NEWS & EVENTS

EVENTS

For my last event of this year: I’m in the Tower Hamlets literary festival, called the Writeidea Festival, on Sunday November 24th at 5.30pm. It’s in the new Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 160 Whitechapel Rd, E1 1BJ opposite Whitechapel tube station and near Aldgate East tube. The new town hall is the former Royal London Hospital building.  Whitechapel station is on the Elizabeth, London Overground and District lines.  I will be interviewed about my novel Art by Travis Elborough, cultural commentator and writer, and literary compere about town. Travis has been described by The Guardian as ‘one of the country’s finest pop culture historians’. This event is free but the organisers advise booking tickets in advance - see ticket link below. Signed copies of the novel will be available. We'll be going to the pub afterwards for a drink, I'm sure.  Scroll down this page until you get to the event and then click through for the ticket link https://www.ideastore.co.uk/whats-on/writeidea-festival

The Artists & Fiction mini-festival on 30th October at Candid Arts was a big success. The event was all about why artists so often make great novelists and why art is a driver for some of the best most innovative contemporary literature around. Here’s a pic of me with the other novelists and Travis Elborough (L.toR.: Stewart Home, Sean Ashton, me, Simon Bill (looking philosophical) and Travis) We look like a cross between Oasis and a krautrock band - maybe Can. We had a great turnout and it was a fun night, that’s for sure.

Event on June 3rd at Reference.Point with Rowan Moore

My event on June 3rd was a great success. It was a joint discussion with Rowan Moore, architecture critic of The Observer and author of Property: the Myth that Built the World. It took place at the Reference.Point library, bookshop, bar and cultural hub in London’s West End. We discussed the artist-led gentrification of Hoxton and Shoreditch, and how it was a template for some of the London-wide gentrification that followed. We also discussed current housing policy and how the new government’s plans for more housings might run into serious problems.

And all the previous events have also all been very successful. There was a massive turnout at the book launch at the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town and the novel sold out. The event at the Colony Room pop-up in the West End in partnership with YBA Simon Bill also went very well. So did the author talks at West Library in Islington and Swiss Cottage library, also with large turnouts. At the latter Peter talked about how he researched and wrote Art, as well as giving tips to budding novelists. The evening was very enjoyable for everyone.

REVIEWS

The novel has had excellent reviews to date in the Financial Times, i newspaper, Spectator magazine, Camden New Journal and The Art Newspaper. Art has been ranked first in the Financial Times selection of best new debut fiction. It has also been included in the Independent’s selection of best new books.