News - From Pencil to Posterity
University College Falmouth (UCF) is to celebrate the donation of an extensive archive of manuscripts and other materials by the novelist Patrick Gale with a special symposium on Thursday 10 June, entitled The Novel - from Pencil to Posterity.
Drawing on materials from the archive, a panel of experts from the world of publishing will join Patrick himself to shine a light on the multi-faceted processes through which an idea jotted in a notebook is transformed into a best-selling novel. In doing so, the event will also show the value of a literary archive in understanding how the creative process is shaped and supported by complex interactions between writers, publishers, agents and media.
The panel will include Georgia Mason, Editor at Fourth Estate, one of the most innovative imprints in the publishing world; Rebecca McEwan, Marketing Manager for HarperCollins, one of the world's foremost English-language publishers; Elinor Cooper, from the world's longest-established literary agency, A P Watt; UCF's resident archivist, Sarah C. Jane and Manager of Falmouth Bookseller, Katy Lazenby.
"I am delighted that the boxes of papers and notebooks have come down from our rather damp loft to find a new home in Falmouth," commented Patrick Gale. "Writers' papers have a worrying way of migrating across the Atlantic for large sums. I've no doubt that they're stored in American universities in ideal conditions but one can't help feel that our island's culture is diminished a little with each such deal that's struck. I'm especially happy that we were able to keep my archive in Cornwall, the county that has done so much to inspire my work from the very beginning. With luck, I might prompt some other writers and artists in the region to do the same."
The symposium will focus in particular on the development of Notes from an Exhibition, a book that attracted rave reviews when it appeared in 2007 and went on to become an international best-seller. In the archive, the manuscript of the novel is accompanied by notebooks showing the depth of background research that went into recreating the world of the St Ives artists in the 1960s, in which the story is set.
Also among the extensive literary materials and correspondence in the archive are book-jacket ideas and finished designs, which the symposium panel will use to draw out the role of design in packaging and marketing novels for particular audiences.
UCF's archivist, Sarah Jane, added: "This extensive collection documents Gale's career from short stories written as a teenager, through his work as a newspaper and magazine journalist, to his long and successful career as a novelist. As well as allowing students and researchers to trace this trajectory, these materials are also fascinating in showing - and preserving for future generations - the creative processes that go into a finished novel."
For Jane, it is particularly exciting to be able to see how the novels developed through different manuscript versions: "As Gale writes all his novels in longhand - rare in the digital age - the materials come complete with scribbles, edits and notes to himself ¬- even the odd coffee-mug ring and apple sticker! This immediacy makes the archive a particularly inspiring resource for other creative writers as well for academic researchers."
Along with other leading authors and publishing insiders, Patrick Gale is a regular visiting speaker on UCF's MA Professional Writing course, which offers modules in both fiction and non-fiction. Christina Bunce, who heads the MA, said: "We are absolutely bowled over by Patrick's generous gift of these materials, which give in-depth insights not only into the creative process but also into many professional aspects of publishing - an area that is a strong focus of the MA. They will be a superb resource for our students for many years to come."
The Patrick Gale Archive will join several other important archives held by the Learning Resource Centre at the Tremough Campus, which serves both University College Falmouth and the University of Exeter, who share and jointly manage the site. These include the manuscripts and personal records of the Cornish playwright and film-maker Nick Darke; the archives of the Institute of Cornish Studies documenting many aspects of Cornish history, culture and politics; and the personal archive of painter, art historian and former UCF Principal, Tom Cross. Though varied in content and appeal, the Collections are united by a strong sense of place - the place, of course, being Cornwall.
The Patrick Gale symposium will be held in the Old Chapel Lecture Theatre at the University College's Tremough Campus from 5.30pm on Thursday 10 June 2010. A limited number of tickets are available to members of the public. To reserve one, please email Cheryl Brendish at cheryl.brendish@falmouth.ac.uk.
For further information about MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth, visit www.falmouth.ac.uk/professionalwriting, email admissions@falmouth.ac.uk or telephone Admissions on 01326 214374
University College Falmouth is the only independent Higher Education institution in Cornwall with the powers to award degrees in its own name. It has two campuses in Cornwall - at Woodlane in Falmouth and Tremough in Penryn (which it owns, and jointly manages with the University of Exeter) - and a third campus at Totnes in Devon, following its merger with Dartington College of Arts in 2008.
This merger created a new institution focusing on the expansion of Falmouth's expertise in Art, Design and Media and Dartington's expertise in Choreography, Music, Theatre, Art and Writing. The Devon-based courses will relocate to a new, high-specification Performance Centre at Tremough in 2010, paving the way for a new specialist Arts University in Cornwall by 2013/2014 that will be unique to the South West.
The University College is a founding partner in the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a unique initiative to promote regional economic regeneration through Higher Education, funded mainly by the European Union (Objective One and Convergence), the South West Regional Development Agency, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England, with support from Cornwall Council.