Always Print The Myth, London
From the outside, public relations can seem like a pretty uninspiring business: an industry whose raison d’être is to massage the mainstream media’s presentation of reality for the benefit of the rich, famous and powerful. In this series of talks at the V&A, Alan Edwards, a PR who has represented a who’s who of humans-turned-newspaper-narratives (the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, the Spice Girls, David and Victoria Beckham), will take a long, hard look at the nature of the industry, and pinpoint some of the – presumably positive – ways PR continues to direct goings-on on the world stage, as well as exploring how it is adapting to an increasingly democratised media. This week sees Edwards speaking to royal family communications secretary Patrick Harverson (Thu), Ken Sunshine, representative of Leonardo DiCaprio and Barbra Streisand (9 May), and Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller (Sat); as well as examining the ways PR affects harder news, with Sunday Times foreign correspondent Hala Jaber (Tue) and Lord Bell, who had a hand in moulding Margaret Thatcher’s public image (Fri).
V&A, SW7, to 9 May
RA
Leeds Indie Food Festival
This 18-day food bash encompasses a number of talking shops that will put a little cerebral meat on this consumer bone. Leeds indie is not just a celebration of all that is piping hot in British food, it is an interrogation. Proceedings kick off with the Ginposium (Thu), an irreverent look at the history of this botanical bonanza/major depressive, where you can empirically test your emotional responses over bespoke gin cocktails. Elsewhere, events range from a talk on the nutritional value of plants (21 May), to a potentially hilarious examination of the role of the invariably rained-off British barbecue in literature (13 May). It culminates in the Leeds Feast (22 & 23 May), during which beards will be stroked into a frenzy as panels mull over that holy trinity of street food, craft beer and third-wave coffee.
Various venues, Thu to 24 May
TN
Steven Berkoff: Sod The Bitches, Oxford
Steven Berkoff introduces his debut novel. As the title suggests, it finds the actor and director applying his famously brisk manner to modern gender relations, with Berkoff’s protagonist John an actor who is either profoundly misunderstood, or profoundly misunderstands why the universe and all its inhabitants obdurately refuse to organise themselves for his convenience. Here Berkoff will be discussing both his career and the book; previous interviews on the latter have seen him wistfully recalling the 60s, when women wore long dresses, had long hair, and were fascinating. As a general rule, there are few spectacles more pitiful than the modern male – especially the wealthy, powerful modern male – harrumphing at the gains made by feminism. On past form, however, for a multitude of reasons, an evening with Berkoff is unlikely to be dull.
Blackwell’s, Mon
AM
