Author Readings
Friday 19 September, 7.30pm
The Studio, Gala Theatre, Durham
Patrick McCabe and Tony White
We brought together Tony White, author of Satan, Satan, Satan and Patrick McCabe who wrote the extraordinary novel The Butchers Boy, a nightmarish story of painful loneliness. They read from their latest books, White's Foxy T and McCabe's Call Me the Breeze. A fuller report is here.
Saturday 4 October, 7.30pm
The Studio, Gala Theatre, Millennium Place
Overtaken is Alexei Sayle's first novel, following two rapturously acclaimed short story collections; a story of love and revenge, theatre and property development. Along the way it takes in some big questions - does art have a purpose? Can every sinner be redeemed? As ever Alexei has a completely unique way of looking at the everyday. This was indeed an evening that was funny, dark, absurd and touching. A fuller report is here.
The Observer's Simon Garfield interviewed Alexei for their August 10 edition - click that link to read it online.
Wednesday 15 October, 7.30pm
Gala Theatre, Millennium Place, Durham
Durham Literature Festival presents
Dan Rhodes and J Robert Lennon
From the opposite sides of the Atlantic, two of the leading young novelists of their generation, each with a strong individual voice. We're delighted to welcome the American writer J Robert Lennon whose latest book Mailman is a meaty novel with a fantastic central character. He's teamed for the evening with Dan Rhodes one of the best new writers in Britain whose tragicomic novel Timoleon Vieta Come Home is a work of macabre beauty. The recent work of both writers hovers on the edge of despair, plaintive and totally captivating.
Tickets: £6.00 (£4.00 concessions)
Sunday 19 October 7.30pm
The Gala Theatre, Millennium Place
Terry Jones
The former Python and medieval scholar Terry Jones talks about his new book, Who Murdered Chaucer? an enthralling work of historical speculation. Jones investigates the mystery surrounding the death of Geoffrey Chaucer over 600 years ago. Chaucer was the pre-eminent intellectual superstar of his time. And yet nothing at all is known of his death, in 1400 his name simply disappears from the records.
Terry Jones' daring and controversial hypothesis is the introduction to a remarkable reading of Chaucer's work interwoven with a brilliant portrait of one of the most turbulent periods in English history, its politics and its personalities in an absorbing synthesis of history and literary analysis.
Tickets: £12.00 (£10.00 concessions)
This event is sponsored by Cornwell Internet.
The Box Office at the Gala Theatre, Durham, is now open.