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Sebastian Faulks at Kings Place
Revisiting his novel Human Traces, the story of two psychiatrists at the beginning of the twentieth century, Sebastian Faulks explores the question of what kind of beings men and women really are. More information
Man Booker Prize 2014 readings, Southbank Centre
Readings and conversations about the shortlisted books for The Man Booker Prize. The prize is the world’s most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and publishers. The Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2014 is chaired by AC Grayling. The judges are Jonathan Bate, Sarah Churchwell, Dr Alastair Niven, Dr Daniel Glaser and Erica Wagner. The Man Booker Prize shortlist 2014: To Rise Again At a Decent Hour (Joshua Ferris) The Narrow Road to the&hellip
Africa39 at the Southbank Centre
The Africa39 anthology showcases the most promising voices from Africa south of the Sahara. Clifton Gachagua (Kenya), Nadifa Mohamed (Somalia) and Stanley Kenani (Malawi) talk about their work with the Africa39 anthology editor Ellah Allfrey and discuss the creativity and amazing writing from their region. They are part of a selection of 39 promising writers under 40 from Africa south of the Sahara and diaspora. The Africa39 project was created by the Hay Festival and UNESCO Port Harcourt World Book&hellip
Elif Shafak on The Architect’s Apprentice, Southbank Centre
A preview of a sweeping and magical new novel from Elif Shafak. The Architect’s Apprentice is set in a 16th-century Istanbul bursting with colour, romance and white elephants. Elif Shafak is the acclaimed author of The Bastard of Istanbul andThe Forty Rules of Love and is the most widely read female novelist in Turkey. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She is a contributor to The Telegraph, The Guardian and The New York Times and her TED talk on the&hellip
Sophie Hannah and Stephanie Merritt on Hercule Poirot, Kings Place
Acclaimed thriller-writer Sophie Hannah talks to Stephanie Merritt (novelist SJ Parris) about her passion for Agatha Christie and how she was inspired to make Hercule Poirot her own hero More information
Hilary Mantel at the Southbank Centre
Hilary Mantel is one of Britain’s most accomplished, acclaimed and garlanded writers. Uniquely, her last two novels won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. In this new collection of ten stories, all her gifts of characterisation, observation and intelligence are once again fully on display. With settings ranging from Saudi Arabia to Greece to London, they reveal a great writer at the peak of her powers. Hilary reads from the collection and is in conversation with James Runcie, Southbank Centre’s&hellip
Alice Oswald at the Southbank Centre
The world premiere of a specially commissioned new poem, read by the poet herself. In Greek mythology, the Dawn fell in love with Tithonus and asked Zeus to make him immortal, but she forgot to ask that he should not grow old. Unable to die, he grew older and older, until at last Dawn locked him in a room where, several thousand years later, he still sits babbling to himself. This is an account of his babbling, written in real&hellip
Polari First Book Prize, Southbank Centre
The fourth annual prize celebrating debut LGBT authors, kindly sponsored by Société Générale UK LGBT network. Join award-winning writer Ali Smith and winner of The Polari First Book Prize 2013, Mari Hannah. The evening also features Will Davies, Karen Mcleod and Justin David. More information
Slavoj Žižek at the Southbank Centre
Slavoj Žižek is today’s most controversial public intellectual. His work traverses the fields of philosophy, psychoanalysis, theology, history and political theory. It takes in film, popular culture, and literature to provide acute analyses of the complexities of contemporary ideology as well as a serious and sophisticated examination of the world around us. In this special event, he tackles the future of liberty, freedom and democracy: what do they mean in a world post-Arab Spring, WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden?&hellip
Celebrating Maya Angelou, Southbank Centre
Maya Angelou was one of the world’s most important writers and activists. She lived and chronicled an extraordinary life. Rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, poet, playwright, civil rights’ activist – working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King – and memoirist. She wrote and performed a poem, ‘On the Pulse of Morning’, for President Clinton on his inauguration; she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more&hellip
Nature writers: Helen Macdonald and Mark Crocker, Southbank Centre
Join two of our finest nature writers in conversation. As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including TH White’s tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes White’s struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. When her father died and Macdonald was knocked sideways by grief and she became obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She bought Mabel for £800 on a Scottish&hellip
Lincoln Book Festival: An evening with the Georgians and Victorians
Hannah Grieg on The Beau Monde Caricatured for extravagance, vanity, scandal and gossip, 18th century fashionable society had a reputation for frivolity. But to be ‘fashionable’ denoted membership of a new type of society: the beau monde, where status was no longer determined by coronets and countryseats alone. Conspicuous consumption and display were crucial and by the end of the century being fashionable had become nothing less than the key to power and exclusivity in a changed world. As well&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
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
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: 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
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
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
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
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