Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: David Renton and Gareth Edwards discuss the politics behind the Olympics at Housmans (7pm, £3).

Thursday: If you’re around Heathrow Terminal 5 between 10am-12pm head to WHSmiths to hear Vintage Children’s Classics books being read out loud.

Helen Burke, Peter Philips, Peter Daniels and Robert Stein perform their poetry at Lauderdale House (8pm, £5 / £3).

Friday: Malika Booker hosts a Caribbean Literary Salon at the Free Word Centre, with guests Jacob Ross and Kerry Young (7.15pm, £8 / £5).

Over at the Lewisham Big Screen on Blackheath, combine watching the Olympics with a day of spoken word from local writers, family storytellers, Barbican Young Poets, Inspired Word poets, Keats House poets, John Turner, Apples and Snakes and the incomparable John Hegley (starts at 12pm, free).

The Farrago August SLAM! is hosted by John Paul O’Neill and features poetry from Greta Bellamacina, Peter Hayhoe, Catherine Labiran, Rynae Lindsey, Dudley Sutton, Mark ‘MrT’ Thompson and the Peckham Black History Month SLAM! winner, all at the RADA Foyer Bar (7.30pm, £6 / £5).

Twelve of the Foyles Young Poets take part in a murderous extravaganza at the Poetry Cafe (6pm, free).

Saturday: There’s a family fete at the Royal Festival Hall Foyles with Vintage Children’s Classics: lots of games, dressing up, face painting, stories and illustrator Adam Stower (11am-5pm, free).

Children’s author Michelle Robinson is at the Big Green Bookshop, explaining what to do if an elephant stands on your foot (11am, free).

Sunday: Daunt Walking Book Club discusses Hotel du Lac as it rambles over Hampstead Heath from 11.30am (free).

Monday: Enjoy a night of noir and Gothic with The Gruntlers at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £7 / £5). David Parry MCs and guests include Darren Storer, Peter Stanford, Eleanor Bennet and Andrew Rea.

South Bank Poetry Magazine brings Katherine Lockton, Benedict Newbery, Lisa Kelly, Caroline Vero and Peter Ebsworth to the Calder Bookshop on The Cut (7.30pm, £4 / £3).

Tuesday: New stories with a law and order theme at Liar’s League, performed by actors. Head to the Phoenix pub (7.30pm, £5).

Elliot Perlman talks about his new book with Susie Orbach at Waterstones Hampstead (7pm, £5).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Housmans presents a number of perspectives on how Hackney’s changing (7pm, £3).

Leo Hollis explains why cities are good for us and Julian Baggini wonders how our future selves will use technology, at the start of a three-day Salon London at the Marylebone Pleasure Gardens (7.30pm, £12).

Xing the Line is back in Clerkenwell with (we think, it’s not terribly clear) poets SJ Fowler, Tim Atkins, Fabian MacPherson, Sarah Kelly and David Kelly (7.30pm).

Michael Bauer is at Waterstones Covent Garden chatting and signing copies of Don’t Call Me Ishmael! from 6.30pm.

Thursday: Tupelo Hassman, Nicci Cloke, Kerry Hudson and Harry Man compete for glory at Literary Death Match under the judging eyes of Ted Hodgkinson, Joe Stretch and Eric Lampaert (8.15pm, £5 / £8).

Two book swaps today: in Windsor, the Firestation Book Swap celebrates its third birthday with cake, Lesley Thomson, Amy Shindler and hosts Marie Phillips and Scott Pack (7.45pm, free). In Wood Green, the Big Green Bookshop inaugurates its own event with authors Cathi Unsworth and Stuart Evers (7.30pm, £5. Attendees will also get first dibs on their Caitlin Moran event on 4 October, which is going to sell out faster than you can breathe).

Young adult author Diane Messidoro reads from her new book How to Keep a Boy as a Pet, at Waterstones Gower Street (3pm).

Michael Buckley is at Waterstones Covent Garden signing copies of NERDS (that’s National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society to us). There will be cupcakes (from 1.30pm).

Friday: John Agard and Melanie Abrahams present London Liming, a mix of spoken word, music and carnival, at the Tricycle Theatre (8pm, free).

If you’re around Heathrow Terminal 1 between 10am-12pm, head to WHSmith to hear Vintage Children’s Classics being read.

Saturday: Alom Shaha presents the Young Atheist’s Handbook at Housmans (6.30pm).

Eileen Browne reads from her book Boo Boo Baby and the Giraffe at Foyles Royal Festival Hall, and shows the kids how to draw their own baby (2pm, free).

Meet at Mansion House tube for a John Milton guided walk (2.30pm, £9 / £7).

Tuesday: Ellie Levenson, the Big Green Bookshop‘s writer in residence, is back 9.30am-1pm to offer advice and tips.

Charlie Dark is running story workshops for children at the British Library twice a day until Thursday.

Back to the Tricycle for two events in the Trinidad and Tobago Cultural Village: Susheila Nasta launches a book about the poems of Sam Selvon (6pm, free) and poets Paul Keens Douglas, John Lyons, Eintou Pearl Springer, Fawzia Kane, Faustin Charles and Ian Dieffenthaller perform from 7.30pm (free).

Juliet Troy, Giles Goodland and Linda Black read their poetry at The Blue Bus – not actually in a bus, but in The Lamb on Lamb’s Conduit Street (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Book ahead: Jo Shapcott and Maurice Riordan reading in the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at Buckingham Palace (26 September, £12.50 inc exhibition admission).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz is at Foyles talking about his new collection This Is How You Lose Her (6.30pm, free).

Young Adult authors Garth Nix and Michael Grant talk about their books at Waterstones Piccadilly (6.30pm, £2).

Thursday: Deborah Levy, Iosi Havilio and Christoph Simon are three new authors published by not-for-profit And Other Stories. Hear them at Woolfson & Tay (7pm, free).

Booker longlisted author Ned Beauman and John Niven are the authors at Whiskey and Words at Rough Trade East (7pm, free but sign up to ensure a place). Salena Godden hosts and there’s booze from Jameson.

Friday: Sexytime is a book and art show celebrating the 1970s porn poster – get an eyeful at the Horse Hospital where it’s launching (7.30pm).

Pretty much the polar opposite of Sexytime is the British Library’s Children’s Writing Festival. Shaun Tan starts things off at 6.30pm (£6 / £4).

Saturday: Back at the British Library, catch Michael Rosen and Charlie Dark (10.30am, £6 / £4), David Almond and Bart Moeyaert (12.15pm, £6 / £4), Julia Donaldson (2pm, £6 / £4), Michael Morpurgo (3.30pm, £6 / £4) and storytelling all day.

Radio 4 legend Sandi Toksvig is at the Southbank Centre talking about her novel Valentine Grey (7.30pm, £20-£15).

There are two authors signing at Waterstones Croydon: Lizzie Wallace (Sam the Baker and the Buns of Courage) from 11am, and Claire McGowan (The Fall) from 12pm. Or go to Waterstones Greenwich to meet Danny Kemp (The Desolate Garden) and Sagheer Afzal (The Reluctant Mullah) from 12pm.

Sunday: On the last day of the Wonderlands Festival at the British Library: Anthony Browne, Emily Gravett and Peter Sís (11.30am, £6 / £4), Valerie Bloom and John Lyons (1.15pm, £6 / £4), Rastamouse (3.15pm, £6 / £4) and more storytelling.

Tuesday: Poetry from Carolyn Mary Kleefeld, Peter Thabit Jones, John Dotson and Lisa Maroski at the launch of Kleefeld’s latest book Psyche of Mirrors at the Free Word Centre (7pm, free).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: The brilliant Homework features poetry battles between regulars Joe Dunthorne, Ross Sutherland, Tim Clare, John Osborne and Luke Wright, and guests including Buddy Wakefield, Sam Riviere and Catherine Smith (7.30pm, £5).

Polarbear told us all about tonight’s Roundhouse Poetry Slam final (7.30pm, £4); see poets battle it out, plus performances from Daniel Cockrill, Indigo Williams, Musa Okwonga and Polarbear himself.

Liza Klaussmann reads from her new novel Tigers in Red Weather (cover shown is US edition), at Waterstones Covent Garden (6.30pm, £5 / £3).

At Rich Mix there’s a night of solidarity with Pussy Riot, featuring over 30 poets (including Kirsty Irving, Chris McCabe, Jack Underwood and Tim Atkins) reading their own work and that of the imprisoned band (7pm, free).

Thursday: Rob Auton is the special guest at Walthamstow Library for a night of open mic poetry and music (7.30pm, free).

Salon London pops up at the National Theatre looking at the NT’s production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, plus science writer Marcus Chown and David Speigelhalter (7.30pm, £10).

Friday: Ross Sutherland is in the middle of three nights of his poetry/rap/clip show mash-up Stand By For Tape Back-Up at Battersea Arts Centre (8.45pm, pay what you can).

Saturday: Go on one of Most Curious‘s regular literary walks, meeting outside Russell Square tube at 2pm (£10).

Work by Forest Poets is on display at the William Morris Gallery until 16 September, as part of the E17 Art Trail.

Sunday: Daunt Books‘s walking book club discusses Michael Frayn’s wonderful Spies as they ramble Hampstead Heath. Meet at the Hampstead shop at 11.30am (free).

Monday: Two events at the British Library: poets John Agard, Jackie Kay, Daljit Nagra, Carol Leeming and Grace Nichols present an alternative A-Z of Britain (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5) and another chance to catch Liza Klaussmann talking about Tigers in Red Weather, this time with BL writer in residence Naomi Wood (6.45pm, £4 / £3).

Bashir Sakhawarz, Shereen Pandit, Hom Paribag and Navid Hamzavi are at the Poetry Cafe talking about prose in plight for Exiled Writers Ink (7.30pm, £4 / £2). Abol Froushan hosts.

Marcus Slease reads at More Poetry at the Coffee Shop (near Liverpool Street station, 7.45pm, £1).

Tuesday: Zadie Smith makes a rare public appearance at Waterstones Gower Street, signing copies of NW from 1pm. Across town, Lee Child is signing copies of his latest, A Wanted Man, at Waterstones Leadenhall Market from 12.30pm.

Rose Tremain previews her new novel Merivel at the Wellcome Library, in a Granta event (7pm, free but book in advance).

Julian Baggini discusses philosophy at Foyles on Charing Cross Road (6.30pm, free).

Pankaj Mishra highlights some of the 20th century’s lesser-heard voices at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Here are a few highlights from London’s theatrical calendar for the next seven days

THEATRE
Tonight is the opening night of To The Moon’s Silent Shakespeare at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre. An intrepid cast of six will examine what Shakespeare is without words, recreating the Bard’s most famous scenes and characters through sight, sound and some special surprises. There’s a more traditional rendering of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Bridewell Theatre on this week, starting tonight. And also starting its run tonight is what some believe to be Shakespeare’s “lost” play, Cardenio, at The Rose Theatre Bankside.

Finally, as an antidote to all this Bardolatry, there’s a fun new production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance by the Charles Court Opera at the King’s Head Theatre opening tonight, and running for the rest of the month. A small-scale but big-hearted production, this show features of a cast of 10 young opera stars, with the Eaton-Young Piano Duo providing a four-hands version of the accompanying orchestral score.

Thursday is the first night for the new play Morning at the Lyric Hammersmith, following a successful run in Edinburgh. Written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens, Morning is a dark coming-of-age tale written especially for a cast of performers from the Lyric Young Company. Thursday is also the first night for Vita and Virginia at the Pentameters Theatre in Hampstead: Valerie Dent and Tamar K Karpas star as Virginia Woolf and her lover Vita Sackville-West in this revival of Eileen Atkins’s dramatic adaptation of the pair’s diaries and letters. Finally for theatre, Choir Boy opens at the Royal Court Theatre from Monday. It’s another new play catching the theme of adolescence: this time by Tarell Alvin McCraney, and set in an all-boys, all-black American prep school.

COMEDY
Another Edinburgh transfer, Bravo Figaro, opens on Monday at the Tricycle Theatre. Mark Thomas’ tribute to his muddle-of-contradictions dad talks of love, life, family, art, death and opera, and runs until Saturday 6 October.

SPOKEN WORD
Poet and rapper Kate Tempest is performing her new “everyday epic” poem Brand New Ancients at BAC over a live score of tuba, cello, drums and electronics from tonight, until 22 September. See below for a taster.

LAST CHANCE
Thursday is you last chance to see the critically acclaimed musical London Road at the National Theatre. Saturday is the last night for the excellent-if-flawed Ragtime and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. And Sunday is your last chance to see The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe at the Threesixty Theatre in Kensington Gardens, Soho Cinders at the Soho Theatre, and Spamalot at the Harold Pinter Theatre. Although Spamalot’ll be back. Of course.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Two-times World Slam Champion Buddy Wakefield wows the Gallery Cafe, with support from Deanna Rodger and Ronnie McGrath (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Granta 120 (theme: medicine) launches at Foyles on Charing Cross Road with contributors Ike Anya, M.J. Hyland and Suzanne Rivecca (6.30pm, free).

Clive Bloom is at Housmans talking about protest and rebellion in London (7pm, £3).

Thursday: EL James is signing copies of Fifty Shades at Waterstones Piccadilly from 6.30pm.

BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz launches his new book about modern art, What Are You Looking At?, at Foyles Royal Festival Hall (4.30pm, free).

Kate Summerscale discusses Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace at the Bloomsbury Institute (6.30pm, £25 including book).

Emma Koenig celebrates her blog Fuck! I’m in my twenties becoming a book with a party at Drink, Shop & Dance in N1 (8.30pm, free).

Friday: Sam Riviere and Ned Beauman are on hand to launch issue #5 of The White Review at Foyles Charing Cross Road (6.30pm, free).

Birkbeck’s New Zealand Studies Network welcomes poets Fleur Adcock, Helen Rickerby and Anna Jackson (6pm, free).

Judy Kendall, Dana Littlepage-Smith and Loise Warren from Cinnamon Poets are at the Trinity United Reform Church in Camden (7pm, £5 / £4).

Saturday: Christopher Reid is the first poet performing during the Poetry Book Fair at the Candid Arts Trust near Angel (from 10am, free).

Following on from the Poetry Book Fair, publishers if p then q take over the Betsey Trotwood, with poets Tim Atkins, Michael Basinski, Lucy Harvest Clarke, Tom Jenks, Holly Pester and Philip Terry (7pm, free).

Michael Rosen explores poetry and protest, at the William Morris Gallery (3pm, £7 / £6).

Sunday: The Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival kicks off with author appearances from (among many) John Mullan, Alison Weir, John Nicholson, David Aaronovitch and Gavin Esler.

Tim Wells, Sid Griffin and Al Hutchins are the words side of Bands and Books at the Power Lunches Arts Cafe in aid of Amnesty (7pm, £3+bf).

Forest Poets perform their work on a tour round the William Morris Gallery‘s collection (2.30pm, free).

Courttia Newland, Sh’Maya and Usifu Jalloh perform spoken word for Jazz Verse Jukebox at Ronnie Scott’s (7.30pm, £8).

Cheryl Moskowitz and Jacqueline Saphra read their poetry at the Penny Fielding Gallery and Interiors, part of the E17 Art Trail (6pm, free).

Monday: Suzanne Joinson, Ned Beauman, Cathi Unsworth and Lauren Elkin read from their novels at party-slash-literary-night The Book Stops Here (7.30pm, free).

John Connolly, Laura Wilson and Martyn Waites discuss crime fiction at Foyles Charing Cross Road (6.30pm, free).

At the Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival, catch Lisa Jewell, Gillian Slovo, Alex Clark, Rachel Joyce, SJ Watson, John O’Farrell, Michael Palin and more.

At the Hackney Attic, Spark London storytellers are all about going back at school (7.30pm, £3).

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi talk cooking and Jerusalem with Giles Fraser at Lutyens and Rubinstein (7pm, £8).

Tuesday: Palestinian writer and lawyer Raja Shehadeh talks about life in the West Bank at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Christopher Fowler and Deborah Harkness ponder London’s oddities at Foyles Charing Cross Road (6.30pm, free).

China Miéville, Lauren Beukes and Patrick Ness are at the Free Word Centre debating science fiction and social change (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5 +bf).

Hear new stories about food and drink performed by actors at Liar’s League (7.30pm, free).

The final day of the Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival sees Pam Ayres, Joseph Connolly, Kate Colquhoun, Michele Hanson, Simon Heffer, Rose Tremain, Howard Jacobson, Claire Armistead and others giving talks.

Ambit present Myra Schneider, Steve Cranfield, Holly Corfield-Carr and Ambit’s own Geoff Nicholson at the Betsey Trotwood (6.45pm, free).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts Poetry Unplugged, the Poetry Cafe‘s open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Anvil Press launches Petrol by Martina Evans and Angels and Harvesters by James Harpur at The Melton Mowbray in Holborn (6.30pm, free).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Image by Tom Pandé

This is the setting for the defiantly everyday figure of Kate Tempest, a woman with a microphone and a gift for telling stories. A rapper and a wordsmith, this is first time Tempest has attempted anything resembling full length theatre and, over the next 80 minutes of rhymes and songs about ordinary loves and lives in the city, she reveals a captivating talent starting along a new road.

Brand New Ancients uses a central idea – that nothing is new, it has all been experienced before, but that we all hold the old gods inside – to frame stories highlighting the individual nature of universal loves and losses. It is not the most original of ideas, and in fact originality is not the strong point of the show, but Tempest’s performance is. She charms the audience and has them in awe of her ability to carry a lengthy performance, so much so that she receives a surprise standing ovation, a rare beast indeed on a press night.

In their eagerness to accept Tempest’s promising work, the audience had mislaid a little of their perspective. Brand New Ancients is flawed. Some scenes are ill-advised, including a predictable denunciation of reality TV, an unconvincing pub rape scene, and a curious defence of sex tourism. The piece also relies on too many clichés about the urban grittiness of city life.  Lazy complaints that no-one in London knows their neighbours, for example, would slot quite happily into the Daily Mail.

However, despite the failings of this particular show Kate Tempest clearly has something special to offer as a charismatic and likeable performer. Nell Catchpole, who wrote the score, also delivers something memorable with her hip, atmospheric accompaniments. We’ll be hearing more of Tempest, without a doubt. Her writing lights up the theatre with inspired flashes; let’s hope she find a way to apply the same level of insight to a complete show.

Brand New Ancients is at Battersea Arts Centre until 22 Sept. Tickets: £12 (£8 concessions).

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Celebrate the launch of Liars’ League‘s book of urban tales at Mvmnt Cafe in Greenwich (7pm, free).

Drop hannah@notjustafacemedia.com a line to see if there’s any room for Erin Lawless’s Q&A at Clapham Books.

Poet Jane Draycott chats to Adam Phillips at Lutyens and Rubinstein (7pm, £5).

John Christie, Mike Dibb and Andy Merrifield mark the 40th anniversary of John Berger’s Booker winning G, at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Susan Utting, Steph Pike and Ellen Zaks join host Agnes Meadow at the Poetry Cafe for Loose Muse (8pm, £5 / £3).

Thursday: Francesca Beard, Ben Mellor, Indigo Williams, Tshaka Campbell, Simon Mole, Liv Torc, Shane Solanki and Chris Redmond are all on hand to launch Tongue Fu’s anthology Liminal Animals at Rich Mix (8pm, £7 / £5).

Will Self talks about his Booker shortlisted novel Umbrella at the Southbank Centre (7.30pm, £15 / £12).

At the National Portrait Gallery, David Harsent discusses Seamus Heaney’s work (7pm, £5 / £4).

Friday: Richard Tyrone Jones, Lisa Kelly, Alison Winch and Patric Cunnane greet September for Dodo Modern Poets at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £6 / £5).

Pascale Petit and Katrina Naomi read their poetry at the William Morris Gallery (7.30pm, free).

Part of the Kings Place Festival and arranged by Poet in the City and Carcanet, poets William Letford and Katharine Kilalea perform at 6.30pm (£4.50) followed by Sinéad Morrissey and Kei Miller (7.45pm, £4.50). Also, Simon Garfield talks about fonts and dogs (5pm, £4.50).

Saturday: There’s a full day of free poetry outside Foyles Royal Festival Hall, with performances, stalls, close readings and wine and cake to celebrate Inpress’s 10th birthday (from 11am).

Merlin Coverley discusses the art of wandering, at Housmans (6.30pm, free).

Back at the Kings Place Festival, American poets Julith Jedamus and Dan Burt read at 3.45pm (£4.50); hear Carola Luther and Peter McDonald at 5pm, (£4.50).

Sean O’Brien is talking about his work at Poetry East (7.30pm, £7).

Sunday: At Kings Place, Jonathan Coe and Danny Manners explore music and writing (4.45pm, £4.50), Chris T-T sings the poems of AA Milne (2pm, free) and be sure to catch John Hegley at 6pm (£4.50).

Monday: Anne de Courcy is at Daunt Marylebone talking about the fate of 19th century British girls who went to India to find husbands (7pm, £8).

Fitzrovia Now starts today: EDC London hosts a Book Shwop where people can swap design books.

David Crystal, Tim Cumming, Matthew Caley and Michael Blackburn help to relaunch Echo magazine at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5).

Tuesday: Jenny Uglow is at the London Review Bookshop telling the story of Sarah Losh, who created one of Britain’s finest churches (7pm, £7).

The Poetry Library opens an exhibition by Mary Kuper exploring the links between poetic words and their meanings.

Rosie Bailey, Connie Bensley and Jane Draycott are the main draws at Lumen Poetry (6.30pm, £5 / £4).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

The Kings Place Festival this weekend is a three-day taster of the venue’s year-round arts programme, with tickets at £4.50 (plus the odd freebie thrown in) – less than half the price of normal events.

Music dominates the schedule and this is a perfect opportunity to sample styles you might have considered, but either got a bit lost in Spotify or not known where to start at all. Start here: the classical list includes pieces by Brahms, Haydn, Bartók, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schubert, Dvorák and Tchaikovsky; played by ensembles including the Sacconi Quartet, London Sinfonietta and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble. Neither will they just play at you and leave – many of the performances include an explanation of the music.

There’s also folk from Ewan McLennan, Deborah Rose, Stompin’ Dave Allen and the Emily Portman Trio among others, and jazz from Denys Baptiste, Josh Arcoleo, Todd Sharpville, two youth orchestras and more, as well as music and dance from around the world.

The comedy and spoken word line-up is strong. Ardal O’Hanlon, Bridget Christie, Colin Hoult, Sara Pascoe and Impropera are acts you don’t often get to see full shows from for less than a fiver. You can choose from several poetry performances, including the fantastic John Hegley, and authors Jonathan Coe and Simon Garfield will give talks. Discussions about politics, media and Twitter also look interesting.

Kings Place Festival runs 14-16 September at Kings Place, York Way, N1. Tickets cost £4.50 with multi-buy discounts available. For more information see the Kings Place website.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Comedian Mark Watson launches his novel The Knot at St Giles in the Fields, then Waterstones Gower Street, from 6pm.

Will Wiles, Niven Govinden, Maggie Alderson and Zoe Howe duke it out at Literary Death Match, under the judgemental noses of Helen Smith, Wendy Wason and Tom Allen (8.15pm, £5 / £8).

Anjan Saha hosts short stories with Chris McCabe, Pascal O’Loughlin and Eightcuts Collective at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5).

Thursday: Natalie Haynes talks about her Ancient Guide to Modern Life at Windsor’s Firestation Book Swap, alongside Stephanie Butland and hosts Scott Pack and Sarah Franklin (7.45pm, £5 or free with homemade cake).

Fergal Keane, Elif Shafak, Helen Bamber and Inua Ellams share their 99 words for peace at the Mosaic Rooms (7pm, £10 / £8).

Scarlett Thomas reads from her new book, Monkeys with Typewriters, and The End Of Mr Y at the Big Green Bookshop. She’s very much a word of mouth writer, find out what the fuss is about (7pm, £5).

Rosalind Stopps, Cherry Potts and Katy Darby swing by Clapham Books to launch the Liars’ League anthology (7.30pm, free).

Ben Target, justifiably shortlisted for the newcomer award at Edinburgh, joins Hollie McNish and the rest of the Bang Said the Gun gang at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).

Sophia Blackwell, North Morgan and Bobby Nayyar read at the Limehouse Salon in Soho (6.30pm, £5).

Goldsboro Books in Cecil Court hosts an evening of historical fiction and non-fiction: authors include Stella Duffy, Conn Iggulden and Lloyd Shepherd (6.30pm, £5).

Friday: Mark Billingham and Martyn Waites talk crime fiction at Chipping Barnet Library (6.30pm, £2).

Inua Ellams performs his Knight Watch on the roof of Deptford Lounge as night falls – talk about atmospheric (7.30pm, £10 / £8).

futureperfect launch a new night at the Poetry Cafe, Juke Box Story, featuring tales of the 1980s (7.30pm, £6 / £4).

Monday: Tarun J Tejpal is at Foyles talking about his thriller The Story of My Assassins (6.30pm, free).

Michael Rosen and friends commemorate nonsense poet Edward Lear at Kings Place (7pm, £9.50).

Jonathan Harvey, Penny Arcade, Jesse Blackadder, Adam Lowe and Adrian Dalton are guests of Polari at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £5).

Tuesday: Will Self goes to Clapham Books with his Booker-shortlisted novel Umbrella (7.30pm, free).

Ziauddin Sardar hosts a discussion about the Prophet Muhammad, at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Discover the far north of Finland from the comfort of Soho in the company of Nick Hennessey (8pm, £9 / £7).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: True stories from Homework regulars Joe Dunthorne, Ross Sutherland, Luke Wright, John Osborne and Tim Clare plus special guests, including Molly Parkin (7.30pm, £5).

Skellig author David Almond talks to writer and illustrator Oliver Jeffers at Waterstones Piccadilly (6.30pm, £5 / £3).

If you’re quick you can catch SF master Peter F Hamilton at Waterstones Trafalgar Square (2pm, £3), or go later to hear John Sugden talk about Lord Nelson (7pm, £5).

Stewart Home discusses Terry Taylor’s novel Baron’s Court All Change, at Housmans (7pm, £3).

Margaret Drabble talks to Peter J Conradi about his biography of Frank Thompson, at Daunt Books Marylebone (7pm, £8).

Jo Shapcott and Maurice Riordan perform poems inspired by Leonardo da Vinci at Buckingham Palace (6.30pm, £12.50).

Head to Kings Place to hear Rose Tremain talk to John Mullan about her latest novel, Restoration (7pm, £9.50).

Richard Tyrone Jones hosts Jawdance at Rich Mix, with poets Jenni Pascoe, Steve Urwin and Leslie Tetteh (7.30pm, free).

Dan Burt, Oli Hazzard, Julith Jedamus, Evan Jones, William Letford and James Womack are some of the Carcanet poets and are reading at the London Review Bookshop tonight (7pm, £7).

Thursday: Today’s big events with JK Rowling and Salman Rushdie are sold out, but who needs them? Try Book Slam at the Tabernacle with Simon Armitage, Josh Kumbra, Mark Grist and hosted by Charlie Dark (7.30pm, £8 / £10).

Chill Pill is at The Albany with spoken word from Mr Gee, Sabrina Mahfouz, Raymond Antrobus, Deanna Rodger, Simon Mole, Kim-Leng Hills, Soweto Kinch and Jive Poetic (7.30pm, £7 / £5).

The Soho Literary Festival starts, with events featuring Michael Frayn, Dominic Sandbrook, Tony Parsons, Artemis Cooper, Craig Brown, Prue Leith and John Major (all tickets £9).

Joelle Taylor and Musa Okwonga are this week’s poetry guests at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).

Professor Philip Spencer launches his book Genocide since 1945 at the Wiener Library (6.30pm, free but email to reserve a place).

Friday: Kate Tempest starts the first of two nights at The Albany, with her show Brand New Ancients about everyday Gods (7.30pm, £12 / £10).

Celebrate International Translation Day at the London Review Bookshop with Anthea Bell talking to Daniel Hahn (7pm, £10).

At the Soho Literary Festival, you can see Michael Palin, Ruth Rendell and PD James, Ferdinand Mount and John Bird, Colin Thubron, Giles Coren and Jeremy Vine (all tickets £9).

Andy Kissane plus Smokestack Poets Victoria Bean, Brian Docherty, Owen Gallagher and Ruth Valentine are at the Poetry Cafe for Fourth Friday (8pm).

Saturday: Discover the lives of playwright John Arden and Margaretta D’Arcy at Housmans (7pm, £3).

Back in Soho, spend time with writers Kate Summerscale, Tim Lott, Ed Vulliamy, Steven Glover, Roy Greenslade, Simon Baron-Cohen, Pam Ayres, Mira Bar-Hillel and Charlie Mortimer (all tickets £9).

Gabriel Josopivici asks what happened to modernism, at the Southbank Centre (12pm, £8). Later, Jonathan Coe, Julia Jordan and Philip Tew discuss the life of BS Johnson (2.30pm, £8).

Amy Key, Jacqui Saphra and Gale Burns host The Shuffle at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Sunday: Enjoy the final day of the Soho Literary Festival with Timothy West and Prunella Scales reading children’s poems, Piers Brendon, Jane Ridley, Marina Lewycka, Fay Weldon, Virginia Ironside, Clive Stafford Smith, Lindsey Hilsum, Patrick Cockburn, a classics quiz with Mary Beard and Craig Taylor, Immodesty Blaize, Dan Cruikshank and Barry Cryer performing some Soho Stories (all tickets £9).

Andy Kissane and Alison Wong are the guests at Torriano Poets (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Monday: Daunt Books in Chelsea present an evening of Italian literature with Pietro Grossi, Tobias Jones and Rosie Goldsmith (7pm, £5).

Celebrate Picador’s 40th birthday with a metric fuckton of excellent writers at Kings Place, including Jon Ronson, Jackie Kay, Stuart Evers, Naomi Wood and Ed Docx (7pm, £9.50).

Spark London are telling stories at the Canal Cafe Theatre (7.30pm, £8).

This should be fun: Luke Wright is at the Soho Theatre in the company of Ross Sutherland and Rob Auton (8pm, £10).

Exiled Writers Ink present stories of exile, detention and survival at the Poetry Cafe, from Hubert Moore, Jade-Amoli Jackson, Mohad Hamdam, Kate Adams, Niran Oladipo Falade, Haymanot Tesfa and Bahriye Kemal (7.30pm, £4 / £2).

Tuesday: David Baddiel and DT Max discuss the life, work and legacy of David Foster Wallace at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £8).

Dr Michael Stewart launches The Gypsy ‘Menace’ at the Wiener Library (6.30pm, free).

Ben Aaronovitch introduces Samit Basu at Waterstones Piccadilly (7pm, £3 / £1.50).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Edna O’Brien talks about her life and new memoir at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £10).

Discover the curse of the Mummy at Treadwell’s with Roger Luckhurst (7.15pm £7).

Tom Basden hosts The Special Relationship with Stuart Evers and Jack Underwood at The Book Club (7.30pm, £5).

Iain M Banks chats about his new novel, The Hydrogen Sonata, at Waterstones Piccadilly (7pm, £5 / £3).

Thursday: It’s National Poetry Day! The theme is Stars and there are events all over the place (see official listings for details). Highlights are the Southbank Centre’s free poetry afternoon followed by John Cooper Clarke (7.30pm, £10-£19.50), the Poetry Olympics at the 100 Club (7.30pm, £7) and events with David Harsent and Gwyneth Lewis from Poet in the City.

Join Bernard Cornwell and historian Helen Castor to talk about England in the 14th century at Waterstones Piccadilly (7pm, £5 / £3).

James Marriott and Mika Minio-Paluello tell the story behind BP at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Lavie Tidhar talks about his alternate reality post-9/11 novel Osama at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Will Self is at Bloomsbury Institute discussing Umbrella (6.30pm, £25, includes copy of the book).

An evening with AL Kennedy is always good fun, so head to Waterstones in Croydon to experience her dry wit for yourself (6pm, £3).

Ruby Kid and the Roundhouse Slam Champions are the guests at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).

Jacob Sam-La Rose celebrates poetry from local young people at Deptford Lounge (7pm, free).

John Hegley, Rachel Rose Reid and A Kid Called Sorriow are raising money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer at the Hackney Attic (7.30pm, £5).

Yvette Edwards talks about her novel A Cupboard Full of Coats at Bethnal Green Library (6.30pm, free).

The Gruntlers are all about chilling poetry at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm).

Friday: Tom Chivers launches his project ADRIFT, mapping natural territories into London’s urban space, at Rich Mix (6.30pm, free).

Michael Symmons Roberts, Frances Leviston, Neil Astley and Liz Berry help launch Poetry London’s Autumn issue at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Alex Wheatle celebrates the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence at Fore Street library (6pm, £1 deposit). Alternatively, go to the British Library for a celebration event with Mervyn Morris, Kwame Dawes and Janett Plummer (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5).

There’s a day of events around translation at Kings Place (9am start, £30 / £20).

Katie Bonna, Stephanie Dogfoot Chan, Jasmine Cooray, Rachel Pantechnicon and Donald Chegwin all perform at the Farrago Autumn SLAM (7.30pm, £6 / £5).

Saturday: Wimbledon Book Fest kicks off today, with children’s authors Tony Kane and David Wood, Gary Mulgrew and an evening with Picador authors including Stuart Evers, Will Eaves, Naomi Wood and Ed Docx.

The Crick Crack Club presents Chirine El Ansary telling stories of Bedouin heroes at Rich Mix (7.30pm, £9 / £7).

Take the kids to Tara Arts to get fired up by poets Joe Coelho and Steve Tasane at Apples and Snakes‘s Spin (10.30am, £10 / £9).

Young adult authors Sean Cummings, Kim Curran and Sarah Mussi talk about their books at Foyles (6pm, free).

Sunday: Back in Wimbledon, Margaret Drabble talks about growing up as a Quaker and her collected short stories (6pm, £15).

Daunt‘s walking book club on Hampstead Heath discusses Jane Gardam’s Old Filth (11.30am, free).

See Jazz Poet Amiri Baraka in conversation at the British Library (2.30pm, £7.50 / £5).

Monday: Four fantastic authors read their work for free at The Book Stops Here: Jake Arnott, Katherine Angel, Natasha Soobremanien and Niven Govinden (7.30pm).

Young adult and children’s author KM Peyton is at the Wimbledon Book Fest (4pm, £10 / £7.50); later, Patrick Bishop tells the history of the Royal Air Force (6pm, £7.50).

Tuesday: American literary giant Paul Auster is in conversation at the Shaw Theatre (7pm, £12 / £10+bf).

Liar’s League present spooky stories at The Phoenix (7.30pm, £5).

Catch a sense of Trinidad with spoken word and music from London Liming at Rich Mix (7.30pm, £7 / £5).

Ambit Magazine is back at the Betsey Trotwood with Martina Evans, Jaki McCarrick, Julian Stannard and Edward McKay (7pm, free).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

At the Wimbledon Book Fest, there’s crime chat from Sophie Hannah, Elizabeth Haynes and Louise Millar (7.30pm, £7.50) and Salley Vickers talking about her new novel The Cleaner of Chartres (7.30pm, £10).

Book ahead: Some sixth sense tells us this might be popular: Jarvis Cocker talks about his lyric book, Mother, Brother, Lover with Jon McGregor at the London Review Bookshop on 22 October (7pm, £7).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Philip Pullman talks about his favourite Grimm fairy tales with John Mullan at Kings Place (7pm, £11.50 / £9.50).

Richard Tyrone-Jones recounts his brush with heart failure at The Albany in Deptford (8pm, £7 / £5).

Ken Livingstone chats about his memoirs at Housmans; we’re sure he’ll have a thing or two to say about the current Mayor (7pm, £3).

The Wimbledon Book Fest continues: go to events with Jojo Moyes, Kate Mosse and Tom Watson MP.

Kate Noakes and Richard Lambert launch their latest poetry collections at Marylebone Books and Music (7pm, free).

Thursday: Two Booker shortlisted authors, Alison Moore and Tan Twan Eng, are at the Big Green Bookshop (7pm, £5).

Anna Raverat reads from and signs her debut novel Signs of Life at Clapham Books (7pm, free).

Find out about the Victorians and lunacy with Sarah Wise at Sutton House, with Pages of Hackney (7pm, £5).

Nikesh Shukla and Nia Barge are the guests at stand up poetry night Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).

Ross Sutherland exposes his relationship with computers and machine-built poetry at Toynbee Studios (7.30pm, £5).

Rose Tremain talks to Boyd Tonkin about Merivel, her follow-up to Restoration, at the Wimbledon Book Fest (7.30pm, £10).

Andrea Stuart talks about slavery, empire and her book Sugar in the Blood at Ealing Central Library (6.15pm, free).

The London Review Bookshop is the place to be to find out about maps with Simon Garfield (7pm, £7).

Friday: Steven Appleby launches his Guide to Life at Gosh! Comics (7pm, free).

Storytelling/cabaret night Are You Sitting Comfortably has filthy tales on offer at Toynbee Studios (7.30pm, £8).

Jelena Curcic performs Serbian fairy tales at Rich Mix (8pm, £10 / £7).

Award winning author and poet Bernadine Evaristo talks about her life and reads from her work at Camberwell Library (6.30pm, free).

David Melling is reading and drawing Hugless Douglas for the kids at Wimbledon Book Fest (11am, 1pm, £7.50).

Sascha Aurora Akhtar, Prudence Chamberlain and Simon Smith are the poets at POLYply21 (7pm, free).

Saturday: Children’s author Cressida Cowell is at Daunt Books Holland Park reading from her new book and answering questions (3pm, free).

Discover Victorian strongman Eugen Sandow with David Waller, and debate the future of the book, at Wimbledon Book Fest.

DM Black, Murray Bodo and Sheila Hillier perform at Poetry in the Crypt at St Mary’s, Islington (7pm, £4).

Sunday: Wimbledon Book Fest closes with Womble storytelling and singalongs, Michelle Paver’s adventure stories, Gillian Tindall investigating the histories of three houses, Will Young on his autobiography, Jenny Hartley talking about Charles Dickens’s letters, Hanan al-Shaykh with a new adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights, James Naughtie discussing his book about the new Elizabethans, and Sebastian Faulks talking about his new novel A Possible Life.

Katrina Naomi, Phil Lucas and Breis join Jumoke Fashola for Jazz Verse Jukebox (7.30pm, £8).

Monday: China Miéville is at Bookmarks talking about London’s Overthrow, a book about the current state of London (6.30pm, £2).

Dr Dan Plesch discusses the UN at war, at the British Library (6.45pm, £4 / £3).

James Naughtie chairs a discussion with the Booker Prize shortlisted authors at the Southbank Centre (7.30pm, £12-£18).

Victoria Bean, Katherine Bletcher, Kim Booker, Patrick Cosgrove, Liz Devereaux, Geri Dogmetchi, Sheila Martin, Jane Rogers and Tamar Yoseloff are all helping to launch A Suitcase of Poems at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm).

Tuesday: Anne Applebaum talks to Anthony Beevor about life behind the Iron Curtain, at Daunt Books Marylebone (7pm, £8).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

If you miss China Miéville on Monday he’s talking with Suzanne Moore at Sutton House, with Pages of Hackney (7pm, £5).

Martin Jacques and David Miliband debate China and its impact on the rest of the world at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £12).

Charlie Dark hosts the latest StorySLAM Live at the Southbank Centre; impress the judges with your five minute story on the theme of 50 (7.45pm, £8).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Join three authors shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize at Foyles: Robert McFarlane, Paul Preston and Sue Prideaux (6.30pm, free).

Martyn Crucefix is talking about his new translation of Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus at Waterstones Covent Garden (7pm, £9.50 / £7.50).

Tim Cresswell, Edward Doeger, Irene James, Jemime Roberts, Richard Scott, Clair Wilcox and Tom Chivers perform at the Poetry Cafe tonight (7.30pm, £3).

Antony John, Andy Spragg and Juha Virtanen are the poets Xing the Line at The Apple Tree (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Thursday: Simon Garfield gives an illustrated talk on maps at Waterstones Covent Garden (6pm, £5 / £3).

The Firestation Book Swap is at Windsor Waterstones this month, with guests Niven Govinden and John Higgs (7.45pm, £5 or free with homemade cake).

Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi, Sarah Maguire and Joanna Oyediran present an evening of Sudanese poetry at The Mosaic Rooms (7pm, free).

Jonny Fluffypunk and Bridget Minamore are the guests at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).

RNIB Wonderland kicks off near Southwark Cathedral.

Friday: Michael Dobson, Marina Warner, Emma Smith, James Shapiro and Colin Barrow debate whether we should consider Shakespeare a contemporary, at the British Museum (6.30pm, £10 / £8).

Stephen Appleby is launching and signing his collected Loomus cartoons at Bookseller Crow in Crystal Palace (7.30pm, free).

Dorothy Koomson discusses her novel The Rose Petal Beach at Balham Library (6.30pm, free).

Jo Nesbo is signing copies of his latest novel, The Bat, at Foyles Charing Cross Road from 12.30pm. Later, YA authors Gregg Olsen, Chris Ould and Niall Leonard will chat about their work (6.30pm, free).

Ardella Jones, Graham Buchan, Francis White and Patric Cunnane are tonight’s Dodo Modern Poets at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £6 / £5).

Salena Godden, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Attillah Springer, Hannah Lowe and Anthony Joseph are among the spoken word artists at Jamdown Meets Liming at the V&A (7pm, £12 / £9).

Saturday: Helen Smith hosts The Literary Cabaret at the Bloomsbury Theatre with a fabulous line-up: Suzanne Joinson, Craig Taylor, Will Wiles and Karen McLeod (7pm, free).

Part of the Bloomsbury Festival, join Persephone Books for a cream tea and launch of their short story collection (4.30pm, free).

Cornelia Funke reads from her new children’s novel Ghost Knight at Daunt Books Hampstead (11am, free).

Poetry in Palmers Green welcomes Shanta Acharya, Martyn Crucefix, Martina Evans, Mike Loveday and Maria Sanchez (7.30pm, £5 / £3.50).

Sunday: inc. zine’s poetry party has performances from Zena Edwards, Raphael Attar Variety Hour, Emma Jones and Joshua Seigal, at The Book Club (7pm, £5).

Monday: Michael Morpurgo is talking about war at Kings College from 7pm (free).

Bit of a League of Gentlemen theme at Book Slam, with Jeremy Dyson presenting Reece Shearsmith, Mark Kermode, Barry and Stuart, Kyla La Grange and Daniel Pemberton (7.30pm, £6 / £8).

Poet in the City and Bloodaxe present a full length show at Kings Place (7pm, £9.50).

Ade Adeniji, Darren Brady and Francois Lubbe launch the anthology Love Me As I Am at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Pauline Black of The Selecter is reading from her autobiography at Canada Water Library (7pm, free).

Rosie Shepperd, Peter Daniels, Sandeep Parmar, Susan Utting, Anthony Wilson, Sarah Salway, Paul Casey, Afric McGlinchey and Henry Fajemirokun are at Coffee House Poetry (8pm, £7 / £6).

Tuesday: Judges Peter Serafinowicz and Viv Groksop cast their eye over Dean Atta, Steve Aylett, Alex Preston and Cassie Gonzales at Literary Death Match (8.15pm, £5 / £8).

David J features at Twisting Tongues at Apres London on Oxford Street (7.15pm, £5 / £4).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

More poetry (on cakes) at The Bell in Spitalfields, for the new issue of Poetry Digest, with readers Isobel Dixon, Jacqueline Saphra and Sarah Hesketh (7pm, free).

Book ahead: Dawn French is talking about her second novel at the Criterion Theatre on 26 October, but on the back of GBBO frenzy you might be interested to hear that the person she’s talking to is Sue Perkins (6pm, £18.99 / £15 online).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Joe Dunthorne comperes A Frightful Evening at the Ministry of Stories, with guests Tim Clare and Joanne Bourke (6.30pm, £5).

Audrey Niffenegger, Dan Abnett and Sophia McDougall conjure up magic at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Jawdance at Rich Mix boasts the spoken word talents of GREEdS, Steve Tasane, Lettie McKie, Simon Burrowes and Chicagoan Maya Barros Odim (7.30pm, free).

Precious Williams reads from her autobiography at Canada Water Library (7pm, free).

Musical poet comedian Liz Bentley joins Rosie Wilby for a guaranteed fantastic evening at Woolfson & Tay (7pm, £8).

Abdel Bari Atwan talks about Al Qaida after Bin Laden, at City University (6pm, free).

AM Homes discusses her new novel May We Be Forgiven, at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £10).

Thursday: There is a such a thing as a free lunch and it’s happening at Waterstones Piccadilly from 1pm, with author Eduardo Halfon.

Tom Reiss’s only London event talking about his new book, The Black Count, is at Dulwich Books (7.30pm, free).

Tom Jones from Tired of London, Tired of Life is talking about the print version at Waterstones Oxford Street (7.15pm, £4).

Kate Mosse is at Foyles talking about her new novel Citadel (6.30pm, free).

There will be a Bang Said the Gun tonight, but at the time of typing the website was down and we couldn’t see who the guests are (8pm, £5).

Guy Mannes-Abbott talks about his uniquely personal book about Palestine, In Ramallah, Running, at The Mosaic Rooms (7pm, free).

Sandra Agard presents the story of Harriet Tubman at Stoke Newington Library (6.45pm, free).

Malika Booker and Dorothea Smartt remember Samuel Coleridge Taylor at The Albany (7.30pm, £7 / £5).

Friday: Guatemalan author Eduardo Halfon debates translations of his work with Ollie Brock and Thomas Bunstead at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £10).

Dawn French talks about her new novel with Sue Perkins at the Criterion Theatre (6pm, £15, includes a signed copy of the book).

Abdulrazak Gurnah kicks off the African Book Festival at the Free Word Centre (6.45pm, £6) followed by spoken word from Patience Agbabi, Kayo Chingonyi and Warsan Shire (8.30pm, £6).

Leone Ross, Ian Thomson and Thomas Glave read some noir at Pempamsie in Brixton (7pm).

Christopher Syrus is at Clapham Library performing poetry about his time in prison (7pm, free, part of Lambeth Black History Month).

Jeremy Kingston and Angela Kirby are the poets at this month’s Fourth Friday in the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £6 / £5).

There’s poetry inspired by Sonic Youth from Roddy Lumsden, Chrissy Williams, Tim Wells, Amy Key and others at the Mascara Bar in Stamford Hill (7.30pm, free).

Saturday: Yaa Agyare tells stories from around the world at the Book Box in Hackney (11am, £4 or £6 family).

Alternatively (or as well as), take the kids to Foyles for a Fearfest with YA authors Gareth P Jones, Karen Mahoney and Ruth Warburton (2pm, free).

The African Book Festival features appearances from Alastair Bruce and Aminatta Forna, Musa Okwonga and Hannah Pool, Tina Okpara, Ellah Allfrey and Goretti Kyomuhendo.

Monday: Michael Morpurgo is talking about his life and work at the Bush Theatre (7.30pm, £12), part of the Brook Green Festival of Books.

Jacqueline Rose gives a lecture on The Unfinished Project of Modernism, at the Southbank Centre (7.45pm, £10).

The Throwaway Lines project starts at the Free Word Centre, turning litter into “litterature”.

Hear Wendy Shutler and some autumnal poems at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £4).

Ernesto Sarezale hosts erotic literary night Velvet Tongue, with guests KD Grace and SP Howarth (7pm, £3).

Tuesday: Deborah Levy reads from her Booker shortlisted novel Swimming Home at Keats House (7pm, £5).

Helen Fielding, Isla Blair and Julian Glover read at iF poems at the Bush Theatre (7.30pm, £12).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Book ahead: Londonist podcast king N Quentin Woolf hosts Open Pen’s spoken word and literary comedy night Out Word at the Shooting Star on 22 November (7pm, £10 / £8).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Audrey Niffenegger reads a new story at a Halloween special, from Waterstones, at the Prince Charles Cinema. Superstorm Sandy means Erin Morgenstern will have to appear via Skype (7pm, £8).

Seumas Milne provides an alternative history of the last 10 years at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Christopher Brookmyre and Mark Billingham read from their new novels at Foyles (6.30pm, free but, y’know, best to try and get a ticket before turning up to this one).

Elsewhere at Foyles (in the cafe, to be precise), Salon London introduces Tali Sharot and Robert Rowland Smith (6.30pm, £12).

Head to the Ministry of Stories party at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club (7pm, £5).

Uzor Chinukwue talks about his novels and African leadership since independence, at Balham Library (6.30pm, free).

The South Asian Literature Festival officially starts tomorrow, but here’s a pre-festival event: Anne de Courcy explains how young British women used to head off to India during the Raj in search of a husband (7pm, £7).

Thursday: James Marriott and Emma Hughes are at Woolfson & Tay to talk about how oil gets to us from the Caspian Sea (7pm, free).

See Colm Tóibín talk about his life and work at Lit East (7.30pm, £7).

The wonderful Ali Smith launches her new book, Artful, at Keats House (6.30pm, £5).

Ghassan Zaqtan launches an English translation of his latest poetry collection at the Mosaic Rooms (7pm, free).

David Gaffney, Jehane Markham and Gina Wisker all read to launch Ambit 210 at the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town (7pm, free).

An Evening with the Gruntlers sets English and Welsh poets against each other at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm).

Friday: See a live performance of The Tale of Brin and Bent and Minno Marylebone by Ravi Thornton and Andy Hixon at Comica Festival’s opening night at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Charlie Brooker’s signing copies of I Can Make You Hate at Waterstones Oxford Street Plaza from 12.30pm.

Discover Shakespeare’s influence on Asia – and Asia’s influence on Shakespeare – at the South Asian Literature Festival (7pm, £7.50 / £5).

Kat Francois hosts a night of Slam poetry at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £3).

Maggie Butt, Caroline Carver, David Cooke and Pam Zinnerman-Hope are the Ward Wood Poets reading at the Camden Poetry Series (7pm, £5 / £4).

Saturday: One of our favourite writers, Christopher Fowler, is a guest at Bookstock alongside Hayley Webster, Bobby Nayyar and Lewis Harrison-Marker (7pm, £7).

Aline and Robert Crumb make their only UK appearance to launch Drawn Together at Foyles (6.30pm, £20).

There are lots of events at the South Asian Literature Festival today, including appearances from Daljit Nagra, Anjali Joseph, Bidisha and Jonathan Glancey.

Michael Rattigan reads from his debut poetry collection at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, free).

Sunday: Rose Tremain, Nick Coleman and Peter James are three of the Wellcome Trust Book Prize 2012 shortlisted authors, and they’re chatting with Anne Karpf at the Wellcome Collection (3pm, free).

Andy Stanton and Marianne Levy finish off half term with Scott Pack and the Kids’ Firestation Book Swap in Windsor (1pm, free).

Lots of things to see at the South Asian Literature Festival, including Mary Hamer on Rudyard Kipling, Sarfraz Manzoor, Nadeem Aslam, Niven Govinden and Marina Warner.

Pick up some cheap books and help the volunteer-run New Cross Learning (formerly New Cross Library) at their massive book sale 2-5pm.

Monday: Jackie Kay reads from her stories at the VS Pritchett Memorial Prize Evening at Somerset House (7pm, £8).

Ian Rankin celebrates Rebus’s return at Foyles (7.15pm, free but again, you should probably book).

Kate Summerscale discusses love, vengeance and the Victorians at Brook Green Festival of Books (7.30pm, £12).

Enjoy storytelling from Spark London at the Canal Cafe Theatre (7.30pm, £8).

Jacek Dehnel and Zygmunt Miloszewski are at Daunt Books in Chelsea for an evening of Polish literature (7pm, free).

Salil Tripathi, Michael Wood, Roy Moxham, Patrick French and Alex von Tunzelmann explore the issues around writing about India as an outsider, at the South Asian Literature Festival (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5).

Toby Davidson is the guest poet at Exiled Writers Ink, tonight celebrating Muslim writers from China (7.30pm, £4 / £2).

John Glenday, Richard Douglas Pennant, Huw Warren, Stuart Silver and Kona MacPhee consider what they should have said at Coffee House Poetry (8pm, £7 / £6).

Tuesday: Dreda Say Mitchell chats about her latest novel Hit Girl at Clapham Library (8pm, free).

Costa winner Andrew Miller talks to John Preston about his novel Pure and bringing the past to life at the Brook Green Festival of Books (7.30pm, £12).

Hannah Silva starts a run at the Oval House satirising the meaningless twaddle that falls from the lips of modern politicians (8pm, £14 / £10 / £8).

Alexander McCall Smith takes a train journey through Britain while remaining at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Antony Lerman and Jacqueline Rose discuss Zionism at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: It’s the final Homework of the season (sob). Find out whether Joe Dunthorne, Ross Sutherland, Luke Wright, Tim Clare, John Osborne and special guest managed to make any videos go viral this summer (7.30pm, £5).

Guy Fraser-Sampson talks about the state of the economy and why politicians can’t sort it out, at the Richmond Literature Festival (7pm, £7.50 / £6).

Chris McCabe and Jacob Polley read from their new collections at the Southbank Centre (6.30pm, £8).

Thursday: Inua Ellams, Rachel Rose Reid (pictured), Jonny Fluffypunk, Maria Ferguson and Shane Solanki perform at Tongue Fu over at Rich Mix (8pm, £7 / £5). Chris Redmond hosts.

Ben Mellor and The Fugitives are the guests at tonight’s Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).

Chibundo Onuzo and Noo Saro-Wiwa are at Deptford Lounge chatting about their new books (7pm, free).

Survivors’ Poetry at the Poetry Cafe features Frank Bangay, Joe Bidder, Hilary Porter and Peter Campbell (7.30pm, £3.50 / £2.50).

Michael Bartholomew-Biggs, Brian Docherty, Owen Gallagher and Ruth Valentine are four poets from the Smokestack stable, all reading at Alexandra Park Library (7pm, free).

Hear poets Shanta Acharya, Dan Burt, Michael Schmidt and Jane Yeh at Lauderdale House in Highgate (8pm, £5 / £3).

This digital publishing event at Rich Mix is a bit short notice, but lots of fantastic authors (Gemma Seltzer, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Lisa Gee, Courttia Newland, Tom Chivers) are involved so we thought we’d let you know (11am, £39).

Friday: The Writeidea Festival couldn’t have a better guest to kick things off: head to the Idea Store to see Rotters’ Club author Jonathan Coe (7pm, free).

Two events from the South Asian Literature Festival are happening at the British Library: John Keay, Timeri Murari, Susan Stronge and Fergus Nicoll debate what the Mughals did for South Asia (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5), and later there’s a Mughal Nites party with Ash Kumar and fabulous artist-in-residence Christopher Green (7.30pm, £7.50 / £5).

Lucinda Riley talks about her novel The Light Behind the Window at the Richmond Literature Festival (7pm, £10 / £8.50).

James Webster performs his poetry at the Tea Box in Richmond (8pm, free).

The latest round of the Farrago SLAM! Championships takes place at the RADA Foyer Bar (7pm, £6 / £5).

The Reverend Richard Coles is at the Big Green Bookshop‘s book swap (7.30pm, £5).

The London Storytelling Festival begins with Rachel Rose Reid looking at fairytales (7pm, £10 / £8) and Story Jam telling tales through song (9pm, £10 / £8).

Saturday: Meet The Gentle Author, behind Spitalfields Life blog, at The Idea Store (2pm, free).

Take the kids to meet award winning children’s author Ian Beck at the Richmond Literature Festival (10.30am, £4). Adults can see Mary Hamer talking about her first novel Kipling & Trix (3pm, £7.50 / £6) and playwright Stephen Cooper (7.30pm, £7.50 / £6).

Catch Deborah Frances-White, Martin Dockery and John Luke Roberts at the London Storytelling Festival.

Joseph D’Lacey launches his collection of short stories at the Big Green Bookshop (7pm, free).

Sunday: Comic storyteller Asher Treleaven is at the London Storytelling Festival (9pm, £10 / £8).

It’s your third chance this week to catch Rachel Rose Reid, this time at the Richmond Literature Festival as she runs a storytelling workshop for children and parents (11.30am, £4) and later, tells tales with tea (3pm, £5 including cake). At 7pm, be sure to go see Roger McGough at Kitson Hall (£10 / £8.50).

Find out about the Poems on the Underground initiative, and hear some of the new ones, at Keats House (4pm, free).

Jumoke Fashola introduces Jazz Verse Jukebox at Ronnie Scott’s, with Malika Booker, HKB Finn and the busiest poet in town this week, Rachel Rose Reid (8.30pm, £8).

Monday: Graphic novelist and creator of the Bechdel Test, Alison Bechdel is at Foyles talking about her memoirs (6.30pm, £6 / £3).

John Banville, Lee Child, Sophie Hannah and Peter James consider whether crime is the new literary fiction, at Kings Place (7pm, £9.50).

Explore murderous London with David Long at the Writeidea Festival in Whitechapel (7pm, free).

Tuesday: Juan Gabriel Vasquez talks about his latest novel at Daunt Books in Marylebone (7pm, £8).

Granta launches its latest issue with a clutch of young Brazilian novelists at Foyles (6.30pm, free).

Look over your shoulder at Liars’ League: the theme is treason and plot (7.30pm, £5).

Celebrate the English translation of Time of White Horses with author Ibrahim Nasrallah at the Mosaic Rooms (7pm, free).

Nigel Jones looks at the history of the Tower of London at the Writeidea Festival (2pm, free).

Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Malika Booker and Jazzman John Clarke are poets Made in Greenwich (7.30pm, £4 / £3).

Chris McCabe, Katrina Naomi and Alison Winch are at Wilton’s Music Hall to tell stories of the Pilgrimage Project (8pm, £10).

Book ahead: If you fancy having dinner with Val McDermid, head to Dulwich next Thursday (7.30pm, £25 / £29.95).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

In an age where no-one has time, The Lost Theatre in Wandsworth is reducing theatre to a 300-second show down.

Over the course of a week, starting Monday 12 November, The Five Minute Festival sees 10 companies a night battling against each other with fantastic, varied five-minute plays, each designed to entertain a sell-out audience, as well as a panel of industry insiders and online viewers at home. The 10 most successful productions will then fight it out in a Grand Final on Saturday 17 November.

Tickets for audience members cost just £8 for the heats, and £10 for the final. For your cash, you’ll be invigorated with 10 five-minute shows featuring disciplines as varied as dance, theatre, spoken word, poetry, physical theatre and ensemble work. We can’t remember the last time something rang our “value for money” bell so soundly.

The Five Minute Festival runs from 12 to 19 November at The Lost Theatre, 208 Wandsworth Road, London, SW8 2JU. Visit losttheatre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals/five-minute-festival to find out more.

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday 14 November: Celebrate Poems on the Underground with Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, John Agard and John Fuller at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Will Self reads from his Booker shortlisted novel Umbrella at Friern Barnet library (7pm, free).

Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe’s show The Oh F**k Moment at the Albany looks at the poetry of mistakes (7pm / 9pm, £10 / £8).

The Writeidea Festival in Bethnal Green is all about Samuel Pepys (7pm, free).

We love Posy Simmonds’s cartoons and serials. See her talk about them at Foyles (6.30pm, £8).

Norbert Hirschhorn reads his poetry at the Mosaic Rooms (7pm, free).

Anthony Beevor talks to Ion Trewin at the Richmond Literature Festival (7.30pm, £10 / £8.50).

Will Wiles interviews Jonathan Meades at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace (7.30pm, free).

Thursday 15 November: Charles Boyle, David Lea, Nicholas Lezard, Patrick McGuiness and Nicholas Murray debate the value of small presses at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

We liked Pete Brown’s book about the George Inn; hear him talk about it at the Big Green Bookshop (7pm, free).

Tom Chivers introduces his poetry project about the hidden urban environment at Toynbee Studios, with help from Daniel Kramb, Rachel Lichtenstein, Ruth Little and Michael McKimm (7.30pm, £5).

Have dinner with Val McDermid and Dulwich Books: £25 for two courses or £29.95 for three.

Shahida Rahman and Natasha Soobramanien discuss London storytelling (2pm, free) and Patrick Gale talks about writing (7pm, free) at the Writeidea Festival.

Sean Mahoney and Raymond Antrobus are Bang Said the Gun‘s guests at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).

Simon Hoggart tells of 20 years covering the Houses of Parliament at the Richmond Literature Festival (7.30pm, £10 / £8.50).

Friday 16 November: Melissa Cole talks about beer (7pm, £10 / £8.50) and Tracy Borman looks at 1,000 years of royal weddings and jubilees (7pm, £10 / £8.50) at the Richmond Literature Festival. Also in Richmond, Martin Figura and Byron Vincent delight the Literary Salon with a spoken word double bill (7.30pm, £7 / £5.50).

William Dalrymple reads from his book The Last Mughal at the British Library (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5).

Saturday 17 November: Poet in the City presents a celebration of Alexander Pope at the Richmond Literature Festival (3pm, £7.50 / £6).

Malika Booker, Dizraeli and Anna Freeman perform at The Word House (7.30pm, £4).

Rosie Dastgir talks about A Small Fortune, her first novel, at the Writeidea Festival (2pm, free).

Andrea Stuart, DD Armstrong, Courttia Newland, Dorothy Koomson and Noo Saro-Wiwa are the guests at Black Book Swap in Islington (from 12pm, £5).

Interrobang at the Betsey Trotwood is a day-long festival of spoken word, including performances from Sid Bose, Hannah Jane Walker, Gemma Seltzer, workshops and general fun (£9).

The fabled Amnesty Book Sale is back again in Blackheath from 10am.

Tom Pollock, Kate Griffin and Mark Charan Newton talk about Urban Fantasy writing at Foyles (6pm, free).

Sunday 18 November: Andrew Marr gives his history of the world at the Richmond Literature Festival (7.30pm, £20 / £17).

Monday 19 November: The Peckham Literary Festival kicks off with Ms Marmite Lover at Persepolis (7pm, free).

Simon Callow, Janet Suzman, Roger Lloyd-Pac, Jonathan Dimbleby, Sasha Dugdale and Sarah Hesketh celebrate the poetry of free expression with Index on Censorship at Kings Place (7pm, £9.50).

Magma 19 launches at Coffee House Poetry with Maurice Riordan and Sean Borodale (8pm, £7 / £6).

Tuesday 20 November: Edna O’Brien chats to Mark Lawson about her life and work at the National Theatre (6pm, £4 / £3).

Enjoy an evening of short stories from Benjamin Wood, Nikesh Shukla, Will Wiles, Jim Bob and Sam Mead at the Peckham Literary Festival (7pm, free).

Steven Rose and Hilary Rose explore bioscience at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Carol Ann Duffy performs poetry at Southwark Cathedral, including a new poem written for Southwark (7.30pm, £7).

The Crick Crack Club presents Clare Muireann Murphy telling stories of The King of Lies at the Soho Theatre (8pm, £9 / £7).

Niall O’Sullivan as usual hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Richmond Literature Festival.

Inua Ellams

Two of Londonist’s favourite spoken word artists, Inua Ellams and Jacob Sam-La Rose, close Richmond Literature Festival in an intimate pop-up Literary Salon on Friday 30 November.

We’ve seen Ellams — who describes himself as “the lovechild of John Keats and Mos Def” — in various settings, such as performing poems in a cornershop and delivering entire one-man shows in theatres. He’s a genius storyteller and a spellbinding performer, wherever.

Softly spoken Lewisham local Sam La-Rose has done loads of amazing things in education and in developing young poets. He was a guest at a Londonist-supported event at Lewisham Lit Fest last year, and his own work is sharply intelligent, vivid and engaging.

Bottom line is, you can expect a captivating and entertaining performance from both of them. There are only 30 seats available though, so don’t delay.

Pop-Up Literary Salon is at 54 Heath Road, Twickenham TW1 4BX on Friday 30 November at 7.30pm. Tickets £7/£5.50. Book online at www.richmondliterature.com or call 020 8831 6494.