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.