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 426–450 of 640 events426–450 of 640 events
The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour with special guest readers.
Join internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson in conversation with journalist Tim Blanks, as they discuss her new monograph and the distinctive approach to portraiture that has shaped her practice.
Democratic capitalism, the idea that a combination of free markets and free elections is the optimal system for achieving human flourishing is under attack. Donald Trump has put crippling tariffs on traditional US allies. The world’s richest man Elon Musk has aligned himself with far right parties and claims mass migration is destroying Europe. And across the world extreme parties on the left and right are replacing the centre. Some now openly argue that capitalism would be better without democracy; others that democracy would be better without capitalism.
Join us on 12th November at 7pm for an evening with Stephen Elcock and Jade Angeles Fitton in conversation.
Join us for an evening of conversation with Onyekachi Wambu and Diran Adebayo, in name of their recent book Empire Windrush: Reflections on 75 Years & More of the Black British Experience.
Join us at Waterstones Chiswick for an evening of thought- provoking conversation with Lea Ypi, author of Free, as we discuss her latest book Indignity.
Please join Robert Chandler for an evening dedicated to his latest translation of Vasily Grossman’s writing: From the Front Line: Stalingrad, Treblinka, Berlin – 1941–45.
Join us when we welcome Lamble to discuss their new book UNSAFE: THE CARCERAL ROOTS OF THE ANTI-TRANS BACKLASH with Leah Cowan
Launch event for the third volume of Neil Storey’s acclaimed history of Island Records.
Step into the golden sands of Ancient Egypt with award-winning historian Bettany Hughes as she brings the land of the pharaohs vividly to life.
An afternoon of expert discussion and debate on US politics.
The Eros/Shadow international Workshop builds on key innovations of the landmark Gothic Modern international exhibition led by Juliet Simpson (Warburg Institute), and a new collaboration with the University of Vienna, Wien Museum and Belvedere Museum, to shed light on hidden, yet potent cultures of art, image and world-making in 1900s Vienna. Through the lens of the Gothic, the workshop uncovers pivotal medieval afterlives and encounters in Viennese art, objects, ornament and spaces as visual, material and sensory sites of a cosmopolitan ferment beyond temporal and cultural borders. A series of short talks and linked panel discussion elaborate insights arising from a first workshop held in Vienna in April to reveal new perspectives on early 1900s Vienna as the consummate City of Dream and Desire. Key artist interrelations, Secessionisms and cultural modernisms in print, design and image, are explored in their interactions with a recreating a medieval imaginary detached from nationalistic or archaeological fervour, reworked between 1900s and 1920s as carriers of occulted memory, emotions and vision. Prof. Juliet Simpson will be joined by Prof. Assaf Pinkus (University of Vienna) and Dr Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere Museum, Vienna) , with curators and scholars, including PhD candidates from Vienna and the Warburg Institute. Topics encompass embodied and performative iconographies of the medieval body and image in Viennese spaces of art and visual culture; Oskar Kokoschka as medievalist – expression as a carrier of worlds; Vienna 1900 Belgian encounters – Gothic Gesamtkunstwerk; Broncia Koller Pinell – a medieval Secession, and staging medieval art in the 1920s Belvedere displays. Speakers and panel aim to open dialogues on layered cultural and artistic responses to a ‘borderless’ medieval in fin-de-siècle and early twentieth-century Vienna. By illuminating hidden actors and imaginaries of memory, making and desirous creation entangled in Vienna’s key sites of modernity, our objective is to build fresh enquiry and approaches to Vienna’s unseen temporalities of art and culture to reshape this field for future scholars. Organized by Prof. Juliet Simpson (Warburg Institute) with Prof. Assaf Pinkus (University of Vienna) and Dr Arnika Groenewald-Schmidt (Belvedere Museum, Vienna).
Join us for an evening celebrating the musical talent and cultural legacy of composer and pianist, Winifred Atwell - the history-making musician who left an indelible mark on generations of British pianists, broadcasters and activists.
Simon Garfield and Jeremy Deller explore the history of the pen and it’s enduring place in our cultural and daily lives.
Come and join us at Backstory for our regular poetry night.
Explore the world of fashion and textiles at Upstart Festival at V&A South Kensington, our annual creative career festival. Come along, ask questions, take part in workshops, share ideas, have conversations and network.
Discover the essential elements for screenwriting success
Join us for a children's workshop with author and illustrator Onyinye Iwu! There will be drawing, reading, and learning about Africa's women leaders.
What is the space for genuine illness in ‘mental health’ discourse? Can we still rely on Freud’s distinction between “neurotic despair” and ordinary human misery? Do we need more or less therapy, and to what private, social, or political end?
@ SPAM Press presents: Fuse Box: Triple Sonnet Crown by Sam Rodilosso w/ readings from Luke Roberts & K Lewis Hood Join us for a collaborative event with SPAM Press, in celebration of Sam Rodilosso’s debut poetry book, Fuse Box: Triple Sonnet Crown. There will be readings from K Lewis Hood, Luke Roberts and Sam, followed by a Q&A between Sam and Maria Sledmere. ‘“Fuse” may be one of my favorite crowns of all time-it as technically as close to perfection as any example of the form that I know. Sam Rodilosso proves himself a brilliant poet, even now, at the beginning of the journey.’ — David Keplinger 🌞 About the book: ‘The sonnet is a fuse box’ in which ‘Lyricism | Wakes up in a cold sweat’. Welcome to Sam Rodilosso’s debut poetry book, a 60pp fury which takes on ‘America’s Monster Project’ and the polycrisis of our current, dilapidating epoch with intelligence and spirit. Fuse Box believes in the power of children to ‘make defence’ against ‘time’s scythe’ and mortality in general. Imagination is amplified by influence. As futurity collapses around us, Rodilosso registers the damage of the present in every iamb of the sonnet’s ornate circuitry, entwined in a triple crown of fuse / engrams / spectacle. This is a poetics of overload and what-the-fuckery, a poetics of voltaic leap and conscientious noticing, digital compression and confession. Fuse Box joins a global choir of people singing against extractivism, exploitation, hyper-militarism and neoliberal fascisms; it scintillates with the meltpoint of a crayola-drawn sun. Fuelled by his father’s saying, I love you Sam, I am time travelling through you, the poet evinces an unwavering refusal of capitalist foreclosures and moves headlong towards a loving future. OUR POETS AND OUR PRESS: Born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, Maryland, Sam Rodilosso studied International Relations and Creative Writing at American University in Washington D.C. before transferring to the University of Edinburgh to study English Literature. Since then, he has received a certification to teach English from Cambridge University, and has studied Chinese at Peking University. Sam is interested in the prospects of translation and global literary exchange. Luke Roberts is the author of Bad Omens (2026), Home Radio (2021), Glacial Decoys (2021) and other works of poetry and prose. Beginning to End will be published in 2027 by Nightboat Books. K Lewis Hood is a writer from the East Midlands, currently living on the water in East London. Their poetry publications include Glitch Almanac, an artist book with Martina O’Brien, Bugbear (Veer2, 2021), and infra·structure, with Maria Sledmere (Broken Sleep Books, 2020). With Pratyusha, they co-edited the online ecopoetry journal amberflora. They teach English and Creative Writing at Queen Mary University of London. Maria Sledmere is managing editor at SPAM Press and a senior lecturer in English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde. Her most recent publications are the ekphrastic pamphlet Scar Code (Weather Band, 2026), and I don’t have things to tell you (Strange Region, 2026), an epistolary collaboration with Mau Baiocco. SPAM Press CIC is a Glasgow and London-based small poetry press, publisher, magazine and purveyor of literary reading series, established in 2016. It is run by editors Kirsty Dunlop, Maria Sledmere and Maya Uppal. This is a free event, but please RSVP below. Please also feel free to BYOB!
What could replace silicon in the quantum age? Theoretical physicist Felix Flicker explores the remarkable materials powering tomorrow's computers.
Join us as we explore the vast and complex history of Gay, Lesbian & Queer life in London and learn how we evolved into the dynamic and diverse LGBTQI+ community that we celebrate today. We take a deeper dive into the historic suffering that living a gay life endured in the past, leading to the death sentences of many. Learn about the pioneering drag queens of the 1700’s who paved the way for others, the life and loves of Oscar Wilde that led to his imprisonment, the emergence of a gay community meeting in the tea rooms of Central London, the birth of Gay Pride in the 70s and the devastating impact AIDS had on our community in the 1980s. No stone is left unturned in this walking tour timeline of dramatic events that takes you from Charing Cross to Soho Square on an exciting journey through the ages. As we head into Soho, we take in the wonderful sights of London and hear about the historic Queer stories surrounding well known landmarks such as Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus. Come on this Queer History Walking Tour to understand it's past and celebrate why London is one of the most exciting and openly free societies of the modern age, with the largest demographic of openly LGBTQIA Community in Europe.
From Lord of the Rings to Planet of the Apes, Marvel and Star Wars, Andy Serkis has shaped some of film's biggest icons. Now, celebrating his new book My Pressures, he steps into the spotlight.
