Book Grocer: 1-7 June

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 153 months ago
Book Grocer: 1-7 June

The week ahead in literary London

Wednesday: Ross Perlin's written an exposé of the world of interning. Exploitation or valuable work experience? Find out at Pages of Hackney (7pm, £3).

Bill Bryson's signing books at Stanfords for an hour from 1pm. Better run.

Take your pick of Daunt events: William D. Cohan on Goldman Sachs in Marylebone (7pm, £8) or Julie Myerson and Rupert Thomson in Chelsea (7pm, £5)?

David Bezmozgis and Orange Prize shortlisted Téa Obreht talk about their work at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Part of Listen *Read* See London at Foyles, Leo Hollis talks about London through 12 of its buildings (6.30pm, free but reserve via the website).

The Southbank Centre bests Daunt's double-bill with a trio of events: Jackie Kay reading family-suitable poems (2.30pm, £8 / £4), Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka discussing culture and politics with Jude Kelly (7.45pm, £15) and the launch of issue 6 of ARTEMISpoetry, with readings from Katherine Gallagher, MR Peacocke and Kay Syrad (8pm, free).

Joe Hill talks about his latest book, Horns, at Waterstone's Piccadilly (7pm, £5).

What is it with multiple events today? Get to Keats House for Brigette Bennett and Jessica Peace pointing out that Ofcourse. I. Don't. Love. You (1.10pm), Anne-Marie Fyfe looking at the modern poetry world (3pm) and Jehane Markham reading her poetry to a jazz accompaniment (6pm). All events free with Keats House entry.

Thursday: Dave Gorman's at Stratford Circus explaining his latest challenge − travelling Britain to play games with people (8pm, £8).

Tim Clare and Adisa are the guests at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).

There's storytelling for 5-8 year olds at Foyles in Charing Cross Road (11am, free), then from 6.30pm Nicola Morgan answers questions about getting published (free, but reserve via the website).

More stuff at the Southbank Centre! Eoin Colfer does his one man show at 2.30pm (£8 / £4), then Bettany Hughes considers Socrates at 7.45pm (£10).

Farrago chases away exam blues with its latest SLAM! Penny Ashton, Matthew Harvey, Keith Jarrett, Fran Landesman, Niall Spooner-Harvey, Abir Ali and Amy Acre are the featured performers (7.30pm, £6 / £5).

John Citizen hosts James Byrnes, Helen Mort, Gareth Jones and Kevin Reinhardt for Tall Lighthouse at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £4).

Friday: It's half term and launch day for the Stoke Newington Literary Festival. There's so much going on we're going to have to break out the bulleted lists (see website for venue details):

  • John Hegley is singing and poeming for tiny ones (10am, £4)
  • Chris Wormell is an award winning picture book artist (10am, £3)
  • Author / illustrator team Knife & Packer (12pm, £3)
  • Karin Littlewood reads new story Immi (12pm, £3)
  • The Chainsaw Gang write horror and fantasy for younger readers (2pm, £3)
  • Sally Gardner introduces her work (2pm, £3)
  • Arsenal's Community coaches do more than football - they tell stories too (2pm, £3)
  • Louise Yates is a children's book illustrator (4pm, £3)
  • Horror author Will Hill talks about his book and how he got published (4pm, free)
  • Tim Key interviews David Walliams (4pm, £4)
  • Diane Abbott launches the festival proper with Jon Ronson and Richard Wiseman (7pm, £10)
  • Discover the life and works of immigrant Alexander Baron (8pm, £4)
  • Diane Abbott hosts African Diaspora writers (8pm, £4)
  • Henry Hemming discusses what small groups can achieve (8pm, £3)

30 poets − that's thirty − including George Szirtes, Patience Agbabi, Luke Wright, Fleur Adcock and Imtiaz Dharker join Carol Ann Duffy in a benefit for the Poetry Book Society, which has just lost its regular Arts Council funding (7pm, minimum donation £10).

Storyteller June Peters spins yarns from all over the world at The Tea Box (8pm, £6).

Kat Francois hosts Intimates poetry SLAM at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £3).

Benadette Cremein, Maria Jastrzebka and David Swann from Waterloo Poets are the featured performers at the Camden Poetry Series (7pm, £5 / £4).

Saturday: And we're back in Stokey. Again, check the website for venue details:

  • Dr Seuss is 107 years old. Doesn't look bad, does he? Celebrate his birthday (10am, free)
  • Storytelling workshop (11am, free)
  • Stella Duffy talks to Elif Shafak (11.30am, £4)
  • Chris Riddell explains fantastical creatures (11.30am, £3)
  • Share your bicycling passion (12pm, £4)
  • Oliver Jeffers talks about his new book Up and Down (1pm, £4)
  • Dan Cruickshank uncovers the history of six country houses (1pm, £4)
  • Max Schaefer discusses his debut novel Children of the Sun (1pm, £4)
  • Shaun Attwood and Gavin Knight talk gang culture (2pm, £4)
  • Is society giving young people a rough ride? (2.30pm, free)
  • Stewart Lee is in conversation with cult novelist Dan Rhodes (3pm, £8)
  • Alex Clark talks to three rising literary stars (3pm, £4)
  • Fire & Knives is a literary magazine about food and drink (3pm, £4)
  • Discover the life and influence of Edgar Allan Poe (3.30pm, £10)
  • Chart the downward spiral of the Chav (4pm, £4)
  • Danny Kelly talks to Rob White and Julie Welch about a Spurs tragedy (4pm, £4)
  • Find out about the new Libertine (4pm, £4)
  • Meet independent poetry publisher Donut Press (5pm, free)
  • Celebrate Mary Wollstonecraft. Not enough people do (5.30pm, £4)
  • Rowland Rivron and Alexei Sayle compare autobiographies (7pm, £8)
  • Travis Elborough, Karen McLeod, Ian Marchant and Darren Hayman bring the seaside to Stoke Newington (7pm, £6)
  • Roar Theatre present Measure for Measure (8pm, £5)
  • Spoken word and poetry artists courtesy of Out of Step (8pm, free)
  • Miriam Elia and Bruno Vincent curate a night of things they like (8.30pm, £4)

As part of the 7 Bridges Festival, there's a literary festival from 8pm (free) in The Warrior pub on Coldharbour Lane. Stella Duffy, Evie Wyld, Brian Chikwava, Alex Wheatle, Clare Peake and Jeremy Page talk about place, chaired by Adam Mars Jones.

Ruth Padel, James Byrne and Anne-Marie Fyfe read at Keats House (6.30pm, free but book ahead).

Derrick Porter and Sonia Jarema are the Salisbury House Poets this weekend (7.30pm, £3.50 / £2.50).

Jackline Olanya Amaguru, Angela Kiire, Jennifer Makumbi and Geoffrey Senkatuka read in a fundraiser for Ugandan not-for-profit Kanaama Interactive (6.30pm, £12 / £15).

Sunday: Not Stokied out yet? You'd better not be, because there's another brilliant day to come. The website has all the venue details:

  • Louie Stowell runs a family workshop on writing your own story book (10am, free)
  • David Horspool and Edward Vallance chart 1,000 years of stroppiness (1pm, £4)
  • Perfect break - book and beer matching (1pm, £4)
  • Linda Grant talks about her work and inspiration (1.30pm, £4)
  • Iain Sinclair and Barry Miles discuss London's counterculture (2pm, £8)
  • Alex Wheatle and Courttia Newland talk urban fiction (2pm, £4)
  • John Osborne looks through the collection of records he won from John Peel (3pm, £4)
  • Paul Morley, Charles Shaar Murray, Simon Reynolds and Lucy O'Brien 'discuss' (argue) about music (4pm, £8)
  • Do we still have a right to protest? (4pm, £4)
  • Evie Wyld, Lee Rourke, Nikesh Shukla, Niven Govinden and Gavin James Bower read from their books (5pm, £4)
  • Marie Phillips and Robert Hudson host Ian Leslie and John Butler at the Firestation Book Swap on tour (£4, free with homemade cake)
  • Katherine Quarmby questions why the UK is failing disabled people (5pm, free)
  • Kit Wright, Phil Bowen, Peter Daniels and Jan Noble invite you to a night of poetry (6.30pm, £6)
  • Howard Marks shares some anecdotes (6pm, £8)
  • Kate Summerscale, Kate Colquhon, Chris Paling and Richard T Kelly gather to discuss crime fiction (6pm, £6)
  • Emma Kennedy recounts a disastrous trip across the USA (7pm, £6)
  • Colin Grant, Viv Albertine, Newton Dunbar and Tim Burrows are the ska panel (8pm, £8)

Monday: Hear the authors shortlisted for the Orange Prize - Emma Donoghue, Aminatta Forna, Emma Henderson, Nicole Krauss,  Téa Obreht and Kathleen Winter - reading at the Southbank Centre (7.30pm, £12).

Amitav Ghosh is in conversation with Linda Grant at the Courtauld Institute (7pm). This is a Royal Society of Literature event, and there are always some tickets on the door for the public from 6pm (£8 / £5).

Paulina Egle Pukyte, Edin Suljic, Tena Stivicic and Esther Kamkar are the Exiled Writers Ink! at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £4 / £2).

Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Adam Zagajewski, Cicely Herbert and Gerard Benson launch Polish Poems on the Underground at Europe House (6.30pm, free).

Tuesday: Kate Mosse, Sadie Jones and Jean Kwok are among the authors at the Orange and Grazia Writers' Evening at the Southbank Centre (6.30pm, £10).

Jonathan Coe, Selena Hastings and Carmen Callil discuss the lasting appeal of Rosamond Lehmann at the Free Word Centre (6.30pm, £8 / £5).

Utter! is all about nutters this month. Liz Bentley, Ashley Reaks, Rosy Carrick, Dan Simpson and Richard Tyrone-Jones dissect mental health (7.30pm, £5 / £7).

Literary and cultural theorist Jacqueline Rose is in conversation with Paul Myerscough at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Booker shortlisted author Justin Cartwright reads from his new novel, Other People's Money, at England's Lane Books (7.30pm, £5).

Niall O'Sullivan hosts open mic night Poetry Unplugged at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £4 / £3).

Book ahead: Stewart Lee in conversation with Michael Rosen at Stratford Circus, 19th June. If you think this won't sell out, you're a crazy person. Oh, and we recommend getting in early for Ali Smith at the London Review Bookshop on 8th June, too.

Last Updated 01 June 2011