Tonight
It isn't Christmas without a Dickensian orphan boy made good, and here we have a discussion about the two greatest; Oliver Twist (did anyone see the Polanski film [pictured]?) and Pip from Great Expectations. 6.30 - 8pm, £6/£4, the British Library, Conference Centre, St Pancras.
Celebrate the launch of Strange Attractor Journal Three with live music, visual delights and books galore. As a side note, all copies of the journal sold tonight will be marked with a special stamp that shall never again see the evening light. Intriguing. 7.30pm-midnight, Free, The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, Bloomsbury, WC1N 1HX, 020 7833 3644.
Wednesday
Carol Ann Duffy, the poet and playwright, will be reading a selection of her poems. Here's one she prepared earlier, Words, Wide Night:
Somewhere on the other side of this wide night and the distance between us, I am thinking of you. The room is turning slowly away from the moon.This is pleasurable. Or shall I cross that out and say
it is sad? In one of the tenses I singing
an impossible song of desire that you cannot hear.La lala la. See? I close my eyes and imagine the dark hills I would have to cross
to reach you. For I am in love with youand this is what it is like or what it is like in words.
7 – 7.45pm, The Goethe-Institute, Exhibition Road, 50 Princes Gate, SW7, Email events@internationalpen.org.uk or call 020 7405 0338 to reserve tickets.
Thursday
Jeanette Winterson (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit) and Ali Smith (The Accidental ) read at the Oxfam Bloomsbury shop, a night hosted by poet Todd Swift. £8, 7.30pm, Oxfam Bloomsbury, 12 Bloomsbury St, WC1. Reserve tickets by calling 020 7637 4610 or emailing oxfambloomsbury@hotmail.co.uk.
Monday
Michael Moorcock reads from, and discusses, his new book The Vengeance of Rome - read a review here. 7pm, £6/£5, RADA Gower Street, WC1, 0845 456 9876.
Last but not least, this year's the 3:AM Xmas Bash has special guests Iain Sinclair, Nicholas Royle and Stewart Home. Join in the celebrations at 7pm, The Wheatsheaf, 25 Rathbone Place W1T 1JB.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
A friend just wrote to say he was hoping to see me in London reading from Vengeance of Rome at RADA in December. I shall be in Mississippi on that day and am pretty sure nobody asked me to read in London. I checked out the review of Vengeance of Rome attached to the piece and I suppose it's sod's law that you picked out the only actual bad review the book got! I can't reasonably ask you to change that, but I would be grateful if you could let your audience know that I won't be at RADA on the date mentioned.
All best wishes,
Michael Moorcock