Monday 20 September at 7pm
Marilynne Robinson in conversation with Maya Jaggi
For heaven’s sake
Chaired by Anne Chisholm
Marilynne Robinson’s three novels – Home (winner of the 2009 Orange Prize), Gilead (winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize), and Housekeeping (Pulitzer Prize finalist 1982) – share a strain of wistful longing. But, between them, she has published works of non-fiction of such force and polemic that, as one critic puts it, it is hard to read them ‘and not feel personally rebuked’. Mother Country (1989) exposes the British Government’s record of nuclear pollution; The Death of Adam (1998) scorns the empty state of contemporary discourse; and Absence of Mind (2010) attacks the modern assumption that science and religion are incompatible. In a rare public appearance, Marilynne Robinson talks to Guardian critic Maya Jaggi about her love for her fictional characters; her belief that writing should not be a full-time job; and her conviction, held from childhood, that heaven is all about us.
This event is free for Fellows and Members of the RSL. There is a limited number of tickets for members of the public at all RSL events, available on the door, from 6pm, on a first-come-first-served basis. Tickets are £8 (£5 concessions).
The talk will be held in the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
Book online at http://www.rslit.org/, or call us on 020 7845 4676.
RSL Event: Tuesday 28 September at 7pm
The Cosmo Davenport-Hines Memorial Meeting
Romesh Gunesekera in conversation with Michael Morpurgo
Who needs stories?
Chaired by Nicolette Jones
‘Facts alone are wanted in life’ – or so Mr Gradgrind believed. Michael Morpurgo, former Children’s Laureate and author of over 100 books, including Private Peaceful and War Horse (currently being made into a film by Steven Spielberg), and Romesh Gunesekera, whose prize-winning novels include Reef and The Sandglass, beg to differ. In a discussion interspersed with readings from their work, they talk about the influences that lured them into storytelling, and ask, what are stories for? Where do they come from? Is it true that there are essentially only a dozen or so plots, which novelists endlessly re-jig – if so, does this matter? Do grown-ups need stories less, or more, than children? And is it a good thing for fictional characters to live happily ever after?
This event is free for Fellows and Members of the RSL, who can book online at http://www.rslit.org/, or call us on 020 7845 4676. There is a limited number of tickets for members of the public at all RSL events, available on the door, from 6pm, on a first-come-first-served basis. Tickets are £8 (£5 concessions).
This meeting is jointly hosted by the Royal Society of Literature and King’s College, London. It will be held in the Old Anatomy Theatre, King’s College (directions available at main, Strand entrance).
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