Index of interviews by Frances Noble
(aka Thea Abbott) in Spiked
In 1996 a group of friends who had just completed an MA course at the University of East Anglia co-operated to produce Spiked, a magazine which would feature articles, interviews, poetry, fiction, photography and art predominantly by people living and working in East Anglia. The very first issue was produced as part of the MA course itself, but from then on the magazine was produced and marketed by the group on a voluntary basis. The original editors were Pamela Mulloy, Liz Hollis and Thea Abbott. Art Direction and Design were provided by Robert Loughridge and the Web-editor was David Van Edwards. Liz Hollis soon left the team because of pressure of work and Thea and Pamela welcomed Darren Mulloy as Copy Editor.
With an impressive list of contributors - Tom Paulin, George Szirtes, Andrew Motion, Roger Deakin, Ali Smith, Andrew Cowan, Richard Holmes, Peter Morgan, Ben Rice and Michèle Roberts among them, it was truly a magazine to be proud of and deserved a longer life. We managed to keep Spiked afloat for 16 issues, but eventually the financial burden became too great. We all had full-time jobs, Arts Council Funding dried up, we were unable to spend enough time and effort on marketing the magazine and it was with great regret in 2005 we decided to stop publication.
Each issue (except issue 15) carried an interview with an artist, maker or craftsman who lived and worked in Norfolk or Suffolk. Published under the by-line “Frances Noble” they were in fact written by Thea Abbott. Click on each artist's name to read about them and their work.
