Comparing one of our most consistently interesting songwriters to a historical military and political superpower might seem a bit of a stretch, but – and here we go – much like the Roman Empire, it seems PJ Harvey won’t be content until she’s conquered every corner of the artistic map. And, hey, why should she be?

Alongside an appearance by Terry Gilliam and a four-day reading of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick which might itself prove to be more than a couple of people’s own eternally-tormenting white whale, Harvey will be reading poetry from her forthcoming book at this year’s London Literature Festival.

Turning the recording of her latest album into a piece of performance art apparently not being enough, unsatisfied with the hypothetical, Harvey “[W]anted to smell the air, feel the soil and meet the people of the countries [she] was fascinated with.”

The Hollow of the Hand (published October 2015), a further collaboration with documentary filmmaker Seamus Murphy, is a photographic and poetic chronicle of a series of journeys taken by the pair to various modern conflict zones from Afghanistan to Washington.

Oh. And she’s going to play some new songs too.

Details of the festival can be found here. Tickets for the PJ Harvey and Seamus Murphy event will go on sale at 10am, Wednesday 22nd July .

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