Literary Calendar
Events for April 28, 2014 through May 20, 2014
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Auden And Us with Alexander McCall Smith and Edward Mendelson, Courtauld
W.H. Auden once called poetry “a way of happening”, and in his own work the way was a marvellous one, striking a deep, popular chord. His “Funeral Blues” provides the only moment of gravity in Four Weddings and a Funeral; “September 1, 1939” was faxed around New York in the aftermath of 9/11. For Alexander McCall Smith, creator of the bestselling No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, Auden has for many years acted as a kind of invisible moral tutor, informing his responses&hellip
5×15, The Tabernacle
Charmian Gooch, Akhil Sharma, Miranda Carter, Henry Marsh, Ian McEwan at 5×15 More information
Philip Hensher on The Emperor Waltz, Southbank Centre
Philip Hensher reads from his new novel The Emperor Waltz. The Emperor Waltz is described by the author as ‘a big, camp epic about books, AIDS, boyfriends, money, political protest and the importance of not having your bathroom suite in avocado.’ Hensher is joined by Rebecca Chance, LaJohn Joseph, Kiki Archer and Sophie Ward. Paul Burston’s celebrated Polari salon provides a platform for new and emerging LGBT literary talent and showcases the very best in queer writing More information  
Akhil Sharma with David Sedaris
Akhil Sharma was born in Delhi in 1971 and moved to the US at the age of eight. His first novel An Obedient Father (2001) won him a PEN/Hemingway prize, a Whiting Award, and praise from the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Joyce Carol Oates. Now, more than a decade later, Akhil will be at the shop to read from and talk about his second novel Family Life (Faber). Lorin Stein wrote of it in the Paris Review: ‘With acid, deceptively artless prose and a faultless&hellip
Deyan Sudjic on B is for Bauhaus, Daunt’s Marylebone
Director of the Design Museum, Deyan Sudjic, will be in conversation with Stephen Bayley, author and design critic, as they consider the modern world through the lens of design. All reviews for B is for Bauhaus. More information
The Royal Society and science fiction
Farah Mendlesohn is head of department for English, Communication, Film and Media at Anglia Ruskin University. The lone (mad) scientist is a common trope in science fiction, but hidden away is a fascination with secret and semi-secret societies who work for the future of all mankind. This talk will look at the representation of the Royal Society in science fiction and fantasy as fact, fantasy and metaphor. More information here
Irvine Welsh with Alex Clark, Southbank Centre
The launch of Irvine Welsh’s new novel. Featuring murder, depravity and revenge – and enormous amounts of food and sex - The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins taps into two great obsessions of our time – how we look and where we live – and tells a story so subversive and dark it blacks out the Florida sun. Irvine Welsh is in conversation with Alex Clark. More information
Louise Doughty on okapis, London Zoo
ZSL conservation scientists and keepers team up with leading writers to talk about the animals in ZSL London Zoo. Alongside the animals, the writers speak imaginatively about their responses to them and ZSL’s experts talk about their ecology and conservation. The audience will be able to ask questions of author, scientist and keeper and have books signed over a glass of wine. These unique evenings will be held within the animal houses of ZSL London Zoo. Louise Doughty Louise Doughty&hellip
Neel Mukherjee on The Lives of Others, Southbank Centre
Neel Mukherjee reads from his powerful new book, The Lives of Others. Set in Calcutta in 1967, it tells the story of Supratik, who has become dangerously involved in extremist political activity, compelled by an idealistic desire to change his life and the world around him. All he leaves behind him is a note. For the launch of The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee reads and talks about the story of Supratik’s family; a family unraveling as the society around it fractures.&hellip
Val McDermid on crime fiction, Kings Place
Crime Writer Val McDermid and Group Analyst Sue Einhorn explore the world of crime fiction where human taboos of murder, incest, violence are broken and the human struggle with mortality is violently exposed. Award-winning crime writer Val McDermid is the founder and life force behind the Harrogate Crime Festival and is a powerful, fascinating presence in her own right. Her first novel was published in 1987. Today she is a No. 1 bestseller, translated into more than 30 languages, with over two million copies&hellip
Changing Sexual Mores with Shereen El Feki, Asia House
Sex is entwined with religion, tradition, gender and politics across Asia. It makes the perfect lens for examining the region’s complex social landscape. This evening, we take a serious but illuminating look at dating, love, marriage, divorce and LGBT culture in the Middle East, India and Pakistan. Shereen El Feki works on issues related to health and social welfare in the Arab region — including intimate attitudes toward sexual (and political) freedoms, as explored in her book, Sex and the Citadel. She has&hellip
John Keay on Midnight’s Descendants, Asia House
If British India had not been partitioned in 1947, its population would today be the world’s largest. At around 1.5 billion, midnight’s descendants South Asians already outnumber Europeans and Chinese; and they are growing faster than either. They comprise all the peoples of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Midnight’s Descendants: South Asia from Partition to the Present Day is the first history of the region as a whole. Correlating and contrasting the fortunes of all the constituent nations over&hellip
Orlando Figes on Revolutionary Russia 1891-1991, Daunt’s Marylebone
The problem of Russia dominated the 20th century. Perhaps the finest modern historian of Russia tells the story in an illuminating short history. More information
Ben Macintyre on A Spy Among Friends, Daunt’s Marylebone
Ben Macintyre on A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. Philby’s two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone, and then discovered they had not known him at all. This&hellip
An evening with Jerry White, Waterstone’s Piccadilly
The historian will be discussing Zeppelin Nights: London in the First World War looking at the dramatic changes WW1 brought and the intrinsic determination and character of Londoners. Event is free, but please reserve your place by contacting piccadilly@waterstones.com or the store on 0207 851 2400.  
Bloomsbury Book Club with Lynn Barber
Britain’s greatest and most ferocious interviewer, Lynn Barber, takes to the Bloomsbury stage to discuss A Curious Career, her new memoir of her life as an interviewer with Geoff Colman. A nosy child, Lynn Barber questioned everyone she knew about imitate details of their lives. She became the most famous celebrity interviewer with an unusual lack of the English fear of social embarrassment. She discusses the highs and lows of her early career at Penthouse where she started out interviewing foot fetishists, voyeurs, dominatrices and men&hellip
New Pan-Asian Fiction, Asia House
A special preview of three new novels before they are published. Romesh Gunesekera will talk about Noontide Toll, a collection of stories which reveal a Sri Lanka moving forward after nearly 3 decades of conflict. Xialou Guo is one of Granta’s 2013 Best Young Authors. Her new novel, I Am China, is the story of young lovers separated during the Jasmine Revolution. Roopa Farooki’s The Good Children is a landmark epic of the South Asian immigrant experience, set in Pakistan, England and the US. Originally from Sri&hellip
Michael Schmidt and Michael Wood on the novel, LRB
Quoting from the letters, diaries, reviews, and essays of novelists and drawing on their biographies, Schmidt’s The Novel – A Biography (Harvard) invites us into the creative dialogues between authors and between books, and suggests how these dialogues have shaped the development of the novel in English. Michael Schmidt is professor of Poetry at Glasgow University and a writer in residence as St. John’s College, Cambridge; he will be in conversation with Michael Wood, author and regular contributor to the London Review of&hellip