bt.1916c (8.10) prog:layout 1 · designed and produced by the corporate communications unit,...

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS • 2010

LITERARYFESTIVAL

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Designed and produced by the Corporate Communications Unit, Wandsworth Council, Cover painting by Emma Ballard BT.1916c (8.10)

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IntroductionDear Festival Goers

Welcome to the SW11 Literary Festival 2010, organised by Waterstone’s and theClapham Junction Town Centre Partnership. We are pleased to announce Marsh& Parsons estate agents as main festival sponsor this year and we would also liketo thank A Space and North & South Wines for their support.

We welcome back Time & Leisure Magazine as media partner and would like tothank them for all the coverage and publicity. Without the input and supportfrom all our partners, in addition to the invaluable assistance of WandsworthCouncil and the Clapham Junction Waterstone’s team, this festival would not be possible.

We’re delighted to present you with this years’ programme. Over the three weeksfrom the 9 to 30 September, you will have the opportunity to engage first handwith novelists, historians, poets, translators, screenwriters, journalists, essayists,and thinkers. During our writing workshops, everyone has the chance to havetheir writing skills benefit directly from the wealth of expertise we are bringingright to your doorstep. The festival is an annual celebration of all genres ofcreative writing and we are grateful to all the participants who will be sharingtheir work with us at the festival.

The ongoing support from Wandsworth Council and Waterstone’s make thefestival a highlight of the year in Battersea. We would like to thank all theWaterstone’s staff but especially the Manager Rob Koramoa and assistantmanager Emma Ballard, also Cater Moggridge, Becky Hine, Kathryn McKennaand Dee Greer for their hard work, Lorinda Freint the Clapham Junction towncentre manager, Emma Clark, James Boyer Smith and of course the economicdevelopment office, Wandsworth libraries, Apples and Snakes, Vayu NaiduCompany, The Pump House and the businesses who provided venues. Thank youto Alex Wheatle for his welcome input and assistance. A big thank you to all ourvolunteers and staff at the many host venues, who help make the events special.

We have a very exciting Slogan for Battersea competition during this year’sfestival: this initiative was developed with the help of BlinkMedia.

And now it is over to you! Enjoy the SW11 Literary Festival 2010.

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SW11 Literary Festival Poet in Residence 2010

Paul LyallsPaul Lyalls is something of an institution on the UK performance-poetry scene. His Edinburgh shows have garnered universallyfavourable reviews, and his regular London showcase, ExpressExcess, has launched the career of many a now-establishedperformer. Paul’s performance CV includes appearances atWembley Stadium, Eton College and a no73 bus (the latter makingthe ‘and finally’ slot on the 6 o’clock news). His latest collection,Catching The Cascade, is currently available from Flipped Eye.

The Anatomy Of A BookshopEnglish Literaturewas beside the drinking fountain.American literaturewas over near the vending machine.Romance, next to the fire escape.Philosophy was between the first and second floors.Crimecould be found next to the tills.Politicswas below ethics.Self-help, by the mirror.Making The World A Better Placewas next to books on children’s names.Religionwas next to Fantasy.Poetry,Was down in the basementwith Wines, Beers and spirits.


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We invite you to write a slogan forBattersea. Use no more than 15 words,to compose a catch phrase or slogan,which describes or refers to SW11.

Start a text with Battslog then a spacethen your slogan.

Text it to 07786 202 844.

All the entries will be collated on theThumbprint web page:www.thumbprintcity.com/london/battslog

07786 202 844 is a normal mobilenumber, so it costs the same as sendinga text to your friend’s phone. You will notbe signed up for anything, ever.

Or you can Tweet them using the hastag:#battslog.

The best entries will be printed anddisplayed in the windows of selectedretail outlets in the area – look out foryour slogan in the window of Debenhamsin Clapham Junction! Waterstone’svouchers to the overall winner, who willbe chosen after 30 September. Thewinning slogan will be printed on t-shirtsfor next year’s festival, and used on towncentre publicity.

Opens: NOW! Closes: 30 September

Examples:

• Ticket to Clapham Junction £2.20; flowers from Northcote Road market £10; lunch for two at The Merchant £20; living in Battersea= priceless.

• More than just a power station.• Battersea: the village near London.• Battersea: it’s not in Clapham.• There’s no ‘ocean’ in Battersea

Competition – a slogan for Battersea!


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9 September, 7pm £8

Will Self – Walking to HollywoodBattersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill

Will Self will be reading from and talking about his new book,Walking to Hollywood titled ‘The dreams and fantasies of anobsessive-compulsive flâneur’.

Comments on the book that will be published this Autumn fromhttp://will-self.com

Self ’s mordant satire is at the peak of its form in a new triptych,‘Walking to Hollywood’, a potent mixture of memoir and invention,which centres on his passion for wandering on foot around cities.Eventually Self decides to take a walk on British land that is aboutto be consumed by the sea.

‘Walking to Hollywood’ is an extraordinary triptych in which WillSelf burrows down through the intersections of time, place andpsyche to explore some of our deepest fears and anxieties with his characteristic fearlessness and edgy humour.

Will Self is the author of seven novels, six collections of stories andfive collections of non-fiction. His most recent novel is ‘The Butt’.He writes the ‘Madness of Crowds’ column for the New Statesmanas well as the ‘Real Meals’ column.


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Natasha and David Solomons – Novel writing, screenwritingand working togetherWaterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

Natasha Solomons first job, aged nine, was as a shepherdess,minding the flock on Bulbarrow Hill. Since then, she has worked as a screenwriter with her husband, and they are currently workingon the adaptation of her novel ‘Mr Rosenblum’s List’. She is also researching a PhD in eighteenth-century poetry. She lives in Dorset.

It’s every writer’s dream: your debut novel has agents andpublishers falling over each other in an effort to promote it andsign you up for a second book deal. English writer NatashaSolomons experienced a rush of early success with her novel ‘Mr Rosenblum’s List’. It’s about Jack Rosenblum, a Jewish refugeewho finds himself in England at the beginning of the second worldwar. He’s culturally disoriented, and becomes obsessed with fittingin. And so, among other things, he memorises every Britishmonarch back to 1913 and buys his marmalade from Fortnum & Mason. The draft of ‘Mr Rosenblum’s List’ attracted a publishers’bidding war.

David Solomans is a screenwriter, and one of his films ‘The GreatGhost Rescue’ is shooting in London at the moment. Also thewriter of ‘The Fabulous Bagel Boys’, ‘The Last Great Ghost Tour’and ‘Rose’s Patch’ amongst many others.

11 September, 10am £5

Poetry workshop with Paul LyallsNorthcote Library, Northcote Road, SW11

What makes a poet want to get up and bare their assonance inpublic? Can page and stage ever meet? And is a slam really asaggressive as it sounds? If you’re curious about this performancepoetry lark and want a bit of demystification, then join ourresident poet Paul Lyalls for a day of exercises geared up to makingyour poetry an altogether more three-dimensional experience.Taking the mic has never felt so good.

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Nicola Beauman – Publishing: Persephone Books: The inside story.Waterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

Persephone Books is a small, London-based publishing house andbookshop. Selling books mainly by mail order, Persephonepublishes “mainly neglected fiction and non-fiction by women, forwomen and about women” and focuses on 20th century‘middlebrow’ texts, making it unusual in a market that continues tofocus on earlier or more literary texts. “The titles are chosen toappeal to busy women who rarely have time to spend in ever-largerbookshops and who would like to have access to a list of booksdesigned to be neither too literary nor too commercial,” says thewebsite. Among the authors they have published are MonicaDickens, Dorothy Whipple, Frances Hodgson Burnett and WinifredWatson who wrote ‘Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day’.

Nicola Beauman, who founded and still runs the company, comesfrom a writing and publishing background. She was motivated tofound Persephone after her first book, ‘A Very Great Profession:The Women’s Novel 1914-39’, was published by Virago in 1983. “I realised that there were lots and lots of books that no one elsewanted to re-print,” she says. She was particularly inspired by theworks of the author Dorothy Whipple, “whom the mainstreamfeminist presses didn’t like”, a state of affairs which provedfortuitous for Persephone “because she’s been our best-sellingwriter”. So successful was ‘Someone At A Distance’, the firstPersephone book, that Beauman has since published three otherWhipple novels: ‘They Knew Mr Knight’, ‘The Priory’, and ‘TheyWere Sisters’.

What book lover hasn’t dreamed of opening a shop selling booksas beautiful to hold as they are to read? Come and meet NicolaBeauman, a publisher with a passion.

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15 September, 4pm-5pm Free

Vayu Naidu Company: Under the Banyan TreeAspace, 144, Northcote road, SW11 6RD

Join Vayu Naidu Company’s Storyteller “Under the Banyan Tree”for an hour of lively stories from India. Hear how the Peacock gotits beautiful tail; marvel at the cooking pot that fills up by magic;find out why a snake should hiss, not bite. These traditional storiesare told in an engaging and contemporary style and will delightchildren of all ages. Suitable for ages 3 – 10 years.

15 September, exhibition opens 6.30pm, talk at 7pm £4

Paul Gravett – More than words can say: the future is graphicPump House Gallery, Battersea Park

What do you read after ‘Maus’, ‘Watchmen’ or ‘Persepolis’? PaulGravett, curator of the Hypercomics exhibition and author of‘Graphic Novels: Stories to Change Your Life’, explains how comicsare broadening their content and appeal and developing into 21st century graphic literature, both on the printed page and indigital media.


Bobbie Darbyshire and Nicholas Royle – So you want to be awriter? Making the pages turn – two fiction writers spill thebeans on how it’s done. Come and talk to them about writingand pitching your book.Waterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

Two writers discuss their books and talk about the creative process.

Bobbie Darbyshire is a local author, and the writer of ‘Truth Games’and the recently published ‘Love Revenge & Buttered Scones’. Shewon the 2008 fiction prize at the National Academy of Writing in

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Birmingham, and has been published in their anthology, ‘Finding aVoice’. She has worked as barmaid, mushroom picker, film extra,maths coach, cabinet minister’s private secretary, and as a careassistant, as well as in social research and policy. She hosts awriters’ group and is a volunteer adult-literacy teacher.

In her latest novel ‘Love Revenge & Buttered Scones’ (2010) aninnocent meeting of a reading group sparks a series of bizarreevents. Three troubled people, driven by loneliness, vanity andrevenge, hurl themselves on the Inverness public library to findthat nothing is as they expect

Bobbie’s debut novel, ‘Truth Games’ (2009), is a serious comedyabout sex in 70s London, thought-provoking as well as amusingand racy. After the hippies and before the yuppies, between theadvent of the Pill and the onset of AIDS, between the ‘summer oflove’ and the ‘winter of discontent’, the newest game in town wassex. A group of friends play a dangerous game of open marriages,secrets and lies. Can love be free?

Nicholas Royle’s first novel ‘Quilt’ will be published by MyriadEdition in October 2010.

Facing the disarray and disorientation around his father’s death, a man contends with the strange and haunting power of the househis parents once lived in. He sets about the mundane yetexhausting process of sorting through the remnants of his father’slife - and at the same time embarks on an eccentric side-projectwhich he unveils to family and neighbours at his father’s funeral. As he grows increasingly obsessed with this new project, his gripon reality seems to slip.

Nicholas Royle experiments with literary form to forge a new mode of storytelling that is both playful and inquisitive. Tender,absorbing and at times shockingly funny, ‘Quilt’ is at once mysteryand love story.

Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex.He is renowned for his work on ‘Derrida’, deconstruction and theuncanny and has written numerous bools on literature and criticaltheory including ‘Telepathy and Literature and The Uncanny’.‘Quilt’ is his first novel.

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Vanessa Hannam and Paul McCue Writing the past – fact and fiction.Waterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

Two writers examine the process of writing about history and theprocesses involved in research, fact and ultimately fiction. A writer ofhistorical fiction and a historian juxtaposed.

Vanessa Hannam worked for many years as a journalist, contributingto numerous publications including The Sunday Telegraph, TheObserver and Harpers & Queen, before she started writing novelsand film scripts in 1995. She has appeared on BBC, ITN with HughPym, Uk Living, Sky TV, Ann Diamond show, Viva radio, GLR radio,South West TV. ‘A Rose in Winter’ is her fourth novel.

‘A Rose in Winter’: Born to a privileged family and growing up duringthe euphoric atmosphere of Restoration England, seventeen-year-oldMary Boynton appears to lead an idyllic life. Betrothed to herchildhood sweetheart and eagerly awaiting her wedding day, sheimagines that her future will be as pleasurable and peaceful as herpast. But these are not peaceful times, and Mary is not marked for a peaceful life. During last minute preparations for her wedding, the plague arrives in London and the country is plunged intounimaginable chaos.

Paul McCue is, by hobby, a British military historian, writer andauthor. Yorkshire born and bred, he graduated in InternationalStudies and normally concentrates on special forces history. His ‘dayjob’ is as a Deputy Director in London local government and thisprompted a departure from his usual specialisation to write his fourthbook ‘Wandsworth and Battersea Battalions in the Great War’.

This title outlines how, in 1915, Lord Kitchener extended his famous‘Your Country Needs You’ recruitment campaign by appealing to theMayors of the London Metropolitan Boroughs, urging each Mayor toraise a unit of local men for active service overseas. In southwestLondon, the response from two neighbouring boroughs, Wandsworthand Battersea, could not have been more different. In Wandsworth,Mayor Dawnay personally took up the challenge and soon recruited,for the East Surrey Regiment, double the number of men needed foran infantry battalion. In Battersea, however, there was initially no more


than lukewarm interest, partly due to the local Territorial Forceunit, the 23rd London Regiment, having expanded from one tothree battalions thanks to thousands of earlier volunteers. But asWandsworth’s efforts bore fruit, Battersea too pledged to raise afull infantry battalion. Mirroring the different political leanings ofthe two boroughs, Mayor Simmons pledged Battersea’s battalionto the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment.

Wandsworth’s 13th East Surreys and Battersea’s 10th Queen’sboth served with honour and distinction. But they, and thecommunities from which they came, also suffered thousands ofmen wounded and killed. This sacrifice cemented links with France,Belgium and Italy that continue today. From the early tragic deathof an adventurous boy of just 15, to the heroic deeds of adustman who won the Victoria Cross, this book describes the painand the glory of the volunteers of Wandsworth and Battersea onthe Western Front.

19 September, 2pm-4.30pm £5

Creative Writing Workshop: Structuring a story for fiction.Alex Wheatle.Northcote Library, Northcote Road, Battersea SW11

Alex is an award winning author and a master of building narrative.Through discussion, exercises and example this workshop willenable you to develop insight into the creative process and inspireyou to achieve your writing goals. Alex’s workshops are verypopular, please book early to avoid disappointment.

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Poetic Frenzy BAC Café, Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill

Paul Lyalls, this year’s SW11 Poet In Residence, heads a fast-moving spoken-word show.

SW11 poet-in-residence Paul Lyalls (‘Extremely good poetry, butsmiles too much’ - John Hegley) fronts an extravaganza of liveverse in the laid-back environment of the BAC bar. Guests Jahnell,Indigo Williams and Alex Gwyther ensure that, in the right hands,poetry can be a shattering live experience, whilst Cecelia Delatoridisplays her own brand of ditzy musical storytelling. Get down toBAC and get down with the poets.


Gill Gregory – Migrant StoriesBattersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill

A panel of three writers will talk about their fascinating familyhistories of migration and how these relate to their writing.

Local author, Gill Gregory, will discuss her prize-winning novel, ‘The Sound of Turquoise’, which explores the life of her Russiangrandfather who fled Tashkent in 1904 (“a mesmerising tale in which a Russian émigré reinvents himself as an Englishman,amassing a large collection of Constable paintings and forging afriendship with Benjamin Britten”, The Times Literary Supplement).

Nadia Valman (Queen Mary & Westfield College) is the author of‘The Jewess in Nineteenth-Century British Literary Culture’ (CUP)(“a subtle and illuminating book”, TLS) and will discuss her currentresearch on narratives of East End migration.

Georgie Wemyss (Goldsmiths College) will discuss ‘The InvisibleEmpire’, in which she explores race and ‘belonging’ in East Endcommunities (“a wonderfully readable analysis of the politics ofmulticulturalism”, The Open University).

Panel readings will be followed by discussion with the audience.This should be a lively and absorbing evening and a highlight ofthis year’s festival.

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Isabel Losada – How to get publishedWaterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

An informative, realistic and entertaining event with Isabel Losada.

Isabel is published by Hodder, Bloomsbury x 2, Summersdale,Random House & Watkins.

Drawing on her own experience (during the evening Isabel readsextracts from her rejection letters which is encouraging as thereasons for rejection all contradict each other) Isabel entertainsher audience whilst offering her honesty, wisdom, every tip she canthink of and much compassion.

The event includes a Q & A section.

This talk has been given to full houses at the EdinburghInternational Book Festival, Guilford Literature Festival, theAberdeen Word Festival, and the West Cork Literature Festival.Isabel has also given talks about her own books for ten years.

Equally suitable for the experienced collector of rejection letters,for those with their novel still under the bed or for anyone thathas yet to put pen to paper.

Book early as this event always sells out.

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22 September, 7.30pm £5

License to Tell.The Duchess, 101 Battersea Park Road, SW8 4DS

September is the season for pumpkins and amber leaves, withcrackling twigs in spitting fires. When day is chased by night, it’stime for a potent brew of Storytelling.

TALKING SPIRITS is a wonderful journey about how Vikings holdpoetry more precious than power; why Kali is at the hub ofsuffragette politics; when gunpowder fails what legacy is leftbehind, and more. Stories are re-membered to make historycompellingly contemporary.

Vayu Naidu and her Company of stand up Storytellers will feastyou on autumnal stories seasoned with dark wit and wisdom. This is not for the faint hearted.

Talking Spirits is part of Vayu Naidu Company’s Stand UpStorytelling series: LICENCE TO TELL. This is dedicated to keepingStorytelling alive as oral literature in Pubs and Literature Festivalsand is a platform for the Company’s Guild of Storytellers.

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Guy Deutscher – Language alters how we thinkWaterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

“Guy Deutscher is that rare beast, an academic who talks goodsense about linguistics, his chosen field. In his new book, ‘Throughthe Language Glass’ (Heinemann), he fearlessly contradicts thefashionable consensus, espoused by the likes of Steven Pinker, that language is wholly a product of nature, that it does not takecolour and value from culture and society. Deutscher argues, in aplayful and provocative way, that our mother tongue does indeedaffect how we think and, just as important, how we perceive the world.”

“An honorary research fellow at the University of Manchester, the 40-year-old linguist draws on a range of sources in the book toshow language reflecting the society in which it is spoken. In theprocess, he explains why Russian water (a ‘she’) becomes a ‘he’once you have dipped a teabag into her, and why, in German, ayoung lady has no sex, though a turnip has”.The Observer. 13 June 2010.

As he points out “I argue that the mother tongue has considerableinfluence on the way we think and perceive the world. But there’s agreat deal of historical baggage attached to this question and so most respectable psychologists and linguists won’t touch itwith a bargepole”.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Deutscher back to the festival todiscuss his new book. His previous event in Battersea was a run-awaysuccess, so we would suggest you book early for this one.

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Matthew Harvey – Where Earwigs DareBattersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill

Matt’s unique poetic style has taken him all across the countryfrom Totnes to the All England Lawn Tennis Club as the first poetin residence at Wimbledon, via Radio 4’s ‘Saturday Live’, theEdinburgh Festival and the ‘Work’ section of the Guardian.

‘Where Earwigs Dare’ is a collection of his latest poems containinga rich diversity of verse, some horticultural, whimsical, ecological,political and some that are just plain funny!

There are poems about potatoes and leeks, about clouds, sheds and slugs, kippers and cows, pain relief, petty theft andpublic nudity. There is also an introduction to Empath Man –a contemporary superhero who fights crime through his advancedlistening skills and ability to stay open and vulnerable in a tightsituation.

Poet, enemy of all that’s difficult and upsetting, Matt Harveyperforms up and down the country at festivals, cabarets,conferences and colleges. He is founder of ‘Wondermentalist’, thecomedy-infused, musically enhanced slightly interactive poetrycabaret with resident superhero. His consuming interest in thecore concerns of contemporary society has led him into manyinteresting shops.

If you’re a fan of poetry, but especially if you’re not, Matt Harveywill not fail to make you laugh with his witty warmth and comedic timing.

This event is an opportunity to hear one of Britain’s leading poetsperform live, plus the opportunity to grab one of the first copiesof ‘Where Earwigs Dare’. The book is illustrated by David Hughes.

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Literary lunch with Josceline DimblebyChez Manny, 145-149 Battersea High Street, SW11 3JS

Josceline Dimbleby has been one of Britain’s most popular foodwriters for nearly thirty years. Her inventive cookery books havesold well over two million copies in the UK alone, and beentranslated into many languages.

Her new book ‘Orchards in the Oasis: Travels, Food and Memories’is published this autumn. Josceline is widely credited withintroducing new ways of using spices to the domestic kitchen. This enchanting memoir explores the food influences of her richand varied life and provides an outstanding collection of excitingrecipes. As an itinerant child with a diplomat stepfather, Joscelinespent much of her time in the kitchen – in a succession ofdifferent countries – watching cooks transform food with spicesand herbs. As a consequence, she acquired not only a taste forfood but also a passion for discovering other lands and differentcuisines. From Syria to Morocco, from North America to Burmaand Laos, her adult life built on and broadened her earlygastronomic experiences.

She found that her astonishing memory of tastes – together withher natural ability to combine flavours and textures harmoniously -enabled her to create very personal interpretations of dishes shehad eaten around the world. ‘Orchards in the Oasis’ is Josceline’sabsorbing account of her lifelong love affair with food andflavourings. It is interspersed with 75 inspiring but accessiblerecipes from the diverse cuisines she has experienced on hertravels: Rose petal tart from Syria, Peruvian potatoes, Bosphorusmussel stew, Marrakesh meatballs and Chicken noodle hotpot from Vietnam. Evocatively illustrated with mouth-watering foodphotography and the author’s personal photographs of her travels,it is, indeed, an irresistible memoir.

Join us for a leisurely lunch and a glass of wine at Chez Manny, andthe opportunity to hear Josceline talk about food and memories.

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Literary Quiz.Latchmere Pub, Battersea Park Road

The legendary literary quiz… and an annual highlight. No need to book in advance, just turn up on the night and come and testyour knowledge.

It’s a great night out. All things literary, and we mean ALL things.Lots of fun and prizes. Teams can have between 1 and 6 members.

28 September, 7pm, £3

Melissa Wareham – DOGS, BOOKS AND BATTERSEAWaterstone’s, 70 St. John’s Road

Melissa Wareham is the author of the unexpected run-awaybestseller ‘Rescue Me: My Life With Battersea Dogs’. The bookconsists of fascinating stories about neglected pooches and theirowners told by a former manager at the famous dogs’ home, whohas become a familiar face on TV shows such as ‘Pet Rescue’.

In her own words, this is how she came to write the book:

“Having never written anything before, I am somewhat of anaccidental author and didn’t really intend for my Batterseamemoirs to become a book. Life is funny like that.

‘Rescue Me’ is an account of the 15 extraordinary years I spent atthe world’s most famous dogs’ home.

I begin Battersea life at the bottom, cleaning out, feeding andwalking the dogs. Ultimately I become Battersea’s RehomingManager and due to my confidence in front of television cameras, Ialso unwittingly become the media ‘face of Battersea’.

At Battersea I deal with an extremely diverse set of people, fromcelebrities and royalty to ordinary people and those down on their luck and it is at this remarkable dogs’ home that I learn moreabout human nature than anywhere else. It is not long before Ialso come to see that dogs have the ability to bridge all social andclass divides like nothing else.

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Some of the dogs that feature in my story come into Battersea asbroken, shell-shocked wrecks, some as bolshy, over-confidentbiting machines but most are just loveable rogues that findthemselves lost or abandoned.

The book is a celebration of all the good that comes out of oneunique, genuine, caring, determined, proud establishment; a placethat has become as deeply ingrained in British heritage as themonarchy, fish and chips and cups of tea. A place known simply asBattersea Dogs Home.

I left Battersea Dogs Home after 15 years to set up home inAustralia. When I arrived in Oz I was extremely homesick anddesperately missing the dogs. Due to the fact that I didn’t have ajob and hardly knew a soul Down Under, I encountered none oflife’s usual distractions and for the first time found I had the timeand space to reflect on my previous decade and a half. I alwaysknew Battersea was a special place but it was only then that I cameto realise just what a truly incredible time I’d had there. So I beganto write down some of my memories, partly so I didn’t forgetthem, partly as therapy to alleviate the homesickness and relivethose blissful years. It worked. I showed it to a friend of a friendwho was a literary agent. To my amazement she liked it andshowed it to a publisher. The rest is history”.


Spin Cities – tales of music and the metropolis.An evening of sharp short stories.Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill

Spin Cities is an evening of music and stories from some of themost exciting new writers around.

From hip-hop to jazz, from country to funk, these tales of the citymove to the beat of a different drum. Each reader will also havethe opportunity to introduce a song that means something tothem – whether to with their life, or their writing.

Backed by the eclectic tunes of Bucky Wunderlick’s Literary Disco,Spin Cities is a night that celebrates the art of short stories, aswell as the city’s unique soundscape.

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Confirmed so far are Nikesh Shukla (reading from his debut novel,‘Coconut Unlimited’) and Jude Rogers (Mercury prize judge andone of the country’s finest music journalists), with five otherbrilliant writers to offer a fictional guide to the musical world.

30 September, 4pm – 5pm free

The Live Book Tour – “Under the Banyan Tree” Tickets must be collected in advance from York Gardens Library.York Gardens Library, Lavender Road, Battersea SW11 2UG

Vayu Naidu Company’s Storyteller brings the “Under the BanyanTree” stories from India to life. Hear how the Peacock got itsbeautiful tail; marvel at the cooking pot that fills up by magic; findout why a snake should hiss, not bite. These traditional stories aretold in an engaging style and encourage the children get involved,showing how telling stories can lead to imagining stories of theirown and reading them in books.

Suitable for children aged from 4 – 8 and their families. Pizza and soft drinks will se served.

30 September, 6.30pm free

Local Authors' Book Fair, Book Slam and end of festival party! Limited places so book places in advance by calling 020 7627 3182York Gardens Library, Lavender Road, Battersea SW11 2UG

Please join us for a glass of wine and some nibbles to say goodbyeto the summer, and this year's Literary festival, and to welcome theautumn in style....

Meet local writers, poets, readers and artists for the first everLocal Authors' Book Fair. Come along and let's celebrate CreativeBattersea.

Local writers will have their books for sale on the evening, therewill be book displays and exhibitions, interesting people, quirkyinterests, a chance to spot cool trends and above all, a relaxedatmosphere.



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Booking formPayment for tickets can be made:

In person at: Waterstone’s Bookshop, 70 St John’s Road, Clapham Junction, SW11 1PT

By post to: Lorinda Freint, EDO 1st Floor New Town Hall, Wandsworth High Street, SW18 2PU (cheque payments only) (020) 7627 3182

By telephone: (020) 7627 3182 (credit or debit card only)

Please make cheques payable to Wandsworth Borough Council exceptwhere payment is made in person at Waterstone’s where cheques should be made payable to Waterstone’s Bookshop.

Terms

On completion of the booking form and receipt of payment, all tickets will beposted to you at the address given below.

No refunds can be made on any tickets once an order has been placed.

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