring prospect of staying at his grandparents’ house, studying with his strict and formal step-grandfather.
On the bright side, he’ll spend time with his grandmother Nana, his sister Alma and his best friend Johann. And he meets Beate, the girl in the beautiful green swimsuit…
The next few weeks will bring friendship, fear and first love – one grand summer that will change and shape his entire life.
A number-one bestseller in Germany and winner of the German Booksellers Prize, One Grand Summer is a moving, beautiful and profound novel about relationships and respect that captures those exquisite and painful moments that make us who we are…
Date and time: Wednesday 11 September, 12 - 12.45 pm
Location: Online via Teams
Information: No need to book — Join online.
It's been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.
That story is Penance, a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the 'definitive account' of the murder - and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.
The only question is: how much of it is true?
Become a WRAP book club champion
We're looking for staff champions to coordinate small book clubs across the University. In return, WRAP will provide guidance and support to help you get set up and running. Email WRAP to register your interest and find out more.