Please see below for:

● A reminder of Monday’s RSL event with William Fiennes, Maggie Gee, Candia McWilliam.
● Information about this year’s Oxford Literary Festival where the RSL is co-hosting an event with First Story, to be chaired by Philip Pullman.
● Details of our online recording of the Seamus Heaney event which took place on 22nd February
● News of other forthcoming literary events that might be of interest to you.

Monday 15 March, 7pm
The TLS Discussion
Chaired by Piers Plowright

What happened when Proust’s narrator dipped the madeleine in his tea? How does memory work and when does imagination take over? If poetry is ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’, is recollection then a literary technique - and how far is it possible, or necessary, for memoirs to tell the truth? William Fiennes is the author of The Music Room, a childhood memoir that examines in parallel, through the story of his epileptic brother, the working of the human mind. Maggie Gee’s new memoir, My Animal Life, weaves her own history into the context of the dramatic social changes of the second half of the twentieth century. And Candia McWilliam has written a
memoir to be published later this year, What to Look for in Winter, about the experience of going blind. They discuss the methods, challenges and rewards of writing about their own lives.

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

The talk will be held in the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre at the Courtauld Institute.

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival: 20th to 28th March 2010

On the afternoon of Tuesday 23rd March, the RSL will be co-hosting an event at the Oxford Festival. Chaired by Philip Pullman, this will present the work of First Story, a charity that arranges for established writers to work alongside teenagers in struggling state secondary schools. The founders of the charity, William Fiennes and Katie Waldegrave, and two of the writers currently involved, Kate Clanchy and Helen Cross, will speak, and several of their students will read from their work, and discuss it with Philip Pullman.

You can book online at www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com

The Royal Society of Literature’s event with Seamus Heaney at Kings Place on 22nd February was a huge success. If you were unable to get a ticket in time, you can now visit the audio files section of our website to listen to a full recording of the event - http://www.rslit.org/content/audio

Do check back regularly as we will also shortly be uploading an interview with Seamus Heaney which was recorded backstage before the event.

Tuesday 16th March
Travel Bookshop

The acclaimed author of "In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz" and "I Didn't Do it for You: How the World Used and Abused a Small African Nation." will be in conversation with Mark Ashurst of the Africa Research Institute about her latest book "It's our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle Blower" in which she probes the cultural and historical facts at the heart of the continent's crisis, and looks at why corruption is so hard to eradicate.

All talks start at 7pm (Doors 6:30pm).  Tickets £3 (includes wine).

13-15 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 2EE
0207 229 5260 / post@thetravelbookshop.com

The Associated Studios is a company involving performers, writers, directors and designers. We provide workshops and are also actively looking for new writing, both straight plays, as well as good musical theatre writing. We are currently accepting applications by writers.  If we are interested in your play /show, we will work on it, in a 3-hour session, with some of our directors, or musical directors. If this stage is successful, we will organize an intensive rehearsal week, bringing in the performers, directors and designers. This would culminate in a public rehearsed reading. If this stage is successful, we would consider producing it for a short run.

We are also running workshops with well known writers. The first workshop is with Che Walker. If you are interested, please go to www.associatedstudios.co.uk and explore our various studios. Please see below for more information.

The first Musical Theatre New Writing Workshops will be with Matt Brind, currently Musical Director of Legally Blonde, Scott Alan (coming over from America), and Michael Jeffery, BAFTA award winning composer, who has written a Musical Theatre version of 'Il Postino'. Stephen Schwartz is coming in May.

Currently new straight plays are being workshopped every Wednesday evening at the Royal Court Theatre.

For more info, to submit plays, propose a workshop/seminar, or apply to participate in workshops, please call us on 020 7381 85 69 or e-mail info@associatedstudios.co.uk.