Author Event - Natalie Marlow, Needless Alley

NATALIE MARLOW is a working-class writer who was born and still lives in the West Midlands. After completing her MA in Crime Writing at the UEA, she began her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has taught Creative Writing both at Birkbeck and De Montfort University in Leicester. So far, she has been unable to shake off her life-long obsession with hard-boiled detective fiction and film noir. Natalie is a keen urban walker and collects vintage sewing machines. She lives in Warwickshire.Natalie was inspired to write Needless Alley by her great grandmother, who was one of thirteen children and lived and worked on the Birmingham canals.

Angela Hicken is Project Manager for the West Midlands Readers' Network and also the Marketing Manager for poetry publisher Nine Arches Press. Angela was Portsmouth’s Reader Development Librarian before joining Hampshire County Council in 2006 as a Literature Development Officer, working across libraries, arts, museums, and less traditional venues to devise and manage literature events and local writer development opportunities. She worked closely with The Reading Agency on its Reading Partners consortium. Angela was an Advisor to the Winchester Poetry Festival Board from its inception until 2018 when she made the move to the Midlands.

Needless Alley:

Birmingham, 1933. Private enquiry agent William Garrett, a man damaged by a dark childhood spent in Birmingham's canals, specialises in facilitating divorces for the city's male elite. With the help of his best friend -charming, out-of-work actor Ronnie Edgerton - William sets up honey traps. But photographing unsuspecting women in flagrante plagues his conscience and William heaves up his guts with remorse after every job. However, William's life changes when he accidentally meets the beautiful Clara Morton and falls in love. Little does he know she is the wife of a client - a leading fascist with a dangerous obsession. And what should have been another straightforward job turns into something far more deadly.

Drenched in evocative period atmosphere and starring an unforgettable cast of characters, Needless Alley takes the reader from seedy canal-side pubs, to crumbling Warwickshire manor houses, and into the hidden spaces of Birmingham's queer, bohemian society.

We absolutely loved this novel set in Birmingham and can’t wait to welcome Natalie and Angela to The Heath Bookshop!

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