What's on

Were You There? The Story of Manchester Free Trade Hall.

Performance Space

THE FREE TRADE HALL – THE MOST IMPORTANT POPULAR MUSIC VENUE IN GREAT BRITAIN BETWEEN 1951 AND 1996 Richard Lysons, author of 'Were You There? Popular Music At Manchester's Free Trade Hall 1951-1996' will talk to veteran Manchester music writer, Mick Middles about his widely acclaimed book. Manchester's Free Trade Hall was arguably the most […]

Living Library: This is What an Activist

We host a living library event to mark the launch of a new campaign that breaks stereotypes on what an activist looks like and showcase how generations are working together to tackle climate change. The ‘This Is What An Activist’ campaign launch coincides with the International Day of Older Persons and the living library event […]

Drag Queen Bingo

Performance Space

We’re celebrating Older People’s Day in style, with an afternoon of bingo. But this is Manchester. We do things differently here! Join the fabulous Angel Delight for a sparkling afternoon of fun, including stand up bingo, bongo bingo, singalongs and loads more. Please phone 0161 234 1932 to book your FREE tickets. Maximum of six […]

Goalkeeper: Memoir of Peter Street Book Launch

Performance Space

Spondylux Press, Manchester Poetry Library and Manchester Libraries are proud to invite you to the book launch of 'Goalkeeper' The Memoir of poet Peter Street. One 'alone, but not lonely' boy's triumph over adversity, motivated by his dream of becoming a professional footballer and a longing for truth and connection. Street's childhood memoir is a […]

Jeanette Winterson & Mark O’Connell

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL ‘How did we get here? Where might we go?’ Is the future ‘a screen onto which we project our fantasies and terrors’? What can the past tell us about the future? Are we all doomed? And what’s gender got to do with it? Jeanette Winterson’s latest book 12 Bytes considers our relationship with […]

£10 – £12

Monique Roffey & Ingrid Persaud

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL ‘Later I saw that change came as change always comes, from a chain of events with a long history, too long to see from back to front, till it come.’ In The Mermaid of Black Conch, Monique Roffey’s Costa Book of the Year winner, the life of David, one of the island’s […]

£10 – £12

Elif Shafak in Conversation

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL A fig tree with a tale to tell; a grieving teenage girl who wants to know her family’s story; two sets of lovers hiding from society. In her enchanting new novel, The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak considers how the story of humans and the natural world are entwined. Set in London […]

£8 – £10

An Evening with Alan Johnson

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL Much-loved former Labour MP Alan Johnson makes a welcome return to MLF. Following his series of successful memoirs – This Boy, In My Life, The Long and Winding Road and Please, Mr Postman, Alan has turned to fiction, joining us to discuss his thrilling debut novel The Late Train to Gypsy Hill. Featuring a Ukranian waitress mixed up in […]

£10 – £12

Black Britain Writing Back: Bernardine Evaristo

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL Celebrating a landmark new series curated by Booker Prize winning writer Bernardine Evaristo, Black Britain Writing Back re-introduces lost or hard-to-find books by Black writers who wrote about Black Britain and the diaspora across the Twentieth Century. Joining Bernardine is Jacqueline Roy whose novel The Fat Lady Sings tells the stories of Gloria and […]

£6 – £8

#Like Chopin – Mysterious Story in Manchester

Henry Watson Music Library

#LikeChopin – The Mysterious Story of Chopin in Manchester   In August 1848 Fryderyk Chopin travelled to Britain. During the visit he also gave a performance in Manchester.  The concert took place at the Manchester’s Gentleman Concert Hall on Peter Street. The Hall was demolished in 1887 and The Midland Hotel was built on the […]

Spanish-Language Stories: Mateo García Elizondo, Valerie Miles & Cristina Morales

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL Granta’s second selection of Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists showcases the work of 25 of the most exciting writers in the Spanish-speaking world. Valerie Miles, editor, writer, translator, co-founder of Granta’s literary journal in Spanish joins us to discuss the selection, which encompasses thirteen countries and territories. Two of the chosen authors will […]

An Evening with Colm Tóibín

Performance Space

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL ‘I can make no sense of the present. It is all confusion. I know nothing about the future.’ In his extraordinary new novel, The Magician, Colm Tóibín conjures up the past and the life of writer Thomas Mann. Against the backdrop of two world wars, Colm charts Mann’s rise to prominence and the […]

£12