The week ahead in literary London
Wednesday: There's still tickets for Robin Ince's Book Club at the Bloomsbury Theatre tonight (7.30pm, £15), which is technically comedy but there will be books involved. Among those sharpening their pencils are Josie Long, Phill Jupitus and Joanna Neary.
Literary Death Match has a Bret Easton Ellis theme (8.15pm, £7 / £5). Readers are Clare Pollard, Nikesh Shukla, Lee Rourke and Milly McMahon, while judges are Gwendoline Christie, Marie Berry and Simon Hickson. Yes, of Trevor and Simon. That Simon Hickson.
Gossip mongers should head for the Museum of London, where Hallie Rubenhold will talk about the most scandalous divorce case of the 18th century (7pm, free but booking advised).
The London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre finishes this week, but there's still plenty to keep you going. Three poets from the UAE - Khulood Al Mu'alla, Nujoom Al-Ghanem and Khalid Albudoor - read from their groundbreaking modernist work in translation and Alexei Sayle reads from and talks about his memoir.
Thursday: Novelists Bronia Kita and Aliya Whiteley are on the sofa for the Firestation Book Swap in Windsor (7.45pm, £5), chatting to Scott Pack and Marie Phillips. Bring a book to swap and you get in free if you bring homemade cake. Why does nobody ever believe us when we say this?
Pete the Temp and the excellent, funny and lyrical Joshua Idehen join the regulars at Bang Said the Gun in Borough (8pm, £5).
The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green hosts songs, stories and urban folklore from London Dreamtime and fabulous magazine One Eye Grey. Starts at 7pm and is free.
Ruth Padel talks poetry and her new novel at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £6).
Panjabi poets Amarjit Chandan, Hamraz Ahsan and Shazea Quraishi read at Oxfam's Bloomsbury bookshop at 7pm (free, but suggested donation of £5).
There's performance poetry at Rich Mix with Tongue Fu; the line-up includes Shane Solanki, Zena Edwards, Polar Bear and Rinse (8pm, £7 / £5).
You can find Brazilian poet and performer Arnaldo Antunes at the London Literature Festival, and some gay and lesbian short stories.
Friday: Newham Books brings together Tracy Borman and Alison Weir talking about mother and daughter - Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I - at Wanstead Library (7pm).
Helen Sandler, Jet Moon, Andra Simons and Jacqueline Applebee read queer erotica upstairs at the Ritzy (8pm, £5 / £4).
Dean Atta and Deanna Rodger invite you to partake in Poetry and Pimms at the roof garden of the Lyric in Hammersmith (6.30pm, free - OK, the Pimms is discounted but you can take your own if you want).
Journalist Emma Larkin tells of her time in Burma just after the cyclone, at the London Literature Festival (8pm, £7).
Saturday: Delia Chiaro and Giacinto Palmieri talk translation and slips of the tongue at the Earl's Court Festival (8pm, £5).
Over at the London Literature Festival, Barbara Kingsolver reads from her Orange prize-winning novel The Lacuna, Milton Hatoum discusses his writing life, Su Tong does the first London reading of his novel The Boat to Redemption, Moby Dick is performed in a minimalist style, the Book Club talks about The Yellow Wallpaper or you can test your storytelling skills at StorySLAM:Live.
Sunday: The London Literature Festival goes out with a bang: Andrew O'Hagan entices actors Ian MacDiarmid, Andrew Hawley and Suzanne Bertish to give a reading based on his new book, Socrates, José Miguel Wisnik and Alex Bellos talk futebol, Saudi Arabian author Abdo Khal discusses his satirical novel Spewing Sparks as Big as Castles, or you can see performances from Storybox Live, a dramatisation of yesterday's Book Club read The Yellow Wallpaper or a new translation of a Brazilian monologue about American poet Elizabeth Bishop.
Monday: Clea Myers talks about her drug addiction memoir at the Earl's Court Festival (8pm, £5).
For the deep of pocket, Foyles and the St Pancras Grand host a three course literary supper with Michael Palin (6.30pm, £40).
Tuesday: Clerkenwell Tales have moved their event with Cory Doctorow and China Mieville (7pm, free) to the Church of Our Holy Redeemer - but we still reckon you should book as early as possible.
The London Writer's Club invites Scott Pack of The Friday Project to talk about publishing and the internet (7pm, £15 / £10 in advance).
Manjit Kumar knows quantum physics. If you want to hear what he knows, head to the Earl's Court Festival for 8pm (£5).
Laressa Dickey, Éireann Lorsung, Zachary Carlsen, Kerri French, James Cihlar, and Shana Youngdahl are all American poets, and are reading at the British Library tonight at 7pm (£4 / £3).
