New novel keeps alive the legacy of late author Ian

Bright Sari in a Darkened Street - Ian Emberson
Author, Ian Emberson is pictured at the Bear Cafe, Todmorden with his new book, "Yorkshire Lives and Landscapes".Author, Ian Emberson is pictured at the Bear Cafe, Todmorden with his new book, "Yorkshire Lives and Landscapes".
Author, Ian Emberson is pictured at the Bear Cafe, Todmorden with his new book, "Yorkshire Lives and Landscapes".

And Bright Sari In A Darkened Street also brings back into focus late Calder Valley writer Ian Emberson.

The novel is one of a number of unpublished works Ian left behind when he died suddenly five years ago, and readers who enjoyed his work will be pleased to hear there may be more to come.

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A former music librarian in Huddersfield, Ian took early retirement to concentrate on writing and painting around the time the book, which tells the tale of how aspiring artist Miles meets spirited and enchanting Kavita and is drawn into a teenage relationship that crosses physical and cultural divides, is set.

24 June 2005...Bronte sister letters. story.....Ian and Catherine Emberson, pictured at Todmorden. Story Jayne Dawson.24 June 2005...Bronte sister letters. story.....Ian and Catherine Emberson, pictured at Todmorden. Story Jayne Dawson.
24 June 2005...Bronte sister letters. story.....Ian and Catherine Emberson, pictured at Todmorden. Story Jayne Dawson.

Moving to Todmorden after meeting his wife-to-be Catherine in 1988, Bronte Society life member Ian’s published works include several volumes of poetry, novel-in-verse Pirouette of Earth, Pilgrims From Loneliness, which is a literary criticism of Charlotte Bronte still sold in the Haworth Parsonage bookshop, the e-book The Zig-Zag Path and evocative autobiographical Yorkshire Lives And Landscapes.

His play Cockerel Crowing Dawn, based on the life of composer Mussorgsky, was performed at Bradford Playhouse in 1996, and in a Dalesman article about Ian broadcaster Ian McMillan wrote about how Emberson had encouraged younger writers including himself and Simon Armitage through poetry events he organised in Huddersfield when he was secretary of Kirklees Arts Council in the 1970s.

Bright Sari In a Darkened Street takes its title from an earlier poem and a chapter on Huddersfield’s Hindu community in Yorkshire Lives And Landscapes, but this is prose fiction which adds a further dimension to his writing, much of the book set in winter but infused with a warmth his readership will recognise well.

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Ian’s wife Catherine says she hopes publication of Bright Sari is a first step in the posthumous promotion of his legacy. Priced at £7.99, Bright Sari In A Darkened Street is available from his website www.ianemberson.co.uk and bookshops.