The Sillitoe Trail is a literary journey through Alan Sillitoe’s Nottingham.
Commissioned by Arts Council England, the project forms part of the BBCs experimental digital arts platform ‘The Space’ which commences on 1st May and runs through to October 2012.
The Space is hosting contributions from leading cultural organisations, encompassing a wide range of creative disciplines.
The Sillitoe Trail is the brainchild of Writer James Walker and Creative Director Paul Fillingham with support from The Alan Sillitoe Committee; a voluntary organisation dedicated to raising the profile of one of Nottingham’s leading literary figures.
Iconic Spaces
Focussing on five key locations from Sillitoe’s 1958 novel ‘Saturday Night and Sunday Morning’ the Sillitoe Trail features the Old Market Square, the White Horse public house, Raleigh Cycle Factory, Trent Embankment and the annual Goose Fair.
These iconic spaces will be visited by some of Nottingham’s finest contemporary writers who will explore a range of themes inspired by thew novel and Karel Reisz’s 1960 film adaptation that shocked audiences with its realistic portrayal of young working class people at work and play in the austere environment of post-war Britain.
Commenting on the project, James Walker says “We wish to create our own ‘perfect outline’ of Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and embrace the ‘spiritual turmoil’ as Sillitoe himself did”.
Available via web, mobile, tablet and connected TV (digital TV red-button) The Space will present the five main themes to a huge audience.
We encourage people to visit our commissioned writers, musicians and artists on The Space and hope that people will share their pictures, memories and comments via Facebook, Twitter and other social spaces.
“We hope to stimulate public debate and creative output and we will be featuring some of the best contributions in a forthcoming Sillitoe Trail iPhone App and Handbook to be published in October when The Space project draws to a close” says Paul Fillingham.
The Sillitoe Trail App will utilise GPS mapping and QR codes to trigger playback of audio, pictures and video at each location enhancing the content of the printed Handbook, what James Walker describes as ‘a book with a digital heart’.
By creating different ways to experience the novel we hope to offer alternative routes through Sillitoe’s Nottingham. Spanning several locations and generations, the trail offers a kind of layering we think would appeal to Alan Sillitoe who was a lover of maps.
But just to make sure we don’t get carried away, Arthur Seaton (Sillitoe’s belligerent anti-hero) will be joining us at various points of the journey in order to put us in our place.
What’s in The Space:
Sillitoe’s Nottingham Then and Now – An Introduction
