BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//eroding empire - ECPv6.15.14//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk X-WR-CALDESC:Events for eroding empire REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20250330T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20251026T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20260329T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20261025T010000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:BST DTSTART:20270328T010000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT DTSTART:20271031T010000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260618T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260618T220000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260601T023023Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260618T150652Z UID:6498-1781809200-1781820000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Anarcho-Punk Launch with Seth Wheeler and Dunstan Bruce of Chumbawamba DESCRIPTION:Thursday\, June 18th\, 7pm onwards\, MayDay Rooms \n  \nMayDay Rooms is pleased to launch its new Anarcho-Punk archive — a growing collection tracing how anarcho-punk helped reignite anarchism in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s. \nAt a moment when anarchism appeared politically marginal and disconnected from everyday life\, anarcho-punk transformed it into a lived\, participatory culture rooted in DIY organisation\, direct action and collective experimentation. Through gigs\, zines\, benefit shows\, squats\, tape trading and self-organised networks\, a generation of young people translated anarchist ideas into something tangible\, immediate and accessible — building radical infrastructures that extended far beyond music itself. \nDrawing on flyers\, posters\, correspondence\, recordings\, zines and ephemera\, the archive explores how bands and activists created new forms of political participation outside traditional institutions\, mobilising around anti-fascism\, animal liberation\, anti-war organising\, squatting and mutual aid. Music became a conduit for political action — reconnecting culture\, friendship and everyday survival to collective struggle. \nTo mark the launch\, researcher Seth Wheeler will be joined by Dunstan Bruce of Chumbawamba for a conversation exploring punk’s impact on anarchist organising and radical politics during this period. The evening will also include archival material on display alongside a listening session of anarcho-punk recordings\, examining how these songs articulated political ideas\, built networks of solidarity and helped mobilise political support for a range of social movements. \nTickets here URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/anarcho-punk-launch-with-seth-wheeler-and-dunstan-bruce-of-chumbawamba/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/anarcho-launch-announce.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260617T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260617T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260520T023118Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260617T150623Z UID:6359-1781722800-1781728200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: TURNING AWAY by BENJAMIN A. SALTZMAN DESCRIPTION:A sweeping account of how we are at our most human when we turn away from the pains of the world. This is a work of breathtaking scholarship. We are delighted to welcome its author\, Benjamin A Saltzman\, to Housmans for its UK launch. He will be in conversation with Revd Dr Ayla Lepine. Why do we look away from the suffering of others? Why do we cover our faces in shame? Why do we lower our heads in grief? Few gestures are as universal as the averted gaze. Fewer still are as ambivalent and inscrutable. In this incisive study\, Benjamin A. Saltzman reveals how the kaleidoscopic appearance of these gestures in art\, poetry\, and philosophy has turned them into an essential language for our uncomfortable engagements with the world\, challenging us to reflect on the ways we fundamentally relate to others. \nInto the horizon of contemporary discourse\, Turning Away sets out from five influential scenes in which figures avert their gaze: Timanthes’s Sacrifice of Iphigenia\, Plato’s Republic\, Augustine’s Confessions\, Christ’s Crucifixion\, and the Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve. The gestures of aversion in these scenes refract across visual media\, through philosophy and politics\, into modernity and the present day\, having been reimagined along the way by thinkers like Hannah Arendt\, artists like Marc Chagall and Salvador Dalí\, poets like Langston Hughes\, and many others. Saltzman offers a timely critique of the privilege of turning away and of the too-easy condemnation of our tendencies to do so. \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. \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/book-launch-turning-away-by-benjamin-a-saltzman/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260611T022956Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260616T142920Z UID:6959-1781636400-1781641800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE NEXT FIX by KOJO KORAM DESCRIPTION:The question is no longer if we should legalise drugs. It’s: what happens when we do? \nThe future of drugs is here\, and it’s dangerously unequal. Over the last decade\, the status quo around drugs has collapsed. Drugs once sold as safe cures have been revealed as ineffective or dangerous\, while substances criminalised for generations are being reborn as breakthrough mental health treatments\, wellness supplements\, Silicon productivity tools and billion-dollar investment opportunities. How did this reversal happen — and who stands to benefit? \nJoin us as we welcome the brilliant Kojo Koram to Housmans to celebrate the launch of his essential\, brilliant and harrowing new book. In The Next Fix\, award-winning author Koram travels from Scotland to Colombia\, Ghana to the United States\, to uncover the forces reshaping the global drug landscape. Moving between glossy corporate cannabis expos to grassroots activist campaigns and the question of reparations\, he traces the growing tension between movements fighting for justice after decades of prohibition and the finance-world race to profit from a newly legal frontier. Will drug reform finally undo the racial violence\, environmental destruction and public health failures of the War on Drugs? Or will it simply open a new chapter in global capitalism\, creating a smooth transition from cartel barons to Wall Street oligopolies? \nUrgent\, moving and deeply reported\, The Next Fix asks whether the War on Drugs is really over – or merely changing its chemical formula. \n‘Brilliantly arranged and rich with fresh insights‘ Akala \n‘A radical\, beautifully written understanding of our history‘ Owen Jones \nKojo Koram is a Professor of Law\, author and investigative journalist. This year he co-founded a new global research centre at Loughborough University which will examine how drug markets are changing. Born in Ghana and raised on Merseyside\, he is now based in London. In addition to his academic work\, he regularly contributes to the Guardian and Novara Media and has also written for the New Statesman and NYT. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth (2022) which won the English PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize\, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing and was a Guardian book of the year. \nKojo will read from the book\, followed by a discussion that should last for around 45 minutes. We will then have a q&a. The shop has limited space\, so please book ahead to avoid disappointment. \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. \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/book-launch-the-next-fix-by-kojo-koram/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260616T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260520T023118Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260610T142924Z UID:6358-1781636400-1781641800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE NEXT FIX by KOJO KARAM DESCRIPTION:The question is no longer if we should legalise drugs. It’s: what happens when we do? \nThe future of drugs is here\, and it’s dangerously unequal. Over the last decade\, the status quo around drugs has collapsed. Drugs once sold as safe cures have been revealed as ineffective or dangerous\, while substances criminalised for generations are being reborn as breakthrough mental health treatments\, wellness supplements\, Silicon productivity tools and billion-dollar investment opportunities. How did this reversal happen — and who stands to benefit? \nJoin us as we welcome the brilliant Kojo Karam to Housmans to celebrate the launch of his essential\, brilliant and harrowing new book. In The Next Fix\, award-winning author Koram travels from Scotland to Colombia\, Ghana to the United States\, to uncover the forces reshaping the global drug landscape. Moving between glossy corporate cannabis expos to grassroots activist campaigns and the question of reparations\, he traces the growing tension between movements fighting for justice after decades of prohibition and the finance-world race to profit from a newly legal frontier. Will drug reform finally undo the racial violence\, environmental destruction and public health failures of the War on Drugs? Or will it simply open a new chapter in global capitalism\, creating a smooth transition from cartel barons to Wall Street oligopolies? \nUrgent\, moving and deeply reported\, The Next Fix asks whether the War on Drugs is really over – or merely changing its chemical formula. \n‘Brilliantly arranged and rich with fresh insights‘ Akala \n‘A radical\, beautifully written understanding of our history‘ Owen Jones \nKojo Koram is a Professor of Law\, author and investigative journalist. This year he co-founded a new global research centre at Loughborough University which will examine how drug markets are changing. Born in Ghana and raised on Merseyside\, he is now based in London. In addition to his academic work\, he regularly contributes to the Guardian and Novara Media and has also written for the New Statesman and NYT. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth (2022) which won the English PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize\, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing and the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing and was a Guardian book of the year. \nKojo will read from the book\, followed by a discussion that should last for around 45 minutes. We will then have a q&a. The shop has limited space\, so please book ahead to avoid disappointment. \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. \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/book-launch-the-next-fix-by-kojo-karam/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260615T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260615T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260521T022922Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T142955Z UID:6367-1781550000-1781555400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: Absolute Ethical Life: Michael Lazarus in conversation with Bruno Leipold DESCRIPTION:Aristotle\, Hegel and Marx: Michael Lazarus In Conversation with Bruno Leipold Karl Marx gave us not just a critique of the political economy of capital but a way of confronting the impoverished ethical quality of life we face under capitalism. Interpreting Marx anew as an ethical thinker\, Absolute Ethical Life provides crucial resources for understanding how freedom and rational agency are impacted by a social world formed by value under capitalism\, with consequences for philosophy today. \nMichael Lazarus situates Marx within a shared tradition of ethical inquiry\, placing him in close dialogue with Aristotle and Hegel. Lazarus traces the ethical and political dimensions of Marx’s work missed by Hannah Arendt and Alasdair MacIntyre\, two of the most profound critics of modern politics and ethics. Ultimately\, the book claims that Marx’s value-form theory is both a continuation of Aristotelian and Hegelian themes and at the same time his most distinctive theoretical achievement. \nIn this normative interpretation of Marx\, Lazarus integrates recent moral philosophy with a historically specific analysis of capitalism as a social form of life. He challenges contemporary political and economic theory to insist that any conception of modern life needs to account for capitalism. With a robust critique of capitalism derived from the determinations of what Marx calls the “form of value\,” Lazarus argues for an ethical life beyond capital. \nMichael Lazarus will be joined in conversation with Bruno Leipold. We expect the conversation to last from around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by an open discussion with the audience. \nOur Speakers: \nMichael Lazarus is Lecturer in Political Theory in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. Before coming to King’s\, he was Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University and Deakin University Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Alfred Deakin Institute. He holds a PhD in Politics from Monash University. His research covers major themes and thinkers in political theory\, political economy and moral philosophy.Absolute Ethical Life: Aristotle\, Hegel and Marx\, published by Stanford University Press\, is his first book. He is currently working on a second book project related to the ideas of labour\, money and colonialism in Adam Smith and G.W.F. Hegel. In addition to his many scholarly publications\, he regularly writes for non-academic venues. \nBruno Leipold teaches at the London School of Economics. He works on the thought of Karl Marx\, the republican political tradition\, democratic theory and nineteenth-century political thought. He is the author of Citizen Marx (Princeton University Press\, 2024) and the co-editor of Radical Republicanism (Oxford University Press\, 2020). Before coming to the LSE\, he held post-doctoral positions at The New Institute\, the European University Institute and the Goethe University Frankfurt\, and he received his DPhil from the University of Oxford. \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. \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/book-talk-absolute-ethical-life-michael-lazarus-in-conversation-with-bruno-leipold/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260613T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260613T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260520T023117Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260613T142940Z UID:6357-1781377200-1781382600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:The Word in Others' Mouths: Susan Rudy and Shelly Harder in conversation DESCRIPTION:The Word in Others’ Mouths: Susan Rudy and Shelly Harder in conversation Susan Rudy and Shelly Harder come together to launch new chapbooks from Ottawa’s above/ground press.  \nRudy’s Consequences gathers a thousand sentences — from feminist theorists\, queer poets\, songs\, private conversations\, and decades of notebooks — stripping them of hierarchy and ownership\, letting Brossard and Bronski Beat and Butler sit side by side\, voices refracting across queer and trans thought\, motherhood\, desire\, and the ongoing problem of telling the truth about a body.  \nHarder’s pinion begins in the 2020 lockdowns. Alternating between narrative and lyric\, this collection explores isolation\, fragility\, and interconnection with humour and yearning. \nBoth books know that language was not built for us\, and both find forms that work anyway. This evening brings their authors into conversation about writing queerly\, playing at the edges of genre and gender\, and what it means to claim a word that began in someone else’s mouth. \nTHIS IS A FREE EVENT BUT PLEASE RSVP BELOW. \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/the-word-in-others-mouths-susan-rudy-and-shelly-harder-in-conversation/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260610T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260610T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260528T022927Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260610T142916Z UID:6450-1781118000-1781123400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: Privatising humanity by Kate Bayliss DESCRIPTION:Kate Bayliss in conversation with Adrienne Buller PRIVATISING HUMANITY is a powerful exposé of how finance turns our basic human needs into assets. \nWe have entered a new era of turbo-charged financial extraction. Having amassed huge reserves\, global finance capital is seeking out fresh areas for profitable investments. Virtually all aspects of our lives are now targeted by someone seeking to make a profit. \nKate Bayliss shows how wealthy investors\, including asset managers\, target our essential services. When it comes to investments in these sectors\, shareholder profits are funded by us\, the end-users and tax-payers who simply wish to meet our basic human needs for water\, warmth and shelter. We have no alternative but to pay into these structures that often generate massive returns for investors and dysfunctional systems for society. \nUnpacking the details of these processes in three sectors in the UK – water\, energy and housing – Bayliss exposes the harmful consequences of this model\, which is contributing to deepening inequality. \nKate will be joined in conversation by Adrienne Buller\, author of The Value of a Whale: On the Illusions of Green Capitalism. \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. \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/book-launch-privatising-humanity-by-kate-bayliss/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260602T022916Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260604T163815Z UID:6511-1780686000-1780691400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: 'FLAMBOYANCE' WITH JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER SCALPELLO DESCRIPTION:JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH PETER SCALPELLO \nFlamboyance is Jack Parlett’s follow up to his acclaimed Fire Island (A Housmans bestseller of 2022). This new book has all the qualities one has come to expect of Jack’s work; big hearted and erudite in equal measure. \nFlamboyance ignites every aspect of our lives\, from art and entertainment to ritual and protest. The word conjures exuberance and unashamed passion; in thought\, expression and dress. Yet historically the term ‘flamboyant’ has been reserved for the over-the-top and the outré\, invoked at times as a pejorative innuendo or worse. \nIn his fascinating new book\, Jack Parlett argues for its value as an empowering and creative force\, illuminating the ways in which flamboyance is a fundamental aspect of human conduct that both marks and transcends difference. \nTaking in an eclectic array of examples\, from Gothic architecture to the orange flowers of Dungeness\, and populated by figures such as Oscar Wilde\, James Baldwin\, Elton John\, Amy Winehouse\, Lil Nas X and Chappell Roan\, this is a book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance. And having both aspired to it and rejected it\, Jack recounts his personal relationship to flamboyance while also finding new meanings of the word\, exploring its surprises and contradictions\, and reconnecting with its radical power. \nOUR SPEAKERS: \nJack Parlettis the author of three books: The Poetics of Cruising: Queer Visual Culture from Whitman to Grindr (a monograph with University of Minnesota Press)\, Same Blue\, Different You (a poetry pamphlet with Broken Sleep Books)\, and Fire Island: A Queer History (Granta)\, which was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and shortlisted for the Polari Book Prize 2023. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker\, Document Journal\, BBC Culture\, Boston Review\, Literary Hub and Poetry London. \nPeter Scalpello is a writer and psychotherapist from Glasgow\, based in London. Their second book\, Mirrorstage\, was published this year with Cipher Press. \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. \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/book-launch-flamboyance-with-jack-parlett-in-conversation-with-peter-scalpello/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260504T022919Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084546Z UID:6241-1780686000-1780691400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: 'FLAMBOYANCE' WITH JACK PARLETT DESCRIPTION:JACK PARLETT IN CONVERSATION WITH AMELIA ABRAHAM Flamboyance is Jack Parlett’s follow up to his acclaimed Fire Island (A Housmans bestseller of 2022). This new book has all the qualities one has come to expect of Jack’s work; big hearted and erudite in equal measure. \nFlamboyance ignites every aspect of our lives\, from art and entertainment to ritual and protest. The word conjures exuberance and unashamed passion; in thought\, expression and dress. Yet historically the term ‘flamboyant’ has been reserved for the over-the-top and the outré\, invoked at times as a pejorative innuendo or worse. \nIn his fascinating new book\, Jack Parlett argues for its value as an empowering and creative force\, illuminating the ways in which flamboyance is a fundamental aspect of human conduct that both marks and transcends difference. \nTaking in an eclectic array of examples\, from Gothic architecture to the orange flowers of Dungeness\, and populated by figures such as Oscar Wilde\, James Baldwin\, Elton John\, Amy Winehouse\, Lil Nas X and Chappell Roan\, this is a book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance. And having both aspired to it and rejected it\, Jack recounts his personal relationship to flamboyance while also finding new meanings of the word\, exploring its surprises and contradictions\, and reconnecting with its radical power. \nJack will be joined in conversation with Amelia Abraham. They with be in conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \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. \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/book-launch-flamboyance-with-jack-parlett/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260602T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260602T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260504T022918Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084519Z UID:6240-1780426800-1780432200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: KILL BILLIONAIRE with ANDERS LUSTGARTEN DESCRIPTION:Kill Billionaire: The Riotous Revenge Caper You’ve Been Waiting for Kill Billionaire is the best sort of political thriller: gripping\, revenge fueled and unapologetically radical in its politics\, discussing climate change and the elite. \nWhen her home is destroyed in wildfires\, fourteen-year-old Australian outback genius Kayla Connolly decides to hunt down the culprits of climate change: billionaires. She teams up with Mr P\, a giant ex-soldier from Tuvalu whose home is being flooded by rising sea levels. Together\, they find ingenious ways to kill a property developer building on protected wetlands and a mining company CEO poisoning the earth with toxic chemicals. They also find an unexpected ally in Nancy\, a wealthy elderly woman with a shocking past. \nThe trio’s mission soon develops a life of its own\, taking them first to California to crack billionaire tech bros and then to London for superrich oil executives\, spawning a global movement along the way. In pursuit are the FBI and Detective Sergeant Kate Anderson of Scotland Yard\, but Kate is having doubts about whether Kayla is even in the wrong. Will Kayla be able to stay ahead of the game and pull off one final\, remarkable hit? \nWe are delighted that Anders Lustgarten has chosen Housmans as the launch pad for this propulsive\, daringly political work of thriller fiction! \nHe will conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \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. \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/book-launch-kill-billionaire-with-anders-lustgarten/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260601T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260601T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260527T023019Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260604T163809Z UID:6437-1780340400-1780345800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: Adrift in the South by Xiao Hai DESCRIPTION:When Xiao Hai turned fifteen\, his family paid a vocational-school teacher 1\,200 yuan to find him a factory job in Shenzhen. So began fifteen years spent moving between the garment mills and electronics factories of China’s fast-growing southern cities. \nAdrift in the South is a memoir of life as a migrant labourer in the twenty-first century\, making iPhones and baby clothes\, hand-stitching football shirts and cutting plastic into radios. Here\, Xiao Hai reveals the alienation and tedium of factory life\, the small indignities and indifference of the larger system. And he tells the story of how poetry led him somewhere unexpected: to join a small community of artists living\, working\, and studying together on the outskirts of Beijing. \nThis memoir is a landmark text from China’s migrant worker literature movement\, a grassroots group of writers providing an unvarnished account of what life is like for the 300 million migrant workers powering the world’s second-biggest economy. \nXiao Hai will conversation for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by a q&a and signing session. \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. \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/book-talk-adrift-in-the-south-by-xiao-hai/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260529T080000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260529T170000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260430T022930Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084444Z UID:6197-1780041600-1780074000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HOUSMANS POETRY SERIES DESCRIPTION:INTRODUCING THE FIRST IN OUR POET’S PROSE SEQUENCE We are delighted to welcome two extremely exciting poets to Housmans for the first installment of our Summer Poetry Series. This season we’re going to be doing something a bit different and focusing instead on the work that poets produce outside of ‘traditional’ lyric modes; focusing instead on prose; novels; novellas; novelettes; essays; criticism; chunks of memoir and ‘hybrid’ lumps. \nOpening the series we have two poets whose work (and dual radiant vibe) need very little introduction (to those who’ve been following literary avant-gardes in Britain for the last decade or so): Kirsty Dunlop and Maria Sledmere. Between them they compose the centripetal force of Glasgow’s celebrated post-internet DIY publishing project SPAM and have produced a truly terrifying volume of exceedingly brilliant poetry collections\, scholarly work and experiments. \nAt Housmans they will be discussing their recent experiments in fiction writing: Kirsty’s Centrefolding and Maria’s The Indigo Hours. \nCentrefolding follows an unnamed protagonist who shifts\, sprints\, swerves and transmorphs through the “Centre!” (exclamation mark required)\, a research institute in some northern British city\, in our current jittery moment. Glitches in reality abound: expect research into alien life that goes nowhere\, an underground hospital\, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence\, and ‘lingerers’ slithering under glass doors (you know\, like a worm). Daisy Lafarge says it is her ‘dream novelette: gossipy\, pacy\, and full of gorgeous swerves of language. With enviable wit and inventiveness’. \nThe Indigo Hours is an immersive\, radiant text that moves between autofiction\, essay\, and poetic prose to document the textures of contemporary longing. Centred around a seasonal arc and filtered through the ambient melancholia of late capitalism\, the work refracts emotional experience through media\, memory\, pop culture\, and shifting landscapes—from Berlin pools to prairie towns\, from night buses to art galleries. Sledmere’s sentences are lush\, recursive\, and sensorily attuned\, sustaining a rhythmic\, diaristic lyricism that continually folds the personal into the atmospheric. What emerges is a powerful reckoning with intimacy\, grief\, and temporality at the edges of digital and embodied life. ‘Maria Sledmere tells a post-Romantic tale of moonlit precarity and passion among pools & thunderstorms & prairies & airports…’ says Poppy Cockburn. \nBoth poets will read from their work\, discuss shared ideas\, themes\, feelings and forms. As always with our poetry series\, we encourage you to byob and the spirit of celebration and conversation. If we have time we might engage in a more general conversation on the nature of poetry\, prose and other aesthetic modes gurgling up thru this current zombied epoch of slow collapse and cultural amnesia. (‘Why do all the poets write novels now\, anyway??’ we might ask.) \nThis is a free event\, but we have limited capacity so please do book ahead using the link below. \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/housmans-poetry-series/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260527T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260527T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260511T142923Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084237Z UID:6269-1779908400-1779913800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE PLOT IS ON FIRE: Manuela Zechner in conversation with Max Haiven DESCRIPTION:We are delighted to welcome Manuela Zechner to Housmans to talk about her truly original and radical work in postcolonial eco-theory. \nAs myths of progress and modernisation collapse in the relentless polycrisis of our time\, how do we strengthen other plots—in community\, practice and struggle? How do we come together as movements for earthcare? \nThe Plot is on Fire: Care Struggles after Progress\, Plantation and Patriarchy weaves stories\, proposals\, and analyses around a key domain of living reproduction in crisis: agriculture. Looking at peasant\, indigenous\, and transecofeminist practices\, it formulates another plot on how we want to sustain life collectively—beyond progress\, plantation\, and patriarchy. \nRecovering and repurposing old and new technologies\, and breaking down the division between rural and urban\, the ground is made fertile for growing other futures. Alongside writers like Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler\, this work of radical political theory raises critical questions about technology and storytelling\, as matters of care and community. \nManuela will be in conversation with Max Haiven author of Palm Oil: The Grease of Empire (Pluto). They will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour followed by a discussion with the audience. \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-plot-is-on-fire-manuela-zechner-in-conversation-with-max-haiven/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260526T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260526T213000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260501T204126Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260519T084354Z UID:6227-1779822000-1779831000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:The Plot is on Fire with MayDay Rooms and Manuela Zechner DESCRIPTION:Many of the materials from our ecological holdings offer examples of organised attempts to confront ecological crisis through insurgent\, ground-level direct-action. In this spirit\, we invite you to join us in this practical session with Manuela Zechner\, who will share key takes from her new book\, The Plot is on Fire: Care Struggles after Progress\, Plantation and Patriarchy (Pluto 2026) and its chapters on tech and agrarian extractivism\, as well as from the work of the Common Ecologies School on agrarian extractivism and building agroecological counterpower. \nWe’ll be looking towards toxic tech extractivism and the new digital and data frontiers that capitalism is pushing\, and map some of the forms of resistance we see or imagine springing up around us. How might we resist data centres\, microchip factories\, toxic tech assembly lines\, and mines for rare earths? And how do struggles around water and land intersect with struggles against toxic algorithmic and data harvesting regimes? Bring what you know\, along with what you want to learn about these and other contemporary ecological struggles\, and we’ll take time to map it together and orient it toward a shared horizon. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/the-plot-is-on-fire-with-mayday-rooms-and-manuela-zechner/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260520T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260520T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260508T022918Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T131622Z UID:6260-1779303600-1779309000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:HAJAR READS DESCRIPTION:‘At this\, the man turned in their direction and smiled; he played not for the dream of success but because this new world necessitated beauty of all kinds. The new world was not just labour\, but labour for the sake of life-making.’\n— Lola Olufemi\, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise \nJoin us for Hajar Reads: Play. In this reading and discussion group\, we’ll reflect on play as a life-affirming practice\, considering how embracing play and playfulness can open us up to more expansive ways of thinking\, creating and living. \nWe’ll use short extracts from selected Hajar Press titles—including Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (Lola Olufemi)\, COOP (Nida Sajid) and Seeing for Ourselves (Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan)—as a starting point for our discussion. \nExtracts will be shared in advance of the session\, but there’s no expectation to have read them all to take part—just come along ready to listen\, think and share! \nThis session\, hosted by Hajar Press\, will be facilitated by Amber Obasi from Hajar Press and Dr Durre Shahwar. \nDr Durre Shahwar is an interdisciplinary writer\, researcher\, and artist. She is the author of One of the Good Ones\, a pamphlet accompanying her solo photo exhibition on archives\, seeking sanctuary\, and documentation\, exhibited and published in 2026 by Ffotogallery\, Cardiff. She is co-editor of Gathering: Women of Colour on Nature (2024) and Just So You Know (2020). Durre has a PhD in autofiction and Pakistani-Welsh identity from Cardiff University and was the recipient of a Future Wales Fellowship. Her work deconstructs established frameworks to present counter-narratives that capture the complexities of lived experiences when situated within social\, cultural\, political and geographical landscapes. Durre divides her time between South London and Cardiff and is currently working on her debut non-fiction book. \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/hajar-reads/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260519T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260519T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260421T023015Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T095330Z UID:6039-1779217200-1779222600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: The Forest Fights Back with Jessica den Outer DESCRIPTION:Join Us For A Discussion Of A Global Movement for the Rights of Nature\nAs the world grapples with the escalating climate crisis\, ecosystems are collapsing\, and the planet’s future hangs in the balance. For centuries\, our legal systems have treated nature as something to be owned and exploited\, but a bold new movement is challenging this paradigm. \nIn The Forest Fights Back\, Jessica den Outer explores a groundbreaking global movement—Rights of Nature—taking on the legal system to recognise the rights of rivers\, forests\, and mountains to exist\, flourish\, and sustain their ecological balance. From the fight for the Whanganui River in New Zealand to the battle for Spain’s Mar Menor lagoon\, den Outer highlights the campaigns led by grassroots communities\, telling stories of determination and legal ingenuity. \nThis movement goes beyond law – it represents a cultural shift that could reshape how we live\, think\, co-exist and advocate for nature. \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. \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-forest-fights-back-with-jessica-den-outer/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T213000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260505T022916Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T131554Z UID:6244-1778698800-1778707800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:An Evening of Techno-Negativity with MayDay rooms and Thomas Dekeyser DESCRIPTION:Join us for an evening diving into the long histories of technological resistance\, with MayDay rooms and Thomas Dekeyser. \nAt a time when Big Tech grows increasingly enmeshed with authoritarian control\, how do we resist? One path\, the new book\, TECHNO-NEGATIVE: A LONG HISTORY OF REFUSING THE MACHINE argues\, is to look deeply into the archives. From the Luddites to medieval monks banning tools\, seventeenth-century loom burners\, revolutionary lantern smashers\, and computer arsonists\, history is riddled with critical junctures where people have recognised and resisted the machine as a violent\, sometimes deadly force. \nWhich traces in the archives does our current techno-dystopian moment call us to bring back to life? How do we draw energy from radical pasts without romanticising them? An informal panel with the author of the book (Thomas Dekeyser) will explore these questions\, and will be followed by a chance to read through techno-negative archives\, including Mayday Rooms’ own collections. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/an-evening-of-techno-negativity-with-mayday-rooms-and-thomas-dekeyser/ LOCATION:Mayday Rooms\, 88 Fleet Street\, EC4Y 1AE CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260418T022922Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260422T134329Z UID:6025-1778698800-1778704200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:'Bored Stiff: the punk 'zine and scene that refused to die' an evening with Terry Macalister\, Gaye Advert and Emilia Elfrida DESCRIPTION:FREE ENTRY BUT PLEASE RSVP USING THE FROM AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE \nThis event celebrates a Bored Stiff book half a century after a fanzine of that name burst into life at the height of the punk “explosion.” \nOriginal creator Terry Macalister has brought together in contemporary time a group of musicians\, photographers and club owners who made the punk scene what it was then and what it has become now. \nLaid out in the original way using marker pens and manual typewriters\, Bored Stiff\, the book\, is a totally original and authentic window into what academics have called a “significant cultural intervention.” \nWith the help of Martin Hand – a graphic designer\, Bored Stiff contains interviews with band members from the likes of The Adverts\, Penetration and the Menstrual Cramps as well as folk such as Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington who created the Roxy and Vortex punk clubs. \nThere are also copies in this new book of the original fanzine which include live reviews from the late 1970s of the Sex Pistols\, 999 and Iggy Pop and harnesses the raw energy of the early days of punk. \nGaye Advert\, the bassist of the Adverts\, will be at the book launch to talk about her role in the early punk scene along with Emilia Elfrida\, vocalist and songwriter of today’s self-styled lesbian punk band\, the Menstrual Cramps. \nThey will discuss why punk happened\, what it means to them and why it has survived albeit in different form 50 years on. Terry and Martin will explain how they put together the new version of Bored Stiff and why they insist on an analogue production that eschews the superficial glamour of the digital print world. \nTerry Macalister is the original creator of Bored Stiff and the author of the new compilation of old and new material. Excited by the success of the early fanzine\, Terry went on to spend his life in national journalism\, most notably as a specialist editor on The Guardian. \nHe is the author of several books including Crude Britannia (Pluto Press) and Polar Opposites (Guardian ebooks)\, executive producer of The Oil Machine film and co-producer of the forthcoming Earth Mother documentary. He is the founder of a Cambridge-based protest choir and sees himself now more as artist and activist than journalist. \nFREE ENTRY BUT PLEASE RSVP USING THE FROM AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/bored-stiff-the-punk-zine-and-scene-that-refused-to-die-an-evening-with-terry-macalister-gaye-advert-and-emilia-elfrida/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260512T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260512T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260415T022931Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T095252Z UID:5994-1778612400-1778617800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: THE ASSET CLASS: HETTIE O'BRIEN IN CONVERSATION WITH DAN HANCOX DESCRIPTION:‘PART WAKE-UP CALL\, PART FINANCIAL THRILLER’ (SHAMI CHAKRABARTI) The Asset Class is an equal parts thrilling and enraging work of vital\nfinancial journalism\, lifting the lid on the relentlessly destructive force of private equity. We are thrilled to welcome the book’s author Hettie O’Brien to Housmans to be interviewed about the book by celebrated journalist Dan Hancox.\nA thrilling\, eye-opening investigation into private equity\, a secretive wing of the finance industry that is so relentlessly destructive\, it could have been created to undermine our way of life. You don’t know their names\, but they own the house you rent. They own your hospitals\, nurseries and care homes\, the media you consume and the companies you work for. They even own the tools your union uses to fight back. Business is a contest – and they say their people are built to win. But when does competition become a struggle to the death? For decades\, private equity firms have infiltrated every corner of modern life. Wielding debt as a weapon\, they push vital services into crisis. Their cover story: that this is merely the ‘creative destruction’ essential to growth. Old-school capitalists say they’re dismantling everything that made our economies work. \nIn The Asset Class\, reporter Hettie O’Brien penetrates a hidden empire of billion-dollar deals and covert financial warfare. From Copenhagen to San Francisco\, Barcelona to the Yorkshire Dales\, she follows the money\, the ideological roots and the trail of destruction. What she finds is chilling: private equity isn’t just reshaping the economy – it’s selling out the foundations of Western society. The new owners think they can hide in the shadows. But the owned are fighting back. \nHettie will be interviewed by Dan Hancox\, Guardian journalist and author of Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World (Verso\, 2024). They will talk about the book for about 45 minutes followed by a q&a. \nTo avoid disappointment\, please do book a ticket ahead of the event. \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 \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-launch-the-asset-class-hettie-obrien-in-conversation-with-dan-hancox/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260508T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260508T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260508T022915Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260512T131444Z UID:6259-1778266800-1778272200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:SOLD OUT: REVOLUTIONARY FORGIVENESS: D. K. RENTON in conversation with Barnaby Raine DESCRIPTION:THIS EVENT IT NOW SOLD OUT. TO BE ADDED TO A WAITING LIST PLEASE EMAIL SHOP@HOUSMANS.COM Housmans are delighted to welcome the legendary theorist\, thinker and lawyer D.K. Renton to launch what we believe may be one of the most original\, and vital\, works of left wing thought to appear in recent years. He will be joined in conversation by the scholar and journalist Barnaby Raine. \nForgiveness is necessary in the long fight for a just world—but it is only possible after the oppressed are victorious \nFor too long\, revolutionary social movements have reconciled to defeat. We must start winning again. Forgiveness is a crucial strategy for remaking the world\, to secure and sustain victories\, to transform one-time enemies into friends. With deep political commitment\, D. K. Renton makes the case for forgiveness—but of a particularly unruly sort. Tracing the tragic abuse of Eleanor Marx and Jane Wells\, the mistakes of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission\, and the redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye\, Renton urges us to forgive\, but only after tearing down the citadels of the rich. \nRevolutionary Forgiveness connects collective struggle with the individual’s search for justice to demand a better future for all—when the oppressed will be magnanimous in power\, and even former oppressors will be free. \n“Renton rescues ‘forgiveness’ from the pulpit and returns it\, bloodied but lucid\, to history.” \n— Richard Seymour\, author of Disaster Nationalism \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. \nTHIS EVENT IT 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-revolutionary-forgiveness-d-k-renton-in-conversation-with-barnaby-raine/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260508T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260508T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260421T023014Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T095213Z UID:6038-1778266800-1778272200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: REVOLUTIONARY FORGIVENESS: D. K. RENTON in conversation with Barnaby Raine DESCRIPTION:Housmans are delighted to welcome the legendary theorist\, thinker and lawyer D.K. Renton to launch what we believe may be one of the most original\, and vital\, works of left wing thought to appear in recent years. He will be joined in conversation by the scholar and journalist Barnaby Raine. \nForgiveness is necessary in the long fight for a just world—but it is only possible after the oppressed are victorious \nFor too long\, revolutionary social movements have reconciled to defeat. We must start winning again. Forgiveness is a crucial strategy for remaking the world\, to secure and sustain victories\, to transform one-time enemies into friends. With deep political commitment\, D. K. Renton makes the case for forgiveness—but of a particularly unruly sort. Tracing the tragic abuse of Eleanor Marx and Jane Wells\, the mistakes of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission\, and the redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye\, Renton urges us to forgive\, but only after tearing down the citadels of the rich. \nRevolutionary Forgiveness connects collective struggle with the individual’s search for justice to demand a better future for all—when the oppressed will be magnanimous in power\, and even former oppressors will be free. \n“Renton rescues ‘forgiveness’ from the pulpit and returns it\, bloodied but lucid\, to history.” \n— Richard Seymour\, author of Disaster Nationalism \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-revolutionary-forgiveness-d-k-renton-in-conversation-with-barnaby-raine/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260508T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260508T190000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260501T204121Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260501T204619Z UID:6223-1778266800-1778266800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Punk Spirit! book talk with author John Malkin DESCRIPTION:‘Punk Spirit! An Oral History of Punk Rock\, Solidarity and Liberation’ is an oral history that brings together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols\, Minor Threat\, Dead Kennedys\, The Ramones\, Gang of Four\, Crass\, Propagandhi\, The Slits\, Bad Religion\, Shelter\, Rebel Riot\, Blackfire\, and many others. John Malkin ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk artists and spiritual teachers from around the world and highlights intelligent\, thoughtful\, and humorous discussions on liberation\, spirituality\, and living freely. Chapters dive deeply into many interconnected realms of punk such as the subgenres of straight edge\, Krishnacore and Taqwacore; evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches and illegal punk concerts in East German churches; anti-religious sentiment within punk; and the myriad ways punk has been combined with a variety of traditions to illuminate ideas from atheism\, anarchism\, science\, Buddhism\, Christianity\, Judaism\, Islam\, and other ways of being in the world. \nJohn Malkin is a journalist\, musician\, activist\, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author ofPunk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism (Rowman & Littlefield 2023). \n“Punk Spirit!\, with its unique blend of anarchic counterculture and classic psychoanalytical theory\, makes for a most compelling read. From incarnation to oral history\, the power of punk compels you!” —Steven Blush\, Author and Filmmaker\, American Hardcore \n“I devoured Punk Spirit! in two sittings. It was pure enjoyment to read – pure exhilaration! Crack openPunk Spirit! and behold a ‘volatile church’ where the lifeblood of a rich\, complex\, and passionately punk spirituality surges through every page. Incited by John Malkin’s galvanizing questions\, the collective voices of his interlocutors raise up a kaleidoscopic vision of punk spirit that is as vibrantly alive as it is full of surprises.” —Glenn Wallis\, Guitarist for Ruin\, Author of An Anarchist’s Manifesto \n“Punk Spirit! is an affirming and varied testimony to the significance of punk music and spirit in the library of humanity and existence. Explore! The Spirit of Punk reflects how in our extreme punk expression of letting go of societal norms and indoctrination\, we find liberation and peace in reaching for and manifesting another state of being and its possibilities.” —Yaotl Mazahua\, Iconoclast\, Aztlan Underground (aka Anahuak Underground) \n“A skilled interviewer\, John Malkin is one of a handful of punk mavens willing to explore its deep\, spiritual intimations. This is a monumental collection of conversations\, offering anyone with a reasonable curiosity about punk rock and spirituality the opportunity to understand their amorphous\, vibrant\, and sometimes revolutionary entanglements. If God is dead\, punk is not dead\, and the anti-establishment postures and rebellious spirit captured in Malkin’s book lives on!” \n—Ken Chitwood\, Religion Scholar\, Journalist\, Theologian “Punk is far from dead; it is getting richer and richer. We are lucky to have John Malkin look at a very specific aspect of that world. With gems from more than 150 interviews conducted over the course of a quarter century\,Punk Spirit! is an important contribution to the ever-growing oral history of one of the world’s most compelling subcultures.” \n—Gabriel Kuhn\, Author of Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk\, Straight Edge\, and Radical Politics “You need this book if you ever screamed at the sky and wanted it to scream back. Lively and vivid\,Punk Spirit! dares you to ask: What does it mean to be free?” \n—Antonino D’Ambrosio\, Filmmaker\, Author\, and Visual Artist\, Let Fury Have the Hour “This book tries to make sense of the madness that is punk and to find the meaning in the noise\, the spirituality in the energy\, and the idealism in the anger.” —John Robb\, Bassist and Singer for The Membranes\, Author ofPunk Rock: An Oral History and The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth \n“For those of us who came up in punk clubs and later found a home in spiritual practice\, this book isn’t just interesting—it’s personal.”—Miguel Chen\, Bassist for Teenage Bottlerocket; author of I Wanna Be Well and The Death of You \n“Captivating. Malkin connects with an amazing array of artists and enlarges the vision of the spirit of punk.” —Eddie Stern\, Bassist for Chop Shop; Yoga and Meditation Teacher for Lou Reed \n“Malkin’s decades-long trek takes us dead center into the interior. No bullshit.” —Gary Gach\, Author of The Complete Idiots Guide to Understanding Buddhism John Malkin is a journalist\, musician\, activist\, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author ofPunk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism (Rowman & Littlefield 2023). URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/punk-spirit-book-talk-with-author-john-malkin/ LOCATION:Freedom Bookshop\, Angel Alley\, 84b Whitechapel High Street\, E1 7QX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/6223_image_freedom_press_london_may_8_2026.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260507T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260507T190000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260424T142949Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T095129Z UID:6092-1778180400-1778180400@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Book Talk: Fascist Yoga with with Stewart Home DESCRIPTION:Join us to welcome author Stewart Home to talk about his book ‘Fascist Yoga: Grifters\, Occultists\, White Supremacists\, and the New Order In Wellness’ \nThe practice of yoga promises peace\, self-realisation and release\, thanks to the power of its ‘mystic’ Indian origins. But what if this is just hype? In Fascist Yoga\, Stewart Home sweeps away the half-truths to tell a new origin story of the world’s first modern yogi – a Californian escapologist who added some Hindu fairy dust to gym and circus exercises. \nEver since\, the world of yoga has been full of grifters\, occultists and white supremacists\, all out to exploit and recruit via the medium of exercise. From cult leaders to brainwashed followers\, TV celebrities and fake gurus\, the story of yoga has involved some of the strangest currents of humanity. \nToday\, the COVID pandemic has activated elements within the modern yoga movement to espouse far-right conspiracies\, and QAnon’s fascist political programmes mirror some of yoga’s key early proponents.\nIn this new exposé\, Stewart Home shows that nothing is sacred. \nAbout the author:\nStewart Home is a legend of counterculture. He is an artist\, filmmaker\, pamphleteer\, art historian and activist\, and the author of countless pulp fictions\, including most recently Art School Orgy and She’s My Witch. He regularly performs to audiences across the world and recently started making headstand paintings with the canvas placed above him and brushes held in his toes. He was born and lives in London. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-talk-fascist-yoga-with-with-stewart-home/ LOCATION:Freedom Bookshop\, Angel Alley\, 84b Whitechapel High Street\, E1 7QX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/6092_image_yoga.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260505T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260505T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260330T142921Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260404T144125Z UID:5825-1778007600-1778013000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: PUNK SPIRIT! DESCRIPTION:AN ORAL HISTORY OF PUNK ROCK\, SPIRITUALITY AND LIBERATION\nWe are super excited to welcome John Malkin over from California to talk about his incredible\, and as far as we can tell\, unique\, book: Punk Spirit! We’ve had countless books about punk (not to mention zines) pass through Housmans over the year but none that quite approach the topic from this angle. \nPunk Spirit! is an oral history that examines this movement from many unique perspectives\, bringing together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols\, Minor Threat\, Dead Kennedys\, The Ramones\, Gang of Four\, Pussy Riot\, Crass\, Talking Heads\, Propagandhi\, The Slits\, Bad Religion\, Shelter\, Rebel Riot\, Blackfire\, and many others. \nPunk Spirit! ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk artists and activists from around the world and highlights intelligent\, thoughtful\, and humorous discussions on liberation\, spirituality\, and living freely. They discuss a myriad of topics from creativity and anger to freedom from suffering and the ways that punk rock has opposed or embodied religious and moral tenets. Chapters dive deeply into a variety of interconnected realms of punk rock such as the subgenre of straight edge\, Krishnacore and Taqwacore\, evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches\, illegal punk concerts in East German churches\, anti-religious sentiment within punk rock\, the vital connections between punk and self-expression\, and the myriad ways punk rock has been combined with spiritual and religious traditions to illuminate ideas from science\, atheism\, Buddhism\, Christianity\, Judaism\, Islam\, and other ways of being in the world. \nAnd complete with a forward by one of our favorite writers\, Penny Rimbaud! How could we have said no?! \nJohn Malkin is a journalist\, musician\, activist\, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author of Punk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism \, and his interviews and writings have been published in internationally including Adbusters\, Punk Planet\, Razorcake\, Spirituality & Health\, Z Magazine\, Ode\, In These Times\, Sojourners\, The Sun\, Film International\, Shambhala Sun\, Tricycle\, Friends Journal\, The Santa Cruz Sentinel\, The Monterey Herald\, and others. He lives in Santa Cruz\, California with his wife and son. \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-talk-punk-spirit/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260502T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260502T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260501T022950Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T102306Z UID:6202-1777748400-1777753800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:[POSTPONED] Book Launch: Liquid Reflections with Liliane Lijn DESCRIPTION:PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES – PLEASE CHECK BACK SOON FOR A RESCHEDULED DATE. We are profoundly honored to be hosting the paperback launch for a memoir by one the world’s greatest living artists\, the sculptor Liliane Lijn\, who will be joined in conversation by leading art writer Jennifer Higgie. Liliane Lijn is an artist who needs little introduction. Her stirring\, often ostentatious and always poetic works are dotted throughout the British urban landscape\, and overseas. Regular visitors to Housmans will have no doubt seen her recent piece Temenos just up the road from us\, near Granary Square. \nWe will host Liliane May 2nd to launch the paperback edition of her brilliant bildungsroman Liquid Reflections. The book begins in 1958 with the talented and fearless Liliane Lijn leaving her family home and moving to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there\, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. In the years that followed\, Lijn built a life for herself in the city. She embraced the hectic bohemian spirit of the Left Bank. She befriended artists\, painters\, poets\, gallerists and revolutionaries\, as the late Surrealists gave way to a burgeoning Pop Art movement. She had disastrous love affairs with difficult men. She experimented boldly\, creating ground-breaking sculptures with light\, text and movement. And as her profile steadily grew\, she was told again and again that there are no great women artists: ‘There never have been.’ \nLiquid Reflections is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure – years when Lijn was constantly in motion\, from Paris to New York to Venice to Athens\, from paper and canvas to wax and Perspex to oil and water. In love\, she became pregnant but rebelled against the idea that a woman could not be both a great artist and a mother. And she sought – and found – radical pleasure in the act of creative expression and in the living\, sensuous world around her. \nBased on personal diaries from the time\, this is a riveting and revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman. \n‘I wrote LIQUID REFLECTIONS because I wanted to take my readers on the journey I made to become an artist. It’s the story of an idealistic\, inspired young woman who refuses to accept the prejudices of her time. Becoming an artist was also a search for my own identity…’— Liliane Lijn \nLiliane will be conversation with the art writer Jennifer Higgie\, author of numerous books\, her most recent being The Other Side: A Journey into Women\, Art and the Spirit World\, the first major work of art history to focus on women artists and their engagement with the spirit world. \nThis is going to be an extremely special event and we are delighted to be hosting it. Please do book a ticket in advance to avoid disappointment on the night. \nLiliane and Jennifer will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by an open discussion with the audience. Doors will open at 6:45\, with the event starting around 7. \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/postponed-book-launch-liquid-reflections-with-liliane-lijn/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260502T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260502T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260414T023023Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260427T095043Z UID:5989-1777748400-1777753800@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK LAUNCH: LIQUID REFLECTIONS WITH LILIANE LIJN DESCRIPTION:We are profoundly honored to be hosting the paperback launch for a memoir by one the world’s greatest living artists\, the sculptor Liliane Lijn\, who will be joined in conversation by leading art writer Jennifer Higgie.\nLiliane Lijn is an artist who needs little introduction. Her stirring\, often ostentatious and always poetic works are dotted throughout the British urban landscape\, and overseas. Regular visitors to Housmans will have no doubt seen her recent piece Temenos just up the road from us\, near Granary Square. \nWe will host Liliane May 2nd to launch the paperback edition of her brilliant bildungsroman Liquid Reflections. The book begins in 1958 with the talented and fearless Liliane Lijn leaving her family home and moving to Paris alone to become an artist. Once there\, she found an art world filled with the wild energy of creative revolution – peopled and controlled almost entirely by men. In the years that followed\, Lijn built a life for herself in the city. She embraced the hectic bohemian spirit of the Left Bank. She befriended artists\, painters\, poets\, gallerists and revolutionaries\, as the late Surrealists gave way to a burgeoning Pop Art movement. She had disastrous love affairs with difficult men. She experimented boldly\, creating ground-breaking sculptures with light\, text and movement. And as her profile steadily grew\, she was told again and again that there are no great women artists: ‘There never have been.’ \nLiquid Reflections is her memoir of these years of experiment and adventure – years when Lijn was constantly in motion\, from Paris to New York to Venice to Athens\, from paper and canvas to wax and Perspex to oil and water. In love\, she became pregnant but rebelled against the idea that a woman could not be both a great artist and a mother. And she sought – and found – radical pleasure in the act of creative expression and in the living\, sensuous world around her. \nBased on personal diaries from the time\, this is a riveting and revelatory account of a singular coming of age: a glittering portrait of the artist as a young woman. \n‘I wrote LIQUID REFLECTIONS because I wanted to take my readers on the journey I made to become an artist. It’s the story of an idealistic\, inspired young woman who refuses to accept the prejudices of her time. Becoming an artist was also a search for my own identity…’\n— Liliane Lijn \nLiliane will be conversation with the art writer Jennifer Higgie\, author of numerous books\, her most recent being The Other Side: A Journey into Women\, Art and the Spirit World\, the first major work of art history to focus on women artists and their engagement with the spirit world. \nThis is going to be an extremely special event and we are delighted to be hosting it. Please do book a ticket in advance to avoid disappointment on the night. \nLiliane and Jennifer will talk for around 45 minutes to an hour\, followed by an open discussion with the audience. Doors will open at 6:45\, with the event starting around 7. \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-liquid-reflections-with-liliane-lijn/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260429T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260429T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260331T142936Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260603T143556Z UID:5829-1777489200-1777494600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:BOOK TALK: The Journal of a Kurdish Political Prisoner DESCRIPTION:Join for a discussion of the journal of Kurdish revolutionary\, Ali Poyraz. He spent twenty-one years and four months in Turkish prisons. He was born in 1962 in Bozüyük\, an Alevi village in the Gürün district of Sivas. According to Yeni Özgür Politika\, his political consciousness was shaped by his older brother\, Hüseyin Poyraz (also known as Rubar Dicle)\, a member of the PKK Central Committee. In 1981\, Ali was captured by Turkish authorities in a rural area of Pazarcık while serving as a PKK cadre. Tried by a military court\, he was sentenced to death. Although the Turkish Supreme Court upheld the sentence\, it was later commuted to twenty-one years and four months of imprisonment following the abolition of the death penalty in Turkey under Prime Minister Turgut Özal. \nAli’s journal records his thoughts and observations\, providing invaluable insight into life inside Turkish prisons\, including the organisation\, morale\, and activities of political prisoners. His journal is a mine of information that lends itself to much probing and understanding of the conflict between the Turkish state and the PKK over the past 45 years. This book is published for scholarly purposes\, following the recent disbandment of the PKK as an armed force\, and the changing political landscape in Turkey today. \nWe will discuss this powerful and important book\, followed by a wider discussion of political imprisonment more generally. \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. \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/book-talk-the-journal-of-a-kurdish-political-prisoner/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260424T193000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260424T193000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260409T022947Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260413T162454Z UID:5917-1777059000-1777059000@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:Old Bomb Theatre Company presents "Craggy Hole Caves" DESCRIPTION:Nele Poolerton is the local guide at Craggy Hole Caves in Yorkshire giving tours on prehistoric finds. However lately she’s had to live at work and she’s struggling to understand the intentions of her limited boss\, Stanley. Why is there a pillar in the cave called a witch? Where do the other caves lead? When did history first teach that god was a man?“Did you know that Neanderthals actually worshipped women? Yeah\, first religion ever was no pie-in-the-sky beardy bloke for them. None of this pale\, male and stale crap. No\, they worshipped women”Through the caves\, Nele takes us on a tour of the female reproductive system\, “yer basic cradle of life”. Craggy Hole Caves is funny\, it’s rude\, it looks at history when it was herstory and it plays with fire. URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/old-bomb-theatre-company-presents-craggy-hole-caves/ LOCATION:The Feminist Library\, 161 Sumner Road\, SE15 6JL CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/webp:https://www.eroding.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/5917_image_craggy_hole_caves_-_events_feminist_library.webp END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260424T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260424T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260330T142920Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260404T143844Z UID:5824-1777057200-1777062600@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:PUBLIC LECTURE: Laurence Housman and the Women's Suffrage Movement DESCRIPTION:Learn about Housmans’ namesake and his efforts to fight for women’s suffrage. This free talk is in collaboration UCL\, who hold the Laurence Housman archive. Personal items of Housman’s taken from the archive will be on display. \nThis public lecture will explore Housmans Bookshop namesake Laurence Housman (1865-1958) and his active role in the women’s suffrage movement. It will shed new light on UCL’s Laurence Housman Collection by discussing how Housman’s sociopolitical values emerged during the Victorian period as he developed an artistic practice as an Aesthetic and Decadent illustrator. Housman was also a writer who would go on to contribute to Votes for Women (1908-18)\, a suffrage newspaper edited by Emmeline and Frederick Pethick-Lawrence. He would later collaborate with his sister\, the engraver Clemence Housman\, to found the Suffrage Atelier\, an artists’ collective. Using illustration as a form of social and political resistance\, Housman designed An Anti-Suffrage Alphabet (1911)\, a work that featured many women artists who would go on to forge professional careers\, including Pamela Colman Smith. \nDr Michelle Reynolds is a researcher in nineteenth- and twentieth-century art and visual culture. Her PhD thesis\, which she completed at the University of Exeter\, considered the professionalisation of women illustrators and cartoonists in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain and their relationship to the socio-political and cultural phenomenon of the New Woman. Her research interests include women artists and designers\, illustration and book studies\, gender and sexuality\, reform movements\, dress histories\, and graphic satire. \nThis is a free event\, but please RSVP. Link below: \n  URL:https://www.eroding.org.uk/event/public-lecture-laurence-housman-and-the-womens-suffrage-movement/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Presentations END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260423T190000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260423T203000 DTSTAMP:20260622T220243 CREATED:20260414T023021Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260415T211253Z UID:5987-1776970800-1776976200@www.eroding.org.uk SUMMARY:DOG SECTION PRESS PRESENTS: FEMINISMS DESCRIPTION:Dog Section Press presents an evening of poetry\, words and music in celebration of their recent publication: Feminisms. \nCurated and hosted by Antonia May Cross\, featuring book contributors Janey Starling (Yakkie band) & Abu Leila (London Renters Union) and music and poetry from Dream Date and Alice Brady. \nFeminisms is a collection of ten essays from a diverse milieu of writers on the subject of feminism. Each piece is illustrated by Cat Sims. \nFeminisms features: Ren Aldridge & Janey Starling\, Stacey Clare\, Abu Leila\, Lola Olufemi\, Leah Cowan\, Emma Heaney\, Nazmia Jamal\, Sophie K Rosa\, Sophie Lewis and Dilar Dirik. \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/dog-section-press-presents-feminisms/ LOCATION:Housmans\, 5 Caledonian Road King’s Cross\, N1 9DX CATEGORIES:Bookshops/Libraries,Gigs,Presentations END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR