Literary Calendar
Events for February 2014
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Granta 126: Olivia Laing and Jonny Steinberg with Gaby WoodGranta 126: Olivia Laing and Jonny Steinberg with Gaby Wood
February 4, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
In the new issue of Granta, writers remember, or invent, scenes from their own lives and the lives of others, exploring the textures of memory and loss, recovery and invention. to celebrate the launch of Granta 126: Do You Remembercontributors Olivia Laing and Jonny Steinberg discuss their work in the issue, with Daily Telegraph Literary Editor [&hellip |
Rob Delaney in conversation with Hadley Freeman, FoylesRob Delaney in conversation with Hadley Freeman, Foyles
February 5, 2014 @ 6:30 pm
Provocative, flirtatious, frequently filthy and downright aggravating (if your name’s Mitt Romney), Rob Delaney is the funniest man on Twitter (not our words, but those of Comedy Central). When he’s not entertaining millions by publicly teasing celebrities and big corporations, he’s also a passionately vocal supporter of women’s rights, gun control and universal healthcare, writing [&hellip |
Rob Delaney at King’s PlaceRob Delaney at King’s Place
February 6, 2014 @ 8:00 pm
With over 1 million followers, he has been named one of the funniest people on Twitter and is known as one of America’s most brilliant stand-ups, a regular at the top US comedy venues, and for appearances on shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Conan. Rob will be performing a stand-up gig. He will also read short [&hellip |
James Wood, LRB Winter LecturesJames Wood, LRB Winter Lectures
February 7, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
James Wood explores the estrangement of voluntary emigration: the puzzling sense of losing the country you leave and failing to find another. Homelessness, in a word. James Wood is Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard. His books include four collections of critical essays, of which the latest is The Fun Stuff, and a novel, The [&hellip |
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A.L. Kennedy at Hidden Prologues with Sam Leith, BloomsburyA.L. Kennedy at Hidden Prologues with Sam Leith, Bloomsbury
February 10, 2014 @ 6:45 pm
A. L. Kennedy is the author of six novels, five short story collections and three works of non-fiction. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a regular contributor to the Guardian Online Blog. She has twice been selected as one of Granta’s [&hellip |
Essie Fox, Samantha Ellis, Ben Johncock, Anna Whitwham at Drink, Shop, Do, Kings CrossEssie Fox, Samantha Ellis, Ben Johncock, Anna Whitwham at Drink, Shop, Do, Kings Cross
February 11, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Essie Fox, Samantha Ellis, Ben Johncock, Anna Whitwham will be reading from their upcoming books at Drink, Shop, Do in Kings Cross. Essie Fox is the author of gothic Victorian novels The Goddess And The Thief, Elijah’s Mermaid, and The Somnambulist, all published by Orion. Samantha Ellis is the author of How To Be A Heroine - read [&hellip |
Whale Cultures: Philip Hoare and Jessica Sarah Rinland, with John Burton, LRBWhale Cultures: Philip Hoare and Jessica Sarah Rinland, with John Burton, LRB
February 12, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
To mark the paperback publication of Samuel Johnson Prize-winning author Philip ‘Leviathan’ Hoare’s acclaimed new book The Sea Inside, we present an evening exploring the wondrous world of whales. One of our best non-fiction writers and a fine broadcaster, Hoare wrote and presented the BBC Arena film The Hunt for Moby-Dick and directed three films [&hellip On Penelope Fitzgerald with Susannah Clapp, Alan Hollinghurst, Penelope LivelyOn Penelope Fitzgerald with Susannah Clapp, Alan Hollinghurst, Penelope Lively
February 12, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
‘I am drawn to people who seem to have been born defeated,’ Penelope Fitzgerald once wrote. She considered herself one of these, and despite great early promise lived much of her life in drudgery and near destitution. Then, in her late 50s, she began to write. Over the next two decades, she not only published [&hellip Discovering People: Alain de Botton, RGSDiscovering People: Alain de Botton, RGS
February 12, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Bestselling author of books on love, art, travel, religion, architecture, current affairs and literature, Alain de Botton will discuss his ‘philosophy of everyday life’ with Martine Croxall (BBC). Join us for this thought-provoking conversation.Bestselling author of books on love, art, travel, religion, architecture, current affairs and literature, Alain de Botton will discuss his ‘philosophy of [&hellip |
Alain de Botton on The News, Daunt Books, MaryleboneAlain de Botton on The News, Daunt Books, Marylebone
February 13, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Alain de Botton discusses his latest book The News (all reviews). He suggests that we invest the news with an authority and importance which used to be the preserve of religion – but what does it do for us? Mixing current affairs with philosophical reflections, de Botton offers a brilliant illustrated guide to the precautions [&hellip |
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A Finger in the Fishes Mouth: The Legacy of Derek JarmanA Finger in the Fishes Mouth: The Legacy of Derek Jarman
February 19, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author Derek Jarman died on 19 February 1994. To mark the 20th anniversary of his death, we will be hosting an evening of readings and discussion. Our focus for the evening will be a little-known part of Jarman’s work, his poetry, and in particular the volume A Finger in [&hellip Margaret Atwood in conversation with Peter Kemp, RSLMargaret Atwood in conversation with Peter Kemp, RSL
February 19, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Margaret Atwood began writing poetry in high school, and the most thrilling moment of her writing career was the publication of her first poem: ‘I mean, all the other things that have happened since then were a thrill, but that was the biggest.’ She has gone on to publish 19 collections of poetry, as well [&hellip |
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Toby Litt, Alex Preston, Holly Dawson at Waterstones PiccadillyToby Litt, Alex Preston, Holly Dawson at Waterstones Piccadilly
February 22, 2014 @ 6:00 pm
Don’t miss an unforgettable evening of readings and conversation in the company of Toby Litt, our Word Factory mentor Alex Preston and his apprentice Holly Dawson, at Waterstones’ flagship store in Piccadilly, Europe’s largest bookstore — brilliant fiction and a free glass of wine. Book tickets |
Alain de Botton, Kings PlaceAlain de Botton, Kings Place
February 23, 2014 @ 12:30 pm - 5:00 pm
The News: A User’s Manual looks at the peculiar place that ‘the news’ occupies in our lives. De Botton notes that we invest it with an authority which used to be the preserve of religion. But what does it do for us? Mixing current affairs with philosophy, de Botton offers a guide to the precautions we should take [&hellip |
Alison Macleod on Unexploded, Kings PlaceAlison Macleod on Unexploded, Kings Place
February 24, 2014 @ 5:30 pm
Brighton, summer 1940. Fear of invasion brings unspoken desires to the surface as a middle-class English family anxiously awaits news. Geoffrey falls in love with a prostitute he suspects is a Jew; Evelyn is attracted to a ‘degenerate’ German-Jewish painter held in an internment camp. An exploration of chaos and xenophobia in an ordinary town, Unexploded was [&hellip 5×15: Mike Figgis, Lisa Dwan, Melvyn Bragg, Sophie Hannah, Joe Klein5×15: Mike Figgis, Lisa Dwan, Melvyn Bragg, Sophie Hannah, Joe Klein
February 24, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Mike Figgis, Lisa Dwan, Melvyn Bragg, Sophie Hannah, Joe Klein at the Tabernacle. Book tickets/more information Robert Harris on An Officer and a Spy, Kings PlaceRobert Harris on An Officer and a Spy, Kings Place
February 24, 2014 @ 8:30 pm
An Officer and a Spy is Robert Harris‘s compelling recreation of the Dreyfus Affair, a scandal that became the most famous miscarriage of justice in history. Compelling, too, are the echoes for our modern world: an intelligence agency gone rogue, justice corrupted in the name of national security, a newspaper witch-hunt of a persecuted minority, and the [&hellip |
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Jane Austen VS Emily Brontë with John Mullan and Kate Mosse, Royal Geographic SocietyJane Austen VS Emily Brontë with John Mullan and Kate Mosse, Royal Geographic Society
February 26, 2014 @ 6:45 pm
Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England – a landscape of Palladian mansions and handsome parsonages, peopled by rigidly-divided classes. No writer matches Austen’s sensitive ear for the hypocrisy and irony lurking beneath the genteel conversation. Never has a novelist written comic prose with such subtlety and restraint. If you want to understand [&hellip Julie Burchill on Unchosen with Tanya Gold, Kings PlaceJulie Burchill on Unchosen with Tanya Gold, Kings Place
February 26, 2014 @ 8:30 pm
At 14 Julie Burchill fell in love. Not with a boy, but “with a whole race of people – the Jews”. The journalist and novelist has been learning Hebrew and even chose Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, as her single record choice for Desert Island Discs. Unchosen, which will be published next spring through crowdfunding, [&hellip |
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld at RIBAAmy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld at RIBA
February 27, 2014 @ 6:30 pm
Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld will be discussing their new book The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success at the Royal Institute of British Architects More information/book tickets Ruby Wax on Sane New World with Kathy Lette, Kings PlaceRuby Wax on Sane New World with Kathy Lette, Kings Place
February 27, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
he comedian and “poster girl for mental illness” launches the paperback of Sane New World, a manual for living with less everyday frenzy. In an upfront and compassionate style, Wax uses her experience of depression and study of neuroscience to explore how the mind works. Everyone can rewire their thinking, she says, using mindfulness techniques among [&hellip Sheila Heti and Gary Shteyngart at BOOKSLAM, The TabernacleSheila Heti and Gary Shteyngart at BOOKSLAM, The Tabernacle
February 27, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
We greet the penultimate evening of February and its wilfully controversial 28th day conclusion with an event so hip it looks back at us with contempt and, through a fug of smoke from its Gitanes, remarks, ‘You callin’ me hip, daddio? Even usin’ that vocab make you sound like a moldy fig right there.’ Quite. [&hellip |
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Sheila Heti, Christian Lorentzen, LRBGideon Lewis-Kraus, Sheila Heti, Christian Lorentzen, LRB
February 28, 2014 @ 7:00 pm
Gideon Lewis-Kraus’s memoir A Sense of Direction is an account of three pilgrimages – the Camino de Santiago, a tour of Buddhist temples on the island of Shikoku, and a journey to the tomb of a Hasidic Rabbi in the Ukraine – undertaken in the wake of a family crisis. Gideon will be at the [&hellip Isabella and the Aristocracy, Somerset HouseIsabella and the Aristocracy, Somerset House
February 28, 2014 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Isabella Blow was the eldest child of the 12th Baronet of Broughton.The tragic death of her brother at the age of two left the family without an heir to the 300 year-old title, and led Isabella into new and uncharted territory in a choice of career in her adult life. Even today, the aristocracy still [&hellip |