: in-haus events

*Rescheduled event!* This is Only the Beginning with Michael Chessum – Wednesday 29th of March 6:30-8:30pm Tickets £5

The Making of a New Left, From Anti-Austerity to the Fall of Corbyn

The 2010s were a decade of foodbanks, riots, and the rebirth of political alternatives. Looking to escape a future of rising debt, falling living standards and climate meltdown, a set of movements were born across the globe, led by students, workers and the tent cities of Occupy.

This is the inside story of how the left came back to life in the 2010s, from a man who found himself at the centre of events – featuring unparalleled access and a range of interviews with key left-wing figures. Influential journalist and activist Michael Chessum explains how this movement was built, why it failed, and what it needs to do now.

Michael will be in conversation with our manager Darran McLaughlin. Tickets include a glass of wine or a soft drink and £2 off the book.

Garth Nix stock signing Sinister Booksellers of Bath Wednesday 5th of April 1:45 Free

Garth Nix, the hugely popular Fantasy author will be here at bookhaus to sign copies of his new novel, The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, the follow up to The Left-Handed Booksellers of London. If you are a Nix fan come and meet him and grab a signed copy. We expect him at about 1:45pm. If you cannot make it down in person you can buy a copy in advance and we will get him to sign it for you for you to collect later. Just ORDER a copy of the book here

Lifestyle Revolution launch with Ben Highmore – Wednesday 5th of April 6-8pm Tickets £5

Ben Highmore (University of Sussex) will be in conversation with Michelle Henning (University of Liverpool) about his new book Lifestyle revolution: How taste changed class in late 20th-century Britain. The book charts a period in postwar Britain, when journalists and politicians predicted that the class system would not survive a consumer culture where everyone had TVs and washing machines, and where more and more people owned their own homes. They were to be proved hopelessly wrong. Lifestyle revolution charts how class culture, rather than being destroyed by mass consumption, was remade from flat-pack furniture, Mediterranean cuisine and lifestyle magazines. Novelists, cartoonists and playwrights satirised the tastes of the emerging middle classes, while sociologists claimed that an entire population was suffering from ‘status anxiety’, but underneath it all, a new order was being constructed out of duvets, quiches and mayonnaise, easy chairs from Habitat, white emulsion paint and ubiquitous pine kitchen tables. More than just a world of symbolic goods, this was an intimate environment alive with new feelings and attitudes.

Tickets cost £5, including a glass of wine or soft drink and £3 off the book.

Bring Down the Haus: Tottering State – Friday 7th of April 7-9pm Tickets

Join us for a night full of poetry for unsteady times.

Tottering State returns for a Broken Sleep Books double bill, to celebrate the launch of Briony Hughes’ Rhizomes (Broken Sleep, 2023) and the forthcoming publication of Cat Chong’s 712 stanza homes for the sun (Broken Sleep, 2023).

Tickets are £5 which includes a glass of wine/ a soft drink and £2 off the book.

Printed Books in the Digital Age: A conversation with Jonathan Simons, founding editor of offline publishing house Analog Sea. – Wednesday 12th of April 6-8pm Tickets £5

Printed Books in the Digital Age: A
conversation with Jonathan Simons, founding editor of offline publishing house Analog Sea.

As an offline publisher distributing exclusively to physical bookshops, our wish is for books to be traded between human beings and not relegated to robots and algorithms. Digital platforms are great for efficiency and massification, but we believe that efficiency and massification are in no
way acceptable strategies for handling the arts and letters.
Now is the time for each of us to determine which parts of our lives and culture must remain offline and not swept up and digitized. 

Jonathan will be in conversation with our manager Darran McLaughlin. Tickets cost £5 and include a glass of wine or soft drink and £2 off any Analog Sea Review publication.

Troublemaking launch with Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock – Monday 17th of April 6-8pm Tickets £5

There are no unorganisable workers, only workers yet to be organised.

There has been an explosion of organising among workers many assumed to be unorganisable, from delivery drivers in London to tech workers in Silicon Valley. The culmination of years of conversations on picket lines, in community centres, and in union offices, with workers in Britain, the US, India, Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and across Europe, Troublemaking brings together lessons from around the world. From these movements, Lydia Hughes and Jamie Woodcock draw a number of lessons about why organising at work is the first step in building another world. Lydia and Jamie, veterans of the IWGB union will be in conversation with Kulsoom Jafri, a former IWGB organiser and current IFT organiser.

Tickets cost £5, including a glass of wine or soft drink and £2 off the book.

Bring Down the Haus: Poetry of the Beyond 21st of April 7-9pm Tickets £5

Join us for a night of poetry of exploring the space beyond borders. What happens when you reach the boundary and keep going? We are delighted to have Sarah Fletcher in the Haus for the Launch of her debut collection “Plus Ultra”. Also sharing some lovely poetry will be Caroline Stockford.

Doors open at 18:45.

Tickets are £5, which includes £2 off the book + a glass of wine/ a soft drink

Rosewater launch with Liv Little: Monday 1st of May 6-8pm Tickets £5

A deliciously gritty and strikingly bold debut novel about discovering love where it has always been.

Elsie is a sexy, funny, and fiercely independent woman in South London. But, at just 28, she is also tired. Though she spends her days writing tender poetry in her journal, her nights are spent working long hours for minimum wage at a neighbourhood gay bar.

The difficulty of being estranged from her family, struggle of being continually rejected from jobs, and fear of never making money doing what she loves, is too great. But Elsie is determined to keep the faith, for a little longer at least. Things will surely turn around. They have to.

As she tries to breathe through the panic attacks, sleeping with her hot and spirited co-worker Bea isn’t exactly straightforward and offers Elsie just another place to hide.

As Elsie tries to reconnect with her best friend Juliet, her fragile world spirals out of control. Can Elsie steady herself and not fall through the cracks?

Join Liv Little, the founder of gal-dem magazine, as she launches her debut novel. Tickets cost £5, including a glass of wine or soft drink and £2 off the book.

Mussolini’s Grandchildren: Fascism in Contemporary Italy with David Broder: Wed 10th May 6-8pm Tickets £5

The fastest-rising force in Italian politics is Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia a party with a direct genealogy from Mussolini’s regime. Surging to prominence in recent years, it has waged a fierce culture war against the Left, polarised political debate around World War II, and even secured the largest vote share in Italy’s 2022 general election. Eighty years after the fall of Mussolini, his heirs and admirers are again on the brink of taking power. So how exactly has this situation come about?

David will be in conversation with Professor John Foot, the author of Blood and Power. Tickets are £5, which includes a glass of wine or soft drink and £2 off the book.

Art is Magic – Jeremy Deller: Monday 15th May 6-8pm Tickets £5

An entertaining and revealing journey into the mind of one of Britain’s greatest contemporary artists.
In Art is Magic, Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller brings together for the first time key works from his career alongside the art, pop music, film, politics and history that have inspired him.
Pulling together all Deller’s cultural touchstones – from acid house and brass bands to crop circles and folk traditions – and featuring conversations between the artist and an eclectic mix of cultural figures and collaborators, from fashion provocateur Sportsbanger to classicist Mary Beard, Art is Magic offers an unpredictable and exhilarating tour of a unique mind.
From his inflatable Stonehenge for the Glasgow International Festival to the Miners’ Strike, bats (a subject in at least three of Deller’s works), and Andy Warhol, to the links between the Industrial Revolution and heavy metal, hen harriers pecking out the eyes of a Tory MP and the Somme anniversary piece We’re Here Because We’re Here, there is something for art lovers, fans and the culturally curious alike. The text is brought to life by artwork from across Deller’s oeuvre, including work which has never been seen before.

Jeremy will be in conversation with Robin Turner (Heavenly Recordings). Tickets include a glass of wine or a soft drink and £5 off the book.

Queer Footprints launch with Dan Glass – Monday 29th May 6-8pm Tickets £5

This groundbreaking guide will take you through the city streets to uncover the scandalous, hilarious and empowering events of London’s queerstory. Follow in the footprints of veteran activists, such as those who marched in London’s first Pride parade in 1972 or witnessed the 1999 bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho.

Accompanied by a chorus of voices of both iconic and unsung legends of the movement, readers can walk through parts of East, West, South and North London, dipping into beautifully illustrated maps and extraordinary tales of LGBTQIA+ solidarity, protest and pride. The shadows of gentrification, policing, homophobia and racism are time and again resisted.

From the Brixton Fairies to Notting Hill Carnival to world-changing protests in Trafalgar Square, Rebel Dykes to drag queen communes, Queer Footprints celebrates the hidden histories of struggle and joy. Including an accessibility guide and a list of these gems for your pleasure – queer spaces, clubs, networks and resources galore.

Dan Glass will be in conversation with a panel of Bristol based Queer activists.

Tickets cost £5, including a glass of wine or soft drink and £2 off the book.

Because I Don’t Know What You Mean and What You Don’t launch with Josie Long: Wednesday 31st May 7-9pm Tickets £5

The frank, funny fiction debut collection from Josie Long, the award-winning comedian and broadcaster. From a comic mastermind comes this brilliant collection of stories. Three teenagers believe they are witches.
A woman defaces a local billboard. A bored landlord tries to influence his son’s best friend.
A cul-de-sac WhatsApp group discusses eggs at length. A heavily pregnant woman finds a way to time travel and a girl discovers joy on a stolen bicycle… Each tale paints a life in miniature and offers an escape chute from the mayhem of modern life.

Josie will be in conversation with Nikesh Shukla. Tickets cost £5 and include a glass of wine or soft drink (unless we have to move the event off site due to demand), and £2 off the book.