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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…

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

(AJ Hoge) Learning Languages Like Children - Effortless English

The title track from 'Jump In: Stories & songs for children' a collection of 4 stories and 4 songs for children inspired by the season of Summer. A story washed up in a bottle, an enchanting holiday to Nan’s farm and the joy of giving and receiving are all wrapped up in a beautiful soundtrack of long, lazy days in sunshine. Using the wonderful metaphors found in mother nature, 'Jump In' is packed with songs and stories to bring light, self-confidence and joy into your family home. Total run time 48mins

Jump In - A Summer song for children

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

Should we rake through painful experiences, and try to learn from them, or are they best forgotten? Why is the truth so often buried in secrets? And how much should we keep from the people we love? These are some of the questions posed by Andrew O'Hagan's fifth novel, The Illuminations, a story of love, memory and war. In collaboration with Faber Social, we present an evening of readings, music and performance. Andrew O'Hagan shares the stage with novelist, poet and playwright Edna O'Brien, whom Philip Roth has described as 'the most gifted woman now writing in English'; and performance poet Kate Tempest, winner of the Ted Hughes Award, and shortlisted for the 2014 Mercury Music Prize. With music from James Yorkston.

Contains strong language.

Reflections On War With Edna O'Brien, Andrew O'Hagan And Kate Tempest [Part 1]

Mark Doty, who was born in Maryville, Tennessee, and now lives in New York, was the first American poet to win the T.S. Eliot Award, and is a former winner of the National Book Award for Poetry. He first came to public attention with work exploring gay identity and the AIDS epidemic. Deep Lane, published this spring, is a book of descents – into the earth beneath the garden, and into the dark substrata of life. It ranges from agony to rapture, from great depths to hard-won heights. Ruth Padel, a former winner of the National Poetry Competition, was shortlisted for the 2014 T.S. Eliot Award for Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth, a book on conflict, harmony and creativity, weaving contemporary Middle Eastern politics and the history and culture of the Abrahamic religions, with music and craftsmanship. At its heart is a sequence on the Seven Last Words of Christ from the cross. Introduced by Fiona Sampson, Director, Roehampton Poetry Centre, our co-hosts for this event, Doty and Padel read from their work.

Mark Doty photo by Renato Pensold.

Tale of two cities

In 1807, the British turned their backs on the Atlantic slave trade, though for 150 years they had grown fat on its proceeds. Why did they change their minds about it? And what significance should we attach to it?

The Slave-trade Remembered (James Walvin, David Dabydeen)

Why do we need to sleep? What effect do the various phases of sleep have on our unconscious minds? How can we interpret our dreams? And what is the relationship in writing between being 'awake' and 'asleep', in terms of what a writer knows and doesn’t know about what they are doing?

This discussion is chaired by the poet Lavinia Greenlaw, who was the first artist in residence at the Science Museum. Novelist Jonathan Coe’s works include The House of Sleep, described by the late Malcolm Bradbury as 'moving, clever, pleasurable, smart'. Professor Russell Foster FRS is head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford. His research studies the way in which light regulates our 'body clock' and the implications for productivity and health. Deborah Levy is a playwright, novelist and poet with a particular interest in the subconscious. Her novel Swimming Home (2011) was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. 'The seductive pleasure of Levy’s prose,' wrote one critic, 'stems from its layered brilliance.'

Sleep talking

A Apple B for Boy - Children Education Song

IELTS Speaking Part 2 And Part 3 Festivals And Celebrations

Alan Judd discusses why is spy-writing is such a very British affair. Chaired by Simon Winder.

Nobody does it better: the British spy in fiction (Alan Judd)

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

Adam Phillips reflects on the relationship between creativity and mental health, asks whether we try too hard to be happy, and explores his belief that psychotherapy is ‘a king of practical poetry’ in a conversation with Joan Bakewell, one of the country’s most highly respected broadcasters.


All in the mind (Adam Phillips & Joan Bakewell)

Following the publication of La Belle Sauvage, Philip Pullman talks with Erica Wagner – author, critic and former literary editor of The Times – about his writing life, and about the books that helped shape him. Philip Pullman is one of the best-loved and most highly acclaimed children’s authors in the world, and his books are consumed by readers of all ages. He has won numerous awards, including the Whitbread Book of the Year. He has also become known for his views on Christianity, our education system and the role of the author in public life. He is, in his own words, ‘a passionate believer in the democracy of reading’.

We are grateful to Richard and Jenny Davenport-Hines for sponsoring this event in memory of their son Cosmo.

Philip Pullman - Literature Matters:The Democracy Of Reading

Novelist and journalist Hari Kunzru is the author of The Impressionists, Transmission, My Revolutions, Gods Without Men and White Tears. His work has been translated into twenty languages. In 2003, he caused a sensation when he turned down the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize on the grounds that it was backed by the Mail on Sunday, whose ‘hostility towards black and Asian people’ he regarded as unacceptable. The same year he was named by Granta one of twenty ‘Best of Young British Novelists’. In a conversation with Lisa Appignanesi, Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, he reflects on what literature means to us; whether its meaning changes when you develop from a reader into a writer; and whether fiction should have political ramifications.

Literature Matters: Identity and idealism

The Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the award-winning poet Fiona Sampson discuss poetic and religious language, both of which operate outside the usual conventions of description or analysis. Together, they consider the different kind of ‘pressure’ at work in these two modes.


Language Under Stress (Rowan Williams & Fiona Sampson)

Set on ‘a Wednesday in mid-June’, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (like James Joyce’s Ulysses) takes place over the course of a single day. Virginia Woolf’s biographer Hermione Lee talks to novelist Alan Hollinghurst about Woolf’s legacy and influence, especially on his most recent novel, The Sparsholt Affair. During this celebration of one of the 20th Century’s most important novels, literary critic Elaine Showalter, author of the seminal A Literature of their Own, and Sarah Churchwell, Chair of Public Understanding in the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, discuss the significance of Mrs Dalloway and its ongoing influence on literary culture.

Dalloway Day 2018

November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of the First World War. The RSL is marking this anniversary by looking back to Wilfred Owen’s words for peace, and looking forward to how poetry today can take us towards a more peaceful future. We have commissioned 14 of our poet Fellows to respond to Wilfred Owen's life and work and to the theme of peace. The resulting anthology is called Peace Poetry.

One of the commissioned poets, Helen Mort, reads her poem 'The Swimmer' - a response to Wilfred Owen's lifelong love of swimming.

The Swimmer, Helen Mort

November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of the First World War. The RSL is marking this anniversary by looking back to Wilfred Owen’s words for peace, and looking forward to how poetry today can take us towards a more peaceful future. We have commissioned 14 of our poet Fellows to respond to Wilfred Owen’s life and work and to the theme of peace. The resulting anthology is called Peace Poetry.

One of the commissioned poets, Sabrina Mahfouz, reads her poem ‘Peace < Water’.

Sabrina Mahfouz, Peace < Water

Matt Bryden is one of the six recipients of the RSL's inaugural Literature Matters Awards. He discusses his time in residence at Bristol Temple Meads train station’s Lost Property Office which he is using to inspire him to write a new collection of poetry.

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