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26 August 2010
Back to school again!
At least that's how it feels! As September approaches its time to return to Ragley-on-the-Forest Primary School for another year and the sixth novel in the Teacher series. It begins with research . . . mainly newspapers from thirty years ago and, of course, interviews with a wide variety of people.
'Research' sounds very grand but often it simply involves a chat over coffee with the local vicar or the President of the Women's Institute. I'm never without a notebook in my pocket and as ideas occur to me I jot them down. In this way, by the time the dark days of winter return, I have the plot clear in my mind and the new characters who are likely to appear. Then all I have to do is write another 80,000 words!
In the meantime the Corgi edition of Village Teacher will be published on 2nd September and the good news is that it is YORKSHIRE BOOK OF THE MONTH for September. So I shall be doing some signings on Saturday 11th September at Kingsgate Huddersfield, High Street Huddersfield, Corn Market Bradford, Wakefield and Albion Street Leeds. This is followed on Saturday evening by an after-dinner talk at the Winning Post in York in support of the York Literature Festival 2011.
Also, I've just heard that the launch date for the fifth novel in the series, Please Sir!, has been arranged for Waterstone's York on Thursday 20th January 2011.
Before then I have a few speaking commitments coming up in the autumn including the New Forest Rotary Club (4 October), Little Ripon Bookshop (11th October), Morley Literature Festival (12th October), Ilkley Literature Festival (13th & 14th October), Totley Library Sheffield (15th October), Sheffield Town Hall (16th October), Elvetham Hall (25th October) and the West Sussex Writers' Club (11th November).
I should like to take this opportunity to thank the huge number of readers who have emailed me via the contact page on this website saying how much they have enjoyed Village Teacher. It really does make it all worth while and I shall reply to every email as soon as I can. (If you haven't had a reply, please check you put your complete email address in the appropriate box!)
However, for now, I'm busy doing the background work for a few more gentle and poignant tales of school and village life in the early 80s.
So its . . . back to school again!
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To see the Jack Sheffield BBC Look North interview 09/05/07, click here.
To hear the Jack Sheffield Yorkshire Post radio interview 16/05/07, click here.
To read the Jack Sheffield Yorkshire Post article 18/05/07, click here.
To read the Jack Sheffield Yorkshire Evening Post article 10/11/08, click here.
To read the Yorkshire Life article March 2009, click here.
To hear the Yorkshire Post interview October 2009 at the Ilkley Literature Festival, click here.
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