Past Events

Join us for the midnight launch party of The Testaments, Margaret Atwood’s long-anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, at Roe River Books in Dundalk. The evening will include a series of performances and selected readings. Complimentary wine and a discount of all Margaret Atwood books will be generously provided by Roe River Books.  More details on performers to be announced soon. This is a Banned Books Week event in partnership with the British Library, Booksellers Association, English PEN, Free Word, Hachette…

Rogan’s Books, a specialist independent feminist and children’s bookshop in Bedford, also plan a midnight launch for The Testaments on 9th September. They are arranging a lantern-lit parade of handmaids through Bedford, passing landmarks such as the Embankment, the river, the wall and the eerie Castle ruins. Just before midnight, the procession will arrive at Rogan’s Books to striking window displays, a reading from the first chapter and Handmaid’s Tale themed refreshments. This is a Banned Books Week event in partnership with the…

To celebrate the release of Margaret Atwood’s Booker-nominated new novel The Testaments, Storysmith Bookshop in Bristol is holding a very special book club to talk about her classic masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale. There will be an informal discussion of the original novel, and attendants will enjoy 20% off a copy of The Testaments when purchased from them on the night of the event. Entry is free and includes a glass of wine. This is a Banned Books Week event in partnership with the British…

Belsize Community Library’s book club looks at literature through the lens of censorship. Every third Wednesday of the month, at 7pm, they meet to discuss a different banned book. Some have been banned by censors in the UK, some by other governments or organisations. Why were these books banned? What effect did it have on the book’s reception and the wider society that banned it? What relevance does the book have to us? For each session they invite a guest…

Writers consider walls in literature and in our lives. 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, writers consider walls in literature and in our lives. With the resurgence of interest in the boundaries and borders of nations across the world, is the symbol of that wall still potent in 2019? Do walls and censorship go hand-in-hand? And are there places where a wall could mean safety rather than segregation? With David Hare and Ben Okri. Chaired by Samira…

Join the Friends of Redland Library for a panel discussion on banned books with Philip Kent, Professor Madhu Krishnan and Jari Moate. Pay on the door.  

A reading and discussion of the 1962 play by John Osborne at the British Library in London, which miraculously avoided a ban at a time when attitudes towards sexual behaviour were just turning. How differently would the play’s themes of privacy and public morality be received today? This is a Banned Books Week event in partnership with the British Library, Booksellers Association, English PEN, Free Word, Hachette UK, Index on Censorship, Islington Council’s Library and Heritage Service, Libraries Connected, The…

Write & Shine runs a programme of morning writing events in peaceful London locations. As part of Banned Books Week, we’ll host a session about writing that takes a stand. We’ll create subversive stories, consider rebellious writers & think about books that have changed the way we look at the world