The week ahead in literary London
Wednesday: It's film night at Homework, the brilliant monthly night at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club. Chris Hicks talks about Dragnet, Joe Dunthorne explains how Goodfellas taught him to steal, Tim Clare explains why he's scared of Gene Wilder, John Osborne reveals Airplane's effect on his life and Ross Sutherland tells a story from his own life over the top of a bit from Tutti Frutti. Seriously, do not miss (7.30pm, £5).
Bernard O'Donoghue is chatting to Adam Phillips at Lutyens & Rubinstein (7pm, £5).
Caroline Moorehead talks about her new book A Train in Winter, about French resistance women during the war, at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £8).
The SW11 Literary Festival is ongoing: tonight catch Barbara Ewing and Elizabeth Chadwick at the BAC (7pm, £4).
Penelope Lively, journalist Maya Jaggi, Prize founder Briony Everroad and translator Paul Starkey chat about the Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize at Foyles (7pm, free but email to reserve a place).
Antonio Machado and Pablo Neruda are the Spanish poets in translation at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5).
Thursday: Christopher Priest is talking about his new novel The Islanders at Foyles (6.30pm, free but email to reserve a place).
Comedy and storytelling from Ian Leslie, Robert Hudson, Marie Phillips, John Finnemore, Benet Brandreth, Toby Davies, Rosie Wilby and Sally Stares at the Good Ship in Kilburn (8pm, £5).
Polar Bear, Rachel Pantechnicon and La Salami join the regular Bang Saiders at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).
Isabel Losada considers life, happiness and the Battersea Park Road to paradise in SW11 (7pm, £4).
Poets Unlimited provide the, uh, poetry, at Rhythm and Muse over at Kingston's Ram Jam Club (8.30pm, £6 / £5).
Head to Richmond for poetic tales of love from John-Paul O'Neill, Siam Hurlock, Betty Davis and Tom Bland (7.30pm, £5).
Ian Bostridge talks classical music at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).
There's an open mic night at Hendon Library Cafe from 6.30pm (free).
Friday: British-Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif is in conversation at the Free Word Centre (6.30pm, £10).
Bad Writing is a symposium considering genre writing, with speakers Paul Cornell and Dr Bernice M Murphy, at KCL (all day, free, email the organisers to book a place).
C.K. Stead reads his work at Birkbeck (6pm).
There's an early event for children at the SW11 Literary Festival, with Jim Helmore and Karen Wall (10.30am, free), plus Dorothy Koomson talking about the heavily advertised The Woman He Loved Before (7pm, £4).
Spend an hour at Keats House and hear poets of the Spanish Civil War (2pm, £5 / £3).
Ellen Banda-Aaku and Ken Kamoche head to the Poetry Cafe for an African Writers' Evening (7.30pm, £4 / £3).
Saturday: The Royal Society hosts its first literary festival celebrating science, literature and the arts. They've got a discussion on creative communication (10am, £4), Marcus du Sautoy (10.30am, £4), Mick Manning, author of childrens's book What Mr Darwin Saw (11.30am, free), Tim Radford (11.45am, £4), Jenny Uglow (1pm, £4), Apostolos Doxiadis (2.30pm, £4), John Barrow, Gillian Beer and Eva Hoffman (2.30pm, £4), Georgina Ferry (4pm, £4), Brian Dillon (4pm, £4), Richard Holmes (5.15pm, £4), Fiction Lab with Jennifer Rohn (6.30pm, free) and Michael Frayn (8pm, £4).
In SW11, you can have some Gruffalo fun all day in Waterstone's, attend a writing workshop with Nick Makoha (2pm, £5) or see Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites talk crime fiction (7pm, £4).
Annalie Wilson and Maya Levy enjoy a Monster Sunset at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £6 / £5).
Jill Bamber, Sami El Mahdi, Miriam Halahmy and Kate Moore are the guests at Salisbury House Poets (7.30pm, £3.50 / £2.50).
Sunday: There's a massive book fair on Battersea High Street as part of the SW11 Literary Festival, plus a literary lunch with baking guru Dan Lepard (12.30pm, £25).
The Royal Society's One Culture Festival enters its second and final day, with Sunetra Gupta (11am, £4), Ian Stewart on maths and art, and science fiction (11am / 1.45pm, £4 each), John Holmes (12.30pm, £4), Nicky Clayton and Mark Baldwin (12.30pm, £4), Sebastian Faulks (1.45pm, £4), China Mieville (3.15pm, £4), Charlotte Singh (3.15pm, £4), Paul Nurse (4.45pm, £4), Ian Thomson on Primo Levi (4.45pm, £4), John Banville (6pm, £4) and Brian Dillon and poet Gwyneth Lewis (6pm, £4).
Dan Kennedy is the poet at the Torriano Meeting House (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Monday: Misha Glenny talks about cyber crime at Hammersmith Library (7pm, free).
We've made a note that says David Nicholls is talking about One Day at Kings Place tonight from 7pm, but the site is a bit wonky at the moment and we can't double check. Tickets are usually £9.50 for the Words on Monday strand.
The SW11 Literary Festival closes with a literary quiz at the Latchmere (6.30pm, £1).
Childrens authors Judith Kerr and Tomi Ungerer talk about their experiences of Nazi Germany, at the Southbank Centre (11am, £4).
Celebrate the life of Czeslaw Milosz in the company of David Constantine, Fiona Sampson, Kornelijus Platelis, Irena Grudzinska Gross and Denis McShane at the British Library, from Poet in the City (7pm, free).
Exiled Lit at the Poetry Cafe features Nouri Jarrah, Jiumah Bukleb, Mohammed Jumeh and Wissam Boustany (7.30pm, £4 / £2).
Tuesday: AS Byatt and Steve Jones ponder the end of the world, at the Dana Centre (7pm, free but please book ahead).
Cristina Odone, Zoe Williams, Hephzibah Anderson, Irma Kurtz and Dr Jan Macvarish debate whether children are too sexualised, at Foyles (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5).
Niall O'Sullivan hosts the regular open mic night at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £4 / £3).
Iain Sinclair and Tracey Chevalier talk about their favourite paintings from the Courtauld Gallery (7pm, £12.50 / £11).
Henry Bowers and Keith Jarrett are performing at Hammer and Tongue at the Dalston Vic (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Shearsman Books present poets Linda Seed and Ian Black at Swedenborg House (7.30pm).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events
