Lambeth Libraries Readers and Writers Festival has been a May highlight in the Lambeth calendar for almost two decades. You will find something to love in 2024’s month-long (and more) programme of inspirational events.
Meet authors with new non-fiction
- Art is Magic looks into the work and life of leading local artist and Turner Prizewinner Jeremy Deller.
- Peter Watts’ traces musical history – and the drugs and crime that followed – on London’s ‘Street of Sound’, Denmark Street.
- Ex-BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones discovers the story of his parents’ love affair.
- The long-hidden story of WW2 Polish resistance fighter ‘Agent Zo’.
- Alex Fernandes’ new book on The Carnation Revolution is part of events celebrating 50 years since Europe’s oldest fascist regime, in Portugal, ended.
- Through conversations tracing Black gay men’s journeys through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, Jason Okundaye finds links between histories often seen as unconnected.
Hear new voices, find new stories
- 10 years after winning the Booker Prize with A Brief History of Seven Killings – three decades tracing the lives of seven gunmen who tried to kill Bob Marley – novelist Marlon James (shown in header) visits the UK.
- Musih Tedji Xaviere’s debut novel These Letters End in Tears, a heart-wrenching story of a Christian and a Muslim girl in a country where being gay is illegal, is one of 2024’s most anticipated works.
- Yomi Adegoke was listed in the Evening Standard as one of London’s most influential people in . Join her to discuss The List – her new page-turner about the dark side of social media.
Yomi Adegoke, author of ‘the List’
- Allow Me to Introduce Myself is a darkly hilarious page-turner from Onyi Nwabineli. Ophelia is the ultimate social media ‘mumfluencer’ until stepdaughter Anuri sees her little sister starting down the same road…
- Private Rites with Julia Armfield – bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea discusses her stunning, unsettling new novel following three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world.
Creative workshops
Join poet Lola Oh on developing your sense of identity within the context of lived experience; (for adults), or sign up for a multi-sensory imaginative storytellers’ workshop for ages 3-8.
For writers
Julie Garton discusses how to make your own come to life on the page and you can bring your work to perform at our Open Mic Poetry Night.
For Book groups
Join Lambeth Libraries’ LGBTQ+ book club to discuss the latest in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series, Mona of the Manor, or join Radical Readers on 50 years since Portugal’s Carnation Revolution.
More information
Libraries across the borough are also hosting painting and photography exhibitions throughout the month.
- Find full details of what’s on when and where at https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/lambeth-readers-writers-festival and book your place free through Eventbrite
- Or pick up a printed copy of the programme from your local library
- Or email readersandwriters@lambeth.gov.uk for more information.
