Please see below for:

● A reminder of Monday’s RSL event with Ian McEwan.
● Booking details for our joint event with the Antiquarian Book Fair in June.
●William Trevor to present 2010 V.S. Pritchett Prize.
● News of other forthcoming literary events that might be of interest to you.

Monday 10 May, 7pm
Chaired by Richard Fortey

Originality in science is synonymous with being first; originality in the arts is somewhat different. At what point do these two creative endeavours overlap? Ian McEwan is a novelist who has often taken science as a subject: Enduring Love was about a science writer, Saturday about a brain surgeon. His latest novel, Solar, is about global warming and its protagonist is a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who has given up original work to enjoy his own celebrity. McEwan’s first book, the short stories First Love, Last Rites, was hailed for ‘an originality astonishing for a young man still in his twenties’. Yet original work by scientists is most often achieved while they are still young: do they develop differently? Richard Fortey’s original work is on fossils. He is a research palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum whose books include Trilobite!, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and Earth: an intimate history. A fellow both of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Literature, he is a former President of the Geological Society of London.

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund for sponsoring this lecture.

Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre Courtauld Institute, Somerset House Strand, London WC2R 1LA

This event is free for Fellows and Members of the Royal Society of Literature. There is a limited number of tickets available for members of the public at all RSL events. These are available on the door, from 6pm, on a first-come-first-served basis. We suggest a contribution of £7 (£5 concessions). For further information please visit our website www.rslit.org, or call us on 020 7845 4676.

Thursday 3 June 2010, 2-4pm

The Fair will host a Charity Preview on Thursday 3 June from 2-4pm, before the official fair opening, in aid of the Royal Society of Literature.
Lord Bragg, a Fellow and supporter of the Royal Society of Literature, is widely recognised as both author and broadcaster, particularly well known for the late, much lamented, South Bank Show. Lord Bragg will open the Fair on Thursday 3 June during the Preview. 

Guests will be offered a glass of wine, and the opportunity to have first look at the books on offer.

The London International Antiquarian Book Fair, Olympia, is the only truly international fair of its kind in the UK and attracts over 3,500 visitors every year who come to browse the finest books from around the world. And while some are expensive, some are not. Prices start from under £50.  Whether your taste is Adam Smith or Adam and Eve, Dickens or Diderot, Potter or Proust, Speed or Schedel, Fleming or Foujita, there will be something here for you.

We are offering Fellows and members of the RSL the opportunity to purchase tickets to the preview at the discounted price of £10 (normally £25). To buy a ticket, or for more information, please call Rachel Page on 0207 845 4677 or email rachel@rslit.org

The RSL is now accepting entries for the 2010 V.S. Pritchett Prize. An entry form can be downloaded from the RSL website at http://www.rslit.org/content/pritchett.

There is a prize of £1,000, and the wining story will be published in Prospect magazine and the RSL Review. In addition to this, there will be an opportunity to appear at an RSL event with William Trevor in October 2010.

The deadline is 30th June.

For further information, or to request an entry form by post, please call the RSL on 0207 845 4677.

Launching in March 2010, Underwood is proud to present the first record of short stories featuring the writers Toby Litt and Clare Wigfall.

Underwood is a twice-yearly publication produced as a vinyl LP featuring two writers. The journal appears in May and November each year and is a limited edition. Born out of a love for short stories and vinyl records, Underwood works with writers to produce a unique recording.

The Hare by Toby Litt features an adventure in the Welsh countryside and a chase in the British library. It is an extraordinary meditation on how memories haunt us.

Along Birdcage Walk by Clare Wigfall is a love story set in St James Park of the seventeenth century, where an exhibition of exotic birds provokes a mysterious change in the characters.

The record is printed on 12" gatefold vinyl with artwork by Jordan Crane. Copies of the record can be bought from the website: www.underwoodstories.com

Wednesday 12 May 2010,  6.30-8.30pm

Presented in partnership with EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) London and the European Commission Representation in the UK.

For one night, capital cities across Europe are presenting simultaneous celebrations of writing and reading on European Literature Night, and the British Library will once again host an electrifying evening of readings and conversation from writers, emerging and established. Come and meet this year's authors Jacek Dehnel (Poland), Otto de Kat (Netherlands), Paolo Giordano (Italy), Georgi Gospodinov (Bulgaria), Julya Rabinowich (Austria), Giedra Radvilaviciute, (Lithuania) and Milos Urban (Czech Rep.). The event will be chaired by writer and presenter Rosie Goldsmith.

The event will be followed by a reception.

£7.50 / £5 concessions. Conference Centre, British Library, London NW1. Visit http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events to book.

Thursday 3rd June 2010,  6.30-8pm

The Waste Land by T.S.Eliot read by Roger Lloyd Pack with cello accompaniment by Melissa Phelps & The London Series by Jehane Markham with jazz accompaniment from Robin Phillips on piano and Jonny Gee, double bass.

Don't miss this unique opportunity to hear actor Roger Lloyd Pack read T.S. Eliot's masterpiece The Wasteland in an intimate setting at Free Word.

Booking in advance essential, £10 entry on the door.

Free Word, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA.

For bookings & more information please call 020 7324 2570 or email bookings@freewordonline.com to reserve your place.

Tuesday 11 May, 6.30pm  

In association with Granta/Portobello Books

Winner of the Tom Stoppard Prize for Unofficial Literature, Jachym Topol was a key figure in the Czech samizdat movement and since the Velvet Revolution his writing has given voice to the sense of dislocation that followed the fall of Communism. In conversation with acclaimed journalist Misha Glenny, Topol will be discussing his latest novel, Gargling with Tar, an urgent and blackly humorous account of both a young boy – and a country - coming of age.

PEN Members £5; £8 non-members, including glass of wine

Free Word centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA

Call 0207 324 2535 or book online at www.englishpen.org

Tuesday 11th May, 7pm

Arranged with the help of the Institute of English Studies, University of London.

In a rare UK appearance, Australian poet Les Murray gives the Poetry Society's annual lecture, in which he'll explore his life-long fascination with word-collecting. From ‘rangas’ and ‘pobbledonks’ to ‘belly leggings’ and ‘jail tats’, Murray serves up some of the words that have most inspired him, while discussing how he's chosen to direct each word's unique potency. He finishes the evening with a poetry reading.

Les Murray is one of the ‘super-league’ of world poets writing today. The winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, he has published over 30 volumes of poetry and been translated into ten languages.

Beveridge Hall, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

£12 (£8 concessions). To book visit www.poetrysociety.org.uk