Tanja Maljartschuk ‘Forgottenness‘
Book Launch
The Gutter Bookshop, Cow’s Lane
Thursday 7th March 6.30pm until 7.30pm
Two tales intertwined in a profound double portrait, Forgottenness painstakingly traces parallels between the historical and the contemporary, the collective and the individual, between the stories of two people born on the same day, a century apart.
The narrator, a writer grappling with her growing anxiety and obsessive thoughts, becomes fixated on Viacheslav Lypynskyi (1882–1931), a once-significant figure in the struggle for Ukrainian independence who has since fallen into oblivion, into the gaping mouth of Time.
As she plunges into her nation’s history to come to terms with her own, we slowly uncover the complex relationship between time, memory and identity to confront the question – what does it mean to remember?
This Event is Free and Everyone is Welcome.
External Event
NCH Talks: An Audience with Elizabeth Day 13th March 8pm
Growing up, bestselling author, broadcaster and host of the hit podcast How To Fail, Elizabeth Day, wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did.
Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of thousands of people forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them. With the crisis came a dawning realisation: her truest friends were not the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as…too many friends? And was she the friend she thought she was?
In conversation with a special guest host Louise O’Neill, Elizabeth will unpick the significance and evolution of friendship to celebrate the paperback publication of her Number 1 Sunday Times bestselling book Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict. From ghosting to frenemies, to social media and communication styles, to the impact of seismic life events, no stone will be unturned as they explore friendships of all shapes and sizes.
External Event
NCH Talks: Armistead Maupin20th March 8pm
Bestselling, much-loved author and LGBT activist, Armistead Maupin, is heading back out on the road to celebrate the long-awaited tenth novel in the Tales of the City series – Mona of the Manor.
Maupin has been blazing a trail through US popular culture since the1970’s, when his iconic and ground-breaking series Tales of the City was first published as a column in The San Francisco Chronicle. The novel series has been taking the literary world by storm ever since and was recently adapted by Netflix into a critically acclaimed series, starring Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis and Elliot Page.
Don’t miss the chance to join America’s ultimate storyteller in conversation with Rory O’Neill, as he recounts his favourite tales from the past four decades, offering his own engaging observations on society and the world we inhabit.
Trudie Gorman ‘Trust the Damage‘
Book Launch
The Gutter Bookshop, Cow’s Lane
Wednesday 27th March 6.30pm until 7.30pm
In Trust the Damage, her deeply intimate debut poetry collection, Trudie Gorman explores the connection between class, poverty, and illness. Journeying from a council estate in the 90s to the fractured ecosystem of the present day, she contends with the grief of losing her body to illness, whilst also finding hope and connection.
The body in all of its morphisms is the main character here, while memory, legacy, violence against women, healthcare, working-class culture and love ripple through the collection in vibrant coexistence. The poems are at once visceral and unflinching in their depictions, yet always stretch towards the light, capturing what it means for a life to bloom in the dark.
This Event is Free and Everyone is Welcome.
Derek Forbes ‘A Very Simple Mind‘
Reading + Q&A
The Gutter Bookshop, Cow’s Lane
Tuesday 2nd April Time TBC
The long-awaited autobiography by Derek Forbes, the Simple Minds legend known for those iconic spine-rattling bass riffs which we recognise in many Simple Minds’ songs. This is his story. Derek Forbes started his musical career as a lead guitarist but soon changed to bass guitarist.
He is known for those iconic spine-rattling bass riffs which we recognise in most Simple Minds’ songs and he wrote and co-wrote many of the band’s earliest classics. Derek is also well-known on the international stage as songwriter and bassist for Big Country and Propaganda and has recorded with Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd and Kirsty MacColl. He won an Ivor Novello Award for ‘Outstanding Song Collection’ in 2016 for his song writing for Simple Minds, voted best bass player in the World 1982 and best- bass player from Scotland in 2010.
This Event is Free and Everyone is Welcome.