Cultur Vultur / Books & Ideas
Discover author talks, book launches and conversations worth getting out for, across London.
Loading events…
91 talks and events in the next 7 days
Showing 451–500 of 640 events451–500 of 640 events
Come along and give your thoughts at this month's bookclub, where we'll be discussing An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail by Helene Giannecchini.
Sophie Hannah and expert guests on the man behind the moustache...
@ Join us to celebrate the book launch of Alston Moor, published by Goldsmiths Press. This a polyphonic novel creating a portrait over time of one of England’s most remote landscapes, a landscape now suffering degradation and threatened by arson and wildfire. In 1548, Isabel and her father, together with the priest in this poorest of parishes, grapple with the chaos of the Protestant reformation. Enacted in far away centres of power, the reforms turn daily life and religious traditions upside down. Statues, images of the saints, rosaries, prayer books are burned. Massesfor the dead are denounced as the corrupt practice of a money-grubbing clergy. Isabel holds fast to the old ways. But at her summering ground she encounters the more-worldly cattle drovers who fall into rebellious talk. Surely there are no protestant sympathisers in her parish. Today, in equally tumultuous and disruptive times, a grieving Elizabeth and her scientist team attempt to right the ecological wrongs and profligacy of the industrial era – the pollution, the age-old tradition of peat cutting for fuel, the draining of peat bogs for cultivation and the spread of sitka spruce plantations. The peatlands offer a climate life-line and there is no time to lose. The novel interrogates how society confronts crisis, whether through science, faith or ritual,and how landscape bears witness to human struggle across the centuries. We are delighted to be hosting the launch of the award winning science-fiction writer Anne Charnock’s new work of deeply stirring experimental fiction. Alston Moor is an elegiac, beautiful novel that combines historical and speculative fiction with ecological thought and serves as a powerful ruminations on landscape and futurity. Anne will be conversation with fellow celebrated writer Sandra Newman, author of Julia: a novel, The Men and other incredible works. There will be readings, discussion and some mingling afterwards. Our Speakers: Anne Charnock is the author of four novels. She won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Dreams Before the Start of Time. Her debut, A Calculated Life, was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award. During her career in foreign journalism, her reports appeared in New Scientist and The Guardian. Sandra Newman was born in America but has lived in Germany, Russia, Malaysia, and England. Her professions have ranged from academia to professional gambling. She studied Creative Writing at UEA, and her first novel, The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Her second novel, Cake, was published by Chatto in 2007. In 2009 she co-wrote How NOT to Write a Novel, and in 2019, The Heavens. Her third novel, The country of Ice Cream Star 2014, was nominated for the 2015 Folio Prize and the 2015 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. Her next novel, The Men, was published in 2022, with Julia, Sandra’s feminist retelling of George Orwell’s dystopian classic, 1984, following soon afterward. She currently lives in New York. This is a free event, but please do RSVP using the link below. Drinks and snack will be provided but you may also bring your own if you wish.
A series of three enlightening short talks uncovering the technology helping us overcome the severe impacts of changing weather systems, presented by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Belle Burden is the author of the instant number one New York Times bestseller, Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage. Since publication, this deeply personal account of the breakdown of a marriage in New York high society has generated an enormous response. Praised as an instant classic by some and bitingly critiqued by others, the conversations started by the book around modern marriage, financial disparity, and spousal betrayal have radiated across culture and media. Netflix has acquired the rights to its production, with Gwyneth Paltrow already attached to executive produce and star as Belle.
This event is hosted by our partners at Intelligence Squared.
Cody takes on today's deteriorating climate of identity-driven, social-media hot-take, culture war-fuelled brainrot politics.
Discover the story behind one of fashion’s most enduring luxury accessories, from Liberty’s historic printworks to its celebrated archive of iconic designs.
Discover the story behind one of fashion’s most enduring luxury accessories, from Liberty’s historic printworks to its celebrated archive of iconic designs.
We are thrilled to host Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima to celebrate the release of the MinaLima Edition of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s timeless swashbuckling tale, Treasure Island.
Tuesday 17 November 6:30-9pm To mark the publication of Anne Vegter’s Pig Data (tr. Astrid Alben), Prototype warmly invite you to an evening celebrating two of the most significant voices in contemporary Dutch poetry, chaired by translator Astrid Alben. Anne, Charlotte and Astrid will be reading from their work, and in conversation. A ground-breaking work of contemporary Dutch poetry, following the acclaimed Island mountain glacier (2022), Anne Vegter’s Pig Data exposes the raw nerves of power and desire. The collection orchestrates a mythic and historical collision between three formidable figures – the South African poet Ingrid Jonker, the mythical witch Medea, and a provocative poetic ‘I’ (evoking the trope of the ‘scorned woman’) – to interrogate the male gaze and the transformative potential of female rage. Vegter’s poems tease language to its limit, with a restless energy that is dynamic, vicious and vulgar, infused with humour and absurdist overtones, brought to life through Astrid Alben’s virtuosic translation. Pig Data fearlessly rebuffs the comforts of traditional form, revelling in contradictions, moving between luminous vulnerability and a fractured, explosive urgency.
With two sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe, 50 million+ views online and a Sunday Times best-selling book, you could say Wankernomics is crushing it right now.
Award winning writer, musician and broadcaster Jay Rayner is returning to Backstory to talk to us about his latest book, Nights Out In The Kitchen: More Recipes and Stories From A Restaurant Critics Life
Speaker: Simon Garfield, author and journalist The pen is our oldest tangible connection between an individual mind and the world at large, enabling the grandest proclamations and our most intimate confessions. But as Simon Garfield’s new book shows, the pen’s own story is just as eventful as anything it has described. In this richly illustrated talk, the author takes us from a reed on the Nile to the home of Montblanc and Bic, and from the wartime trenches to the desks of Jane Austen, Sigmund Freud and Margaret Atwood. He explains why fountain pens make such good gadgets for spies and tells the story of the bestselling pen that wouldn’t actually write. Above all, the pen offers a very personal respite to our relentlessly digital world. This talk will show how this humble instrument is ingrained within us, and why it is far too important to ever give up. Simon Garfield is the author of more than 20 books of non-fiction, including the international bestsellers Just My Type, On The Map and To The Letter. A local author, he lives near Hampstead Heath with his wife Justine and his dog Grace. Members: Free, Online or Victoria Hall Non-Members: £10, Online or Victoria Hall. To attend in person, please pay on the door Please book, for online link only, by 1pm on the day of the event Please join us for a drink in the Members’ Room after the lecture
Did you live, work, love, protest or party on the LGBTQIA+ scene in the 1970s? Help us build a queer archive of the decade.Join us for a special tour of Ian Giles’ exhibition Everyone Involved, led by the artist himself, followed by a chance to share your 1970s items with Queer Britain’s archivist and collections manager, Jaime Starr.Ian will introduce his installation and film, which centres on A Gay Song, heralded as the first LGBTQ+ protest song recorded onto vinyl in 1972.Then collections manager and archivist Jaime will lead a participatory session exploring how personal objects and memories can become part of a queer archive — and what they can tell us about LGBTQ+ life in 1970s Britain. Bring something from your 1970sBring 1–5 small items that tell a story about your life or the communities you were part of.You might bring:Photographs or diariesMagazines or newslettersArt you or a loved one madeClub, concert, theatre or event ticketsClothing - protest t-shirts, club, drag or fetish wearLeaflets, flyers or badges for queer groups or protestsSomething you made or were givenAn object connected to a hobby, sport, friendship or community Nothing needs to be rare or of national importance. We’re interested in the everyday things that help bring the queer 1970s to life.If you don’t have anything to bring, you are very welcome to attend. Items from the Queer Britain handling collection will be available to interact with.Help us remember, record and preserve 1970s LGBTQ+ life. Please note: while the intention is to collect items for the Queer Britain permanent collection at this workshop, you do not have to be willing to donate to bring things to share. Items cannot be left with Queer Britain without signing paperwork leaving your contact details and giving the museum permission to take ownership of your object.
In this lecture, Jason Allen-Paisant brings together psychoanalytic and critical theory with lived artistic practice to rethink what it means to inhabit Shakespeare’s most charged role. Drawing on Self-Portrait as Othello, he explores how the character has functioned as a symbolic demand placed on Black performance.
This month, our bookseller-hosted Brontë Book Club discusses The Professor. Join us for what promises to be a fascinating evening!
Join us in November, when we'll be discussing B.K. Borison's Lovelight Farms. For this months craft, we'll be making dry clay ornaments!
Please join Hamid Ismailov for a conversation with Ilona Chavasse about his new book, Googling for Soul, a novel in eleven interconnected stories that paints a portrait of Uzbekistan and its people, scattered yet connected by a shared history.
Pubs are an essential part of British culture in all its forms - they grow the social roots for communities and provide safe spaces for groups and gatherings. Join sociologist Amit Singh and pub artist Lydia Wood as they discuss the need to recognise the importance of our pubs and what we can do to preserve them.
Alone With a Book
Novelist and short-story writer Tessa Hadley returns to the shop to discuss Alone with a Book, her celebration of the art of reading. Essays on writers as varied as George Eliot and George Saunders, Tolstoy and Elizabeth Bowen, as well as on a handful of paintings, guide the reader towards the pleasures found in each text, and in a life made richer, deeper, and more fully imagined through art. She will be in conversation with Geoff Dyer.
Join us for an evening of bewitching stories as we welcome Alix E. Harrow in celebration of her latest short story collection The Slantwise Histories. Featuring this fantastical collection of stories old and new: tales about tricksters and ghosts, ordinary magic and mundane spectacle this is sure to be a night of magic!
@ Join us for a screening of the seminal documentary work, BLACKS BRITANNICA, and to also celebrate the publications of Bisi Akintoye’s incredible new history of the Black British experience and policing. Featuring Bisi Akintoye and chaired by Dr Remy-Paulin Twahirwa. Blacks Britannica (1978) is a landmark documentary examining the experiences of Black communities in Britain during the 1970s. Through interviews and contemporary footage, the film explores racism, policing, immigration, employment and resistance, capturing a period of intense political struggle over race and belonging. Its account of Black British life provides a powerful historical backdrop to continuing debates about racialised policing, citizenship and the relationship between Black communities and the state. Bisi Akintoye’s new book, Black Britons, Race, and Policing: The Long Shadow, explores the historical and contemporary policing of Black communities in Britain, revealing how much has — and hasn’t — changed. Drawing on 58 interviews with young people, elders, and community workers in a heavily policed North London neighbourhood, it offers a powerful, intergenerational account of racialised policing and its everyday consequences. Through an intersectional lens, it examines how race, gender, class, and place overlap to shape Black Britons’ encounters with police and their sense of belonging. Through the voices of those most affected, the book traces how these experiences have produced enduring cultural narratives of mistrust, resistance, and exclusion. Exposing how policing continues to racialise and criminalise certain communities designated suspect status, it connects these practices to the legacies of empire and the politics of othering. It concludes by considering what these histories mean for the present and future of police-community relations and offers practical recommendations for building trust, accountability, and justice. To celebrate the launch of this vital new book we welcome Bisi will be in conversation with Dr Remy-Paulin Twahirwa; the two will draw out key themes from the documentary and Bisi’s vital book. Expect illuminating discussion and some drinks and snacks. We look forward to seeing you there. As always, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com, and a free ticket will be made available. If you choose ‘book + entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or arrange for delivery, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. Please note copies of the book will be for sale on the night. Doors Open at 6:45pm, Event Starts 7:00
The award-winning writer talks about her first book, a real account of how wealth shapes our lives
Live in Conversation with Hannah MacInnes
The Turner Prize-winning artist turns his perceptive lens on the cultural sector
The V&A Research Showcase is a free, in-person, bi-annual event celebrating new and emerging research conducted by V&A staff and students.
This event is part of the free Lunchtime Lecture series. Booking is recommended but not essential.
Ness Bosch explores the ‘divine wound’ as a path to empowerment through ancient goddesses, in an anthology that bears witness to women’s resilience and the healing of the sacred feminine.
Join us for our Horror Book Club at Waterstones Piccadilly on the third Thursday of every month. Chat with our booksellers about the best Crime & Thriller has to offer, both old and new.
Queer Britain Museum is the UK's National LGBTQ+ museum, a UK registered charity (no.1180240).We know that many people want a chance to explore culture through Museums and Galleries but struggle to fit it in around their working hours and busy weekends. We're keeping our doors open on the third Thursday every month, so that everyone has the opportunity learn and celebrate LGBTQ+ history.-These evenings are supported by Madame F, so every visitor will enjoy a complimentary glass of wine upon arrival.-Our galleries tell a multitude of stories, through six themes - Resist. ; Club Kids; Queer Creativity; Body and Mind; Live, Laugh, Love; and The World Around Us. The stories told within these themes change regularly.Each of our themes are co-curated with a partner - we are not a museum telling stories about a community, we are a place where the community tells its own story.We also have a series of temporary special exhibitions that change regularly - our programme for 2026 is detailed in the Line-Up section below.-A volunteer-led guided tour of the museum will begin at 7pm, open to anyoneAdmission is by ‘pay what you can’ donation - we suggest £10 or £5 if you're under 30 - we operate without any government funding, and are reliant on the generosity of our visitors, members, patrons and sponsors.Your admission donation will help Reclaim, Preserve and Celebrate LGBTQ+ history and culture.Queer Britain Museum members will always get priority entry; find out more about memberships here. -Pre-booking will guarantee entry to the museum on the day of your choosing, at any time between 6pm and 8pm. Please show your ticket to a member of the team upon arrival. Museum Lates take place on the third Thursday of every month, until 8pm - an average visit is approx. 40 minutes. To visit during regular hours, please book a ticket here
Join Michael Bundock to discuss his new book A Meeting on Mincing Lane: The Story of Granville Sharp and the Fight Against Slavery.
Join us at Waterstones Kensington for our monthly book club. This month we'll be discussing Patrick Hamilton's haunting, Hangover Square.
Soulmates are meant to be forever. But when yours is your best friend, is the heartbreak of losing them too big to patch?
Come along for this month's Sci-Fi & Fantasy bookclub, where we will be looking at Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
Two Women
In her latest novel Two Women renowned feminist and cultural critic Jacqueline Rose interleaves the lives of two remarkable figures whose stories trace the contours of the twentieth century: Edith Stein, the German-Jewish philosopher, and her own sister Gillian Rose, scholar, philosopher and author of the seminal Love’s Work, a small book which, in Marina Warner’s words, ‘contains multitudes.’ Jacqueline Rose will be talking about her book with Alice Spawls, co-editor of the London Review of Books.
Celebrating 35 years of Ministry of Sound, voices from its history explore its enduring cultural influence.
Join us for an evening with Harry Carr and Professor Rosie Campbell, as we rethink how men feel they should fit in to society.
Jamieson Webster and Patricia Gherovici celebrate the publication of 'Case by Case: Psychoanalysis and the Political' with Rachel Connolly
Join us for the launch of the third book in Tamara von Werthern's Accidental Detective series
Join Bee Rowlatt for a lively conversation about her novel One Woman Crime Wave, a sharp, funny (and very local) novel blending crime and social satire. Bee will talk about using comedy to explore moral failings, and how her work brings together uncomfortable truths, flawed but irresistible characters, and inspiration from JB Priestley. “A fantastic novel about fractured families, class and the politics of parenting. Beautifully written and very moving.” – Liz Nugent No need to register – just arrive on the evening!
The book that changed Christie's career – with Harriet Tyce, Tony Medawar and Victoria Dowd
Waterstones Romford and Lumiere Romford are proud to present an evening with Jay Glennie, and a screening of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
What does curating become when the institutions that house it become more concerned with their own survival than with making art possible?
Join bestselling author, Danielle L. Jensen at St James Church as we celebrate the publication of Defy the Dusk
