Two novels … one author ….. and the continuing story of John and Enriqueta Rylands

We are now into day seven of our Arts Festival with another seven to go, and it just keeps giving, with a variety of different events spanning all the arts.*

I have to say it can be tricky to decide what to go and enjoy given that some evenings a shed load of exciting performances vie with each other.

So far, I have done a play, listened to a musical performance and have reserved several art exhibitions, two photographic exhibitions and a poetry to night to visit.

And last night it was a talk by an author on how she had come to write two novels on the lives of John and Enriqueta Rylands,** he of a vast trading empire and she as the woman who commissioned and saw through the building of the Rylands Library on Deansgate.

The author is Juliette Tomlinson who lives next to the site of Longford Hall where Mr. and Mrs. Rylands lived.

I like meeting authors because it affords the opportunity to explore with them how they came to write their books.

And I was not disappointed last night.  Juliette ranged over the inspiration for the novels, the fascination and at times the grind of researching the factual background, and the ups and downs of which there can be many.

In her case these included losing a section of her first book in the editing which was more than compensated by corresponding with a relative of Enriqueta and sharing a secret about the plight of the two grand Longford chandeliers, which I shall leave for Juliette to recount at a future talk.

Leaving me just to add that the first novel, Longford, came out in 2024, Sunnyside, the second instalment was published last month, and the third is in the process of being written.

Location; Chorlton Arts Festival

Pictures, Two novels … one author ….. and the continuing story of John and Enriqueta Rylands from the collection of Andrew Simpson, 2026

*Chorlton Arts Festival, https://chorltonartsfestival.org/

**Longford, A Manchester love story, 2024, and Sunnyside The Story Continues, 2026 Juliette Tomlinson, The Squeeze Press, are available from Chorlton Bookshop or from The Squeeze Press, www.woodenbooks.com