Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival
The Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival happens every year in May offering a month-long programme of free inspirational events.
For more information or to book tickets for Lambeth Libraries events please call 020 7926 1075 or email readersandwriters@lambeth.gov.uk.
Download the listings brochure.
Brixton Book Jam
Date: Monday 6 May
Venue: Hootananny pub, Brixton. SW2 1DF
Time: 7.30pm
This is The Brixton Book Jam's fifth outing bringing together an eclectic mix of big names and local writers for a night of book-related, but not bookish, entertainment. Ivor Dembina will be your host, introducing 12 5-minute readings. Brainfood for a Monday night (and it's free!).
www.brixtonbookjam.com
Minet Film club presents Stand by me (Reiner 1986)
Date: Tuesday 7 May
Venue: Minet Library
Time: 6.30pm
Based on the Stephen King short story The Body, this is an easy-going nostalgia piece set in a small town in Oregon in 1959. A quartet of inseparable friends set out in search of a dead body that one of the boys overhears his older brother talking about. (88mins Cert.15)
This Boy - Alan Johnson
Date: Tuesday 14 May
Venue: South Lambeth Library
Time: 7.30pm
Alan Johnson's childhood was not so much difficult as unusual, particularly for a man who was destined to become Home Secretary. Not in respect of the poverty, which was shared with many of those living in the slums of post-war Britain, but in its transition from two-parent family to single mother and then to no parents at all... all played out against the background of a vanishing community living in condemned housing.
The House of Rumour with Jake Arnott
Date: Monday 20 May
Venue: Durning Library
Time: 6.45pm
Jake Arnott's debut novel, The Long Firm, was published in 1999 to huge public and critical acclaim. His novels have been made into widely praised TV dramas.
"The House of Rumour may be the ideal holiday read for those who like to take their brains with them on vacation" (Mark Lawson, Guardian)
Join The Friends of Durning Library in welcoming Jake to Lambeth.
'Stag and Hen' with Mike Gayle and Lucy Robinson
Date: Wednesday 22 May
Venue: Brixton Library
Time: 7pm
Join us for a fun and lively night discussing writing out of your gender.
Previously an Agony Uncle, Mike Gayle has written for a variety of magazines including FHM, Sunday Times Style and Cosmopolitan. His numerous novels always grace the best-seller charts.
Lucy Robinson is the author of The Greatest Love Story of All Time. Prior to writing, Lucy worked on TV documentaries. Her writing career began when she started a dating blog for Marie Claire where she entertained readers with frank tales from her laughably unsuccessful foray into the world of internet dating.
Poetry Parlour
Date: Thursday 23 May
Venue: Waterloo Library
Time: 7pm
Local literature organisation, The Poetry Parlour, wanders into the library this month for a Waterloo flavoured feature: 3 local poets, Louisa Hooper, Fawzia Kane and Anna Robinson and novelist and short story writer Tracey Gilbert. All welcome
Londonostalgia? - James Heartfield
Date: Tuesday 28 May
Venue: Carnegie Library
Time: 7pm
London has long been a setting for novelists: whether in Dickens or Patrick Hamilton's work. Lately, London itself has become the subject for writers like Michael Moorcock, Peter Ackroyd, and Iain Sinclair.
Accounts of London in these writers' work is elegiac, mourning a lost London. But this is nostalgia with a twist. The London they look back to is more than atmospheric, it is dark, dirty and dangerous. Strange themes of mythical history and a hidden underground race, haunting the city. What does the new writing on London tell us about the citizens and the city today?
James Heartfield is an historian and journalist, contributing to the London Literary Review, Blueprint and Art Review. His most recent book is Unpatriotic History of the Second World War.
The Gospel according to Cane with Courttia Newland
Date: Wednesday 29 May
Venue: Clapham Library
Time: 7pm
Courttia Newland is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter. His novels include Snakeskin, The Dying Wish and The Scholar. Courttia has been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Crime Writers Dagger, the Frank O'Connor and the Edge Hill awards. Don’t miss this fantastic author talking about his latest book.
"The storytelling is as captivating as the story itself. Newland, a Jamaican-born British writer, seamlessly integrates the joy, fear, uncertainty, and sadness... Newland's prose is beautiful" (Library Journal)
Accidents Happen with Louise Millar
Date: Thursday 30 May
Venue: Streatham Library
Time: 7pm
Louise Millar began her career in journalism on music and film magazines and later worked as a commissioning editor of women's magazines. Her first novel, The Playdate, was published in 2012. Tonight she discusses her latest book Accidents happen. Join Streatham Library in welcoming Louise Millar.
The Portuguese in the East with Dr Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya
Date: Tuesday 4 June
Venue: South Lambeth Library
Time: 7pm
Vasco da Gama's voyage to India in the late 15th Century opened up new economic and cultural horizons for the Portuguese. At the height of Portugal's maritime influence it had created an oceanic state ranging from the Cape of Good Hope to China. Shihan de Silva Jayasuriya charts the influences of the Portuguese in more than fifty Asian tongues, illustrating the extent of Lusitanian links - cultural legacies that are an unexpected outcome of seaborne commerce.
For more information or to book tickets for Lambeth Libraries events please call 020 7926 1075 or email readersandwriters@lambeth.gov.uk
Events for young people
For teenagers Lambeth libraries host Teen Reading Clubs. Come along to make new friends, chill and talk about books, these clubs are for you. For the month of May we will also have visiting authors.