Conversations with Writers

Jonathan Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at De Montfort University in Leicester. He is also the author of books that include the memoir, Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta, 2007) and the academic books, Science and Omniscience in Nineteenth-Century Literature (Sussex Academic Press, 2007); Mastery and Slavery in Victorian Writing (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003); and, Figures of Heresy: Radical Theology in English and American Writing, 1800-2000 (Sussex Academic Press, 2005) (co-edited with Dr. Andrew Dix). In this interview, Jonathan Taylor talks about his debut novel, Entertaining Strangers (Salt, 2012): How long did it take you to write the novel? It took me a while to write the novel: I started it in 2007, shortly after the publication of my memoir, Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta Books, 2007), and finished it four or so years later. In fact, its origins lie further back, in that the starting-point was an episod...

Jonathan Taylor's memoir, Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta, 2007) has been described as a “a beautifully constructed and often profound piece of work” which “stands as a fine testimonial to man whose life was a mystery.” Taylor has written two academic books, Science and Omniscience in Nineteenth-Century Literature (Sussex Academic Press, 2007) and Mastery and Slavery in Victorian Writing (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003) and has co-edited the collection of essays, Figures of Heresy: Radical Theology in English and American Writing, 1800-2000 (Sussex Academic Press, 2005) with Dr. Andrew Dix. In this, the last of a two-part interview, Taylor speaks about Take Me Home , how it got published and how has been received by readers. Who is your target audience? I would say my target audience has various layers. Obviously, people who have experienced Parkinson's disease or dementia in their family (or in themselves) are central to who the book is for. The ...

Jonathan Taylor has written and published a memoir, Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta, 2007). In addition to Take Me Home , he has written two academic books, Science and Omniscience in Nineteenth-Century Literature (Sussex Academic Press, 2007) and Mastery and Slavery in Victorian Writing (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2003) and has co-edited the collection of essays, Figures of Heresy: Radical Theology in English and American Writing, 1800-2000 (Sussex Academic Press, 2005) with Dr. Andrew Dix. Taylor is also co-founder and co-director of Crystal Clear Creators , an arts organisation and not-for-profit company, which records, publishes, produces and promotes new writing, particularly for radio. Currently Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at De Montfort University in Leicester where he specialises in prose writing, memoir-writing, radio writing and literature of the nineteenth-century. In this, the first of two interviews, Jonathan Taylor speaks abou...

Crystal Clear Creators is a not-for-profit organization which develops, records, showcases and promotes new and established talent for radio. Founded in 2004 by Robin Webber-Jones and Jonathan Taylor, the organization has gone on to build an impressive list of achievements, assisting in the production of a notable range of new plays, poetry and prose for radio. It has also hosted creative writing workshops for teachers and school-age children, as well as for other people with an interest in writing. It has recently produced and published Speaking Words: Writings for Reading Aloud , an anthology of short stories, monologues and poetry. It has also published a mini-series of poetry pamphlets, provisionally titled Presenting Poets . Each of the pamphlets showcased an up-and-coming poet who is a member of Crystal Clear Creators. In addition to this, there are plans to publish an anthology of children's stories taken mainly from those that the organization has produced for Leice...