Listening to stories of John and Enriqueta Rylands .... with Juliette Tomlinson

 I enjoy listening to writer’s talk about their books.

Longford by Juliette Tomlinson, 2024

It is the double whammy which comes from first reading the book and then engaging with the author as they describe why and how they write.

If you are lucky you get to learn a  lot about the craft of writing, and something of the pitfalls as well as the passion which goes with creating a novel.

And I wasn’t disappointed with a conversation between Juliette Tomlinson and the fellow writer and poet Andy Npoet.

Andy interviewed Juliette about her debut novel on his podcast Spoken Label this Sunday.*

Juliette’s  novel is about John and Enriqueta Rylands.  As she says in the podcast while there are books on Mr. Rylands, nothing has really been written about his third wife who was as interesting as the man she married.

Her life was both fascinating and intriguing and she was central to the charity projects the Ryland’s were involved in and it was she who built that wonderful Gothic library on Deansgate in memory of her husband.

Longford Hall and Park, 1914

But she had a life before she met John Rylands and Juliette explores that life in her first book which is part of a trilogy.

The book was published in September of 2024 and the second called Sunnyside is due out in the autumn of this year.

So back to the interview which was deftly run by Andy and was a revealing listen.  Juliette was assured, clearly at home with her subject and offered up insights into just how you go about writing a fictional account of someone from the past.

Along the way I discovered she was also a published poet, something I didn’t know.

Leaving me just to recommend you pop along to the Rylands Library on Deansgate, listen to the podcast and of course buy the book which is available online, from the publishers and of course our own Chorlton Book Shop.

The Rylands Library, Deansgate, 2002

Location; Stretford and lots of other places

Pictures; Longford Hall, 1914 from the series Longford Park, issued by Tuck and Sons, courtesy of Tuck DB, http://tuckdb.org/, and the Ryland' Library, 2004, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Juliette Tomlinson talks about her debut novel, Longford on Spoken Label with Andy Npoet, February 2025, https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/juliette-tomlinson-spoken-label-february-2025/id1501847969?i=1000688945139