Martyn Bedford - Writer

I’m looking forward to a trip to Liverpool next month to take part in the 2017 Writing on the Wall Festival, where I’ll be helping to launch a new anthology of short fiction about political dissent and resistance. The anthology – Protest! : stories of resistance, published by the Manchester-based independent Comma Press – includes my latest story, Withen, which centres on the Battle of Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners’ strike.

For the book, Comma Press commissioned twenty writers – including Frank Cottrell Boyce, Kit de Waal, Alexei Sayle, Maggie Gee, Sara Maitland and Courttia Newland – to bring to life crucial moments of protest in British history through the medium of fiction. The stories range across topics as diverse as the Suffragettes, the Peasants’ Revolt, the Brixton riots and the civil rights movements of the 1960s.

Each story has been written in consultation with a specialist historian or, in the case of more recent protests, in partnership with activists who helped organise them. The resulting fictions are accompanied by short essays by the historians and activists, contextualising the events and offering insights into the political climates that produced them. For my story, I worked closely with Prof. David Waddington, a social historian from Sheffield Hallam University, who was an academic observer at Orgreave.

At the festival, I’ll be sharing a stage with Stuart Evers and Jacob Ross, whose stories also appear in the book. The event is at 7.30pm on Thursday May 25th, at Blackburne House, Blackburne Place, Liverpool, L8 7PE. Tickets (£6/£3) can be obtained via these links to Comma Press and the Wowfest site.