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The Green Table published by Cinnamon Press, was launched in September 2015 in Manchester and Derbyshire.
Reviews 'The prologue of this book had me hooked before I had even got to the first chapter...These carefully crafted characters tell a poignant, heart-rending story, and certainly draw the reader into the harrowing life faced by those caught up in WW2. It has been superbly written by Tricia Durdey...' Amanda Penman Artsbeat Magazine. '...a seriously good novel, and one that's very hard to put down...' Nigeness blogspot. 'I loved this book. The story is compelling, of everyday lives of ordinary and extraordinary people in occupied Holland. Tricia Durdey's style of writing, flows from the page, and the chapters interchange between the main character's perspectives beautifully. The tension builds throughout, and I found it difficult to put down as I became increasingly anxious for the fate of the beautifully crafted characters I grew to care about - even those I found difficult to like. A real treat, believe me! I read a lot and this was right up my street.' Amazon review |
Jan Fortune, editor of Cinnamon Press writes the following:
When Hedda Brandt and other members of Kurt Jooss’s dance company flee Germany for Holland in 1933, Hedda imagines she is going to a place free from the prejudice and threats that have overtaken her country. There they perform the celebrated anti-war piece ‘The Green Table’. Staying behind to teach dance when Jooss and other members leave the Netherlands for England, Hedda encounters Katje, a girl who has seen and been enthralled by the performance and wants to learn to dance. But these are dangerous times and as Nazi Occupation changes all their lives, Katje watches her brother being drawn into Nazi sympathies fuelled by his admiration for his German piano teacher, Erik Weiss, a difficult man who also poses questions for Hedda. Determined to defy new regulations that demand dance should conform to rigid ideology, Hedda is drawn towards resistance, but with her life more and more at risk, matters are only complicated by the prospect of love with a much younger man, Kai Hoffman, whose family have befriended Hedda. Against a background of oppression, disappearances and terror, Hedda and Katje assert the power of dance, resistance and life in this gripping debut novel that takes real events and characters as its starting point. Poignant, sometimes harrowing, and exquisitely written, this is an extraordinary story from a convincing writer.
When Hedda Brandt and other members of Kurt Jooss’s dance company flee Germany for Holland in 1933, Hedda imagines she is going to a place free from the prejudice and threats that have overtaken her country. There they perform the celebrated anti-war piece ‘The Green Table’. Staying behind to teach dance when Jooss and other members leave the Netherlands for England, Hedda encounters Katje, a girl who has seen and been enthralled by the performance and wants to learn to dance. But these are dangerous times and as Nazi Occupation changes all their lives, Katje watches her brother being drawn into Nazi sympathies fuelled by his admiration for his German piano teacher, Erik Weiss, a difficult man who also poses questions for Hedda. Determined to defy new regulations that demand dance should conform to rigid ideology, Hedda is drawn towards resistance, but with her life more and more at risk, matters are only complicated by the prospect of love with a much younger man, Kai Hoffman, whose family have befriended Hedda. Against a background of oppression, disappearances and terror, Hedda and Katje assert the power of dance, resistance and life in this gripping debut novel that takes real events and characters as its starting point. Poignant, sometimes harrowing, and exquisitely written, this is an extraordinary story from a convincing writer.
To order a copy you can visit the Cinnamon Press website or via my contact page
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Meetings with Ivor
Published by Thorntree Press Reviews 'I never met Ivor Sutton but, having read this beautifully crafted memoir, I feel as if I'd known the old rascal for years. It's a vivid, honest, touching and often very funny account of a man of whom it can truly be said They don't make them like that any more.' Nigel Andrew Daily Mail Weekend 'Meetings with Ivor is a book that typifies a bygone era, a heart-warming story about a real character that you just can't help but come to admire...Tricia has combined Ivor's stories with hers and other people's memories of him in a way which enables the reader to truly feel as though they grasp his personality and life...Meetings with Ivor is forged in a way that allows any reader to get an authentic feel for both Ivor and the Staffordshire Moorlands. A truly touching book.' Lucy Evans Leek Post and Times |
This book is available in paperback (50 pages, 12 sepia photographs) for £5 (including postage) Order via website contact page.
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Belper Literature Festival 2020
I was invited to read from my forthcoming novel, The Dancer at World's End for this year's Belper Festival. Unfortunately, due to the lock-down, we're all having to be very enterprising and make recordings and videos of our work. The following is a link to my video. The Dancer at World's End will be published by Cinnamon Press in May 2021 https://youtu.be/IXV0WCzrjY4 |
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The Dancer at World's End is now available from Cinnamon Press, or any bookshop. www.cinnamonpress.com
Willoughby’s new landlady at Gladstone Terrace is not what he expects. The flamboyant Ruby Hoffman wears a green beret on which she’s pinned a velvet bird by its feet, explaining that she busks with her cousin, Gregor – Ruby playing accordion while Gregor dances. Ruby and Gregor, born nine years and one country apart, are bound to each other by a family weighed down with sacrifice in the Dutch resistance on one side and Nazi collusion on the other. While Ruby’s colourful persona hides a brittle fragility, Gregor’s burden of guilt is channelled into caring for others, feeding their strange group of tenants, each barely clinging to the edges of society. But when the enigmatic Leda Godwin turns up, wanting to know Gregor’s story, the delicate balance of their lives is shaken. Peopled with intriguing and memorable characters and told with exquisite precision, The Dancer at World’s End explores the legacy of violence, whether perpetrated by those committing genocide or those opposing them and how the stories handed down to us of who we are or should be, who we should love or hate, go on shaping lives across generations. An extraordinary sequel to the powerful events recounted in The Green Table, this is a courageous, heart-rending and important story. Set in mid-seventies London, the story goes back to Nazi Germany, as replete with pomp and ambition as it is with horror, and to post-War Netherlands, building a complex tale of identity, survival and grace.
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