Kate Tempest, London & Bexhill-on-Sea
With its mixture of hip-hop hooks and literary smarts, Kate Tempest’s 2014 album Everybody Down sunk its hooks into a lot of people. But it is indicative of her range that anyone looking for the south Londoner’s next instalment will have to venture into a different artistic discipline altogether. Her debut novel The Bricks That Built The Houses breathes fresh life into characters from the album, placing them at the heart of what initially appears to be a crime story but eventually proves to be a musing on trademark Tempest themes such as place, identity and belonging, along with class, immigration, drugs and violence. At these sessions she’ll be reading extracts and taking part in Q&As with her audience. Don’t expect music, however; Tempest is as comfortable working as a poet, a playwright and a prose writer as she is a rapper, and these nights will be dedicated to the written word. A magnetic and charismatic performer regardless of her chosen medium, this event should be a treat on its own terms.
PH
Trump, Isis And Capitalism: An Evening With Molly Crabapple And Paul Mason, London
Disillusioned with the 00s art world, Molly Crabapple began working as a house artist for an exclusive nightclub in her native New York, scribbling burlesque performers at work. Then recession hit, and the twentysomething moved from watching the city’s glitterati living large to gonzo journalism, beginning with missives from Occupy Wall Street and, in time, writing and drawing accounts of cruelty and conflict from Guantánamo to Syria. Now 32 and a Vice columnist, as well as a contributor to the likes of Vanity Fair and the New York Times, her 2015 memoir Drawing Blood fused gripping tales with evocative illustrations. This event in association with Resonance FM’s ideas and culture show Little Atoms sees her in conversation with broadcaster and author Paul Mason for an evening of debate and discussion.
Waterstones, Piccadilly, W1, Mon
HD
Irvine Welsh, On tour
This spring, Danny Boyle should flush out any residual resistance to 90s nostalgia when filming begins on the sequel to his adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. Meanwhile, Welsh himself has been imagining the fate of sociopathic protagonist Begbie for his latest novel, The Blade Artist. On this UK tour, he will be reacquainting audiences with his powder keg of a character and his visceral, dialect-charged persona. Robert Carlyle, who plays Begbie in the films, joins Welsh for the Edinburgh date next week and will likely be fielding many moustache-related queries. But the most pressing question is surely whether or not Begbie really chose life after all.
BT
