Literary Calendar
Events for September 25, 2014 through October 3, 2014
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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
Jonathan Meades talks to Andrew Billen, Soho Literary Festival
‘My parents didn’t give me anything to rebel against,’ says Jonathan Meades in An Encyclopaedia of Myself. ‘I was denied pretty much all the normal adolescent rites. They didn’t worry about how I dressed. They liked a lot of my friends.’ According to Stephen Fry: ‘No one understands England better than Meades’, and he doesn’t just mean Jonathan’s forensic knowledge of our landscape and architecture, which is showcased in Museum without Walls, but his understanding of the English condition of&hellip
Brian Sewell talks to John Walsh, Soho Literary Festival
Brian Sewell is the one of the UK’s foremost art critics. Renowned for his acerbic tongue and quick wit, his disdain for contemporary art and his love of dogs, he joins the literary festival to talk about his memoirs The Outsider: Always Almost: Never Quite, and its sequel Outsider II, and most recently, his book dedicated to his dogs, Sleeping With Dogs. This is a rare opportunity to see the man in person. He will be interviewed by John Walsh,&hellip
The Big Literary Quiz with Rachel Johnson and Giles Coren, Soho Literary Festival
Last year we challenged our quiz panellists to demonstrate their knowledge of classics. Puellaewent head-to-head with pueri in a battle of the sexes. Victorious? The girls. They return this year to defend their title, but this time, the subject is literature. Rachel Johnson will head the girls’ team alongside Jane Thynne, author of The Winter Garden and Black Roses; the boys will comprise Harry Mount, author of How England Made the English, Giles Coren, restaurant critic of The Times and Tom Ward, former Silent Witness actor. Marcus Berkmann will be the&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: Lincolnshire Lads who changed the world
Sarah Dry on the legacy of ISAAC NEWTON When Newton died in 1727 without a will, he left a wealth of papers that gave his followers and his family a deep sense of unease. Some of what they contained was wildly heretical and alchemically obsessed; deemed ‘unfit to be printed’, they remained largely hidden for more than seven generations. Over time Newton has been made and re‑made but in her book THE NEWTON PAPERS Sarah helps uncover the truth about this extraordinary man.&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: The Power of Plants and Gardens
Margaret Willes on the cottage garden – fact and fiction Margaret unearths lush gardens outside workers cottages and horticultural miracles in blackened yards, she reveals the ingenious, often devious, methods used by determined, obsessive and eccentric workers to make their drab surroundings bloom. From the fashionable rich stealing gardening ideas from the poor to the competitive alehouse syndicates, she discusses the ways in which the cultivation of plants plays an integral role in everyday British life. Margaret studied architectural history and has&hellip
Bloomsbury Book Club with Esther Freud
Esther Freud, the author of Hideous Kinky and a Granta Best of Young British author, discusses her new novel with Bloomsbury Editor-in-Chief, Alexandra Pringle. Mr Mac and Me is an exquisite historical novel about the great Glaswegian artist Charles Rennie Macintosh, based on the period of his life he spent in the village of Walberswick in Suffolk. Set on the Suffolk coastline in 1914, Mr Mac and Me is a compelling story of an unlikely friendship between ‘Mac’ and the young Thomas Maggs, a budding artist with&hellip
Forward Prizes for Poetry 2014, Southbank Centre
The annual prize-giving ceremony for the Forward Prizes for Poetry. The prestigious prizes celebrate the best of the year’s poetry, honouring exciting new voices alongside established stars. This year’s awards ceremony promises to be particularly lively, with a richly varied shortlist featuring writers united only in their skill at communicating news from elsewhere – the frontlines of war, of love and of consciousness – powerfully and memorably. The prize-giving ceremony is introduced by Jeremy Paxman, who chairs a distinguished Forward&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: The American Connection
Clive Aslet on the American influence on English country life Nothing seems more British than a house like Cliveden or Leeds Castle but what became known as the‘country house look’ was in fact codified by an American; the greatest of early 20th century gardens, Hidcote, was created by an American; and it was an American romance that caused Edward VIII to abdicate. Clive Aslet discusses the varied destinies by which stupendously wealthy Americans ended up owning great houses and the transformations they&hellip
Stephen Fry Live, Southbank Centre
A live event to mark the publication of Stephen Fry’s brand new volume of memoirs More Fool Me. The Fry Chronicles was the biggest 2010 autobiography in the UK, selling over one million copies worldwide. Get a sneak preview of the third volume: a heady tale of the late eighties and early nineties in which Stephen – driven to create, perform and entertain – burned bright and partied hard and damn the consequences… Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see the multi-award-winning&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: King and Parliament
Chris Bryant MP in conversation with Lord Radice about the history of Parliament Told through the lives of the myriad MPs, lords and bishops who sat on its benches, Parliament is a vivid, colourful biography of a cast of characters whose passions and obsessions, strengths and weaknesses laid the foundations of modern democracy. Labour MP for Rhondda, Chris Bryant is was one of two MPs who fought to expose the hacking scandal. PARLIAMENT: The Biography is his latest book. Giles Radice&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: The sixties and all that
Jenny Boyd on her adventures through the 60s They say if you remember the sixties you can’t have been there – so for those of you who were and can’t remember and for those who weren’t but wish they had beenThey say if you remember the sixties you can’t have been there – so for those of you who were and can’t remember and for those who weren’t but wish they had been we have a trip down memory lane. Jenny&hellip