Book Grocer: 21-27 September

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 150 months ago
Book Grocer: 21-27 September

The week ahead in literary London

Wednesday: The SW11 Literary Festival carries on, with Stephen Benatar, Bobbie Darbyshire and Sagheer Afzal talking about publishing and self-publishing at Battersea Waterstone's (7pm, £4).

Jonathan Wolff, Edith Hall, Paul Kelly and Jean Aitchison are chatting about what makes a non-fiction classic at Foyles (6.30pm, free but reserve in advance).

Rob Barratt, Vrouwkje Tuinman, Shamim Azad and Conrad the Scoundral are the performers at Jawdance (7.30pm, free).

Sean Bonney launches his new collection The Commons at Carnivale, with the help of Ulli Freer, Nat Raha and Steve Willey (7.30pm, free).

Ensemble Live Canon deliver a poetic judgement on 500 years of London history at Greenwich Theatre (8pm, £10).

Thursday: The excellent Joe Dunthorne and Rob Barrett join the Bang Said the Gun crew at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).

Head to the Romanian Cultural Centre to see poet Miruda Vlada (7pm, free).

Authors and comedians David Whitehouse, Grainne Maguire, Nikesh Shukla, Patrick Lappin, Frances May Morga, Dixe Wills, Anna Fielding, Jack Scott, Jim Campbell and Vanessa Pelz-Sharpe read letters to their teenage selves at the Lumiere on Chatsworth Road, in aid of Haringey Shed (8pm, £3.50).

Matthew Hollis hosts an evening dedicated to WWI poet Edward Thomas, with readings from Andrew Motion, Michael Longley, Gillian Clarke and Sarah Hall, at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £10).

Nancy Campbell launches her book How to Say "I Love You" in Greenlandic, at the Poetry Cafe (7pm).

Friday: The Soho Literary Festival kicks off, with Mark Lawson talking to Ken Loach (6pm), Howard Jacobson (7.30pm), Virginia Nicholson and Carmen Callil (7.30pm), Philip Kerr (9pm), Michael Morpurgo (9pm) and Rich Fulcher (10.30pm) - all £8.

Kerstin Rodgers, PK Munroe and Tom Reynolds are all bloggers who've turned their work into books; meet them at the SW11 Literary Festival (7pm, £4).

Peter Phillips and Mike Loveday read their poetry at Friday Night Writers (6.30pm, free).

Hylda Sims hosts Fourth Friday, with poets Racker Donnelly and Nick Blair (8pm, £6 / £5).

Saturday: A ton of small poetry publishers get together at Exmouth Market Centre from 10am for a book fair, with an equal ton of readers including Michael Horowitz, Jon Stone, Kirsten Irving, Gemma Seltzer and Siddhartha Bose, all for free.

Children's author Shirley Hughes is at Foyles to meet her creation Alfie's fans and sign books (2pm).

More for kids: Rosie Harris's poetic tales of the roo in her suitcase is at Earlsfield's Tara Arts (10.30am / 1pm, £8.50 / £7.50).

Over in SW11, Rebecca Gerlings tells stories to children (10am, free), Alex Wheatle talks about his writing and work in prisons (7pm, £4) and writer-in-residence Isabel Losada gives a workshop on getting published (2pm, £5).

Meanwhile, in Soho, there's a script factory workshop (10am, £40), Lewis Wolpert interviewed by Mavis Nicholson (1pm), Melvyn Bragg (1pm), Roald Dahl's biographer Donald Sturrock (2.30pm), Judith Kerr (2.30pm), a Private Eye panel (4pm), Anne Sebba and Kate Auspitz on Wallis Simpson (4pm), Gyles Brandreth on Oscar Wilde (5.30pm), James Delingpole (5.30pm), Maureen Lipman (7.30pm), Valerie Grove on Ronald Searle (7.30pm), Virginia Ironside (9pm), Polari (9pm) and a literary quiz (9pm, free) - all £8 unless stated.

The Young Poets Network has poems iced on cakes at the Poetry Cafe (2pm). Suddenly we feel a bit peckish.

Sophie Mayer, Peter Daniels, Jacqueline Smith and Jenny Rivarola are the poets doing The Shuffle at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

A poetry anthology inspired by art launches at Tate Modern at 6.45pm (free).

Sunday: Bryony Pearce talks about her novel for teens, Angel's Fury, in SW11 (2.30pm, free) and Anna May Mangan describes her parents' emigration from Ireland (7pm, £4).

The Soho Literary Festival finishes up with a workshop on memory in writing from the Faber Academy (1pm), a panel on the economy (1pm), biography chat with Adam Sisman, Jeremy Lewis, Jane Ridley and Alexander Masters (1pm), agent Carole Blake on how to get published (2.30pm), Victor Gregg and Rick Stroud on war experiences (2.30pm), Diana Athill (2.30pm), Kate Summerscale and Kate Colquhoun (4pm), Denis Norden (4pm), travel writers Julia Blackburn and William Blacker (4pm), PD James and Ruth Rendell (5.30pm), Bryan Appleyard, Dennis Sewell and James Le Fanu on science writing (5.30pm), a discussion on phone hacking (5.30pm), Craig Brown (7.30pm), Sam Leith (7.30pm), Molly Dineen (7.30pm), Alexander Waugh (9pm), AN Wilson and Paul Bailey commemorating Beryl Bainbridge (9pm) and graphic novelists Melinda Gebbie and Kevin O'Neill - everything £8.

Nisa Sayid introduces Gale Burns at the Torriano Meeting House (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Monday: Priya Desai is reading about monsters in SW11 (3.30pm, free) and Richard Fortey talks evolution (7pm, £4).

Joe Dunthorne has put together a night of monster fun at the Ministry of Stories, with PolarBear, Kami Thompson, The Great Brain Robbery, Laura Dockrill and Naomi Woddis (7.30pm, £7, in aid of MoS's work).

Gianrico Carofiglio is at Foyles to chat about his latest Guido Guerrieri crime novel (6.30pm, free but reserve in advance).

Lorca, murdered at the start of the Spanish Civil War, gets heralded at Kings Place to mark a new version of his Gypsy Ballads (7pm, £9.50).

Nihat Tsolak reads Sufi poetry at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm).

Jehane Markham is the guest of Poets in the Pub in Holloway (7.30pm, £5).

Tuesday: Richard Gott and Kwasi Kwarteng talk about their new books at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £10).

Counterculture poet Michael Horowitz gives a talk on his life and work at the Idler Academy (7pm, £20 / £15).

Geoffrey Streatfeild reads the work of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, plus a wine tasting, at a fundraiser for Poet in the City (7pm, £27).

It's open mic night at the Poetry Cafe, with Niall O'Sullivan's Poetry Unplugged (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Frances Wilson has written a new account of the Titanic - hear about it at Daunt Books (7pm, £8).

Meet horror writers Sarah Pinborough, Christopher Priest and Paul Meloy at Foyles to celebrate a new ghostly anthology (6.30pm, free but reserve in advance).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events

Last Updated 21 September 2011