A duchess, a PM’s wife and a queen of the bestsellers all make an appearance in this week’s events around town. And you thought literary London would just go quietly into hibernation until after the holidays... Wednesday: Medical London historian Richard Barnett and editor Mike Jay are in conversation over at Daunt Books this evening (7pm). And although we’ve already had our own conversation with these two Londonophiles, perhaps you may want to make......

A blog, humbly devoted to all things London, Londonist is – could you have guessed? Meet the fib - no, not the kind you told at uni when submitting yet another late essay - but the poetic kind: a 6-line verse reminiscent, in its constriction of form, of the well-known haiku. Introduced to us by our good friends over at the London Word Festival, the fib takes its syllables from the Fibonacci sequence –......

After a momentary pause, literary London returns to form this week, with a couple of ace festivals headed our way. Wednesday: There are no fewer than three events on our radar for this evening: Chapman brother Jake discusses his debut novel, The Marriage of Reason and Squalor, at Foyles (6.30pm, free) in a ‘wholly different kind of literary event’ – this plus knowledge of the Chapmans’ art are just enough to tantalise; the British......

There’s a rather eerie silence over literary London this week, but with the US election, Bonfire Night and the Lord Mayor’s Show all happening in rapid succession over the next 5 days, we suppose that this is one of those (rare?) occasions when life is more diverting than fiction. Not diverting enough? Pop into one of these events – hand-selected by your book grocer especially for you. Tuesday: The Iris Theatre commemorates the 10th......

Britain's premier celebration of Colombian culture, Colombiage, begins tonight. Into its second year now, the festival ropes in film, music, performance and art from the South American nation for a frenetic four days of enjoyment. Colombia has gradually transcended the predictable stereotypes its name attracts, and, aided by a strong Latin community in London, the country has been able to deservingly showcase its fecund talents to a wider audience. Here are some of the......

Summer, our fickle friend – are you going to cooperate with us now? No more depriving us of our fun in the sun, our picnics, our tans, our leisurely strolls through parks and convivial afternoons spent barbequing? Because if not, look at all the other lovely things we have to keep us busy. Like books. Books don’t require that every time we go out, we bring both hot- and cold-weather clothing, both umbrella and......

London's history has been told many, many times. Such is the volume of literature on the subject, it can't be long before someone writes a history of all the history books available. So we were curious what Historic London by Stephen Inwood might add to the mix. And yes, at first glance, this looks like another scholarly account of our city's 2000 year adventure, weighing in at some 400 pages with additional photographic plates.......

Saturday's sun found Londonist in a local park with a well-thumbed paperback and a bottle of Scrumpy, relishing a summer's worth of idle weekends. Sunday's inclement weather dashed those dreams, but luckily there's a wealth of literary diversions to take our mind off things. Tuesday: Joseph Kony stands as possibly the most ruthless individual in a region that is sadly no stranger to slaughter on a mass scale. The leader of the Lord's Rebel......

And not by us, for a change. Get London Reading, a glittery literary website, has put together a Google map of over 400 London-based books - both novels and non-fiction, from Brick Lane to London Orbital. As a gimmick, it doesn't always work. Where, for example, do you put a general reference piece like Ed Glinert's London Compendium? On the streets of Northolt, apparently. But on the whole, it's a fun way of visualising......

You've laboured (either lovingly or reluctantly) over his serialized novels, you've likely quaffed in some of his favourite pubs, and now, you can sit at his desk. And by "you" we mean those rabid Dickens fans that can spare around £100,000. Charles Dickens's writing desk and chair are to be auctioned off at Christie's in June. All proceeds will go to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, of which Dickens was a serious patron and......

Hang on to your TLSs. Literary London is a lioness roaring in a few weeks ahead of her regularly scheduled appearance in March. With both the London Word Festival and Jewish Book Week launching this week, we’ve got enough events in our diary to keep us busy until spring. Keep an eye on this space as we highlight our favourites from these festivals over the next couple of weeks. Monday: You want poetry? RADA’s......

The book grocer’s coffers are chockfull of goodies this week, so let’s jump right in and get shopping... Monday: Crikey. Take a look at author and critic George Steiner’s publishing credits and you have to wonder whether the man has actually slept in the past fifty years. Yet the premise of the prolific writer’s most recent work, My Unwritten Books, is that there are actually some subjects that Steiner has purposely left unexplored. Join......

You’d be forgiven if upon watching Doris Lessing settle into her armchair and begin reading to the audience at the Southbank Centre Tuesday night, you were reminded of your grandmother tucking you in with a bedtime story. If, that is, your grandmother was the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. And the story she was telling you effectively imagined away your existence. But incongruity seemed the theme for the evening. And so......

Perhaps your New Year’s resolutions have all made their way to the rubbish bin by now. You’re sneaking ciggies again, you’re spending more nights at the pub than not, and you’ve worked out exactly two times, despite the shiny new gym membership. Don’t worry, you’re in good company. The history of literature is filled with stories of writers and their vices. It may just be a sign of genius. Still, you can up your......

This week’s events are top-heavy with poetry readings. Have our novelist friends squirreled themselves away to write tomes in their Christmas cards, we wonder? Monday: Head to the RADA Foyer Bar for a reading from the Poetry School’s third anthology, I am twenty people! All inferences to the contrary, there will actually be six, not twenty, new poets reading from their work. Free, 7.00pm. Tuesday: We were reminded last week that poetry isn’t just......

The Barbican's love of all things Brazilian continues this week, as it launches into a week-long season of Brazilian cinema that picks up where last year's Tropicalia left off. Cinema of Brazil: Literature into Film, presented in conjunction with the Embassy of Brazil, aims to 'celebrate the bond between literature and cinema in Brazil'. It's a neat idea, allowing curator Adriana Rouanet to cast her eye across the length and breadth of the country's......

We love London Lit Plus - it's the capital's independent festival as packed as any other London book-based love-in, such as the London Literature Festival. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and London Lit Plus is finishing its two weeks of literary doings today. If you haven't been to any events yet, tonight is your last chance... * Anything But Hackneyed: Niven Govinden reads from his acclaimed debut novel Graffiti My......

There are London Literature Festivals, and then there's London Literature Plus. This independent rival to the South Bank's extravagnza also kicked off yesterday, and involves almost 30 lit-related events. Here's a pick of the highlights. July 3: Poejazzi. Poetry and jazz? Not necessarily a winning combination in everyone's book, but Time Out certainly like it. They listed Poejazzi amongst their 101 things to do in London 2007. 8pm, Volupté. July 5: Social Disease Social.......

Just out the Van: The London Literature Festival, a two week Festival, starts today at the South Bank Centre. Some of the highlights over the weekend and next week include: Sat 30 June - The Uk's biggest ever Book Crossing (free). Mon 2 July - Pat Barker launches her new novel, Life Class, with a reading and discussion about her life as a writer in her only London show (£8.50). Tues 3 July -......

London Lit Plus?...Plus what? No, you misunderstand. It's like the London Literature Festival. With knobs on. What, you mean your line-up's full of Daily Express columnists? No, you misunderstand again. This time for weak comedy effect, I should wager. So what is London Lit Plus? It's an open literary festival running from 29 June to 13 July. Hang on. Those are the same dates as the London Literature Festival. Are you sure you're not......

Fresh this Week: Two hundred years ago, 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 this, two centuries later? James Walvin, until recently Professor of History at the University of York and winner of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for Black and White......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Those of us with an addiction to lists may have looked on folornly at this recent compilation of no less than 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - but it did make us think of a drinking game to play. It includes a shot glass, a bottle of cheap vodka, three pairs......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Wednesday The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghoutir has fourteen books under his belt and has been described by Edward Said as “one of the finest existential accounts of Palestinian displacement we now have”. Tonight Barghouti will give a talk on the nature of exile, read his poetry (in English) and a short extract from I......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. To start us off, 3AM Magazine has an interview with Tom McCarthy whose debut novel, Remainder, has just been published by Alma Books, and whose critical essay, Tintin and the Secret Literature, is reviewed in the Guardian. And sticking with comics, Free New Books provides an eclectic library of downloadable reads, of most interest......

Much as the incarcerated writers of the Londonist Music Dungeon enjoy relaying our recommendations on music, we can never shake off the mantra murmured to us by our inner voices: 'music writers are failed musicians'. So it's with great pleasure that we start a column written by someone who's a participant in our fair city's music and arts scene, rather than a mere spectator. Introducing Laura Kidd... Amidst the throes of adult chickenpox I......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Along with a wealth of events this week, new books by Margaret Atwood and Jay McInerney (pictured) are also of particular interest... Events Around London: Tonight, David Runciman discusses his new book, The Politics of Good Intentions, which claims that Blair and Bush have abused history in order to further their goals for the......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. We're pretty much just gonna get right to it this week...See below for your events, your new releases, and your news of dead and fake writers... Events Around London: The Imagine Children's Literature Festival Continues all this week, with plenty of events with which to get your kiddies hooked early in life. Most events......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Starting on Monday, it'll be a great week to be a literary kid (or a literary kid's parent, if that's your thing), as the Imagine Children's Lit Festival rolls into town. If you're just a plain old grownup with no kids and no interest in what they read, check out The London Magazine, which......

Quick note for you to scribble into your Time Lord branded diary: SCI-FI-LONDON 26 - 30 April. This year the festival is partnered up with SFX magazine whose editor, David Bradley, sums up the event quite nicely: "SCI-FI-LONDON is growing in prominence every year, and the SFX team is excited to be working with a festival that not only showcases a varied range of SF films but also boasts the Douglas Adams Memorial Debate......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Yeah, it's now officially Holiday Season, which means we shouldn'y expect much from the literary world for the next month or two. With that in mind, this week is a pleasant surprise. We're about to have a slew of "Best of 2005" lists to plough through: The New York Times is way ahead of......