Hootananny October on 1st October.

Compered by the very wonderful Ivor Dembina.

Jim Bob – Driving Jarvis Ham / Courttia Newland – The Gospel According to Cane / Jeff Noon – Channel Sk1n / Adam Mars-Jones – Pilcrow / Martin Millar – Lonely Were Wolf Girl / James Dawson – YA thriller Hollow Pike / Keith Kahn-Harris – The Best Waterskier in Luxembourg / Doug e. Graves – Homerton Sweet Homerton / Zelda Rhiando – Caposcripti / Suw Charman-Anderson – Argleton / Tim Orchard – That bloody female poet. As with the first event there was a pop-up bookshop and we always try and feature some small presses too.

Lambeth Country Show on 15/16 September. View the Gallery

We were in the Cultivate area, which is not where they put the turnips and wallflowers. No! It’s the culture area. Over the course of two days we heard readings from: Jim Bob (Carter USM), Warwick Cairns, Helen Smith, Keith Kahn-Harris, Doug e. Graves and Zelda Rhiando. Sarah Richardson, a Tate author did a brilliant drawing workshop for kids ‘Make Your Mark’ and visitors participated in ‘Endless Stories’ and created 200 mini stories! To top it all off Amanda Rogers from Stranger Than Paradise gave a special performance.

July 2nd 2012, Hootananny, Brixton

• James Wallis of Magnum Opus Press described how to write a full-length book in a week.
• Chris Chalmers read from his new novel Five To One.
• Glen Mehn read his story ‘The Unkindness of Ravens’ from the Pandemonium anthology Stories of the Smoke.
• Kit Fraser, author of The Joy of Talk, did a reading from his book.
• Kate Harrad read from her new collection of genderswapped classics, James Eyre.
• Mark Pilkington of Strange Attractor spoke about running a small press.
• Tom Pollock read from his ‘weird London fantasy’ novel (his words) The City’s Son, published in August.
• Editor and former bestselling ghostwriter Roz Morris read from her novel My Memories of A Future Life and talked about the process and business of writing as described in her how-to book Nail Your Novel.
• Alex Wheatle, the ‘bard of Brixton’, gave a rabble rousing reading and some live songs.

There was a pause to get our collective breath back. Then at nine of the clock:

• Rhodri Marsden talked about crap dates.
• Zelda Rhiando read from her novel Caposcripti.
• Tim Dedopulos told us how he became Dedopulos the Puzzle Master and created the Great Google Earth Treasure Hunt for Carlton Books and the Daily Telegraph.
• Steve Dempsey read from his story in Shotguns v. Cthulhu, the new anthology from Stone Skin Press.
• Natasha Soobramanien read from her novel Genie and Paul, published in August.
• Howard Cunnell read from his new novel The Sea On Fire.
• Helen Smith from from her novel The Miracle Inspector.
• And finally, gentlemen and ladies, Adam Mars-Jones, novelist and winner of the inaugural Hatchet Award for reviewing, will be in the house, most likely reading from his novel Pilcrow.

A second pause for refreshments, and then:

• Kit Fraser, Adam Mars-Jones and Roz Morris will be joined on stage by Tim O’Dell, the Reading Development Officer for Lambeth, and Anna Hughes from Random House, to discuss the changing roles of the Author and the Audience. Questions from the audience on this and any other book-related subject will be welcome.

But that’s not all! We’ll have book tables selling copies of almost every book that’s been read from over the evening and several more, plus:

• Pandemonium Fiction, publishers of the Pandemonium series of themed anthologies, will have a stall.
• New Clapham-based fiction publisher Stone Skin Press will have a stall.
• Noted small press Strange Attractor will have a stall.