Thanks to all who attended the Balham Literary Festival, the Dulwich Literary Festival and Festival America in 2018 and 2019. We won’t be running any of these in 2020 for obvious reasons but do keep a look out for updates about next year.

Download the 2018 Balham Literary Festival programme

‘SUMMER LOVING’

At Balham Bowls Club & other venues

Thursday 13th June

19.00 Yara Rodrigues Fowler

Join local author Yara Rodrigues Fowler as she discusses her stunning debut novel, Stubborn Archivist (longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize) - a lyrical reflection on growing up in a Brazilian-British household, of finding your space within different cultures and of learning to live in a traumatized body.
READ MORE...

Saturday 15th June

10.30 Storytime: The Dinosaur Department Store

The Dinosaur Department Store is a beautifully illustrated tale of Eliza Jane who, on her birthday, has her heart set on owning a prehistoric pet. When her family get to the store and meet the flamboyant Mr Magisaurus, it transpires that Eliza Jane has hatched a mischievous plan to release all of the dinosaurs into the wild! Written by Lily Murray and illustrated by Richard Merritt, this vivid, roaring and witty tale will appeal to adventurous children everywhere.
READ MORE...

Saturday 15th June

15.00 Local Women of Westminster

Join Rachel Reeves, MP for Leeds West, as she celebrates the inspirational achievements of women in parliament over the course of the past 100 years with renowned journalist & presenter of Channel 4 News Cathy Newman, author of Bloody Brilliant Women.
READ MORE...

Sunday 16th June

11.30 Climate Change Today

In Kings of the Yukon, Adam Weymouth recounts his remarkable four-month journey canoeing the great Yukon River, paddling against the flow of the magnificent Kings, and discovering how the decline in salmon is affecting the indigenous communities.
READ MORE...

Sunday 16th June

13.30 Sara Collins & Bernardine Evaristo

In Girl, Woman, Other, celebrated novelist Bernardine Evaristo follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years. This is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.
READ MORE...

Wednesday 19th June

19.00 Max Porter

"It's hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don't come along very often. It's a novel like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your heart." Maggie O'Farrell Following the success of Max Porter’s debut novel, Grief is the Thing with Feathers (including recently a sold-out stage adaptation at the Barbican with Cillian Murphy), comes Lanny – an audacious and wonderful novel about friendship, folklore and the imagination.
READ MORE...

Tuesday 18th June

19.00 A. C. Grayling

"If there is any such person in Britain as The Thinking Man, it is A. C. Grayling" The Times Philosophy is the fountainhead of ideas that drive history and shape our world. Professor A. C. Grayling's aim in The History of Philosophy is to give a clear and comprehensive account of the great adventure of philosophy, mainly in the Western tradition but with overviews of the rich Indian, Chinese and Arabic-Persian traditions also.
READ MORE...

Tuesday 25th June

19.00 Mick Herron

"Mick Herron is the John le Carré of our generation"  Val McDermid Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score. This time, they're heading into joe country. And they're not all coming home…
READ MORE...