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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for eroding empire
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260205T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260205T203000
DTSTAMP:20260508T200419
CREATED:20251215T105150Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251222T132009Z
UID:3989-1770318000-1770323400@www.eroding.org.uk
SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE LOG BOOKS: VOICES OF QUEER BRITAIN AND THE HELPLINE THAT LISTENED with Tash Walker &Adam Zmith
DESCRIPTION:THE HISTORY OF SWITCHBOARD\nAn intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades\, discovered in a stash of forgotten\, handwritten notes.\nSwitchboard was founded at Housmans\, and operated out of our premises for many years. So we are honored to start LGBT+ History Month by launching a book that covers an intimate part of Switchboard’s proud history and we look forward to welcoming its authors Tash Walker and Adam Zmith to the shop for an evening of discussion and celebration. \n‘A fantastic journey through an overlooked archive bursting with humanity and real life on every page.’ Dan Snow \nIn a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard\, a queer helpline in operation since 1974\, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them out of their home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out. These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives\, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth\, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28\, a law which banned councils and schools ‘promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. In recovering these logs\, they encountered people grappling with feelings\, questions and problems both familiar and different. They set out to learn from – and sometimes speak to – people on both sides of the calls. Charged with joy\, gossip\, sensuality\, heartbreak and sometimes fear\, and with a potent relevancy to the world today\, Walker and Zmith have collected these stories in The Log Books. They capture queer lives in stunning detail\, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self -discovery\, propelling it into the foreground of our national history. \n‘Essential reading\, grounded in the past while also explaining the urgency of LGBTQ+ politics today.’TOM RASMUSSEN\, author of Diary of a Drag Queen \n‘Hauntingly beautiful\, this is a testament to the ongoing courage and care so profound in our community. I was enchanted at every page. Completely life – changing.’ DAN GLASS\, author of Queer Footprints \nOUR SPEAKERS: \nTash Walker is a writer\, podcast producer and community organiser who has worked with institutions such as the Barbican\, BBC\, and Queer Britain; they were a member of Switchboard’s board for eight years. \nAdam Zmith is a writer and multi-format producer; his book Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures won the Polari First Book Prize. He writes theatre shows\, talks and podcasts\, including Press Play Turn On which won Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards 2024. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00.
URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-log-books-voices-of-queer-britain-and-the-helpline-that-listened-with-tash-walker-adam-zmith/
LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX
CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-Log-Books_cover-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260205T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260205T203000
DTSTAMP:20260508T200419
CREATED:20260127T150835Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260127T174338Z
UID:4823-1770318000-1770323400@www.eroding.org.uk
SUMMARY:SOLD OUT! THE LOG BOOKS: VOICES OF QUEER BRITAIN AND THE HELPLINE THAT LISTENED with Tash Walker &Adam Zmith
DESCRIPTION:please note this event is now sold out. To be added to a waiting list please email shop@housmans.com An intimate history of LGBTQ+ life over four decades\, discovered in a stash of forgotten\, handwritten notes. Switchboard was founded at Housmans\, and operated out of our premises for many years. So we are honored to start LGBT+ History Month by launching a book that covers an intimate part of Switchboard’s proud history and we look forward to welcoming its authors Tash Walker and Adam Zmith to the shop for an evening of discussion and celebration. \n‘A fantastic journey through an overlooked archive bursting with humanity and real life on every page.’ Dan Snow \nIn a crawlspace at the offices of Switchboard\, a queer helpline in operation since 1974\, lies dozens of log books kept by volunteers describing the phone calls they had taken: a teenager whose parents had kicked them out of their home for dressing as the wrong gender; a lesbian terrified of having her baby taken away from her; a man arrested for chatting up another man in a public toilet; a young person wanting to know how to come out. These logs were traces of tens of thousands of queer lives\, a bridge to a past hidden from people like Tash Walker and Adam Zmith in their youth\, captured by people who lent an ear to those in need. Walker and Zmith came of age in the time of Section 28\, a law which banned councils and schools ‘promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. In recovering these logs\, they encountered people grappling with feelings\, questions and problems both familiar and different. They set out to learn from – and sometimes speak to – people on both sides of the calls. Charged with joy\, gossip\, sensuality\, heartbreak and sometimes fear\, and with a potent relevancy to the world today\, Walker and Zmith have collected these stories in The Log Books. They capture queer lives in stunning detail\, embarking on a journey of both collective history and self -discovery\, propelling it into the foreground of our national history. \n‘Essential reading\, grounded in the past while also explaining the urgency of LGBTQ+ politics today.’TOM RASMUSSEN\, author of Diary of a Drag Queen \n‘Hauntingly beautiful\, this is a testament to the ongoing courage and care so profound in our community. I was enchanted at every page. Completely life – changing.’ DAN GLASS\, author of Queer Footprints \nOUR SPEAKERS: \nTash Walker is a writer\, podcast producer and community organiser who has worked with institutions such as the Barbican\, BBC\, and Queer Britain; they were a member of Switchboard’s board for eight years. \nAdam Zmith is a writer and multi-format producer; his book Deep Sniff: A History of Poppers and Queer Futures won the Polari First Book Prize. He writes theatre shows\, talks and podcasts\, including Press Play Turn On which won Podcast of the Year at the British Podcast Awards 2024. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00. \nplease note this event is now sold out. To be added to a waiting list please email shop@housmans.com \nShare this:  \n				Share on X (Opens in new window)  \n				X 				Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)  \n				Facebook 				Share on Insta (Opens in new window)  \n				Insta  \n			Like this:Like Loading…
URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/sold-out-the-log-books-voices-of-queer-britain-and-the-helpline-that-listened-with-tash-walker-adam-zmith/
LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX
CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260210T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260210T190000
DTSTAMP:20260508T200419
CREATED:20260210T022956Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260210T113542Z
UID:5365-1770750000-1770750000@www.eroding.org.uk
SUMMARY:Maria Alyokhina and Eric J. Breitenbach of Pussy Riot: live reading\, music & discussion
DESCRIPTION:Maria Alyokhina and Eric J. Breitenbach of Pussy Riot present an evening of live reading\, music\, and discussion.\nMasha will read from her new book Political Girl\, continuing the story begun in Riot Days\, tracing years of activism\, arrests\, resistance\, and survival inside Putin’s Russia. The reading will be accompanied by a live improvised score by Eric\, responding to the text in real time. \nThe event will include a Q and A\, followed by a book signing. Copies of Political Girl and Riot Days will be available. \nAn intimate spoken word and live music performance rooted in political resistance\, art\, and collective action. \nAbout the Book\nPolitical Girl: Life and Fate in Russia By Maria Alyokhina\nPicking up where Riot Days left off\, Maria (Masha) Alyokhina takes us through her activist experiences between 2014 to 2022. In vivid\, diary-like vignettes\, we follow her as she goes in and out of Russian prisons\, continually dodges police violence\, protests at the Sochi Olympics\, flies to Kyiv to stand in solidarity with Ukraine\, defends the high-level dissident Alexi Navalny\, drops banners at Trump Tower\, and—in 2022—flees from Russia in disguise to escape a new prison sentence. \nSpanning settings from Moscow to London to New York to Harvard\, Political Girl has an artistic sensibility\, a punk ethos\, a deep moral clarity\, and an inimitably dry Russian wit. It portrays not only Masha’s political activities but also her personal arc: the friends she makes in prison\, the woman she falls in love with\, her bond with her young son Filip\, and her deep passion for art and history. As Trump attempts to bring Putin-style authoritarianism to the U.S.\, Masha’s message to Americans is one of solidarity and hope. \n  \nTickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/freedom-books/maria-alyokhina-and-eric-j-breitenbach-of-pussy-riot-live-reading-music-and-discussion/2026-02-10/19:00/t-ejapyaa
URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/maria-alyokhina-and-eric-j-breitenbach-of-pussy-riot-live-reading-music-discussion-2/
LOCATION:Freedom Bookshop\, Angel Alley\, 84b Whitechapel High Street\, E1 7QX
CATEGORIES:Gigs,Presentations
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/5333_image_607273917_903234692298325_4731629214273027612_n.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260213T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260213T203000
DTSTAMP:20260508T200419
CREATED:20260116T142718Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260116T143856Z
UID:4557-1771009200-1771014600@www.eroding.org.uk
SUMMARY:Housmans Valentine's Day Special: COURTING DISASTER with Zoë McGee
DESCRIPTION:Fan of a Romantic Period Drama? Can’t stand the stuff? Either way\, we’ve got the event for you. Come and deconstruct Romance this Valentine’s Day with Housmans and Zoë McGee \nWe’ll be discussing\nZoë’s fabulous new work of Romantic Deconstruction: Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel. \nWhat do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think. \nEver since the novel was invented\, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. Dr Zoë McGee reveals how Jane Austen\, Frances Burney and their now-overlooked contemporaries used their stories to try to change society’s mind about rape culture – and to reassure survivors they were not alone. \nCourting Disaster takes a timely deep-dive into a series of classic novels\, comparing them with both historic court records and current events to show that our arguments about consent are not a new phenomenon. With the wit and wryness of a courtship novel\, McGee reads between the lines to unveil a quiet feminist movement that still resonates today. Because every novel about marriage is also a novel about consent. \nIn an era that’s clamouring for a return to the values of the past\, Courting Disaster asks what that would really mean\, and whether anyone actually liked it back then anyway. \nZoë McGee has a PhD from Queen Mary University of London and an MSt in eighteenth-century studies from the University of Oxford. She has spoken at conferences internationally and now performs at very nerdy stand-up comedy nights. Among other things\, she has worked as a university teacher\, a bookseller and a professional board-game-explainer. She owns too many books and is a competitive ballroom dancer in her spare time. \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00.
URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/housmans-valentines-day-special-courting-disaster-with-zoe-mcgee/
LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX
CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/valentines-housmans.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260226T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260226T203000
DTSTAMP:20260508T200419
CREATED:20260116T142719Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260116T143122Z
UID:4558-1772132400-1772137800@www.eroding.org.uk
SUMMARY:MAY WE FEED THE KING: Writing Radical Fiction Today with Rebecca Perry & Misha Honcharenko
DESCRIPTION:Perry combines effortless exactitude with canny ambiguity to create a novel that is always as stimulating as it is enchanting. ‘May We Feed the King’ is a rare achievement\, I absolutely loved it. \nClaire-Louise Bennett \nWe are delighted to welcome two of the most exciting writers working in Britain today\, Rebecca Perry and Misha Honcharenko\, to Housmans for our first creative writing event of the year. The talk will be focused on Rebecca’s new novel May We Feed The King (Granta)\, a ‘serial and dreamlike’ (Jessie Burton) work of avant-garde historical fiction that tells the story of ‘ a curator\, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace\, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur.’ Interviewing Rebecca about the book we welcome back Misha Honcharenko\, a queer Ukrainian artist and writer whose incredible debut novel Trap Unfolds Me Greedily (Sissy Anarchy) we launched at Housmans back in 2024. The are two writers whose work is in equal parts inventive and alert to the historical circumstances under which it is produced. As the current global order continues to dissolve before our eyes\, we ask: what can\, or should\, ‘fiction’ be now? \nAs always\, tickets are priced on a sliding scale. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please do not hesitate to contact us at shop@housmans.com\, and a free ticket will be made available. \nIf you choose ‘book +entry’ your copies of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier\, or arrange for delivery\, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com. \nDoors Open at 6:45pm\, Event Starts 7:00.
URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/may-we-feed-the-king-writing-radical-fiction-today-with-rebecca-perry-misha-honcharenko/
LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX
CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/May-We-Feed-the-King-Jacket-1-e1768573854401.webp
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260228T190000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260228T220000
DTSTAMP:20260508T200419
CREATED:20260116T142720Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260116T143329Z
UID:4559-1772305200-1772316000@www.eroding.org.uk
SUMMARY:HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES: Joseph Minden launches Answerlands
DESCRIPTION:We are BUZZING to be keeping off our 2026 Poetry Series with the brilliant Joseph Minden\, who’ll be launching is latest collection Answerlands\, published late last year by Carcanet. Joining Joseph we have Kat Addis\, Joseph Persad\, Dolly Rae Star and Verity Spott. \nThis is a free event\, but please RSVP below. Also please feel free to BYOB.
URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/housmans-poetry-series-joseph-minden-launches-answerlands/
LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX
CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Poetry-Series-3-e1768573998677.webp
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR