London Literary Events - September
Discover exciting literary events to add to you calendar this September
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London is bursting with incredible literary events. Here are some of the highlights which you should add to your calendar for September.
Gillian Anderson: Want
Sunday 1st September 2024
19:30 at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Center
Want seeks to answer the question of how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally anonymous, and totally themselves.
In this generation-defining book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous letters of hundreds of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous letter).
Anderson is joined by a panel of speakers including Amelia Abraham, Lohani Noor, Tobi Green Adenowo and chair Shahidha Bari. Actors Amy McAllister and Amarachi Rachel Nwokoro read extracts from Want.
Gillian Anderson is an award-winning film, television and theatre actor. She is also globally recognised as a respected activist and charity campaigner, co-authoring the Sunday Times bestseller We: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere with Jennifer Nadel. In 2016 Anderson was appointed an honorary OBE for her services to drama.
Book your tickets for Gillian Anderson: Want here.
An Evening with Rachel Blackmore
Thursday 5th September 2024
19:00 at Waterstones, London - Putney
A very special evening with Rachel Blackmore to discuss her debut Novel, Costanza.
Rome, 1636. History calls her a Muse. Temptress. Fallen woman. This is her story.
In the scorched city of Rome, the cobbled streets hum with gossip and sin. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife – until she meets Gianlorenzo Bernini, the famed sculptor and star of Roman society, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.
Based on a true story, Costanza is a dizzying and sensual historical novel that brings to life a feminist icon who has been written out of history. This utterly addictive tale of desire and betrayal is perfect for fans of The Marriage Portrait and The Miniaturist.
Book your tickets for An evening with Rachel Blackmore here.
An Evening with Elif Shafak at St James’s Church, London
Thursday 5th September 2024
19:00 at St. James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly, London, W1J 9LL
Join Booker-shortlisted, bestselling author Elif Shafak as she celebrates the publication of her latest novel There are Rivers in the Sky in the wonderful St James’s church.
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives – all connected by a single drop of water. A dazzling feat of storytelling from one of the greatest writers of our time, There are Rivers in the Sky is a rich, sweeping novel that spans centuries, continents, and cultures, entwined by rivers, rains, and water drops.
Book your tickets for An Evening with Elif Shafak here.
Sam Leith and Patience Agbabi in conversation with Suzi Feay
Friday 6th September 2024
18:30 at Waterstones, London - Piccadilly
Can you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?
Celebrate publication of The Haunted Wood. From the author of You Talking to Me? comes a delightfully idiosyncratic and frequently revelatory history of children's literature and how they have shaped and consoled countless generations.
Sam Leith is Literary Editor of the Spectator. He has also written extensively for the Guardian, TLS, Financial Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail, and was a judge for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. His previous books include You Talkin’ To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump and Beyond, and Write To The Point: How to be Clear, Correct, and Persuasive on the Page.
In 2004 Patience Agbabi was named as one of the Poetry Book Society’s ‘Next Generation’ poets. In 2010 she was appointed Canterbury Poet Laureate. Her poem The Doll’s House was featured in the Spring 2013 issue of The Poetry Review. Her collection Bloodshot Monochrome was published in 2008. Her most recent collection, Telling Tales (Canongate, 2014), a contemporary take on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, was shortlisted for The Poetry Society’s 2014 Ted Hughes Award.Â
Book your tickets for Sam Leith and Patience Agbabi in conversation with Suzi Feay here.
Anna Bogutskaya in coversation with Prano Bailey-Bond
Monday 9th September 2024
19:00 at Waterstones, London - Tottenham Court Road
Horror is being embraced by mainstream pop culture more than ever before, with horror characters and aesthetics creeping into TV, music videos and even TikTok trends. Yet even with the commercial and critical success of countless films and TV series in the genre over the last decade, loving it still prompts the question: what’s wrong with you?
In Feeding the Monster, Anna Bogutskaya sets out to dispel the notion that there is something not quite right with the people who make and enjoy horror. By diving into some of the most significant works of TV and film horror of recent years, including The Babadook, Hereditary, Hannibal, Get Out, The Haunting of Hill House, Titane, Yellowjackets and Nanny, Bogutskaya charts horror’s soaring popularity and examines how the genre both responds to and fuels our feelings of fear, anxiety, pain, hunger and power. After all, each of us has our own monster to feed...
Book your tickets for Anna Bogutskaya In Conversation here.
An Evening with Deborah Harkness at Hoxton Hall, London
Wednesday 11th September 2024
19:00 at Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton St, London, N1 6SH
Legendary author Deborah Harkness joins us this September to talk all things The Black Bird Oracle.
In this exhilarating and highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved All Souls series, Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself - and her family history. A triumphant novel that sweeps back to the Salem Panic and illuminates Diana's family history in new and thrilling ways.
The first shadows fall on a Friday afternoon when a single, dying raven lands on the pavement in front of Diana Bishop, harbinger of an invitation that reads, 'It's time you came home, Diana'.
Diana is a witch and scholar; her husband Matthew Clairmont, a vampire. Their intense love for one another awoke the dark powers within her and dissolved the Covenant between the three species - Witch, Daemon and Vampire - that live alongside humans. Now, the governing Congregation has decided it must test the magical powers of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Becca. Concerned with their safety, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family's future and travels to Ravenswood, the Proctor family home.
There, Diana begins a new era, becoming her great aunt Gwyneth's pupil in higher magic. It's time to confront her family's past - and her own, inescapable desire for greater power.
Book your tickets forAn Evening With Deborah Harkness here.
An Evening with Jacqueline Wilson at St Mary’s Church Marylebone, London
Wednesday 11th September 2024
19:00 at Waterstones, London - Piccadilly
Bestselling author Jacqueline Wilson discusses her new novel, Think Again with author and presenter, Dawn O'Porter on the eve of publication.
Featuring the characters from her beloved Girls series of children’s novels now as adults. Jacqueline chronicles a life on the cusp of change in this engaging and warm-hearted story all about making the most of the unexpected.
Book your tickets for An evening with Jacqueline Wilson here.
Alice Oseman in conversation with Thomas Duke
Thursday 12th September 2024
19:00 at Union Chapel, 19b Compton Terrace, London, N1 2UN
Alice Oseman, the creator of global smash-hit coming-of-age romance Heartstopper, l in conversation to celebrate the launch of the Heartstopper Volume 5.
Heartstopper follows Nick and Charlie, two teenage boys who meet at grammar school, quickly become friends and fall in love. The story navigates the ups and downs of first loves, friendships, coming out and mental health, beautifully framed by a warm cast of supporting characters. Heartstopper started life as a webcomic, quickly becoming an online sensation with over 100 million views. The #1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling graphic novels that followed brought this charming love story to even more readers – with Heartstopper Volume 5 instantly hitting the #1 spot and becoming the UK’s fastest selling graphic novel ever. Now a critically acclaimed major Netflix series written by Alice Oseman, Heartstopper is a truly global phenomenon.
Book your tickets for Alice Oseman in conversation with Thomas Duke here.
Meet Sally Rooney at Waterstones Piccadilly
Monday 23rd September 2024
19:30 at Waterstones, London - Piccadilly
An incredibly special evening with Sally Rooney, on the eve of publication of her latest novel Intermezzo.
From the bestselling author of Normal People, Conversations with Friends and Beautiful World Where Are You comes Intermezzo, which follows two brothers as they navigate the turmoil and joy of love after the passing of their father. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude – a period of desire, despair and possibility – a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
Book your tickets for Meet Sally Rooney here.
Tawseef Khan In Conversation With Rebecca Watson
Thursday 26th September 2024
19:00 at Waterstones, London - Putney
Tawseef Khan in conversation with Rebecca Watson, to discuss his debut novel Determination, a heart-breaking, honest, and deeply important story doubling as a trenchant political critique of UK immigration.
Jamila Shah is twenty-nine and exhausted.
An immigration solicitor tasked with running the precious family law firm, Jamila is prone to being woken in the middle of the night by frantic phone calls from clients on the cusp of deportation. Working under the shadow of the government’s ‘hostile environment’, she constantly prays and hopes that their ‘determinations’ will result in her clients being allowed to stay.
In this polyphonic, assured and character-driven debut, we meet the staff of Shah & Co Solicitors, who themselves arrived in the UK not too long ago, and their clients, more recent arrivals who are made to jump through hoops to create a life for themselves whilst trying to achieve some semblance of normality.
Book your tickets for Tawseef Khan In Conversation With Rebecca Watson here.
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