PRESS RELEASE

From Little Northern Books

April 29th 2009

Lancashire’s Forgotten Genius:

Allen Clarke Finally Gets His Recognition

He wrote over twenty novels, corresponded with Thomas Hardy and Tolstoy, and his writing was loved by tens of thousands of Lancashire mill workers. His dialect sketches sold over a million copies and his book on the cotton industry helped to win the campaign against child labour in the mills. His humorous sketches about life in Lancashire’s factories and mines probably helped to win more people to Labour’s cause than the more weighty polemics of his contemporaries. He stood as joint SDF/ILP parliamentary candidate for Rochdale in 1900 and was closely involved in setting up a ‘communist colony’ near Blackpool in 1903. He was loved by thousands of his working class readers in Lancashire and Yorkshire, yet he is virtually forgotten today.

A new book aims to redress this. Lancashire’s Romantic Radical: the life and writings of Allen Clarke/Teddy Ashton is both an introduction to his life, spanning the years 1863 to 1935, and an outline of his work covering the novels, plays and short stories, poetry, political and philosophical writings – and his love of cycling. He was an environmentalist decades before the term was invented, wanting to ‘dust the soot off the petals of the Red Rose’ as he put it in his novel ‘Driving’.

Allen Clarke was born in Bolton in 1863 and went to work in the mills at the age of 11. He fought his way into journalism after working as a pupil teacher. He set up Lancashire’s first labour newspaper in 1890 – ‘The Labour Light’. He settled in Blackpool in 1905, becoming Lancashire’s most well-loved writer, with a penchant for humour with a radical cutting edge. Clarke’s newspaper ‘Teddy Ashton’s Northern Weekly’ was read by thousands of cotton workers and their families who loved his ‘Tum Fowt’ dialect sketches. He wrote lovingly of the Lancashire moors and of the Fylde countryside, which he christened ‘Windmill Land’

He promoted the work of many working class Lancashire writers who came together in Rochdale in 1909 to create the body which became the Lancashire Authors Association. Clarke was the first Chairman.

‘Allen Clarke was one of the most fascinating figures in Northern literature – he wrote over 20 novels, published a weekly newspaper, wrote poetry, philosophy and children’s sketches,’ said Paul. ‘His book on the cotton industry – The Effects of the Factory System was translated into Russian by Leo Tolstoy. His book on spiritualism and philosophy, The Eternal Question, was admired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lancashire’s Romantic Radical introduces a new generation of Lancastrians to Allen Clarke’s life and work. Much of what he had to say about life, politics and the environment are as relevant now as they were in his own time.’

The large format (8.25” x 8.25”) illustrated book will be available from May 15th at a price of £15 plus £2.50 post and packing. There will be a public launch of the book at 3 pm on May 15th in Bolton Central Library, with a talk on Clarke’s life and his relevance for today.

It is available only from Little Northern Books at 90a Radcliffe Road, Golcar, Huddersfield HD7 4EZ www.littlenorthernbooks.co.uk

The author and Little Northern Books Paul (56) is sole proprietor of Little Northern Books which has recently published ‘Northern Rail Heritage’ and ‘With Walt Whitman in Bolton’. In his day job he is Head of Government and Community Strategies at Northern Rail. He hails from Bolton and lives in the Colne Valley near Huddersfield. www.littlenorthernbooks.co.uk