UK
Britain
Granta Britain Special with Lawrence Norfolk, Esther Freud and Andrea Stuart
22 May, 6 p.m. for 6.30 p.m., Bloomsbury Publishing, 50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP. Tickets £5 for students, £7 for Granta subscribers and £10 general admission. Each ticket includes a copy of Granta 119: Britain.
As part of the launch of Granta 119: Britain, the Bloomsbury Institute hosts a night of reading and conversation with Granta contributors Andrea Stuart, Lawrence Norfolk, Esther Freud and Granta deputy editor Ellah Allfrey. From the legacy of the sugar trade in London to the tale of a young boy who seeks refuge in the kitchen of a manor house after his mother is accused of witchcraft, to the shifting fortunes of actors in contemporary London, the authors explore how British identity is shaped by the sometimes brutal context of historical and contemporary Britain.
Norfolk’s forthcoming historical novel John Saturnall’s Feast, a story that charts one man’s life against the backdrop of revolution, cookery and ancient folklore, will be first extracted on Granta.com. This event is part of a UK-wide series of events that mark the launch of the latest issue of Granta magazine and explore the stories Britain is telling about itself today.
Visions of Britain: A Granta discussion with Jon McGregor
23 May, 6.30 p.m., Waterstones, 24-26 Orchard Square, Sheffield S1 2FB. Tickets £2, £1 for Waterstones cardholders and free to subscribers of Granta magazine. Tickets are available at the store's ground floor tills or by calling 0114 272 8971. Drinks will be served on arrival.
Jon McGregor’s ability to depict life in Lincolnshire with humor, gravity and intimacy has won him loyal readers across the British Isles. Soon after the release of his latest collection This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, he has a new piece featured in Granta 119: Britain. ‘Clough’ is a haunting story set in Derbyshire about Emma-Jane, a five-year-old child who goes missing in the hills on a family holiday. The townspeople gather and search, among them Richard and Cathy: estranged lovers with a broken past. In this special evening with the author and Granta's Yuka Igarashi, McGregor reads from his work and discusses how we are united by tragedy and how the landscape shapes and captures the imagination. This event is part of the UK-wide launch of the Britain issue, exploring the stories Britain is telling about itself today.
Visions of Britain: A Granta discussion on storytelling and identity
23 May, 6.30 p.m., Waterstones, 68-69 Hampstead High Street, London NW3 1QP. Tickets £3, free to Granta subscribers, available in-store or by calling the store on 0207 794 1098.
The latest edition of Granta magazine explores the stories that Britain is telling about itself today, with new writing from celebrated authors such as Mark Haddon and Jim Crace. Booker Prize shortlisted author Rachel Seiffert (The Dark Room, Granta Best Young Novelist 2003) and prize-winning novelist Nadifa Mohamed (Black Mamba Boy) join Granta deputy editor Ellah Allfrey to explore bridging communities.
In her story in Granta 119: Britain, Seiffert looks at the complicated relationship between Northern Ireland and Scotland through the failing marriage of a drummer in a Loyalist band and a barmaid in Glasgow, as keenly observed by Stevie, their seven-year-old son. Mohamed’s memoir for Granta.com sews together her own story of assimilation as a Somali-born woman in the UK, host to the largest Somali population in Europe. She examines life in Somali communities in Britain, which started growing in the nineteenth century with seafarers and merchants and then again at the start of Somalia’s civil war in the 1980s. This event is part of a UK-wide launch series that marks the publication of the latest issue of Granta magazine.
Neither Earth Nor Sea: A Granta discussion with Robert Macfarlane and Jamie McKendrick
23 May, 6.30 p.m., Waterstones, 22 Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HG. Ticket details to come.
Water. It laps against the circumference of the British Isles, creating idyllic and perilous coastlines. It creates passageways for goods and people and carves out borders. It drowned the town of Capel Celyn in Wales so Liverpool would be supplied with water. In Granta 119: Britain, the poet Jamie McKendrick looks at water as a force of destruction and source of beauty and Robert Macfarlane walks along the deadliest pathway in Britain, discovering a world that is ‘neither earth nor sea’. Join McKendrick, Macfarlane and Granta's Saskia Vogel for an evening of reading and conversation about how water shapes British life and captures the imagination. This event is part of a UK-wide series of events that mark the launch of the latest issue of Granta magazine and explore the stories Britain is telling about itself today.
Britain LIVE!: A storytelling salon
24 May, 7.30 p.m., Waterstones, 71-74 North Street, Brighton BN1 1ZA. Tickets £3, redeemable against the purchase of a book on the evening, available in-store and by calling the store at 0127 320 6017, free for Granta subscribers.
Join Granta magazine to launch its latest issue, themed Britain. Nick Papadimitriou will read from his forthcoming book on Scarp, a suburban edgeland in North London, and discuss his work with Granta's Saskia Vogel. But first, actors will perform bawdy tales of British life from Granta’s latest issue. Drinks will be provided to round out this lively, festive night exploring the land and people of Britain.
How the Light Gets In
5 June, 2.30 p.m. How the Light Gets In festival grounds, Globe at Hay, Newport Street, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5BG
Jim Crace, Mark Haddon and Michael Symmons Roberts in conversation with Granta online editor Ted Hodgkinson.
The Hospital Club Granta Salon: This is Britain
7 June, 7 p.m., The Loft Lounge at The Hospital Club, 24 Endell Street, London WC2H 9HQ. Call The Hospital Club for bookings and more information: 020 7170 9100.
Join us for our first arts salon at the Hospital Club. Mischka Henner, Yinka Shonibare and Ian Teh in conversation with Granta artistic director Michael Salu and deputy editor Ellah Allfrey about what British identity means today and how it is expressed in their work in the art showcase in Granta's Britain edition and beyond.
Dublin Writers Festival
7 June, 6 p.m.
With Lucy Caldwell, Keith Ridgway and Rachel Seiffert in conversation with Granta editor John Freeman.
Worlds Literature Festival
22 June. Details to come.
In 2012, Britain is a nation in flux, managing difficult socio-economic realities, contending with new political alliances and negotiating shifting demographics. Weaving together threads of politics, homecoming and family, Granta 119: Britain contributors Edmund Clark, Rachel Seiffert and Andrea Stuart explore disparate expressions of British identity through readings and conversation with Granta editor John Freeman. Clark's meditative photographic project of the homes left behind in Britain by British Guantanamo Bay detainees comments on the subjectivity of perception. In an excerpt from a novel in progress, Seiffert examines the close and complicated connection between Northern Ireland and Scotland through the eyes of a child in a Protestant, working-class family. Stuart's memoir looks back at the sugar trade, Barbados, her family's difficult inheritance as descendents of slaves and slave owners and, centuries later, her reverse migration across the Atlantic.
Events to Be Announced
Date TBC, Paradise Row
24 May, Waterstones Lancaster
June, Waterstones Oxford