This month, the annual Being Human festival will take place with a range of unusual and thought-provoking events across the UK…
Archives for Literature
A dead good Halloween and some aping around at London’s quirky museums
This month, celebrate International Gibbon Day with some animal yoga, and Halloween with a talk on Frankenstein and the things we dread…
Festival of storytelling spreads magical tales across Scotland
This year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival will take place from Thursday 18th to Wednesday 31st October, celebrating the tradition of sharing tales…
Walks, talks and circus performances at Bloomsbury Festival
Bloomsbury Festival will present a trailblazing programme of science, literature, performance, music, and discussion, from 17th to 21st October…
Comic art, wacky workshops and live performances at Loogabarooga Festival
Loogabarooga festival of illustrated children’s literature returns to Loughborough from 18th to 23rd October, celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Beano comic…
Live drawing, workshops and geek music at comic art festival
The 2018 Lakes International Comic Art Festival will take place in Kendal, Cumbria, from Friday 12th to Sunday 14th October, with author interviews, artist signings and hands-on workshops…
Discover Dickens after dark and Jane Austen’s London with literary walking festival
Literary Footprints is an annual festival celebrating London literature and authors. This October discover Shakespeare’s London, Literary St Pancras and Charles Dickens London After Dark…
Hear a Rallying Cry at Battersea Arts Centre
Apples and Snakes, celebrates 35 years with an immersive journey through London’s Battersea Arts Centre, rallying the voices of protest…
A maritime festival in Mousehole
Sea, Salts and Sail, Mousehole’s maritime festival, will take place from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th July in the Cornish fishing village…
If you go down to the woods today…
Timber, a new festival weaving together the forest with arts and ideas, will take place this weekend in the heart of the National Forest in Derbyshire…
Attend a Regency Ball at Hampshire’s Jane Austen festival
Jane Austen Regency Week is an annual nine-day festival, held in Alton and Chawton, Hampshire, celebrating the much-loved author with talks, tours, dance workshops and period costume…
Mother’s ruin and Victorian scruffs at Broadstairs Dickensian Festival
Broadstairs Dickens Festival takes place in Kent this month, with quirky events including Mother’s Ruin Gin Tastings, Victorian Scruffs,and a Dickensian hat demonstration…
A mix of spoken word, theatre, music and illustration in Goldfish Bowl
Goldfish Bowl is a collaboration between The Paper Birds and former Young People’s Laureate for London, Caleb Femi, with a combination of spoken word, theatre, music and illustration…
Book Review: Twenty Theatres to See Before You Die
We’ve always included a lot of small and unusual theatre productions on Contrary Life, and so on hearing that someone had written a book about the weird and wonderful collection of theatres around Britain, we were eager for a read…
Wimborne’s Chained Library
Our latest Curiosity of the Week is one of the oldest and most unusual libraries in the country. The Chained Library at Wimborne Minster in Dorset was founded in 1686 and is the second largest library of its kind in the country…