We’re pleased to announce our participation this year with one of the best book bashes in the UK, Stoke Newington Literary Festival.
Held on the weekend of June 3 – June 5 across several venues in N16, Hackney, there are big draws in the guise of Iain Sinclair, John Hegley, Lucy Inglis, Thomas Keneally, Owen Jones and Judith Kerr; and organisers have also found space for several tQ-related writers as well.
STOP PRESS John Doran will be reading from his book Jolly Lad at The Prince pub, 59 Kynaston Road at 2pm on Saturday afternoon, over some soundscapes specially created for the performance by Twisted Nerve, Finders Keepers mensch Andy Votel. Chairing the event is Assistant Editor of the fabulous Little Atoms website and occasional VICE/Dazed writer, Caroline Christie.
(“Talented, successful, creative and prone to the odd 128-hour binge?” asks the festival. “Music critic and Quietus founder John Doran turned his popular MENK column for Vice into Jolly Lad, a brilliant memoir about his attempts to deal with being a recovering alcoholic… [he and Caroline talk about] why the music business and drugs seem inextricably linked, when partying goes wrong and how even the worst of times has a great soundtrack.” Tickets are four quid and are available here.)
Luke Turner will be doing what he does best, speaking of saucy goings on in the hedgerows while standing under nature’s canopy dressed as an Edwardian adventurer as he reads from his work-in-progress book on the people of Epping Forest, the 12 by 3 mile stretch of woodland that connects the east of London to the Essex countryside. Exploring the idea that no place near a city can be truly wild and that London tends to ‘corrupt’ what surrounds it, he’ll be reading from a chapter on sexuality and Epping Forest, from 1970s porn shoots to gay cruising, dogging, dirty men on bicycles, and the 19th century origins of his own family in an affair across the class divide.
(Travels Through The Urban Countryside: Above, Below and Beyond – Part 1 is held at The Old Bowling Green at 7pm on Friday and tickets, priced £8 are available here. The line-up for this adult-themed event also include The Tree Climber’s Guide author Jack Cooke on Clissold Park tree; friend of tQ Travis Elborough and his new book A Walk In The Park, Jon Day author of Cyclogeography; QI and Museum Of Curiosity writer Stevyn Colgan; and local poets Amy Key and Martha & Jean Sprackland.)
TQ writer and all round excellent human being, Jude Rogers is heading up a panel called punk.women on Sunday, 1pm at Abney Hall, speaking to Gina Birch, Pauline Murray, Helen Reddington of The Chefs, Shanne Bradley of The Nips and Catcall’s Liz Naylor.
Tim Cooper is heading up a panel entitled Punk.London in order to “discuss punk’s history and whether, 40 years on, it has a relevance that is worth preserving, celebrating, or dismissing”, with a panel that includes tQ contributor and ex-Voyeurs/Flats dude Samir Eskanda and editor John Doran. [SPOILER!!!! It should be dismissed with a flea in its ear, post haste!] The event is at the library and is free but you can reserve a ticket here.
Thurston Moore, Richard King and Steve Beresford talk about the area’s links to the free improv scene and its radical/political roots. The former Sonic Youth man will also be talking to Juliet Jacques and Rhyannon Styles about DIY culture for a talk called Radical Publishing held at the Unitarian Chapel at 5pm on Saturday.
There is a full programme of events available here.
