Learning

Alexander Bubb - WB Yeats

Alexander Bubb - Main Quadrangle of UCL

Alexander Bubb - Red Lion Square

Susheila Nasta - Russell Square Underground/Tour Begins

Susheila Nasta - North East corner Gordon Sq

Susheila Nasta - Fitzroy Tavern / Fitzrovia

Romesh Gunsekera - Poetry London Offices

Romesh Gunsekera - Tavistock Square

It's Peter Pan with attitude as Conn Iggulden, creator of the phenomenal bestseller The Dangerous Book for Boys, introduces an explosive and magical new fictional world. 

 "Tollins are not fairies. Though they both have wings, fairies are delicate creatures and much smaller.

Tollins are also a lot less fragile than fairies. In fact, the word 'fragile' can't really be used about them at all. They are about as fragile as a housebrick…"

In these three tales, Conn Iggulden introduces the explosive, magical and adventurous world of the Tollins, all beautifully illustrated in full colour by Lizzy Duncan. Complete with thrilling stories of danger and derring-do, glorious drawings, maps and diagrams, this is more than a fantastic fiction debut for children – it's also the definitive guide to these remarkable little flying creatures. Just don't ever call them fairies…

Buy 

Tollins: Explosive Tales for Children, By Conn Iggulden, Read by Conn Iggulden

(AJ Hoge) Learning Languages Like Children - Effortless English

Ever since Sinbad the Sailor washed ashore there, Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – has drawn writers and storytellers from all over the world. But it is only in the last 20 years or so that Sri Lankan literature has come to international attention. Romesh Gunesekera grew up in Sri Lanka and the Philippines. His first book, Monkfish Moon, was a collection of short stories reflecting the ethnic and political tensions that have threatened Sri Lanka since independence in 1948. His second, 'Reef', was shortlisted for the Man Booker. Earlier this year, he published 'Noontide Toll', a novel set a post-war Sri Lanka still haunted by trauma. V. V. Ganeshananthan is a fiction writer, essayist and journalist whose 'Love Marriage' (2008), about two Tamil families in Sri Lanka and North America, was longlisted for the Orange Prize. In a conversation with BBC journalist Razia Iqbal they discuss the long shadow that war has cast over Sri Lankan literature, the challenges of writing fiction in the context of a troubled political climate, and the connection between writers living in Sri Lanka, and those of the diaspora working in Canada, America, Australia and the UK.

We are grateful to the Robert Gavron Charitable Foundation for sponsoring this event.


The Sri Lankan Novel

A Apple B for Boy - Children Education Song

IELTS Speaking Part 2 And Part 3 Festivals And Celebrations

Paul Tough, NYTimes best selling author, examines how to make kids more motivated, engaged, and productive in the classroom. 

Helping Children Succeed | Harvard Graduate School of Education

Does a writer’s work grow or diminish as it is remade? Does the experience of adapting another’s work change a writer’s approach to adaptations of their own? And is the process of adaptation a collaboration? Max Porter’s verse novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers was adapted for the stage by Enda Walsh in 2018 in a production that went on to tour internationally. In 2019, on the publication day of his second novel, Lanny, it was announced that Rachel Weisz would produce and star in the film adaptation. Inua Ellams’ adaptation of Three Sisters, playing at the National Theatre until February 2020, takes Chekhov’s play into 1960s Nigeria and the Biafran War. In 2020, Inua is also creating an afro-futurist reimagining of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince with Fuel Theatre Company. In this event, Max and Inua explore the creative afterlives of texts, lives the writer might have imagined – or not. Their discussion is chaired by Online Editor of Guardian Books, Sian Cain.

We are grateful to the TLS for supporting this event.

Remaking The Remarkable

Of writing biography, Hermione Lee has said, ‘There is a tension between the muddle and repetition and fragmentariness of a life, and the desire of the biographer to turn it into story narrative.’ How does a biographer make sense of a life’s complexities? In this event, four writers consider experimental life-writing and the limits of biography. Lara Feigel is a literary critic and Reader in Modern Literature at King’s College London. Her most recent book, Free Woman, is part personal memoir and part biography of Doris Lessing. Delia Jarrett Macauley is the author of the novel Moses, Citizen and Me, winner of the 2005 Orwell Prize, and a biography of the writer and first Black woman employed by the BBC, Una Marson. Anthony Joseph is a poet, novelist, and musician. His most recent book, Kitch: A Fictional Biography of a Calypso Icon, combines fact with the imaginative structure of the novel. They are joined by biographer and critic Hermione Lee, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, whose work includes biographies of Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton and Penelope Fitzgerald.

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund for sponsoring this event.

Writing Lives

Founded in 1820, the RSL acts as a voice for the value of literature, honouring and supporting emerging and established writers whilst creating a bridge between authors and audiences of all backgrounds and experiences to engage as many people as possible with the wealth of literature in the UK.

The Sri Lankan Novel

Royal Society Literature

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