Join us online as we celebrate the long-awaited debut from Paris Lees!
What It Feels Like For A Girl stars fabulous teenager Byron, determined to escape a dreary Notts town and the dreary people in it. Paris will be interviewed by writer & broadcaster Alexandra Heminsley.
What It Feels Like For A Girl is packed with inventive language and a powerful story! Thirteen-year-old Byron needs to get away and doesn't care how. Sick of being beaten up by lads for "talkin' like a poof". Sick of weightlifting, womanising Dad, and Mam, who pissed off to Turkey a la Shirley Valentine. Sick of all the living dead residents of Hucknall, who go on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave.
The new millennium dawns, Madonna's Music tops the charts and Byron's happy to beg, steal and skank to be part of it. Life explodes like a rush of ecstasy when Byron escapes into Nottingham's kinetic underworld and discovers East Midlands' premier podium-dancer and hellraiser, the captivating Lady Die. But there’s always a comedown and when this one hits, Byron’s life will change forever.
Paris has been promising a book for a decade but has been kind of busy changing the world and finding her own voice. She flirted with fiction before settling on a ‘memoir with fictional bits’ as the way to tell her story.
Paris Lees is a Contributing Editor at British Vogue and has written for VICE, The Guardian and the Telegraph. She’s received multiple awards, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton, for her journalism and work as an anti-bullying campaigner.
Paris will be interviewed by bestselling writer and sought-after broadcaster Alexandra Heminsley, author of acclaimed memoir 'Some Body To Love'.
Alexandra is a bestselling writer, journalist and broadcaster. Her books include the memoirs 'Some Body To Love', 'Leap In' and 'Running Like a Girl'. She’s appeared on the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show as well as the Today Programme and Woman’s Hour. She was the Books Editor of Grazia and Elle and her interviewees include Courtney Love, Jilly Cooper and Jack Monroe.
Join Paris & Alexandra online from 8-9pm (UK Time). This event will happen on YouTube so you won’t be on-screen and don’t have to worry about accidentally appearing in your pyjamas. You’ll be able to post questions and mingle in the chat before, during and after with the chance to chat directly with Paris & Alexandra. Damian Barr will also be in the chat room. Tickets are £5 . One lucky ticket holder will be in with a chance of winning a copy of 'What It Feels Like For A Girl'. We look forward to you joining us!
If you can’t join us live on the night don’t fret, as you'll be able to watch the Salon whenever you want using the link in the Online Event Page and in your ticket confirmation email.
This event is produced and presented by Damian Barr’s Literary Salon.