Gautam Malkani on 'Londonstani', 8 June

One of this year's most talked about novels, Londonstani, is set close to the Heathrow feed-roads of Hounslow, and exposes a city where young Asians struggle to assert their own brand of Britishness while simultaneously trying to preserve ties to their parents' traditions. Written in the swirling slang of these young men, it explores aggresseive machismo, tribalism and racial integration in Britain's neglected suburban communities.

Gautam Malkani will be talking at the London Review Bookshop at 7 pm on 8 June. Tickets are £6 each, phone 020 7269 9030 or email books@lrbshop.co.uk.

Raymond Chandler still an influence

The new film Brick, an eighties melodrama played in the style of 1930s noir is said to be influenced by the works of Raymond Chandler (OA). Apparently the film took 8 years to make and is financed by friends and family of writer director Rian Johnson. It featured in the drama section of the Sundance Film Festival in January (the festival started by Robert Redford). It was released in cinemas on Friday 12 May Cert. 15

OA Poet in Herne Hill

Tom Chivers (OA 1996-2001) has left a job in the arts and is now working full-time promoting poetry. He runs Penned in the Margins which puts on various gigs in Herne Hill and he has his own radio show on Sundays at 1.30pm.

The Da Vinci Code: Faith, Fact or Fiction

On Thursday 1 June 2006 at 7.30pm Dr Garry Williams (tutor in Church History) will be speaking on the historical claims made by Dan Brown in his book The Da Vinci Code. The Talk is at the Grove Chapel, Camberwell Grove, SE5. Admission free. There is also an interesting article in last Saturday's Telegraph by Paul Bentley Why do so many believe Da Vinci's fictional claims?

UA Fanthorpe 'under the influence' of Robert Browning

The second in a series of talks organised by the Poetry Society and the London Review Bookshop, featuring U A Fanthorpe reading from her own poetry and that of Robert Browning. The series allows us to hear and ask about how working poets make use of their poetic predecessors. Tickets are £10 from the Poetry Society on 020 7420 9895 or email marketing@poetrysociety.org.uk. It will be held in the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury on May 18th at 7 pm.

Sarah Waters at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, 11 May

Award winning author talks and reads from her latest novel, Night Watch. 7:30 p m in the Linbury Room, including wine from 7 pm!

http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats_on/specialevents.aspx

Melvyn Bragg, 22 May

Talking about his new book Twelve Books that Changed the World, also the title of his new TV series. 6:30 - 8:30 pm at the London Review of Books Bookshop in Bloomsbury. Tickets are £6 by phoning 020 7279 9030 or emailing books@lrbshop.co.k

PEN International Writers' Day, May 13

At the ICA, and with the theme 'Migrations of the Mind', speakers include Jung Chang, Monica Ali and two writers shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize: Dubravka Ugresic and Yahar Ben Jelloun. Tickets cost £25 from 020 7930 3647.

Meet the author - Sarah Waters

Thursday 11 May 2006 Sarah Waters will be speaking and signing books at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Linbury Room 7.30pm about her new book The Night Watch. Tickets £10 or £8 for Friends, including wine from 7pm, available from The Bookshop Dulwich Village or the Friends Desk at the Picture Gallery.

Chilling Tales for Teens, 13th June

Random House Children's Books presents Dean Vincent Carter, E. E. Richardson and Melvin Burgess from 6:30 to 8:30 at their headquarters in Vauxhall Bridge Road. Chaired by Jonathan Douglas, they say it is 'guaranteed to be a stimulating and enjoyable evening'. To get a (free) place email s_shaper@hotmail.com.

Testosterone Night

We have a spare ticket for this event on 4th May at 7pm at Bar Kick near Old Street Tube. Presented by Usborne publishers, it features an audience with authors Graham Marks, Bernard Ashley and Tony Allan, and will be chaired by the ever-charismatic Jonathan Douglas. It's all about books FOR boys BY boys... Come and get a ticket in the Wodehouse Library if you'd like to go.

Voting for the Carnegie Award

As you know the Carnegie Medal nominations were announced on March 3rd - and the shortlist will be announced this Friday. We have lots of the titles in the Wodehouse Library, and they are on display in the inner room. Why not vote for the title which you think should win? You can have your say at http://intranet.dulwich.org.uk/online/carnegie.htm. We will be posting the results of the poll on the library website as they come in.

Orange Prize for Fiction

The shortlist was announced on April 26: The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss, Beyond Black, by Hilary Mantel, The Accidental, by Ali Smith, On Beauty, by Zadie Smith, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living by Carrie Tiffany and The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters. You can read the longlist at the Orange Prize Website.