Questions on Friendship
FROM the bestselling author of Mayflies and Caledonian Road, a heart-enriching celebration of what makes us great, our friends is the subject of a BridLit talk with Andrew O’Hagan in November.
If we are lucky, in our lives our friendships will be rich and varied. They will be shared with those with two legs, with four legs, with whiskers or clean faces; they will come dressed in the simplicity of childhood or the professional attire of adult life; some will span decades, and some will be only fleeting. But the thing they will all have in common is that life is not only unimaginable, but unimagined, without them.
In these gorgeous personal reflections, Andrew O’Hagan explores friendship through music and poetry, memory and history, illuminating the many ways and reasons that people come together, and how our lives are all the better because we do.
Andrew O’Hagan was born in Glasgow. He has been nominated for the Booker Prize, was voted one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003, and won the E. M. Forster Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is Editor-at-Large of the London Review of Books and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
He will be in conversation with Nic Jeune at 12 noon on November 2nd at The Electric Palace, Bridport. For tickets visit: https://www.electricpalace.org.uk/events.
Kingmaker in Dorchester
AN EXPLOSIVE memoir from the heart of Westminster, Sir Graham Brady’s Kingmaker—Secrets, Lies and the Truth about Five Prime Ministers lifts the lid on some of the leadership battles that have defined British politics for a decade and a half during the eras of five Conservative prime ministers—Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak. From coalition to Brexit, Covid to Partygate, Trussonomics to the 2024 election, prime ministers came and went, while one man was at the heart of every leadership challenge, seeing all, saying nothing. Until now.
Sir Graham Brady became Chairman of the 1922 Committee in 2010. As leader of the group with power to choose a new leader of the Conservative Party, his hand held the axe over five Conservative prime ministers’ heads. Elected to parliament in 1997 as the youngest Conservative MP in the house, Brady comes from a lower middle-class background and fell into politics age 16 when he joined a campaign to save his grammar school. This book is the story of how a boy from Salford came to be the definitive Tory insider, offering insights into the character and choices of successive Prime Ministers and the administrations they led. For tickets visit: https://dorchesterliteraryfestival.com.
Soft Tissue Damage
JOIN author Anna Whitwham for a writing workshop looking at how memory works in the art of writing memoir. Anna, who teaches Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, shares her insights into the processes of writing memoir, based on her own experience of writing Soft Tissue Damage, which explores the human body’s capacity for strength and vulnerability, as she trains as a boxer alongside the grief of losing her mother to cancer.
At 8pm, anyone is welcome to come along to the Human Nature sofa to hear local artist Vanessa Cooper talk with Anna about the book and enjoy an evening of conversation with pop up bar.
The workshop is at Human Nature, East Street, Bridport on Wednesday 5th November from 6–8.00pm followed by the Q&A. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets, 01308 424901.
McCall Smith visit
WORLDWIDE bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith, the man behind The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, is coming to Bridport on Thursday 23 October.
The series, set in Botswana and featuring the detective Mma Ramotswe, has now sold more than 20 million copies in the English language alone.
McCall Smith has written and contributed to more than 100 books, including short story collections, children’s books, and specialist academic titles.
He’ll be at Bridport Electric Palace and talking to local writer Nikki May, who won the Comedy Women in Print Prize new voice award for her first novel, Wahala.
At the Electric Palace, he will be entertaining the audience with tales from the latest 44 Scotland Street novel, Bertie’s Theory of Ice Cream, and discuss In the Time of Five Pumpkins, the new novel in the detective agency series.
For tickets visit: https://www.electricpalace.org.uk/events.
