Tuesday, the 10th of February, from 7 pm to 8:30 pm

This Queer Arab Family celebrates the beauty of chosen kin and the everyday acts of care and survival that bind Queer Arabs to each other. Ten LGBTQ+ writers from across the Arab world and diaspora redefine what family looks like, from raising children with mum and mum, to becoming an OnlyFans star and building a non-binary belly dancing robot. These writers illuminate, through their own lived experiences, how queer joy and community can be found in the most unexpected places.

This Queer Arab Family honours the spirit of those who, despite challenges, build community and family on their own terms.

Elias Jahshan is a Palestinian-Lebanese journalist and writer, and editor of This Arab is Queer: An Anthology by LGBTQ+ Arab Writers (Saqi Books; 2022) - which was a finalist in the 2023 Lambda Literary Awards in the USA and shortlisted for the 2023 Bread & Roses Award in the UK.

His short memoir Coming Out Palestinian was anthologised in Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity (ed. Randa Abdel-Fattah & Sara Saleh; Picador, 2019), while Bittersweet Memories of a Palestinian Knight was anthologised in Ask the Night for a Dream: Palestinian Writing From the Diaspora (ed. Susan Muaddi Darraj; Palestine Writes Press, 2024). Elias is also a former editor of Star Observer, Australia’s longest-running LGBTQ+ media outlet, and has been published in The Guardian, Gay Times, The New Arab, Raseef22, Shado Mag, My Kali.

Born and raised in Sydney, he now lives in London.

Go to Eventbrite for more information and to book a place. Admission is free (and booking is optional, but helps with planning.)

Organised by the Friends in co-operation with the Lambeth Library Service.

Tuesday evening, 13 January - 7pm (6:30 for tea and biscuits)

(This talk was regretfully cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, on short notice.)

The true story of a Jewish lawyer who returned to Germany after WWII to prosecute war crimes, only to find himself pitted against a nation determined to bury the past.

Costa Book Award winner - Jack Fairweather

The Allies were ready to overlook their pasts as the Cold War began, and the horrors of the Holocaust were in danger of being forgotten.

Fritz Bauer, a gay German Jew who survived the Nazis, made it his mission to force his countrymen to confront their complicity in the genocide. In this deeply researched book, Fairweather draws on unpublished family papers, newly declassified German records, and exclusive interviews to immerse readers in the dark, unfamiliar world of postwar West Germany where those who implemented genocide run the country, the CIA is funding Hitler’s former spy-ring in the east, and Nazi-era anti-gay laws are strictly enforced.  Once on the trail of Adolf Eichmann, Bauer won’t be intimidated and his journey takes him deep into the rotten heart of West Germany, where his fight for justice will set him against his own government and a network of former Nazis and spies determined to silence him.

In a time when the history of the Holocaust is taken for granted, The Prosecutor reveals the courtroom battles that were fought to establish its legacy and the personal cost of speaking out. The result is a searing portrait of a nation emerging from the ruins of fascism and one man’s courage in forcing his people––and the world––to face the truth.

Jack Fairweather is the bestselling author of The Volunteer, the Costa Prize winning account of a Polish underground officer who volunteered to report on Nazi crimes in Auschwitz. The book has been translated into 25 languages and forms the basis of a major exhibition in Berlin. He has served as the Daily Telegraph’s Baghdad bureau chief, and as a video journalist for the Washington Post in Afghanistan. His war coverage has won a British Press Award and an Overseas Press Club award citation. He divides his time between Wales and Vermont.

Organised by the Friends, commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day.

Go to Eventbrite for more information and to book a place. Admission is free (and booking is optional, but helps with planning.)

Please attend in person at the Carnegie Library, but if you can't do so, the event will be live-streamed from the Carnegie Library Facebook page (no registration required) and the recording will be available there for a limited time afterwards (about a month).

Never again.

Paul Westmoquette

Tuesday evening, 11 November - 7 pm to 8:30 pm, at the library (6:30 for tea & cake)

Astronomer Mark Westmoquette explores the cosmos through a direct mindful experience.

Dr. Westmoquette invites us to explore the cosmos through a direct, mindful experience. Drawing on his background in astrophysics and Zen practice, he reveals how the vastness of space can become a gateway to presence, curiosity and awe.

Mark will share stories and insights from the book, weaving together astronomy, philosophy and contemplative practice to show how science and mindfulness together can deepen our sense of belonging in the universe.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with the librarians.

Please register for a place on Eventbrite.

This event will be live-streamed from the Carnegie Library Facebook page where it will also be available to view for a limited period.

Free admission

Tuesday evening, 7pm (6:30 for tea & cake) - 14 October

Maud Blair will discuss her book, making sense of her mixed identity in the midst of political unrest in 1950's Zimbabwe (Rhodesia).

What does it mean to grow up with an African mother and European father in racially segregated 1950s Rhodesia? For Maud Blair it meant being sent, aged four, to a ‘Coloured’ boarding school run by Christian nuns. It meant being taught in English rather than her native language, which she was encouraged to forget. It meant only seeing her family for two weeks during the school Christmas holiday, where Maud longed for the sense of belonging, she once had.

Labelled as neither African nor European, Maud tries to make sense of her mixed identity in the midst of political unrest and de facto apartheid, taking her to England via South Africa and back to post-independence Zimbabwe. The result is a strikingly original memoir that confronts privilege, prejudice and the place we call home.

Free admission.

Please register for a place on Eventbrite.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with the librarians.

This event will be live-streamed from the Carnegie Library Facebook page where it will also be available to view for a limited period.

13 Park Lane

Tuesday evening, 9 September - 7 pm (6:30 for tea & cake)

At the library (also live-streamed)

On 29 April 1872 a group consisting of a 29-year-old Belgian cook and two English and two French detectives left the train discreetly at Herne Hill station. Marguerite Diblanc, who had been arrested in Paris and extradited, was then taken by cab to police cells in central London. Within weeks she was tried for her life at the Old Bailey. The victim was her employer Madame Riel, a French widow with a shady past, whose actress daughter was the mistress of the Third Earl of Lucan.

The murder had all the elements of a huge scandal, so why did the press fixate instead on the alleged perpetrator's physical appearance?

Historical crime novelist Naomi Clifford digs into theories about criminality and physiognomy and asks whether they played a part in the Diblanc's treatment in the popular press and in the criminal justice system.

13 Park Lane, her novel about the Diblanc case, is published by Bloodhound Books and is available online (multiple platforms) as a paperback, ebook and audiobook and can be ordered from bookshops.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library, working with the Lambeth Library Service

Admission is free, but please register your interest on Eventbrite (this helps with planning).

If you can't make it to the the library, you can watch the livestream on the Carnegie Library Facebook page (no sign in needed). The recording will be available to view for a limited period (usually about 30 days)

Tuesday evening, 12 August - 7 pm (6:30 for tea & cakes)

Published to mark the eightieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War and spanning 2,000 years of our national history, Lest We Forget tells a monumental British story about the pride, pain and personalities involved in remembering war and peace across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Delving into the individuals and inspirations behind 100 British monuments, acclaimed historian Tessa Dunlop travels the length and breadth of the country to learn more about the people and events which have been memorialised within our local communities.

In doing so, Tessa uncovers a unique story of national warring and national mourning, and reflects on how our memorial-studded country informs the narrative we tell about our history and ourselves.

Featuring powerful testimonies from a cast of military experts and veterans – including Bletchley Park’s Ruth Bourne, Bomber Command’s Colin Bell DFC, and HRH The Duke of Kent – this book serves as a timely reminder of the personal cost of war, the power of remembrance, and that freedom is not free.

ABOUT TESSA DUNLOP

Dr Tessa Dunlop is an award-winning broadcaster, historian, and author. Her previous books include Sunday Times best-selling The Century Girls, The Bletchley Girls, Army Girls and Elizabeth and Philip.

Tessa has featured in numerous historical and royal documentaries on the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 and is co-host of the new Global podcast Where Politics meets History.

Organised by the Friends of Carnegie Library in cooperation with the Lambeth Library Service.

Please register your interest at Eventbrite, to help with planning.

This event will be live-streamed from the Carnegie Library Facebook page, where it will also be available for viewing for a limited period (usually at least 30 days).