Read about the great writers who came to read for us on 4th March:

THE WRITERS

Jeff Noon, La Celine, Helen Cullen, Jennie Ensor, Judy Mcinerney, Leye Adenle, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Wayne Holloway, Tom Tomaszewski, Helen Trevorrow, Kate Potts, Dan Dalton and Robert Woodshaw …presented by crack librarian Glenda Read.

Jeff Noon trained in the visual arts and drama and was active on the post-punk music scene before becoming a playwright, and then a novelist. His novels include Vurt, Pollen,Automated Alice, Needle in the Groove, Falling Out of Cars,Channel SK1N, A Man of Shadows, and the The Body Library. He has also published two collections of short fiction, Pixel Juiceand Cobralingus.He lives in Brighton. His latest novel is Slow Motion Ghosts, a murder mystery set in 1981. @jeffnoon | http://jeffnoon.weebly.com/

Celine Hispiche – La Celine – began her career as a featured writer at The Royal Court Theatre. She has seen her plays being performed and broadcasted on LBC in both London and New York. Presenting on Capital Radio as a teenager and interviewing bands gave her the springboard into music with both singing and song writing. Comedy and cabaret has always been at the forefront of her career. She moved to New York and toured all along the East Coast with fellow comedians from The Saturday Night Live Show, headlining at Rodney Dangerfield’s Manhattan club to performing at Caroline’s on Broadway. Unusual shows include performing at the private salon of the legendary Louise Bourgeois. She currently runs Celine’s Salon – platforming both new and established writers within a friendly and creative atmosphere to read their new works and gain positive feedback from an appreciative audience. https://www.facebook.com/Hispiche/

A Londoner with Irish heritage, Jennie Ensor began her writing career as a journalist, winning two student awards and covering topics from forced marriages to mining accidents. She’s also tackled controversial issues in her novels – terrorism, Russian gangsters and war crimes in her debut Blind Side (Unbound, 2016); child abuse and sexual exploitation in her second book The Girl in his Eyes, a dark psychological drama (Bloodhound Books, 2018). Her third novel, Not having it all: A brazen comedy about the perils of midlife, will be published by Bombshell Books 28th May 2019. https://jennieensor.com | @Jennie_Ensor

Ashley Hickson-Lovence was born in 1991 and grew up on a Hackney council estate. He is a former secondary school English teacher who now resides in Norwich while he completes his Creative and Critical Writing PhD at the University of East Anglia. He is particularly interested in capturing the incessantly changing cultural landscape of urban Britain. His PhD thesis entitled ‘The Bastard is Black’ narrates the life of former black Premiership referee Uriah Rennie. He is also a poet, football referee and a keen marathon runner. ownit.london/ashley-hickson-lovence/ | @AHicksonLovence

Leye Adenleis the author of the award-winning Easy Motion Tourist, and When Trouble Sleepsand a contributor toLagos Noir (Akashic Books, 2018) and Sunshine Noir (White Sun Books, 2016). His short story ‘The Assassin’ was shortlisted for the CWA Short Story Dagger 2017. Leye is from a family of writers, the most famous of whom was his grandfather, Oba Adeleye Adenle I, a former king of Oshogbo in South West Nigeria. Leye lives in London. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open Book’ and ‘Saturday Live’ and is a regular panelist at literary and crime festivals.  http://leyeadenle.com/ | @leyeadenle

Helen Cullen is an Irish writer living in London. She wrote the first draft of her debut novel, The Lost Letters of William Woolf, while completing the Guardian/UEA novel writing programme under the mentorship of Michele Roberts. It was published in 2018 by Penguin the UK, Ireland, Australia and South Africa and will be published in the USA by Harper Collins in 2019. The novel has also sold in translation to numerous foreign markets including Germany, Italy, Greece, Russia and Israel. In addition, Lost Letters has been optioned for television by Mainstreet Productions whose past successes include Downtown Abbey and Broadchurch. Helen also shortlisted as Best Newcomer at this year’s Irish Books Awards. She is now writing full-time and working on her second novel under contract to Penguin. http://www.helencullen.ie | @wordsofhelen

Wayne Holloway is a writer/director currently working in advertising and film. He shot his first movie, Snakes and Mongoose in LA in 2013. His second movie The Canal, based on Lee Rourke’s prize winning novel, shoots in London this year. He is the author of short story collection Land of Hunger (Zero, 2015).  @waynex |  https://medium.com/@waynex

Kate Potts unpicks and troubles the boundary between animal and human, and explores the ways class, gender, and family history shape us. Her latest book, Feral, was a Poetry Book Society recommendation, and a poetry book of the month in The Telegraph. The Telegraph review described the collection as ‘musical, joyously weird, and filled with moments of pure pleasure.’ http://www.katepotts.net/

Robert Woodshaw studied English and Drama at the University of London – an experience that led to a brief career in casting, and credits on several British films. Unable to ignore an idea he’d been nurturing for a satirical novel, he left Camberwell, retreated to a small town in the Italian Alps, took up a teaching position at a local secondary school, and put pen to paper. His book, which takes the premise of Animal Farm and applies it to the life of Margaret Thatcher came out in February 2019.  https://robertwoodshaw.com | @robertwoodshaw

Tom Tomaszewski is a psychotherapist practicing in Central London who specialises in trauma work. He grew up in South London with an eye on the Bromley Contingent, and all things seem to have flowed from that. He will read from a short memoir of a night with his mother, David Bowie and Marc Bolan at Haddon Hall in Beckenham. www.tomtomaszewski.com @tomtomaszewski_

Judy Mcinerney has lived and taught in London for most of her life, apart from a few years spent in Abu Dhabi and Turkey. As a frequent traveller to China for many years she’s witnessed many incredible changes from the days of Mao jackets and shoals of bicycles, to the economic superpower it is today. After a course on Creative Writing at Goldsmiths she rescued some notes which had been gathering dust in a drawer, and after a very long and eventful gestation, the Pumilio Child was born. http://judy.mcinerney.com | @judy_mcinerney

Helen Trevorrow is the author of feminist crime thriller, In The Wake. She is a graduate of the Faber Academy Creative Writing Programme. She studied at Leeds University and has worked in marketing and public relations for twenty years. Helen has written many articles for newspapers, magazines including the Huffington Post. She lives in Brighton, Sussex. @helentrevorrow | http://www.helentrevorrow.com

Dan Dalton is a writer and journalist, currently based in Margate. Johnny Ruin is his first novel. @wordsbydan | http://dandalton.me

Brixton BookJam is at Hootananny Brixton (95 Effra Road, London SW2 1DF) – a large pub with a performance space that can hold 600 people. It also provides cooked food. The closest tube station is Brixton (Victoria line) and buses 2, 3, 415, 432 and 196 will transport you very near to the venue.