The Londonist Literary List appears (almost) every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email [email protected].
STOP THE PRESS: We have a late edition to the list, "Golden Handcuffs - Scandals, Drugs & Lies" by Polly Courtney is being launched on Thursday 12 - 2pm and promises "A cynical, gritty look at what it really means to sell your soul to the city." D202, St. Clements Building, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, here for more.
Tonight
Be-fringed and be-suited singer and guitarist Alex Kapranos (pictured) gives readers the flavour of life on the road with Franz Ferdinand in his diary style book. According to Wikipedia, Alex "has asthma and is allergic to animal dander and saliva, along with an allergy to peanuts," so please, no monkeys.
Alex Kapranos – Sound Bites is at the UCL Bloomsbury Theatre, 7pm, £7/£5, 15 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH, Tickets call 0845 456 9876.
Wednesday
We kick off a series of free Rough Guide evening's with Nigel Williamson taking on "the ultimate singer-songwriter - hugely revered, baffingly idiosyncratic, an enigma and a music legend responsible for a staggering number of classic songs", Bob Dylan. Look out for Rough Guides on Conspiracy Theories, Shakespeare and Asia, among others, in the next few weeks. 6.30pm in the Gallery at Foyles, Free.
Aurea Carpenter of Short Books talks about how the venture was set up and how life has changed for her and her co-founder during its first five years. This is a women-only event for women working in the publishing industry, so again, please no monkeys.
6.30 for 7pm, free members / £4.50 non-members, The Boardroom, Foyles, Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 0EB.
Tonight's poetry reading is to celebrate the publication of Lebanon, Lebanon with Hugo Williams, Ali Smith, Owen Sheers, Clare Pollard, Adam O'Riordan,Tobias Hill and Annie Freud, and music by Steven Hinds and Amy Botfield. All proceeds will go towards the work of Lebanese children’s charities. Upstairs at The North London Tavern, 375 Kilburn High Road, London NW6 7QB, Tickets 020 7221 9347.
Thursday
Barbara Hulanicki, founder of the iconic clothes store Biba, will sign copies of Welcome to Big Biba at Foyles this Thursday. Big Biba lasted just two years before it fell victim to recession, but the myth of 'the most beautiful store in the world' continues long enough to, well, write a book about at least. 6pm, free at Foyles.
Monday
Reading from their stories in a new anthology Down the Angel and Up Holloway will be Shaun Levin, Lane Ashfeldt, and Mark Piggott. Intriguingly, the reading will be followed by informal discussion to decide which areas of South London the Angel and Holloway should respectively be "twinned" with. 7pm, free, Crockatt & Powell Booksellers, 119 Lower Marsh SE1 7AE, 020 7928 0234.
Also tonight, the legendary band leader and jazz trumpeter, broadcaster and humorist Humphrey Lyttelton looks back at his life and the many colourful characters he has known and played with - from Duke Ellington to Louis Armstrong in It Just Occurred to Me.
Free, but must be reserved by emailing [email protected], The Gallery at Foyles.
