Radio Solent interview

Orpheus and the Nymphs of the London Underworld by William Sutton
A shilling shocker short story featuring Victorian detective, Sergeant Campbell Lawless.
William Sutton’s historical crime thriller Lawless and the Devil of Euston Square is published by AngryRobot’s ExhibitA imprint. 
Unearthing scandal, sabotage and stink beneath Victorian London’s streets, it is the first book in the series featuring detective Campbell Lawless. 
“Extravagant and thoroughly enjoyable,” wrote Allan Massie in The Scotsman 
Lawless and the Flowers of Sin will be published in 2014.

Orpheus and the Nymphs of the Underworld by William Sutton

A Pompey ditty to accompany Portsmouth Fairy Tales, publshed 2014

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Portsmouth-Fairy-Tales-Grown-Ups-ebook/dp/B00L2BFBE6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1403701411&sr=1-1&keywords=portsmouth+fairy+tales

Portsmouth Fairy Tales

Day of the Dead is not a standard evening of storytelling. In the atmospheric surrounds of Portsmouth’s Square Tower, musicians and storytellers weave their enchantments over an audience of souls willing to be twisted, cajoled and horrified.
http://william-sutton.co.uk/dayofthedead

Day Of The Dead Theme

Last Day on Planet Portsmouth
(Ferry Tales communal poem by workshop participants with Maggie Sawkins at King's Theatre Sep 2016 inspired by Simon Armitage's Last Day on Planet Earth)

Anderson sips a cuppa in the Café in the clouds. 
Peirce paraglides from Portsdown Hill. 
Clayton sifts the stones for evidence of past lives. 
Todd dances, toes wet, sipping a gin-cocktail. 
SAVING ONE FOR THE FERRY MAN
SAVING ONE FOR THE FERRY MAN
Last Day on Planet Portsmouth

Goodall preps posh picnics on the pebbles. 
Phyall buys a 911 from the Porsche Garage. 
Collier combs the beach for flotsam and jetsam:
East tames a fire to cook the last pork sausage.
SAVING ONE FOR THE FERRY MAN
SAVING ONE FOR THE FERRY MAN

Devine dives into icy water from the desolate old pier. 
Hanna runs the Common so fast she burns her feet.
Eagle rolls along the splendour of South Parade Pier. 
Zhou zooms into silence like an apple that’s lost its red. 
MUSICAL BREAK

Firth sips her pint in the Phoenix garden.
Sawkins at The Hard, she plays I Spy.
Phyall gathers blooms from The Rose Garden,
Sutton squanders 2 ps in Clarence Pier cascades, 
SAVING ONE FOR THE FERRY MAN
SAVING ONE FOR THE FERRY MAN
Last Day on Planet Portsmouth
Last Day on Planet Portsmouth
Last Day on Planet Portsmouth

Ferry Tales

Last Day on Planet Portsmouth

Bookfest 2017 discussed on Josh Beaven's Express FM 97.3 show.

Bookfest Express FM 2.3.17

Writing Edward King: Cityscapes of Portsmouth is a literature project inspired by the Portsmouth paintings of artist Edward King (1862-1951) who resided at St James’ Hospital, Milton (formerly Portsmouth Borough Asylum) for 25 years until his death.
https://www.writingedwardking.com/

The Old Painter of Portsea – William Sutton

Bombs are pounding on our city pocked with poverty,
Carving teeth from walls where rubble fills the cavities.
To depict it on the canvas seems obscenity.
If it’s insanity, 
You may label me insane.

Seven times tonight we’ve trudged through the asylum
To the shelter, seven times the air raid sirens.
Wave my friends off to the farm. 
I say a prayer they’ll not be harmed,
As into town down Locksway Road I head.

We rise early here in St James’ Infirmary.
Go out on the farm, the outbuildings, the laundry.

Every morning I walk down through old Portsea,
Carry easel, paints and canvas, as the ships sail off to sea,
And the people here they know me -  
Every latest bomb they show me -
And I take the brush to paint the city’s woes.

Mallow purple, saffron yellow, Saturn red.
Sketch the outlines of the buildings where the people mourn their dead.
Chinese coral and flax blue.
Lavender reminds me of you,
And I paint a face with memories tinged blood red.

We rise early here in St James’ Infirmary,
Head out on the farm, the outbuildings, the laundry.
Work to feed and clothe the nation’s but a token 
Souls unspoken 
may yet be re-awoken.
Taboos can still be broken.

Dutch vermillion, dahlia purple and French rose
To depict walls blown apart by Gerry’s blows.
Break out the flask and share a drink,
Then empire purple, philox pink,
To shape presences where only absence grows.

Have you seen the grey old fellow, used to paint red-golds and yellows?
Haven’t seen him lately: give St James a ring.
Every day the image fainter
Of the Lord Mayor’s wartime painter
Known to everyone: there goes old Edward King.
Now the bombs have gone
But still the paintings sing.

Songs about Minotaurs and Turtles

Edward King

On Admission to the Lunatic Asylum
(The Victorian Diagnoses Song, adapted from a list of Reasons for Admission to an Asylum 1864-89)

It’s the disease & diagnoses song
It’s my Victorian diagnoses song

Consecutive dementia, 
Atrophy, dyspepsia,
Apoplexy, Scarlatina,
Chronic mania.

Hereditary predisposition,
Domestic affliction,
Overstudy of religion,
Epileptic fits, dissolute opium habits

Intemperance, sluggish blood
business trouble, desertion by husband 

	CHORUS 

Quackery and Exposure 
Incontinence, liver failure, 
Nymphomania, novel reading,
Two years’ snuff eating

Political excitement, 
Brain fever, vicious vices,
Seduction and disappointment,
Overuse of lubricious ointment,
Nervous dissipation,
Deranged masturbation.

CHORUS 

BRIDGE
Egotism, gunshot, dropsy,
Uterine hypertrophy,
Familial estrangement,
Uterine derangement,
Indignation by the dozen,
Parents were cousins.

Before you dare to laugh at these 
Victorian diagnoses,
they’ll laugh with glee hysterically
one day about today’s diseases:
ASD, PTSD, electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
Attention deficit disorder,
Gulf War syndrome, border-
line personality, Wilson’s thyroid syndrome,  
gluten sensitivity, Wind turbine syndrome,
Fan death, heavy legs.

CHORUS 
That’s a modern diagnoses song. 
You could say an Elizabethan diseases song. 
But will they remain diagnoses for long?
Bear in mind how often we’ve been wrong. 
No better than Victorian diagnoses song.

Victorian Diagnoses

Southsea Community Orchestra mash-up Liberty Bell of Monty Python fame with woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooah Nelly the Elephant.

Trumpety trump trump trump.

Trumpety Trump Trump Trump

Liberty Nell

Snogs about Turtles and Minotaurs

Guide to Victorian Sex 16.2.18 Theme Tune

I was invited by the remarkable writer and promoter Emily Priest to take part in Aspex Gallery‏ event celebrating their entry for this year's The #PeoplesProjects. Our project #Welcome is aimed to support #Portsmouth's refugee and asylum seeker community through #art. I was just one of a plethora of performers who gave us informed, poignant, witty, acerbic takes on the plight of so many in the world.

I was particularly struck by Donna Jones MBE's pieces about encounters on the Isle of Wight, and by Shormila of the Red Cross's myth-busting of the real (astonishingly low) figures of asylum seekers in the UK and here in Portsmouth. Well done to Omar Lagares and Emily for declaring #RefugeesWelcome here.

For my own piece, I've dug up some problems for my favourite poet and travel writer Edward Lear's famous Owl & Pussycat, who of course should have filled in spouse visa application forms well in advance of travelling. 

Owl & Pussy-Cat #Revisited (Slight Return/Visa Denied)
(William Sutton, with apologies to Edward Lear) 
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
	In a government subsidised ferry
With dreams of Quorn mince served with M&S quince,
	And prosecco to make the guests merry.
The Owl filled out Puss’s visa form,
	And sang to an old sitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What an exotic Pussy you are,
		You are,
		You are!
What a well-travelled Pussy you are!”

They cross-questioned the Owl, leaving Puss there to scowl.
	“So. How long does this ‘spouse’ plan to visit?”
“But if we are marrying, what limit to tarrying?” 
	“This collar – engagement ring, is it?”
They detained them all day, separate cells, no parlay, 
	Checked their bags and identifications,
Summoning down to the centre that well-known dementor,
The Home Office Rep for Immigration, 
		migration, privation, devotee of repatriation.

More: https://www.william-sutton.co.uk/2018/04/owl-pussy-cat-visa-denied/

Owl & Pussycat #Revisited (Slight Return/Visa Denied)

September

(interviewed by Katie Martin, BBC Radio Solent)
Portsmouth DarkFest is an annual creative and cultural festival exploring all things dark, supernatural, and sinister. Inspired by the research of Dr Karl Bell and the Supernatural Cities project in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, the festival brings together artists, writers, performers, academics, storytellers and musicians to explore ghost stories, urban legends, crime, horror and hidden histories.

The Darkfesters are already plotting and planning for Portsmouth DarkFest 2019. This year the festival will run from Monday 21st October – Sunday 10th November. Alongside some established favourites like Dark Songs, events will include the staging of a new play, Scattering Salt, and a writers workshop with author Anna Mazzola. The festival will also include events linked to the culmination of two projects that are currently running in the city, Dark Side Port Side and the transmedia Snow Witch project. There’s lots more to come.

Each festival we run dozens of creative events in Portsmouth, Southsea and beyond. These typically include …

spooky storytelling | art workshops | public talks | immersive theatre | film screenings | dark songs | and much more.

William George Sutton

Popular tracks