Literary Calendar
Events for August 8, 2014 through September 28, 2014
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H is for Hawk: Helen Macdonald and Tim Dee
Helen Macdonald and Tim Dee will be at the shop to talk about birds, and about writing about birds. Radio producer Tim Dee propelled himself into the front rank of British nature writing in 2009 with his remarkable birdwatching memoir The Running Sky, followed in 2013 by Four Fields. Helen Macdonald, writer, poet, naturalist, conservationist, historian and some-time falconer, has recently published H is for Hawkwhich recounts how, under the literary tutelage of T.H. White and in part as a strategy for overcoming personal grief, she&hellip
Book Slam East, York Hall Bethnal Green
Good evening fight fans! Tonight, Book Slam heads to iconic East London boxing venue, York Hall, for the most anticipated heavyweight contest in recent memory and twelve rounds (probably) of high calibre literary sparring. In the blue corner, we have internationally renowned storyteller, one-time street brawler, drug dealer, convict, Chicago Golden Glove Champion, bull runner and author of ‘The Old Neighborhood‘, BILL HILLMANN. In the red corner, please make some noise for guitarist from The Slits, punk legend and author of&hellip
Divine Comedy: Tom Pickard and Philip Terry at the LRB Bookshop
In an exciting poetry double bill, Tom Pickard and Philip Terry will be reading from their latest works. Tom Pickard’s Hoyoot: Collected Poems and Songs was released this year from Carcanet and bears witness to a fifty-year career of lyric, narrative and satiric verse, always politically engaged and permanently open to influences from popular culture and global poetic traditions – Allen Ginsberg called him ‘one of the most live and true poetic voices in Great Britain’. Philip Terry’s new collection Dante’s Inferno (also from Carcanet) relocates the narrative&hellip
David Harsent on African Hunting Dogs, 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 exhibits of ZSL London Zoo. David Harsent: David Harsent has&hellip
Can’t and Won’t: An evening with Lydia Davis
In a rare London appearance Lydia Davis will reading from and discussing her unique body of work. More information
Sarah Walters at the Stylist book club, Holborn
Sarah Walters, the acclaimed author of Tipping The Velvet and Fingersmith will be discussing her sixth novel, The Paying Guests. Set in Twenties London, it focuses on 26-year-old Frances and her widowed mother, who take in lodgers to make ends meet. When Leonard and Lillian Barber move in, Frances begins a friendship that threatens to disrupt the household in ways they never could imagine. The Bookseller has called Waters’ latest novel a “gripping tale of class, sex and the consequences&hellip
Owen Lowery and Poet in the City, Southbank Centre
Owen Lowery performs his poetry, and Poet in the City present great poetry in sign language. Lowery reads from his acclaimed book of poetry Otherwise Unchanged. He is joined by Poet in the City, who take language to new limits withThe Body Electric, a project bringing together poetry and sign. Taking words off the page and performing them live in BSL, celebrated deaf actors bring fresh and surprising new light to classic poems, from Robert Frost to Rabindranath Tagore. These performances&hellip
The Lives of Others: Hilary Mantel and Harriet Walter
In a recent Guardian interview, the actress Harriet Walter reflected on the impossibility of ever really knowing another human being. Yet, like the novelist Hilary Mantel, she has devoted her professional life to inhabiting characters not her own, often historical ones. Walter’s notable roles include Elizabeth I, Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, while Mantel has twice won the Man Booker Prize for her extraordinary portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (all reviews here) – adapted for the stage&hellip
Cavafy with David Constantine & Louis de Bernières, Kings Place
Poet in the City presents a celebration of the life and work of C.P. Cavafy. Exploring some of the fascinating themes arising from his poetry, from the erotic to the historic, this event will celebrate a unique poetic voice. Cavafy was widely regarded as one of the most important poets of the modern age, bringing a bold honesty to the pursuit of pleasure. Poet and translator David Constantine is joined by author and poet Louis de Bernières, in an event which features live poetry&hellip
Literary lunch with Esther Freud, First Story
The author of eight novels, Esther Freud was born in London in 1963. As a young child she traveled through Morocco with her mother and sister, returning to England aged six. In 1979 she moved to London to study Drama, going on to work as an actress, both in theatre and television. Her first novel Hideous Kinky, was published in 1992 and was shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993, after the publication of&hellip
Tom Holland on Asian Lions, 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 exhibits of ZSL London Zoo. Tom Holland Tom Holland&hellip
Laurie Lee Centenary: Valerie Grove in conversation with Geordie Greig
In 1934, a young man walked out of his native village in Gloucestershire, bound for London and eventually Spain, where he was caught up in the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. But the real story of Laurie Lee’s youth was far more romantic than the one he told in his memoirs, Cider With Rosie and As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. The key figure was his mistress and muse, Lorna Wishart — who ultimately broke his heart when she left him&hellip
Antony Beever on D-Day, Soho Literary Festival
Seventy years later, 6th June remains a day etched on the national consciousness. The day we left our island to rid Europe of the Nazi menace. If ever there was a good war, it was this one. ‘We shall fight them on the beaches’ promised Churchill in 1940, but he was referring to the south coast of England – not the northern coast of France. Four years later, Operation Overlord was set in action. Antony Beevor, author of the definitive work D-Day,&hellip
Craig Brown and Friends, Soho Literary Festival
Craig Brown & Friends is back by popular demand, with their own One-Stop Literary Festival, including the prose and poetry of such distinguished authors as Paolo Coelho, Vivienne Westwood, Pippa Middleton and Ed Miliband. His ‘& Friends’ and partners in satirical crime this year include the journalist and author of The Potter’s HandA N Wilson, and author and Oldie theatre critic Paul Bailey. More information
How to be well read with Sam Leith and John Sutherland, Soho Literary Festival
Of Mice and Men or Brighton Rock – which are the 100 must-read novels? With such little spare time, why waste your time reading rubbish? And if you can’t be doing with all this reading malarkey, John Sutherland and Sam Leith will give you a 50-minute bluffers’ guide. Sutherland has read everything from The Golden Ass by Apuleius (AD160, for those of you who don’t know) to Dead Cert by Dick Francis. Sam Leith is a literary critic and the former&hellip
Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse at the Soho Literary Festival
Who better than Stephen Fry, the star of the definitive Nineties TV series Jeeves and Wooster, to tell us all about the nation’s greatest comic writer? Although he died nearly forty years ago, his fantastical world of aunts and the Drones Club is timelessly and relentlessly funny. He wrote more than 90 books, but was also a playwright and lyricist who worked with Cole Porter on Anything Goes. The Englishness of his work might be attributed to his living abroad&hellip
Antonia Fraser talks to Mark Lawson, Soho Literary Festival
Acclaimed biographer and historian Antonia Fraser will be talking to Mark Lawson about her career and life with her husband, Harold Pinter, which she covered in Must you Go? Her most recent history was Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832. The daughter of the historian Elizabeth Longford and Labour peer Frank Longford, wrote her first history, Mary Queen of Scots, in 1969. This was followed by biographies of Cromwell, Charles II, the six wives of Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette.&hellip
Ferdinand Mount and Owen Jones on the class divide, Soho Literary Festival
Thatcher’s speech-writer and a former trade union lobbyist would appear to have nothing in common, but they do: a massive worry that British society has become more polarised than at any time since Magna Carta. Ferdinand Mount, 75, is the author of Mind the Gap and The New Few. Owen Jones, 30, is the author of Chavs. In November 2013 he delivered the Royal Television Society Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture, entitled Totally Shameless: How TV Portrays the Working Class. Christian&hellip
Polari at the Soho Literary Festival
Usually housed at the Southbank Centre with DJs and live entertainment, Polari returns to Soho, following last year’s brilliant performance. Described by the New York Times as ‘London’s most theatrical salon’ and by the Independent as ‘London’s peerless gay literary salon’, Polari – founded by author and journalist Paul Burston – began life in 2007. Howls of laughter could be heard from the auditorium during the Polari Salon last year and we expect nothing less this year. More information
Letter writing with Shaun Usher and Simon Garfield, Soho Literary Festival
When did you last receive a hand-written letter? How many do you receive a month compared with the avalanche of needless texts and snap emails. Something the author had made a point of setting aside proper time to write? ‘Letters have the power to grant us a larger life,’ Garfield says. ‘They reveal motivation and deepen understanding. They are evidential. They change lives, and they rewire history. Simon Garfield’s To the Letter charts the history of the written letter, from the&hellip