Authors at Bath Spa; Meeting Nathan Filer

What is the best thing about studying in a university known as the best place to study creative writing? 

Well one of the many answers is the opportunity to meet authors/ play writers/ poets/ bloggers and anything else you could possibly imagine. 

So far I have met the most amazing people who have succeed in the creative writing world and were happy to share their stories with us. I wanted to share my stories of meeting them with you guys. 

I met my biggest influence in terms of writing and just one of my favourite people Nathan Filer about two weeks ago now. 

More about Nathan- Nathan Filer is a writer and lecturer in Creative Writing. (guess where?!?!) 

His stand-up poetry has been a regular fixture at festivals and spoken-word events across the UK, and has been broadcast on BBC 3 television and radio 4, 7 and 5 Live. He is also a BBC Best New Filmmaker and holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.

The Shock of The Fall; 

WINNER OF THE COSTA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2013 

'I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that.' 

Debut novel about one man's descent into mental illness, following the death of his brother in childhood. Filer is a mental health nurse with a unique and startling insight into mental illness, and this book highlights a much-neglected subject.

I gave this the highest possible rating and then some! My review that was published back in May 2014 (that's so long ago!!) This is just a bit from my review, you can see the whole review by clicking the link!

Every single word that I say about this book, for me does not do it justice. There will be people out there that have read a much better story, that were gripped by another author's words more than Nathan's, and there will be people that might even hate this book and want to burn it. But for me this book was amazing. Just thinking about the words that I read and the story and Matthew's past was brilliant. I cried and I laughed and I wanted to hold Matthew's poor mother because she lost a little boy and then she lost her teenage son to a mental illness and had to visit him in a hospital. My heart broke for her.

I sneakily filmed Nathan reading a chapter from his book, it just so happened to include one of my favourite lines in the novel; it's at the very end!

Before creating one of the best books I have experienced Nathan was a poet and created something that not only made me laugh but admire him more as a person. PS nothing will ever compare to seeing his face while watching about 30 undergraduates watching this.