Samantha Harvey on The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping
Monday 27th January, 8pm
Sleep. Sleep. Like money, you only think about it when you have too little. Then you think about it all the time, and the less you have the more you think about it. It becomes the prism through which you see the world and nothing can exist except in relation to it. Samantha Harvey’s insomnia […] See more »
Derek Owusu: That Reminds Me
Tuesday 28th January, 8pm
‘Derek Owusu’s writing is honest, moving, delicate, but tough. Once you lock on to his words, it is hard to break eye contact. A beautiful meditation on childhood, coming of age, the now, and the media. This work is heartfelt.’ Benjamin Zephaniah Anansi, your four gifts raised to nyame granted you no power over the […] See more »
Timur Vermes in conversation with translator Jamie Bulloch
Thursday 30th January, 8pm
Timur Vermes’ astounding debut novel Look Who’s Back was one of the bestsellers of 2014. Now, Timur is back with his follow-up The Hungry and the Fat, a sharp, provocative satire on Europe’s reaction to the refugee crisis. He skewers faux-liberal media types and our celebrity-obsessed culture to create a brilliant and unique portrayal of our world. When German model […] See more »
A Regency Walk
Sunday 2nd February, 10.30am
THIS WALK HAS NOW SOLD OUT. WE HAVE A SECOND GROUP ON SUNDAY 9TH FEBRUARY: BOOK HERE “The Regency is perhaps the most extraordinary decade in all of British history”. The Regency began on 5 February 1811 when the Prince of Wales replaced his violently insane father George III as the sovereign de facto. It […] See more »
Marie-Elsa R. Bragg on Sleeping Letters: Grief Through Poetry
Monday 3rd February, 8pm
“This is a beautiful book, a remarkable, cadenced recollection of how grief lives in the body. It is poetry as a kind of dance. You have to read it, ” Edmund de Waal. Marie-Elsa Bragg is an author, a priest in the diocese of London, therapist, a spiritual director and Duty of Chaplain at Westminster […] See more »
Gill Hornby on Miss Austen
Thursday 6th February, 8pm
Gill Hornby’s wonderfully original, and emotionally complex novel Miss Austen answers a question that has troubled readers and academics for centuries: why did Cassandra Austen burn a treasure trove of letters written by her sister Jane. It’s 1840, twenty-three years after the death of her famous sister Jane, and Cassandra Austen – alone and unwed […] See more »
A Regency Walk
Sunday 9th February, 10.30am
“The Regency is perhaps the most extraordinary decade in all of British history”. The Regency began on 5 February 1811 when the Prince of Wales replaced his violently insane father George III as the sovereign de facto. It ended on 29 January 1820, when George III died and the Prince Regent became King as George […] See more »
John Bercow: Unspeakable
Tuesday 11th February, 11.30am
Topping & Company Booksellers are delighted to announce an event with John Bercow. The irrepressible former speaker of the House of Commons is making fewer than a handful of national appearances to publicise his much-anticipated book of memoirs. Unspeakable is John Bercow’s characteristically forthright and incisive account of his unique vantage-point into British politics. Containing verdicts […] See more »
Gerald Seymour on Beyond Recall
Tuesday 11th February, 8pm
Once a member of the UK military’s Special Reconnaissance Regiment, Gary ‘Gaz’ Baldwin is now a scarred and damaged victim of PTSD, and he’s the sole living independent witness to the destruction of a Syrian village at the hands of Iranian militia and their Russian advisors. He alone can identify a particular Russian intelligence officer attached […] See more »
Talks & Tastes: Bettina’s Vegan Kitchen
Wednesday 12th February, 8pm
Curious about veganism but worried about your insatiable cravings for butter and cheese? What if you could test it out over a week, with a ready-made meal plan and affordable shopping list? In 7 Day Vegan Challenge, Bettina Campolucci Bordi shows that with a little bit of planning, anyone can go vegan for a week. […] See more »
Francesca Wade on Square Haunting
Tuesday 18th February, 8pm
“I like this London life . . . the street-sauntering and square-haunting,” Virginia Woolf, 1925. Mecklenburgh Square, on the radical fringes of interwar Bloomsbury, was home to activists, experimenters and revolutionaries; among them were the modernist poet H. D., detective novelist Dorothy L. Sayers, classicist Jane Harrison, economic historian Eileen Power, and writer and publisher […] See more »
Yukiko Motoya on Picnic in the Storm
Thursday 20th February, 8pm
“Unsettlingly good, ” (The Sunday Times). Novelist, playwright and theatre director Yukiko Motoya is one of Japan’s most fearless young writers. She has won numerous Japanese literary and dramatic awards, including the Akutagawa Prize, the Noma Literary New Face Prize, the Mishima Yukio Prize, the Kenzaburo Oe Prize, the Kishida Kunio Drama Award, and the […] See more »
Mat Osman of Suede
Tuesday 25th February, 8pm
Mat Osman is the bassist and founding member of the iconic British Rock band Suede. The Ruins is Osman’s debut novel and is a dark and dreamlike story of identity, ambition and music. It charts the tale of twin brothers – Adam and Brandon – who, having not spoken for decades, find themselves dragged back in to each others lives after Brandon is killed. Shy, […] See more »
Award-Winning Novelist Eimear McBride
Thursday 27th February, 8pm
An evening with the multi-award-winning author of the literary phenomenon A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing to introduce her new novel Strange Hotel. At the mid-point of her life a woman enters an Avignon hotel room. She’s been here once before – but while the room hasn’t changed, she is a different person now. Forever caught between […] See more »
Margaret Heffernan on Uncharted: How to Map the Future
Thursday 12th March, 8pm
Margaret Heffernan is one of the word’s most sought-after management speakers (her TED talks have been viewed by over 7 million people). In Uncharted: How to Map the Future, she shares her insights into what qualities help make individuals and companies successful; what values are needed to thrive in today’s evermore uncertain present. Margaret lays the groundwork […] See more »
Tim Anderson: Vegan Japaneasy
Friday 13th March, 8pm
And he’s back, the inimitable Japanophile, Tim Anderson! Believe it or not, Japanese cuisine in general is actually quite vegan-friendly, and many dishes can be made vegan with just a simple substitution or two. You can enjoy the same big, bold, salty-sweet-spicy-rich-umami recipes of modern Japanese soul food without so much as glancing down […] See more »
Will Harris Poetry Book Launch for Rendang
Wednesday 18th March, 8pm
Will Harris is a rising star of contemporary British poetry. His poem Say was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2018, and his debut pamphlet of poems, All this is implied was joint winner of the London Review Bookshop Pamphlet of the Year. In Rendang, his first full-length collection of poems, Will Harris reflects on race, […] See more »
John Carey on A Little History of Poetry
Tuesday 24th March, 8pm
John Carey is one of our greatest champions of literature, sharing his passionate learning and reading over a long and distinguished career. In his latest book, A Little History of Poetry, he asks what is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is then a way of organizing language. It is language […] See more »
Helen Lewis on Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights
Wednesday 25th March, 8pm
No woman ever changed the world by being nice. When we look back at history, it’s the women who were outspoken, disobedient and downright difficult whom we have to thank for the feminist victories that have been won. But according to Helen Lewis, too many pioneers of women’s rights have been whitewashed or forgotten because […] See more »
Andrew Ziminski Stonemason: A History of Building Britain
Thursday 26th March, 8pm
Andrew Ziminski is a stonemason living and working in what was ancient Wessex. He has three decades of hands-on experience with the tangible history of this country and has worked on some of the greatest and most interesting monuments in Britain; from using his skills to create a Stonehenge megalith, to the restoration of Roman […] See more »
Sebastian Barry on A Thousand Moons
Monday 30th March, 8pm
Even when you come out of bloodshed and disaster in the end you have got to learn to live… Winona is a young Lakota orphan adopted by former soldiers Thomas McNulty and John Cole. Living with Thomas and John on the farm they work in 1870s Tennessee, she is educated and loved, forging a life […] See more »
Falastin with Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley
Wednesday 1st April, 8pm
Falastin is a love letter to Palestine, the land and its people; an evocative collection of over 110 unforgettable recipes and stories from the co-authors of Jerusalem and Ottolenghi: The Cookbook, and Ottolenghi SIMPLE. Travelling through Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, Nablus, Haifa, Akka, Nazareth, Galilee and the West Bank, Sami and Tara invite you to experience and enjoy unparalleled access to […] See more »
Maggie O’Farrell on Hamnet
Thursday 2nd April, 8pm
Award-winning novelist Maggie O’Farrell talks about her new novel based on the death of Shakespeare’s son Hamnet and the writing of the play that bore his name. In beautiful imagination of the short life of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, and the untold story of his wife, “Agnes” Hathaway, O’ Farrell has written a profound exploration of […] See more »
Modern-Day Suffragette Sophie Walker
Tuesday 7th April, 8pm
Modern-day suffragette and long-time feminist activist turned political party leader, Sophie Walker offers us a 5-step journey to incorporating activism into our lives. Five Rules for Rebellion is an inspiring handbook for future rebels and revolutionaries – women who are fed up and dis-empowered but uncertain of where to begin. Sophie Walker is the founding […] See more »
An Evening with Alexandra Shulman
Tuesday 21st April, 8pm
We are delighted to host an evening with former Vogue Editor, writer, journalist and consultant, Alexandra Shulman. In Clothes & Other Things That Matter, she explores the meaning of clothes and how we wear them looking at items of clothing that range from the little black dress to the white shirt, red shoes to the […] See more »
James Naughtie: On the American Road – Adventures from Nixon to Trump
Thursday 30th April, 8pm
James Naughtie, the acclaimed author and BBC broadcaster, now brings his unique and inquisitive eye to the country that has fascinated him and drawn him across the Atlantic for half a century. In looking at America, from Presidents Nixon through to Trump, he tells the story of a country that is grappling with a dream. […] See more »
Craig Brown on The Beatles
Thursday 7th May, 8pm
On April 10th 2020, it will be exactly 50 years since Paul McCartney announced the break-up of the Beatles. The Fab Four continue to occupy a position unique in popular culture. They have entered people’s minds in a way that did not occur before, and has not occurred since. Their influence extended way beyond the […] See more »
Eley Williams
Wednesday 20th May, 8pm
Eley Williams’ debut collection Attrib. and other stories. showed that she was a writer of utter brilliance, marrying creative flair and intelligence with subtle charm and depth of emotion. In her new novel The Liars’ Dictionary, Peter Winceworth a Victorian lexicographer inserts bogus definitions into a dictionary. In the present day, Mallory a young overworked and […] See more »
Philippe Sands on The Ratline: Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive
Friday 22nd May, 8pm
Philippe Sands’ ‘The Ratline is a story of life and love, murder, denial and a curious death. Otto von Wächter was a senior Austrian Nazi indicted for mass murder who escaped justice after the war. Sands uncovers remarkable new evidence about what exactly happened to Otto von Wächter leading up to his unexpected death in […] See more »