Sillitoe portrait to be unveiled
A PORTRAIT of writer Alan Sillitoe will be unveiled at the University of Nottingham on Monday.
It has been presented to the university by artist Edward Sellman.
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Nottingham artist Edward Sellman and his portrait of Alan Sillitoe
He painted pictures of Sillitoe after visiting him last year.
The portrait of the author will be unveiled in the foyer of the Dearing Building, on the Jubilee Campus, at 2.30pm.
The campus is built on the former site of the Raleigh bicycle factory.
Sillitoe once worked there and it featured in his most famous novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
There will be a brief talk about the contribution of Sillitoe's work to literature, education and the city. An English literature student will also do a reading.
The work has also been shown at a number of regional exhibitions, including one by the Nottingham Society of Artists.
Mr Sellman is a full-time academic at the University of Nottingham. He teaches and researches issues concerning educational and social theory.
His portraits have included one of American singer Jack Johnson.
Comments
by Grenville Green, Nuthall
Tuesday, January 05 2010, 5:47PM
“Some years ago I had the privilege of meeting Alan Sillitoe, when he was the guest speaker at the Nottingham writers club.
I was the guest of another local writer Dolly Sewell
Alan kindly signed his name and wrote the following from "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" on a drawing of a heron trying to swallow a frog.
"Don't let the b/////ds grind you down."
This drawing just about summed up my life at that time, and too some extent still does.
The frogs head was in the herons beak. But the heron could not swallow the frog, as it had the heron by the throat.
Freedom of the City of Nottingham and now this painting, are well deserved.”