Voices

by Sarah Dobbs, Mark Ellis, Sarah Hilary

The Voices anthology was created to embrace all of the diversity and excitement that Blackburn has to offer. This collection comprises fiction, poetry and life-writing but definitions regardless, they are all stories about the town by people who have lived in, worked at and known it. Another aim of the anthology was to allow all types of writers to work together and to show that writing has a place in everyone’s life. You don’t have to consider yourself a writer to be able to write. You don’t need an MA in Creative Writing or to be a published novelist to see the positive impact of writing on your life. You don’t need permission. We can all write our stories and we all have something important to say, whether that’s our memories of growing up to pass on to our families, a best-selling novel or prize-winning poem, or observations for our own personal notebooks.

To that end, this collection will tell you all sorts of stories. It will take you from real-life reminiscences of growing up, to poetry describing the beautiful sites and memories – some tough and gritty – that Blackburn has given our writers, to current experiences of what life is like now.

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 14, 2011

About the author

Sarah Dobbs has a PhD in Creative Writing. Her novel Killing Daniel was published by Unthank Books in November 2012. Previous work has been broadcast on the BBC, read at Bolton Octagon and published by SWAMP, NAWE and Flax. She is co-authoring a text book for Anthem Press and is also co-founder of Creative Writing the Artists's Way. Her short story Hachiko was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Praise for Killing Daniel:

Shock and Circumstance – by Max Dunbar: 3AM Magazine

This is a very dark and frightening novel, told in short chapters and brief sentences, that pass like the shivers of bad dreams.

Crime Fiction Lover - Marina Sofia

This book starts off with a bang – one of the most gripping opening chapters I’ve read in a while. It captures perfectly that sense of nightmare-ish unease and fear which the two main protagonists experience throughout the book. Dark, overcast, the sensation of drowning permeates the whole book, not just the first chapter.

A gritty, unusual thriller that will appeal to fans of both literary fiction and Japanese noir. I hope that Sarah Dobbs will continue to write in this vein.


Doctors of Fiction – @ Book Oxygen by Dr Cath Nichols

There is literary depth in the novel’s portrayals of Fleur, the heroine in Britain, and Chinatsu in Japan. Both women have unusual relationships with men and their sex lives are an important part of the narrative; prostitution and sado-masochism enter the mix.

A gripping read that has real emotional depth.


Lancashire Writing Hub – John Rutter

Somewhere between the contrasting cultures there is another space, that uncertain place where hopes and dreams and the real world meet, a place where a memory might be imagined or idealised.

If you enjoy complex and interesting literary fiction that asks questions about the human condition or if you just want to read a cracking thriller, then read Killing Daniel.

A Lover of Books

This is a superbly written book. It is fast paced and very gripping. Within the first few pages I was hooked and when I wasn’t reading it I found myself thinking about the characters and the storyline. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next.

Our Book Reviews

Dobbs creates complex characters in whom the reader can believe and whose pain the reader shares. . . a thought-provoking debut novel.

An absorbing literary thriller – Amazon

Killing Daniel is a beautifully written, exciting book. The story takes place in parallel worlds – Tokyo and Manchester – and Dobbs handles the shifts in time and geography with skill and precision. Her prose is beautiful and pacey. I stayed up past midnight to read the final chapters and, as the book hurtled toward its dramatic close,

Novel Stuff

Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of Killing Daniel is Dobbs’ engagement with her themes: communication, memory, and femininity. This novel appears to have been written for a PhD in creative writing, so one might expect a cerebral aspect to the book, but Dobbs pulls it off with aplomb, and never at the expense of readability.

Clover Hill Book Reviews

Killing Daniel unflinchingly tackles gritty issues such as domestic violence, child abuse, morality and murder, as well as life choices, relationships and friendships.

Praise or Hachiko in Unthology #3

Bookmunch - by Fran Slater

Sarah Dobbs’s ‘Hachiko’ occurs in a Japan recovering from the recent tsunami. The protagonist is a young man whose girlfriend was working in the Fukushima Nuclear Plant that was at the centre of the natural disaster, and the story unfolds as he considers a recent adulterous tryst whilst he waits to hear news of her safety. This story plays with ideas of guilt and grief, and highlights the way feelings for a person can alter when it seems they have suddenly been taken away.

I’ll be surprised if I read a better anthology all year.

Rum and Reviews

Sarah Dobbs and Mischa Hiller offer two compact tales, Hachiko and