Underdogs: Louise Powell

Join us to launch Northern Writers’ Award-winner Louise Powell’s debut novel, Underdogs – a love letter to a disappearing community. Set in 1998 it follows ten-year-old County Durham lad George and his long-term unemployed Dad, Reg. George knows that Reg hasn’t been himself since Mammy died, and that the red letters coming through the door can’t be bringing good news. Things change when the pair meet ex-miner Bertie, who runs an underground gambling business that offers cash-in-hand work to local blokes who are down on their luck. When Bertie gives Reg and George the opportunity to secretly race his beautiful greyhound Goldie at the local flapping track, they take the gamble that could change their lives.

Louise Powell is an award-winning working-class writer from Middlesbrough. Louise has written prize-winning plays and was published in Kit de Waal’s acclaimed Common People anthology. She won the Sid Chaplin Northern Writers’ Award in 2023.

Louise will be in conversation with Shaun Wilson, author of Malc’s Boy.

Ticket price includes a drink on arrival.

Book sales by Forum Books.

Louise Powell writes:

“Greyhound racing has been an integral part of working-class Northern culture for nearly a century, and it has played a huge role in my own life. Growing up below the poverty line in a family who received benefits, I was bullied and shamed by children and teachers who looked down on me as ‘riff-raff’. Yet at County Durham’s independent or ‘flapping’ tracks, I was welcomed with open arms by a community who understood my family’s struggles. Flapping brought us belonging, structure and hope at a very bleak time, and we pitched in together to train and run greyhounds who lived out their post-racing years as our beloved pets.

The flapping tracks have sadly long since shut, but greyhounds still race in England at regulated stadia such as Newcastle, which require trainers and kennelhands to be licensed by the Greyhound Board of Great Britain. The licensing process is a vigorous one which demands multiple references and the fulfilment of DEFRA and GBGB Codes of Practice surrounding greyhounds’ welfare, as well as GBGB’s Responsible Homing Policy upon their retirement from racing. These regulations combine with multiple on-the-spot inspections, raceday sampling and continuous veterinary surveillance at the track to safeguard the welfare of greyhounds before, during and after racing.

Holding a licence is a weighty responsibility – one which I have first-hand experience of wielding, as I had a Professional Greyhound Trainer’s Licence from 2022-2024. Newcastle Greyhound Stadium was the first track that I trialled my greyhound Right Paddy at, and I can still remember his tail wildly wagging as he tugged me out of the paddock. The pride that washed over me as he seemed to fly around the track; the hot lick of thanks he gave me after his run. The way the other trainers gathered round to help me wash the sand off Paddy’s legs; the cheery voice of the vet who said that he had passed his post-race check with flying colours.

Greyhound racing has brought me such solace and solidarity, and I wrote Underdogs as a testament to the people and the dogs who have brought light to my life. I am delighted to be launching the book at Newcastle Greyhound Stadium, among communities who have shaped me as a person. I feel privileged to be working with New Writing North and John Murray Press, who have done so much to support me as a writer. And I will be overjoyed to see my now-retired Right Paddy in the audience, back in a place that has given us and our family great happiness.”

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher New Writing North