The Writeidea festival 2017 is nearly here!
This free annual festival has a diverse programme of over 40 events over this coming weekend (17-19 November) at the Idea Store, Whitechapel.
The Writeidea festival, backed by the Arts Council, will include a breadth of authors such as Stella Duffy, Alan Dein, The Gentle Author and Irenosen Okojie who will be talking and reading from their own work combining well-known names with emerging writers, all bringing their own local, national and international perspective on fiction and non-fiction writing. FREE tickets are now available for all the events.
My Top Events:
- The Gentle Author: East End Vernacular, Artists who Painted London’s East End Streets in the 20th Century
Friday 17 Nov, 7pm
The Gentle Author presents a magnificent selection of pictures – many never published before – revealing the evolution of painting in the East End and tracing the changing character of the streets through the twentieth century. - Helen Babbs: Adrift: A Secret Life of London’s Waterways
Saturday 18 Nov, 1pm
‘Adrift’ explores the people, politics, history and wildlife of London’s canals and rivers, journeying by boat from east to west over the course of a year and taking in the River Lea, Lee Navigation, Limehouse Cut, Regent’s Canal and Grand Union. Blending nature writing, social observation and memoir, it is an intimate and unusual portrait of London, and of life. - Julian Woodford: The Boss of Bethnal Green
Saturday 18 November, 1pm
Julian Woodford uncovers the breathtakingly appalling life of Joseph Merceron (1764–1839), gangster and corrupt magistrate, who accumulated enormous wealth while presiding over the creation of the poorest slums in Regency London. - Clive Coward: Nigel Henderson’s Streets: Photographs of London’s East End 1949-1953
Sat 18 Nov, 2.30pm
Clive Coward will bring to life Henderson’s journey from Bloomsbury to Bethnal Green, showcasing hundreds of images of East End street life after the second World War, while establishing Henderson as an important artist within the British art scene of the 1950s. - Jerry White: Mansions of Misery: A Biography of the Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison
Sat 18 Nov, 4pm
Jerry White introduces us to the Marshalsea’s unfortunate
prisoners—rich and poor, men and women, spongers, fraudsters and innocents. Told through these extraordinary lives, Mansions of Misery gives us a fascinating cross-section of London life from the early 1700s to the 1840s. - Sheila Rowbotham: The Dilemmas of Socialist new Women in the 1880s and 90s
Sat 18 Nov, 4pm
Sheila Rowbotham describes how three young women, Helena Born, Miriam Daniell and Gertrude Dix, who feature in her latest book, ‘Rebel Crossings’, combined a search for personal sexual freedom with attempts to create an alternative to capitalism. Their stories span liberalism, socialism, anarchism, alternative forms of spirituality and the London Fabian Society. - Christine Wagg: Peabody in the East End
Saturday 18 Nov, 5.30pm
In 1862 George Peabody, an American merchant banker and philanthropist, founded the Peabody Trust to “ameliorate the conditions of the poor and needy” of London. He gave his trustees a total of £500,000 to build affordable housing, and “Peabody Buildings” remain a feature of London to this day.
Follow @Writeideafest and don’t forget to tweet us @guided_walks
–
Hazel Baker is a qualified CIGA Tour Guide who delivers guided walks and private tours in London. View all of Hazel’s walking tours.
