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Mar
28
Thu
WELCOME TO NEW LONDON with John Rogers in conversation with Travis Elborough @ The Bookseller Crow
Mar 28 @ 7:30 pm – 9:15 pm

Join us for an evening with John Rogers in conversation with Travis Elborough about his new book, Welcome to New London Journeys and Encounters in the Post-Olympic City.

In Welcome to New London John Rogers invites us to join him on a captivating voyage through the ever-changing landscapes and communities of this iconic city. As a follow-up to This Other London, the story begins in 2013 as the Olympic village in Stratford transitioned to become a new permanent settlement, and the Stratford City plan became a reality. This excursion sparks an exploration of the Olympic Park and its surrounding areas, where a wave of development is reshaping the Lower Lea Valley.The narrative seamlessly weaves through various facets of London’s transformation, from the Focus E15 Mothers’ occupation of homes on Carpenters Estate, a poignant symbol of the housing crisis, to the global attention garnered by campaigns like Save Soho and Save Tin Pan Alley. The book also chronicles the author’s involvement in efforts to help residents of the Sweets Way Estate and other housing campaigns, offering readers an intimate look at the human stories behind London’s changing landscape.

Intriguingly, Rogers delves into the city’s ancient history following a chance conversation with a Pearly Punk King on the rooftop of the old Foyles building. This encounter takes him through Epping Forest to the prehistory of London in the Upper Lea Valley, unearthing Bronze Age burial mounds and their significance in understanding London’s historical roots and its enduring connection to its past. Rogers embarks on a series of walks with acclaimed writer Iain Sinclair, providing a thought-provoking commentary on London’s future. And then, somehow, the United Nations sent him to Peckham to explore the concept of the ‘Open City,’ tying together the book’s themes and returning to the Olympic Park as a focal point.

Welcome to New London is not just a book about a city; it’s a vivid, personal account of a city in flux, where the author’s passion for exploration and his commitment to bearing witness to change converge.

Our host for the evening, Travis Elborough, is described by The Guardian as ‘one of the country’s finest pop culture historians’. Travis has been a freelance writer, author, broadcaster and cultural commentator for over two decades now and his well-loved books include Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, a hymn to vinyl records that inspired the BBC4 documentary When Albums Ruled the World, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles and Atlas of Vanishing Places, winner of Edward Stanford Travel Book Award in 2020. He is a regular host and cherished author at our Crow events.

Tickets £5 (include a drink) https://booksellercrow.co.uk/shop/john-rogers-with-travis-elborough-event/

Apr
11
Thu
Orla Owen and Lara Pawson in conversation with Bookseller Crow @ The Bookseller Crow
Apr 11 @ 7:30 pm – 9:15 pm

Join us when two excellent writers, Orla Owen and Lara Pawson, converse about their fascinating and brilliantly written novels, SPENT LIGHT and CHRIST ON A BIKE.Thursday 11th April, 7.30pm, tickets £5 (includes a drink). There will be a book signing and a chance to chat with the authors too.

CHRIST ON A BIKE by Orla Owen

Cerys receives an unexpected inheritance but there are rules attached. Three simple rules that must be followed. As she settles into her new life, she begins to feel trapped: the past is ever-present. She convinces herself that the villagers are watching her and, desperate to control her own future, she tries to break free…

‘Black Mirror meets Tales of The Unexpected with shades of Shirley Jackson.’ – Nina Pottell – Prima Magazine.

SPENT LIGHT by Lara Pawson

A woman contemplates her hand-me-down toaster and suddenly the whole world erupts into her kitchen, in all its brutality and loveliness: global networks of resource extraction and forced labour, technologies of industrial murder, histories of genocide, alongside traditions of craft, the pleasures of convenience and dexterity, the giving and receiving of affection and care.

“Everything in this damned world calls for indignation,” the woman says at one point. All of it’s there, all interconnected, and she can’t stop looking. The likeness between a pepper mill and a hand grenade, for example, or the scarcely hidden violence of an egg timer. What if objects knew their own histories? What if we could allow ourselves to see those weird resonances, echoes, loops, glitches, as Pawson does so beautifully and unnervingly in her writing.

 

Apr
18
Thu
Andy Stanton – Adventures of a Bemused Author: How ChatGPT Broke My Brain @ The Bookseller Crow on the Hill
Apr 18 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Adventures of a Bemused Author: How ChatGPT Broke My Brain

Is ChatGPT the end of creative industries as we know them? An ethical quagmire from which there is no return? A threat to all our jobs, as we keep hearing on the news? AI is changing the world at frightening speed, so a bestselling author decides to find out more…

Bestselling children’s author Andy Stanton has made a career out of writing differently – from the grotesque antihero of his bestselling Mr Gum series to his penchant for absurdist plots and outrageous wordplay, his books are anything but formulaic. Saying this, please note this event is for Andy’s grown up book ‘Benny The Blue Whale’ and suitable for adults only.

When a friend introduces him to ChatGPT, the new large language chatbot, Andy is as sceptical as he is curious. Can this jumble of algorithms really emulate the spontaneity of human thought? Could it one day replace human authors like him for good? And are we soon to be ruled over by despotic robot overlords? He decides there’s only one thing for it – he must test this bot’s capabilities. Eventually, he settles on a prompt that will push the algorithm to its creative limits:

Tell me a story about a blue whale with a tiny penis

Chaos ensues.

What follows is a surprising and illuminating battle between Andy and ChatGPT that maybe, just maybe, might help us all understand AI a little bit better.  Andy’s new book, ‘Benny the Blue Whale’ presents his prompts and the AI-generated narrative alongside an extensive and entertaining commentary which provides a startling paean to the art of a good story and the boundlessness of human creativity. Serious and profane, hopeful and hilarious, join us for what will be nothing short of entertaining when Andy discusses ‘Benny the Blue Whale’, which provides a joyfully anarchic meditation on AI, literature and why we write in the first place.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Stanton is best known for his bestselling ‘Mr Gum’ children’s book series. Additionally, he has written picture books including ‘Danny McGee Drinks the Sea’ and ‘Going To The Volcano’. His books have received two Blue Peter Book Awards, the Red House Children’s Book Award, and the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize. This is Andy’s first book for adults.

Tickets are £5 and include a drink.

May
2
Thu
Author Event: Keiran Goddard I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING @ The Bookseller Crow
May 2 @ 7:30 pm – 9:15 pm

Keiran Goddard will be in conversation with Bookseller Crow on Thursday 2nd May, 7.30pm. Tickets are £5 and include a drink.

I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING is a moving and lyrical novel about five friends whose lives are shaped by the brutality of a world that doesn’t value them – and the very different choices they make. Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli and Conor grew up together. They played together, skipped school together, and dreamt of everything they’d do with their lives. Now they are thirty, and only Rian has made it out of the estate and moved away to another city, but his money doesn’t stop him clinging to a vision of the past that is quickly slipping away. Oli is fading by the day, drinking and snorting his way through the endless boredom, while Conor has a baby on the way and a business plan he hopes will change everything. Patrick and Shiv are as in love as ever, but even they are rocked when an old secret opens up new wounds…Bold, ambitious and stylistically striking, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning asks what happens when all the things we expect from our lives end up… not happening. It lays bare the ways that place and circumstance shape us, explores the redeeming and transforming beauty of friendship and examines the true limits of hope and forgiveness. Praise for Hourglass: ‘This book glows in the heart of the reader’ Max Porter ‘This book is such a sneaky head f*ck -an epic poem in an ancient style about the brutalities of modern love, a masculine interrogation of feminine heartbreak, a really beautiful way to spend an evening’ Lena Dunham

Keiran Goddard grew up in Shard End, Birmingham in a working-class family. He is the author of one poetry pamphlet, two full-length poetry collections and the novel Hourglass. His debut collection was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize, he was the runner up in the William Blake Prize and Hourglass was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize. He speaks internationally on issues related to social change and currently develops research on workers’ rights, the future of work, automation and trade unionism through his role at the Alex Ferry Foundation.

‘A virtuosic and devastating exploration of the relationships that bind us, and the places that always call us back.’ Sophie Mackintosh

‘Intimate with its surprises, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning has an honesty that shows us how to love one another and hold on to what matters most’ Tice Cin

‘This heartfelt, gut-wrenching novel confirms Goddard as one of the best writers of our time’ Lucia Osborne-Crowley

‘Keiran Goddard can make you laugh and weep in the same paragraph. This is such a humane, beautiful novel about being from a place you can neither leave nor stay in’ Heather Parry

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