Lois Entwistle.

I’m from Greater Manchester. I currently live there in a little flat I bought. I was in Norwich for 5

years working as a facilitator and director. Just before I moved North in 2020 to be an Arts

Coordinator for a youth charity, I did a stint at Norwich Theatre. My background is in Devised

Theatre and Literature. I “grew up” at Oldham Theatre Workshop where theatre and performance is

kind of learned and absorbed inside and out and the passion for creating just never left really.

I did my degrees at De Montfort University (English and Performing Arts) and University of

Manchester (Post 1900 Literatures, Theories and Cultures – If it sounds niche, it’s because it kind of

was!) I’m obsessed with Pre-Code Hollywood movies. I’m fascinated by the numerous portrayals of

women seeking independence and a place in the modern world at a time when the odds were -

maybe not more, but certainly more openly – rigged against them. I find it equally fascinating that

those portrayals began to recede with the advent of the Hays Code, (don’t get me started on female

directors, there’s not enough time!)

Other things about me? I’m a published poet! Some of my work was used as part of a play about

mental health conditions and how they manifest. I got to see it and be part of a panel at the Acting

Centre in London. That was cool to be part of! I’ve stepped away from facilitating and I’m starting to

focus on creating and writing more. Hopefully I’ll be able to do some interesting stuff for Rrramble.

So, thanks for having me!

Your ultimate desert island disc track:

Oh boy, I struggle with these! *Deep breath* OK I’ve got it!

'Lady Grinning Soul' by David Bowie. Now let me move on before I change my mind again!

If you had to be locked inside one gallery overnight, which one would it be and why?

I’m fighting between the Louvre in Paris and the Uffizi in Florence. What it comes down to, I

suppose, is which place felt more like home… Because art shouldn’t alienate, I think. It shows you

belonging; makes you feel less alone; shows you something about yourself that maybe you didn’t

know… Or adds something to you that you didn’t have before, even if you didn’t know it was

missing.

I think the Uffizi. The Birth of Venus looked even better than the photographs and I never got enough

time with her. She’s the one I miss… And no one made me feel like I had to get out of the way and

move on, everyone was happy to just… stand and look. Conversely, I felt too afraid to sit down in the

Louvre, everything moved so fast! It’s not the Louvre’s fault of course! I just get that way about

places.

If you could have written one play / novel / poem / song, what would it be and why?

When I started to do my dissertation as an undergraduate, I read E.M. Forster’s first published novel,

Where Angels Fear To Tread (1905). If I could have picked one piece I wish I could have written I

think it would be that book. I picked it because, to me, it possesses the articulacy and frustration of

one who is forced to subvert their entire identity and channels it as rage barely contained by the

pages, into literature. I like it because it was written before the author learned to please a crowd, so

it’s not as polite or enticing as Howards End (1910) or A Room With A View (1908). Though I’ve

been told that puts some people off it, I think those later novels – while still great - seem pat the

reader on the head with a bit of humour to sweeten the criticisms of the carefully cultivated social

values of the English Middle-Class: hubris; conformity to the point of mediocrity; classism; the

shameless pride it takes in colonialism and “empire.”

Where Angels Fear To Tread doesn’t do that. It slaps them across the face and paints those values as

murderous and insane. And it does it directly and literally. I found it brave and moving. It was the

first book I cried when I read… So yes, to be able to create a moment like that for a reader like me

(who didn’t like reading until they read this book!) – that is something I should wish to have

achieved.

Who would play you in the film of your life?

Oh, I’d love it to be a young Julie Walters. She might see what I’m trying / struggling to do and get

what it’s about, especially with that ‘Educating Rita’ stuff and all. I’d like to think she’d get it – rather

than laugh and say “what the hell is this girl trying to do???”

What is a poem you can recite on demand?

‘Shun the rich, they’re shameless sods

strutting about like little gods,

Loathing poverty, the soul

of temperance and self-control.’ – Tony Harrison