Dom Nolan: From Filmmaking Dreams to Novelist Realities
Manage episode 467179690 series 3428806
Ever wonder how detailed research can ignite a writer's imagination while crafting tales from the annals of history? Join our conversation with the gifted author Dom Nolan as he uncovers the magic behind writing historical fiction set against London's vivid past. Listen in as Dom dispels myths about the rigidity of planning in storytelling, offering a fresh perspective on the intricate dance between creativity and historical accuracy and insights behind his new novel, White City.
Through Dom’s story, we explore the unpredictable nature of creative careers and the resilience needed to navigate them, showing how each hurdle, including writing unpublishable novels, became a stepping stone toward eventual success. We also lift the veil on the evolving and often perplexing landscape of the publishing industry, where trust and timing can elevate a book's journey.
It's 1952, and London is victorious but broken, a city of war ruins and rationing, run by gangsters and black-market spivs.
An elaborate midnight heist, the biggest robbery in British history, sends newspapers into a frenzy. Politicians are furious, the police red-faced. They have suspicions but no leads. Hunches but no proof.
For two families, it is more than just a sensational headline, as their fathers fail to return home on the day of the robbery.
Young Addie Rowe, daughter of a missing Jamaican postman and drunk ex-club hostess mother, struggles to care for her little sister in a dilapidated Brixton rooming house.
Claire Martin, increasingly resentful of roads not taken, strives to make the rent and keep her teenage son Ray from falling under unsavoury influences in Notting Dale.
She finds herself caught between the interests of dangerous men who may know the truth behind her husband's disappearance: Dave Lander, whose reserved nature she finds difficult to reconcile with his reputation as a violent gang enforcer, and Teddy 'Mother' Nunn, a sociopathic, evangelising outlaw and top lieutenant in Billy Hill's underworld.
Drawn together through the years in the city's invisible web of crime
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Chapters
1. Exploring the Rabbit Hole of Research (00:00:00)
2. Transformative Moments in Creative Careers (00:10:12)
3. Writing Process Reflections (00:17:44)
4. Challenges in Today's Publishing Industry (00:30:23)
5. Navigating Publishing Relationships and Challenges (00:43:44)
6. Film Adaptation Challenges in Prose (00:53:17)
109 episodes