Headingley LitFest: June 2019

Monday, 10 June 2019

Comedy with Isma Almas - Friday 28 June

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COMEDY WITH ISMA ALMAS

About a Buoy – Adventures in Adoption

Stand-up comedian Isma Almas gives a full preview of

her show before it reaches the Edinburgh Festival.

Isma is British multiculturalism at its best. In her down

to earth and engaging style, she explores transracial adoption,
gender, religion, sexuality, race, one

homophobic mother and Freddie Mercury.

As seen in BBC2’s The Big Asian Stand Up

‘A one-woman antidote to Islamophobia’ Leeds Guide

7.30pm Friday 28 June 2019,

HEART Centre, Bennett Road, Leeds LS6 3HN

Tickets £5 from 0113 275 4548 or on the door

A message from Amit Dhand

Amit Dhand, crime writer and Headingley pharmacist, writes:

One Way Out - Opening chapter below...

And. Here. We. Go! He's back and this one is BIGGER than ever! Harry Virdee returns for the 4th book in the series.

Prologue

THE OUTDOOR CINEMA SCREEN in City Park cut out. The children’s movie went black. Most of the thousand-strong crowd didn’t notice, too busy playing in the fountains, a welcome respite from the sun’s inhospitable rays. Then a message started to flash on the screen, bold and threatening:

IMMINENT SECURITY THREAT. LEAVE CITY PARK IMMEDIATELY.

No ‘please’.

No hint that this was optional. Confusion rippled through the park. People stared at one another, wondering if this was some sort of joke. The screeching of car tyres and the overhead roar from two helicopters answered their doubts. Police officers jumped from their cars with megaphones, screaming for the crowd to disperse. They did not enter the park but kept to the perimeter. At first, the shift was slow but the domino effect didn’t take long to come into play and the few became the many. Bodies jumped from the pool and ran, some barefoot, others holding their shoes. Parents grabbed their children as the stampede began.

Bradford was under siege.

Preorder NOW.

Crime writing workshop and meet the agent.

I will be hosting a crime-writing workshop with award-winning author, Abir Mukherjee and literary agent, Simon Trewin, on Saturday 29th June, at Bradford Literature Festival. Last year, this event sold out quickly, so this year, we have expanded on it. Abir and I will focus on writing, craft, pace and structure and Simon will provide a session on publishing, agents and take any questions. Early booking is advised for this event.

LITERARY HEADINGLEY

Headingley is just the place for it! Don't expect a big circus with marquees, though: we're not at that stage yet. We're all volunteers as well.

Our venues include the HEART Centre on Bennett Road, the New Headingley Club on St Michael's Road, friendly cafés, historic local cinemas, Headingley Library, people's houses and the historic Leeds Library in Commercial Street, city centre.

Headingley's Literary Links

Headingley has strong connections with many writers:

Arthur Ransome was born in Headingley, J R R Tolkien lived at 5 Holly Bank and also at 2 Darnley Road, West Park when he was reader in English Language at the University of Leeds 1920 - 25, Alan Bennett lived over a butcher's shop opposite the Three Horseshoes, now Royale Dry Cleaners.

Lucy Newlyn has published poetry about her early life in Headingley, George Orwell stayed at 21 Estcourt Avenue with his sister Marjorie and her husband Humphrey 'Humpy' Dakin (with whom he visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth), T S Eliot used to visit his mother-in-law in Weetwood Lane, William Fryer Harvey was brought up in Spring Bank, Trevor Griffiths lived just off Victoria Road on Winstanley Terrace, Jon Silkin's first office of STAND magazine was his flat at 144 Otley Road, Sir Geoffrey Hill lived in Shire Oak Road, Peter Redgrove lived in Headingley between 1962 and 1965 when he was Gregory Fellow of Poetry at the University of Leeds, and playwright Kay Mellor still lives near The Hollies in Far Headingley.

Wilson Barrett, the charismatic first manager of the Grand Theatre, Leeds (a prolific playwright as well), lived in Beech Grove Terrace, Woodhouse in the 1870s. His house was a meeting place for many writers, artists and visitors to Leeds - such as W. S. Gilbert, George Grossmith and Atkinson Grimshaw.

Headingley LitFest 2020 was the thirteenth. The fourteenth will take place from March 2021 and will be adapted to the rules of the Covid pandemic. We are now a proud part of the annual Leeds Lit Fest.