Pride in London is 50 this year, well , sort of. It’s complicated and exciting history. I was happy to talk to Nick Levine along with Peter Tatchell, Lady Phyll and other actual icons for his feature in Bustle.
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Abi Morgan is the BAFTA and Emmy-winning playwright and screenwriter who created the BBC's rave series The Split, The Iron Lady, Suffragette, The Hour and much more. She's just published the incredible This Is Not A Pity Memoir, and we were thrilled to have the world premiere at the Salon recently.
Poignant and heart-breaking but resolutely unwilling to rely on sentimental platitudes, Abi's memoir is a profoundly powerful and perceptive read on love, grief and the eternal promise of hope.
Listen HERE!
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I’m really happy that Myfanwy Alexander chose Guide Books: On Nature with Helen Macdonald and Melissa Harrison, along with The Food Programme: Jack Monroe: A Life Through Food and Open Book: Julian Barnes for Pick of the Week on BBC Radio 4.
To hear the full Pick of the Week programme click here.
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Last week the Literary Salon held a very special evening with Douglas in conversation with me at an in-person Salon in Brighton - it was an incredible conversation, and I’m still thinking about it. So join us me and the Literary Salon team as we celebrate Douglas' brilliant new novel 'Young Mungo', the story of two boys, two tribes and two Scotlands. Catholic James and Protestant Mungo live in the violent, macho world of Glasgow’s council schemes. They dream of escaping the gangs and the grey, fractured city. Will their dream come true?
'Thanks so much for a wonderful Salon Damian. I could have listened to Douglas all night. Such a tender, interesting and poignant interview.' - Araminta Hall
Young Mungo is out now and available at your local indie bookshop or from the Salon shop at bookshop.org
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This doesn’t feel quite real. I used to gawp up The Royal Society of Edinburgh building when I was a student and be in awe of all the knowledge that emanated from it. And, frankly, intimated by the power. Today they honoured me as a Fellow along with 79 incredibly talented people- scientists and intellectuals and pillars of civic society. I plan to work with the RSE to make the joys and benefits of reading and writing available to all.
Thanks to the President and Trustees and to everyone who has ever given me an opportunity and thus helped me get here. Thanks Mum ❤️
Click here to learn more about The Royal Society of Edinburgh.
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I’m excited to announce that Guide Books will be returning to BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 10th April! You can hear me talking with Sinéad Gleeson and Sarah Perry about The Body. All episodes are also available to listen on BBC iPlayer.
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Kit and Abi two of our most thrilling writers unveil their memoirs at a very special Salon.
Kit is the award-winning and bestselling author of My Name Is Leon and edited the pioneering collection Common People. Without Warning & Only Sometimes: Scenes from an Unpredictable Childhood is her story of growing up in a household of opposites and extremes. Her haphazard mother was a devout Jehovah’s Witness who believed the world would end in 1975. Her father was the opposite. Kit was caught between three worlds: Irish, Caribbean and British in 1960s Birmingham. It’s funny, honest and as compelling as her fiction.
Abi Morgan is the BAFTA and Emmy-winning playwright who created The Iron Lady, Suffragette and The Hour. She shifts from screen to page for This Is Not A Pity Memoir. From the very first page it is intimate and within five pages I was falling in love with her and her husband Jacob: ‘This is the man I love, the man I have known for nearly twenty years. The man who have fought with and laughed with and loved with. The man who is never going to be the same again.’
Tickets will be available to newsletter subscribers at 9am on 23rd March and to the general public at 12pm. Prices start at £15 plus booking fee. Doors and bar open at 6.30pm and the Salon will start at 7.30pm and finish at 9pm.
Join us for this very special Salon all about memoir. And it’s the world premiere for both books! See you there.
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Delight that In Search of Walter Scott is being picked up by broadcasters around the world! It’s on in Australia this Friday night at 8.35pm local time. Enjoy! And thanks again to all our contributors and to Factory Films for producing and BBC Scotland for commissioning.
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I will be heading to Dundee in June to be this year’s keynote speakers at the annual CLIPS conference.
This is the largest conference in Scotland for library and information professionals, CILIPS22 will bring together colleagues from across the country and beyond to share knowledge and engage in professional development. Taking place throughout 6th and 7th June at theDundee Apex Hotel, CILIPS22 will feature fascinating keynote speeches, thought-provoking parallel sessions, networking opportunities and much more.
Click here for more information and how to book tickets.
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I’m excited to announce that Douglas Stuart will be joining me in Brighton on the 22nd April for the last date of his book tour, celebrating his new novel, Young Mungo! You can buy tickets HERE for this in person event at Ironworks Studios.
Doors and bar open 6.30pm (bar will be open after the event too). Douglas will be signing after the event.
Shuggie Bain broke our hearts and publishing records, winning the Booker Prize and launching Douglas Stuart. We’re proud to say we premiered Shuggie Bain at a special online Salon in June 2020 and we’re delighted to continue the conversation with the much-anticipated Young Mungo.
Young Mungo is the story of two boys, two tribes and two Scotlands. Catholic James and Protestant Mungo live in the violent, macho world of Glasgow’s council schemes. Gangs brawl along sectarian lines and life is divided. But love will always find a way. And so, James and Mungo find each other. Mungo and James dream of escaping the gangs and the grey, fractured city. Will their dream come true?
This is the Scotland Douglas Stuart grew up in. It’s also where and when Damian grew up, with a Catholic mother and Protestant father – his family as divided as the community around them. So, he can’t wait to sit down with Douglas and talk about that place and time, divided loyalties, the unintended consequences of ‘love’ and the lives of boys like James and Mungo. You will love them, and Young Mungo, just as much as you loved Shuggie Bain. And you’ll carry them in your heart forever after.
Arrive early to find your seat (seats are not allocated beforehand) and enjoy a drink in the colourful and relaxing bar area. Ironworks Studios is a brand new event and performance space in the heart of Brighton’s North Laine. Find out more here.
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We could have talked all night…
What an absolute belter of an evening! An Audience with Marian Keyes was honest, heartfelt, hilarious - it’s got to be one of our favourite ever #litsalon events.
Thank you so much Alex Clark for such an intimate and insightful interview, to our celebrity guests Lisa Jewell, Sara Cox, Anton Du Beke, Nadiya Hussain and Emma Freud for their brilliant questions, to our impressive (and terrifyingly competitive) quiz contestants Roisin Ingle, Daisy Buchanan and Paul Dunphy, to Jamie Oliver for the fabulous location, and of course the most marvellous Marian Keyes - thank you for the words, the wisdom and the wit!
If you missed it, don’t fret, you can now watch on Salon On Demand! Click here to get your ticket.
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Damian knows all too well the challenges writers face when they have to leave their desk and take their book out into the world. He’ll be joining ALCS for their Instagram Live series, Write Now, to share his advice on going from the solitude of your study to presenting yourself on stage at readings and events. Follow ALCS and Damian now to make sure you don't miss it on Insta Live, Tues 8th Feb at 8pm.
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Congrats to Hannah Lowe for winning the Costa for her book The Kids! And well done to all the category winners! And thanks to the category judges and my fellow judges! And to Costa Book Awards.
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#RACHELSBACK! Celebrate the return of Rachel with Marian Keyes and Special Guests at Damian Barr’s Literary Salon on Wednesday 16th February! Tickets are available here.
The phenomenal, multi-million-copy, internationally bestselling author Marian Keyes returns for an exclusive digital Literary Salon to reveal one of the most anticipated books of 2022: ‘Again, Rachel’.
This long-awaited sequel is Marian’s fifteenth novel. Her books have rightly become beloved world-wide for their heartwarming combination of wit, love and fearless honesty depicted through down-to-earth characters we feel we know. 'Rachel’s Holiday', in which Rachel Walsh debuted 25 years ago, is regarded by many fans as their favourite. Since then, readers have been dying to know just what happened to Rachel, and some fella named Luke Costello…
As well as her new novel, Marian will be chatting about her own writing journey and craft, where she draws her inspiration from, and how she brings humour to some of today’s most important contemporary issues.
Damian Barr will be your host for this very special Salon conjuring a fabliss evening for you all! Expect Very Special Guests and plenty of fun and games. The brilliant broadcaster, journalist and Marian-superfan, Alex Clark will be interviewing Marian. Alex, often heard on BBC R4’s such Front Row and Open Book, was a judge for the (then) Man Booker Prize - expect a gripping and gorgeous conversation! And you’ll have the chance to get your questions answered by Marian!
The Salon runs online from 7-8.30pm. We have various ticket options including an extra special book-and-ticket bundle, which gives you the chance to get your hands on a copy before the Salon and before it even hits the shelves! This is one FABLISS evening for every true fan whoever and wherever you are.
If you can’t join us live on the night, don’t fret, as you'll also be able to watch the Salon back whenever you want afterwards. It’ll be just as much fun! We really look forward to you joining us.
For every ‘book and ticket’ package sold we will offer a free online ticket so that someone who would not otherwise be able to enjoy the event get’s to join in. And, as with all online salons, this evening will be streamed free to any library that wants to take part - just email libraries@literary-salon.co.uk for details.
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Time to get my costa card stamped!
Delighted to join this line-up as one of the guests for the final judging panel for the Costa Book Awards 2021. It’s been a great year for publishing so I’m hoping it’ll be a pleasingly difficult task.
Double shot and oat milk, please.
For more info visit www.costa.co.uk/behind-the-beans/costa-book-awards/judges.
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I was asked by the i newspaper what I am grateful for…and this is what I felt. What would you have said?
“I am grateful to be alive, despite the dazzling failures of Matt Hancock - the only dazzling thing about him. I am grateful to the cleaner who lovingly rearranged hymnals between one funeral and the next and who I watched through tears on Zoom. I am grateful to the lemon tree I just brought in for winter, for blooming again in the darkest coldest months. I am grateful to my biological family for giving me a place to be and my logical family for giving me a place to go. I am grateful to the writers who light the way for me, and to my husband who knows me better than I know myself.”
Click here to read the full article.
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You can watch Damian chatting with the one and only Billy Connolly! Billy answers questions sent in from his fans and also discusses his life and his new autobiography, Windswept & Interesting! You can order your copy here.
Click HERE to watch Billy and Damian.
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It has been a joy to bring a third series of The Big Scottish Book Club to your screens, but don't worry, the literary love doesn't need to end there as you can now watch all episodes on BBC iPlayer!
This week Damian is at Troon Concert Hall talking short stories which reveal whole worlds with guests Bernard MacLaverty, Val McDermid and Kit de Waal. And there's spoken word performance from Bee Asha Singh.
Join us live on BBC iPlayer or on BBC Scotland - Thank you for all your support!
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Last week Miriam Margolyes and Mohsin Zaidi charmed our audiences both at The London Library and online! We laughed, we cried, we felt everything!
If you missed it NEVER FEAR as it's available to watch now with Salon-On-Demand. For just £5 get yourself lifetime access to the event everyone's been talking about, or give it as a unique festive gift!
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Due to the rapidly changing Covid situation, we’re taking extra steps to keep everyone safe at our Salon on Dec 2nd at london Library. And we need your help. Please pay attention to the updated information below. Do get in touch if you have any questions or if your situation has changed and you’d like a refund.
Here are the measures we're taking to keep you as safe as possible and information about what you can do to help us protect everyone on the night.
Most important: Please take a lateral flow test on Wednesday or Thursday and present proof of a negative result on arrival.
Please wear a mask on arrival or have proof of exemption. We will have disposable masks, should you need one.
As much as we’d LOVE to see your smiles, please wear a mask during the event and when moving around the room.
All our staff will be masked and tested on the day.
We’ve reduced capacity to give everyone in the room as much personal space as possible, but we are not able to put 2 metres between each seat.
We will have a bar area and we will be serving alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Please return to your seat with your drink and/or do your best to socially distance near the bar.
Windows will be open for ventilation but the Library has good heating so you’ll still be cosy! If you’d like to keep your coat with you, please do.
Please socially distance where possible and make use of the hand washing facilities and sanitizer stations.
Finally, please stay safe and comfortable at home if you have tested positive for coronavirus or have symptoms of illness, including a cough, sore throat, runny nose or fever. As ever, we reserve the right to refuse entry. We want everyone to feel safe and comfortable so they can enjoy the Salon and sharing stories. If, for any reason, you feel unable to attend in person we will gladly refund your ticket and hope you can join us online.
Thank you for all your help and support!
www.theliterarysalon.co.uk/latest/covid-safety-at-salon
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