A.L. Kennedy (or Alison Louise if we're not going to be all formal about it) is not only the author of a series of astonishing novels and short stories - including the Costa prize winning Day - but is also a stand up comedian. She does regular spots in her native Scotland and has been doing shows about writing for several years. Her latest show, Words with A.L. Kennedy, started off at the Edinburgh Fringe in summer and she's bringing it to London for one night only on Wednesday.
If you're not familiar with A.L. Kennedy, we'll restrain ourselves from marching you down to the nearest bookshop and pressing copies of So I Am Glad and Indelible Acts into your hot, sweaty and terrified palms (or, you could just read her Guardian columns). We'll simply tell you that she has an uncanny ability to burrow to the nub of her characters in a way that brings them to life in raw, pulsing, heartbreaking detail. She is also possessed of a sense of humour that's dark and flippant at the same time, turning a sentence on its head without warning to make you shriek with laughter. So we're rather excited at the opportunity to spend an evening watching her discuss the power of words, because there are few better placed to do so.
Words with A.L. Kennedy is on at the Roundhouse in Camden, 14 October, 7.30pm. Tickets are £6. For more information see the Roundhouse website. The show will be followed by a signing session for her new collection of short stories, What Becomes.
