A novel by Gerald Jacobs

Join Gerald Jacobs and the Friends of Carnegie Library

Tuesday evening, 14 June 2022, 7:00pm - 8:30pm

Simon Pomeranski looks back to his childhood and the post-war days of the Astorians, a small group of criminals and traders in ‘swag’ who ran their business from Brixton Market and exercised their own particular brand of justice. From this wonderful assortment of characters, we are introduced to ‘Spanish Joe’, the cultured Russian emigre, Sam ‘the Stick’, with his wounded machismo and penchant for violent retribution, and the dazzling songstress Estelle, among others. Front and centre in their world, though, is Benny himself, the autodidact owner of Pomeranski Gowns, whose passionate affair with Estelle marks the beginning of a new era for the Astorians. Both riotous and profound, this novel resurrects a vibrant era that deserves a place in our collective memory.

Admission free! Live and in-person at the library

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register to attend by livestream

With author Jon Newman - Tuesday evening, 10th May 2022, 7:00 to 9:00pm

Join archivist and author Jon Newman to discuss his latest book, written in collaboration with the Herne Hill Society. This is the first book to look in detail at the importance of South London in shaping Ruskin’s thinking.

For all his foreign travels, public lecturing, academic posts at Oxford and work for London’s museums, Herne Hill was the place where Ruskin lived well into old age. Here Ruskin witnessed, with increasing horror, the destruction of the natural environment through railway building and uncontrolled suburban growth.

Presented by Friends of Carnegie Library and part of the Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival

Attendance is free! - at the library or live-streamed online (register with eventbrite)

(Every second Tuesday of the month, The Friends host an author event at the Carnegie Library)

Presented by the Friends of Carnegie Library

Tuesday evening, 12 April 2022 - 7:00-8:30pm (BST)

In 2021 Stephen celebrated thirty years of writing black British history books. His first, Aunt Esther’s Story, was published in October 1991. To mark this achievement, he has written Deep Are the Roots – Trailblazers Who Changed Black British Theatre for The History Press. The book was published on 7 October 2021.

Deep Are the Roots celebrates the pioneers of black British theatre, beginning in 1825 when Ira Aldridge made history as the first black actor to play Shakespeare’s Othello in the United Kingdom, and ending in 1975 with the success of Britain’s first black-led theatre company.

Tuesday evening 7pm, 8th of March - in the Carnegie Library or online

Sue Hubbard is a poet, novelist, art critic and lecturer. Girl in White is the fictionalised biography of Expressionist painter Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907), who struck out on her own as an artistic pioneer and independent woman in 1930s Germany, a story of struggle for recognition and financial security.  Girl in White also tells a parallel tale of Mathilde, her entirely fictional violinist daughter.

Free admission

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Livestream on the Carnegie Library facebook page

Listen to Sue Hubbard's poetry

Sue Hubbard is an award-winning poet, novelist and freelance art critic. She has published three novels: Depth of Field (Dewi Lewis), Girl in White (Cinnamon Press), for which she was awarded a major Arts Council Award, and a collection of short stories, Rothko’s Red (Salt). Her latest novel, Rainsongs is published by Duckworth, Mercure de France, Overlook Press, US and Yelin Press, China. Her fourth novel is due from Pushkin Press and Mercure de France in 2023, who are also re-issuing Girl in White.

Her poetry includes: Everything Begins with the Skin (Enitharmon), twenty poems in Oxford Poets 2000 (Carcanet), Ghost Station (Salt), The Idea of Islands (Occasional Press), The Forgetting and Remembering of Air (Salt) and Swimming to Albania (Salmon Poetry, Ireland 2021). The Poetry Society’s only ever Public Art Poet, she was commissioned to create London’s largest public art poem at Waterloo.

As an art critic she has written regularly for The Independent, the New Statesman and many leading art magazines and appeared on BBC Radio and Sky News. Her selected art writings Adventures in Art were published by Damien Hirst’s Other Criteria. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and won many prizes and held numerous residencies.