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Latest
  • [ 6th May 2025 ] Dune: A Film, a Saga and the Future in our Past (Part I) Culture
  • [ 5th April 2025 ] ‘A Woman Who Made History Through Activism’: Rosy Bremer 1971-2025 News
  • [ 24th March 2025 ] Struggling for an Endometriosis Diagnosis in Portsmouth News
  • [ 19th March 2025 ] Portsmouth Performers for Palestine Event on March 28th Events
  • [ 18th March 2025 ] ‘Were They Like Us?’: Writing Historical Fiction with Prof Sue Harper Culture
HomePortsmouth writing scene

Portsmouth writing scene

Culture

Making the Dead Speak: A Portsmouth Writer on Identity and Emotion

7th January 2025

The big issue in fiction is subjectivity, argues Sue Harper, fiction writer and Emeritus Professor of Film History at the University of Portsmouth. And it is the most tricky. You can, of course, write about [… read more ]

Culture

Portsmouth Author on Libraries, the Environment and Seaside Towns

21st December 2024

Local writer Tom Sykes presented his new book about our deteriorating seaside communities at Southsea Library. Peter Gruner reports. Coast of Teeth: Travels to English Seaside Towns in an Age of Anxiety, with drawings by [… read more ]

Culture

Advice from a Portsmouth Author: How to Write

3rd December 2024

In the second of local author and Emeritus Professor Sue Harper‘s ruminations on the writer’s craft, she examines pleasure, novelty, influences and structure. That title seems a little presumptuous: after all, one might say, ‘what [… read more ]

Culture

Advice from a Portsmouth Author: Writing from the Edge

21st November 2024

Sue Harper, local author and Emeritus Professor of Film History at the University of Portsmouth, presents a series of short essays about writing – how to do it, how it feels, what it means. To [… read more ]

Memoir

The Snow Leopard: A Portsmouth Cat Tale

18th November 2024

Writer and planetary modeller David Angus shares a feline story of deception and aggression. Spring had arrived and the warmth of late March brought the trees out in bloom, then cold winds in April inhibited [… read more ]

Fiction

The Shop: A Portsmouth Playlet

18th November 2024

The writer and academic Jo Bryant was inspired to write the following by a Wednesday afternoon in 1964, in her parents’ sweetshop in Winter Road.  Mrs Clifton, diminutive and smart, is in her 70s, retired [… read more ]

Culture

The Energy of a Pop Concert, the Excitement of a Book Launch: Wild Seas, Wilder Cities Launch Review

14th November 2024

Pens of the Earth’s book Wild Seas, Wilder Cities launched on 21st October 2024 at the Portsmouth Guildhall’s Lens Studio. Jackie Green reports. Environmental events can be a hard sell but Pens of the Earth’s [… read more ]

Culture

Holmes Fest 2024: A Portsmouth Creative Extravaganza

7th November 2024

Does Holmes Fest ring any bells? Some of you might recall the successful festival from pre-pandemic days, when local writer Matt Wingett launched a celebration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous character, [… read more ]

Culture

Blood and Coal by Sue Harper

15th October 2024

A University of Portsmouth Emeritus Professor who came from a poor Midlands background has dedicated her newly published memoir to her mother, who inspired her love of art. Veteran journalist Peter Gruner tells us more. [… read more ]

Culture

Litter Art at the Wild Seas, Wilder Cities Book Launch

7th October 2024

There are many reasons to attend Pens of the Earth’s Wild Seas, Wilder Cities book launch on 21st October, at Portsmouth Guildhall. It will be an event-packed evening, offering a joyful glimpse inside Wild Seas, [… read more ]

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Latest News

News

‘A Woman Who Made History Through Activism’: Rosy Bremer 1971-2025

5th April 2025

How do you tell the story of an incredible life in the brief and limited way an obituary requires? Born in Portsmouth on June 10th 1971, S&C Community Reporter (Emily) Rosy Bremer touched so many [… read more ]

News

Struggling for an Endometriosis Diagnosis in Portsmouth

24th March 2025

The growing issue of waiting lists for gynaecological care in the UK is leaving many women in pain, with some enduring severe symptoms for years before they can see a specialist. The majority of women [… read more ]

News

Tiny But Mighty Pompey Algae

12th February 2025

Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight are both iconic destinations in southern England, known for their beautiful coastlines, vibrant maritime history and geological significance. University of Portsmouth PhD student Meriam Chouar invites us into an [… read more ]

News

The Grand Canyon of Evil

9th December 2024

A friend with whom Portsmouth-based writer and planetary modeller David Angus travelled around Europe wished to go to Auschwitz. This is David’s account of that troubling experience. Another Jewish friend, Ric, compared the Ian Brady/Myra [… read more ]

News

Guide Dogs Charity Needs Portsmouth Volunteers: Could it be You?

8th April 2022

The local branch of charity Guide Dogs is urgently appealing for new volunteers to sign up as Fundraisers and My Sighted Guides. Volunteering Coordinator Pat Janecka reached out to S&C Editor Sarah Cheverton to tell [… read more ]

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