Neil Rollinson & Jon Doyle in conversation with Luke Brown

We are thrilled to welcome Neil Rollinson and Jon Doyle to Blackwell's on Tuesday 24th March in partnership with the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing. Neil and Jon will be in conversation with Luke Brown.

Doors: 6.30pm, Start: 6.45pm

Tickets are £4 or admission is free when purchasing a copy of either book in advance.

About The Dead Don't Bleed:

Frank Bridge turned his back on his family's gangland conflicts in Northumberland decades ago. His brother, Gordon, fled to Spain and has not been heard from since. Frank's life has taken a different path to the same place: he fell in love with Lorca's poetry and the woman who brought it to him.
But when their gangster father, the head of their savage dynasty, dies, Frank feels he must track down Gordon and tell him that their father's reign of terror is over. Can Frank's appearance after twenty-five years prompt a truce - a reconciliation even - will his arrival merely be the catalyst for more turmoil and brutality? Beneath the scorching, pitiless Andalusian sun, the two brothers are finally brought together for one last reckoning.

About Communion:

You didn't go to the seminary to become a priest, the rector had explained on their first morning. You went to learn what God was asking of you. When Mack O'Brien left his home in Port Talbot for the seminary as a teenager, he didn't imagine he'd be back a decade later, unordained and at war with his faith. Back in his childhood bedroom, he remains committed to the idea of a moral life, but isn't entirely sure what that looks like.

He takes a job as a security guard at the local steelworks and begins an uneasy transition into the world of industry, brotherhood, and community he once rejected. When the men of the steelworks organise an unprecedented strike in protest against job cuts, he goes along with it. Meanwhile, his mother watches footage of past catastrophes and prays for the dead. The last person Mack expects to see in the local club is Siwan Roderick - the woman who appeared out of the blue at the seminary one day to make a confession and swore him to secrecy. Mack kept his word. But as the day of the strike nears, tensions in the town escalate and allegiances are tested. Mack's loyalty to Siwan and his desperation to do the right thing will change both of their lives forever.

About the authors:

Neil Rollinson is the author of four poetry collections: A Spillage of Mercury (1996), Spanish Fly (2001), Demolition (2007) and Talking Dead (2015). He won the National Poetry Competition in 1997, received a Cholmondeley Award from the Society of Authors in 2005, and was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Poetry Prize for Talking Dead. The Dead Don't Bleed is his debut novel, and won the Deborah Rogers Award for previously unpublished prose writers in 2023.

Jon Doyle is a writer based in Port Talbot, South Wales. He was part of Literature Wales' Representing Wales scheme in 2022/23, and won the Writers & Artists Working-Class Writers' Prize 2023. He holds a BSc and MRes in Zoology, an MA in Creative Writing from Cardiff University, and a PhD in Creative Writing from Swansea University. His work has appeared in Short Fiction, Hobart, Ploughshares Online, The Rumpus, 3:AM Magazine, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction among other places. Communion is his first novel.

If you cannot make the event but would like a dedicated copy of the book, please email [email protected] or call us on 0161 274 3331.

Our event format is usually a 45 minute discussion between the author and interviewer, followed by a chance for audience members to ask questions. There will be the opportunity to get your book signed/dedicated after the event. Events are a brilliant opportunity to discover new books, meet authors and likeminded readers and learn something new.

Support your local bookshop and help us keep the Manchester literary scene vibrant and exciting. You can follow us on Eventbrite and social media (@BlackwellsMCR) to keep up to date on upcoming events.

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