Stoke Newington Literary Festival

Stoke Newington Literary Festival (1st - 3rd June2012) is now in it's third year of existence and has been described as eclectic, inspiring, sometimes audacious and always brilliant. Set up to celebrate the area's radical thinking and literary heritage.

We decided to pick out a few events that are our favorites below but there's plenty more to choose from. The full programme can be seen online here.

A London Obsession with Mark Mason & Craig Taylor

Meet two brilliant writers who are obsessive about London. Mark Mason walked the entire London Underground system above ground – all 403 miles of it – uncovering some astonishing insights and a wealth of fascinating trivia along the way. Craig Taylor spent five years listening to the London residents who make the city such a vibrant place to live.  With a cast featuring undertakers, plumbers, gardeners, rappers, Mark Twain and Karl Marx, this event will amaze, inform, delight and inspire you to look at the city with fresh eyes.

Perfect London Pubs with Pete Brown & Robin Turner

When George Orwell described his perfect pub – the ‘Moon Under Water’ – he wasn’t thinking of a Wetherspoon’s. Last year Robin Turner travelled the UK in search of Orwell’s vision, visiting pubs and talking to people, including a session with N16 beer scribe Pete Brown in The Jolly Butchers.

Pete’s next book – Shakespeare’s Local – tells the 500-year history of the George Inn in Southwark. So we decided to reunite the pair to compare notes and figure out what characterises London’s best pubs.

Beer will be served (Over 18′s only)

Juke Box Fury

Return of the popular music and music-writing panel, hosted by World’s Coolest Librarian(TM) Richard Boon, who invites four renowned writers to each play the track that made them want to write about music, then discuss where serious writing about music is going, or has gone, and whether music and its writing matters in the way it once did. This year, on an NME tip, with its biographer Pat Long and past writers David Quantick, James Brown and Barney Hoskyns. A ‘Hit’ not to ‘Miss.’

Nick Coleman: The Train InThe Night

Nick Coleman was a music journalist whose world changed overnight when he lost his hearing.  His forced rediscovery of sound and the music-scapes that had shaped his identity brought with it some astonishing insight. He discusses ‘taste’ in music, the personal soundtracks to our lives and enormous record collections with fellow music writer Barney Hoskyns.