History And Hippies At Soho Literary Festival

Laura Reynolds
By Laura Reynolds Last edited 115 months ago
History And Hippies At Soho Literary Festival

Stephen Fry is one of the guests at Soho Literary Festival

The fourth Soho Literary Festival takes over Soho Theatre in September, with tickets for almost 40 events on sale now.

Topics as wide as angling and pottery will be discussed; renowned pottery designer Emma Bridgewater presents her book Toast & Marmalade and Other Stories, the story of building up her business. Writer and angler Chris Yates discusses the sport with  travel writer Dan Kieran. Three writers who were raised in 'hippy' communes and have subsequently written about their experiences will unite to discuss their stories.

We reckon Stephen Fry on PG Wodehouse should be a good one, not least because, well, it's Stephen Fry. The Fry will be talking about Wodehouse, "the most industrious, prolific and beneficent author ever to have sat down, scratched his head and banged out a sentence".

For history buffs, historian Dan Cruickshank and author of London in the Eighteenth Century Jerry White lift the petticoats of Georgian London to uncover the truth about the sex trade in Covent Garden and Soho, and four-minute-mile runner Roger Bannister talks about his autobiography.

In terms of life skills, How To Spot A Psychopath is up there, along with the elusive challenge of How To Be Well Read. Author John Sutherland and literary critic Sam Leith give a 50-minute bluffer's guide, for those who simply cannot be bothered to actually read books.

The good news is that a selection of the events will be subtitled live for hard of hearing visitors — and anyone else who might need it. See the full list of subtitled events. The festival comes to a conclusion with The Big Literary Quiz, which sees the likes of Rachel Johnson and Giles Coren pitted against each other in boys vs. girls teams.

See the full five day programme.

Soho Literary Festival takes place at Soho Theatre, 24-28 September. Events are £9 each, and need to be prebooked.

Last Updated 16 August 2014