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The Wapping Project
In association with the New Statesman
present
Skylight Soirées
A series of intimate conversations with writers, curated and chaired by the editor, writer, broadcaster and twice Man Booker judge Erica Wagner.
The venue is the Wapping Project Mayfair, set on the beautiful top floor of the Dover Street showrooms of Mallett antiques at Ely House, a Georgian townhouse built in 1772.
From her very first collection of short stories, Free Love and Other Stories Ali Smith’s original voice simply leapt off the page. Her most recent novel, How to be both, was the winner of the Goldsmith’s Prize, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Costa Novel Award. Whether she is writing stories, novels, or essays, Ali Smith is a writer of dazzling inventiveness and winning charm.
Henry Marsh is one of the country’s most eminent neurosurgeons, a senior consultant at St George’s Hospital in South London. His voluntary work in the Ukraine was filmed for a wonderful documentary, The English Surgeon, and this year he burst onto the literary scene with his extraordinary memoir, Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery, which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and for the Costa Biography Award.
Andrew Marr is an eminent broadcaster, political commentator, editor and author whose career has involved overseeing the Independent newspaper, working as political editor of BBC One, and being the familiar, erudite voice hosting Start the Week. He’s now added another string to his bow – that of novelist, having just last year published Head of State, an eerily believable political thriller.
Labyrinth, the first book in what would become her Languedoc Trilogy, brought Kate Mosse world renown, and sold many millions of copies all over the globe. Her most recent book, The Taxidermist’s Daughter, has been finding fans all over the world too: Kate Williams, in the Independent, called it “gripping, moving and intricately written”. She is one of the founders of what was the Orange Prize, now the Bailey’s Prize for Women’s Fiction; her support for women’s writing – and all writing – from around the world has been unflagging.
Ian is an award winning actor and writer whose most recent book is the authorized biography of the designer, Vivienne Westwood. His biography of the 18th-century theatrical impressario, Samuel Foote, Mr Foote’s Other Leg, won the Theatre Book Prize in 2012, and his play of the book is slated for the West End in 2015 with Richard Eyre directing. His biography of Casanova was Sunday Times Biography of the Year and he is also a very fine cook, as well as being the biographer of Antonin Carême. As an actor, Ian is perhaps best known from the National Theatre/Broadway hit The Pitmen Painters and from the Harry Potter films as Hermione’s Dad.
Tracey Thorn is one of our great singers, songwriters and writers. She is one half of the duo Everything But the Girl and has released four solo albums, collaborated with artists such as Massive Attack plus written and recorded music for the soundtrack of Carol Morley’s feature film, The Falling, released this year. Her first book, the memoir Bedsit Disco Queen, was published to rave reviews in 2013; last year she became a columnist for the New Statesman. This event is one of the first to mark the publication of her new book, Naked at the Albert Hall, an insider’s take on singers and singing.
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