Havering Literary Festival 2021 Guide

10–25 NOVEMBER 2021

HAVERING

LITERARY FESTIVAL

David Taplin

Lindsey Davis

Kate Thompson and Duncan Barrett

Brennan & Burch

Tolu’ A. Akinyemi

Mark Gorman

Sandra Dodds & Theodosia Soteriou

Carol Cannavan

www.havering.gov.uk/libraries

Alan K Dell

John Walker

Robert Nurden

Brennan & Burch

David Taplin

Q&A with the Creators of ‘The Thing About Artists’

Author DC Taplin is a Londoner by birth and an Essex man by nature.

Brennan & Burch create illustrated wallpapers for individuals.

The nineteen-eighties was a period of extreme drama and upheaval for him and he thought the best thing to do would be to write it all down.

Wednesday 10 November 6.30pm-8pm – Central Library

Co-Founders Lisa Brennan & Majida Burch wanted to create a book for under-represented Havering artists like themselves, featured alongside emerging and more established artists across London and Essex.

The Thing About Artists was born, showcasing 48 fantastic urban artists.

Thursday 11 November 2-3pm – Upminster Library

Thus Micky Targett was born! Then he forgot all about it.

But in 2017 that first volume was published as Night Flight To Shoebury.

It has since been revised and updated and is now available on Amazon in paperback and download as One Way Flight.

If you demand authenticity, along with thrills, drama and the blackest of humour in your gangland thrillers then keep watching as volumes 2 and 3 to follow soon.

Robert Nurden

John Walker

Monday 15 November 7-8pm – Harold Hill Library

Wednesday 17 November 2-3pm – South Hornchurch

Robert Nurden is a writer and journalist who has worked for the Guardian, Independent on Sunday and Daily Telegraph, as well as many other national newspapers and magazines. He has reported on a wide range of issues, travelling to and working in 50 countries. He was born seven months before his grandfather died and in this, his first book, was determined to discover what drove this complex and contradictory man, trapped Between Heaven and Earth. He lives in east London, not far from where the Rev Stanley James was minister.

Victorian London’s country workhouse schools - the Hornchurch experience

‘Between Heaven and Earth: A Journey With My Grandfather’ by Robert Nurden (ISBN 9781838447700) is available for purchase from independent booksellers, mainstream distributors or via the author’s website: http://www.robertnurden.com Facebook: Robert Nurden; Twitter: @robertnurden

Local historian, blogger and recent author of a book on London’s country workhouse schools, John Walker will discuss the background to the schools and focus on the Hornchurch one, which accommodated children from Hackney and Shoreditch at the end of the nineteenth century.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind - Abuse, Neglect and Fire in a London Children’s Workhouse, 18541907.

Pub 26 Aug 2021 (ISBN 978-1-7399142-0-2). £12.99 from all good bookstores.

Mark Gorman

Tolu’ A. Akinyemi

Saving the People’s Forest – how popular protest helped to defend Victorian London’s open spaces

Tolu’ A. Akinyemi is an exquisite poet who writes with powerful charisma and sensual flair. – Realistic Poetry

150 years ago, in July 1871, thousands of people gathered at Wanstead Flats, on the edge of Epping Forest, to mount a protest. A campaign was beginning – one that renowned ecologist Oliver Rackham has called “the origin of the modern British environmental movement.”

Akinyemi is a visionary poet with a fearless voice, and his poems provide a deep sense of everyday life seen through an eyewitness’s eyes. – The Prairies Book Review

Thursday 18 November 2-3pm – Collier Row Library

Thursday 18 November 7-8pm – Central Library

In a society where moral rectitude is increasingly becoming abeyant, Akinyemi’s bounden duty is to reawaken it with verses. He, thus, functions as a philosopher-poet, a kind of factotum inculcating wisdom in different facets of life. – The Sun

The story of the demonstration, set within a wider narrative of the campaign to preserve the London commons, is told in this talk by local historian Mark Gorman. Mark’s talk sheds new light on the struggle, focussing not on the metropolitan upper middle class players most often credited with its success, but instead on the grass roots movement whose popular protests would steer the campaign towards its successful conclusion.

Akinyemi’s ability to advocate for mental health by evoking emotions through potent imagery, metaphors, and stunning similes is unparalleled. – The US review of Books Tolu is a splendid writer. His books are always a joy to read. Keen as the edge of a sword and soothing as the feather of a bird. His works are amazing. – Oloyede Michael Taiwo, author of ‘Lagos is Killing Me’

Mark’s book, “Saving the People’s Forest: open spaces, enclosure and popular protest in Victorian London” is published by the University of Hertfordshire Press.

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Poetry with Sandra Dodds & Theodosia Soteriou Wednesday 24 November 7-8pm – Zoom Join us for an evening of poetry on the theme of poetry’s contribution to wellbeing with local guest poets Sandra Dodds and Theodosia Soteriou, poets who have both used poetry as a form of self expression.

There will be an opportunity for audience participation and the Library Service’s collections of Reading Well wellbeing books will be showcased.

Carol Cannavan

Alan K Dell

Secret Hornchurch explores some of the lesser known facts about Hornchurch and the people who once lived here.

This talk will focus on its famous and notorious inhabitants.

Alan K. Dell is a science-fiction author and creative person with far too many hobbies.

Thursday 25 November 2-3pm – Elm Park Library

Carol Cannavan is an established writer who has an interest in local history.

Thursday 25 November 7-8pm – Rainham Library

For his day job he works as the parish administrator for his local church, where he also volunteers as a musician. His hobbies include playing the guitar, illustration, graphic design, photography, astronomy, reading, and playing video games.

He lives at home in Rainham with his wife and two children.

Book online: libraryevents@havering.gov.uk or in any Havering library /Havering Libraries @HaveringLibrary www.havering.gov.uk/libraries