Zadie Smith at London’s Royal Festival Hall

Zadie Smith looks genuinely shy at the rapture she receives walking onto the stage at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. She shouldn’t be. This smart, sassy writer is, as host Ted Hodgkinson, Southbank Centre’s Senior Programmer in Literature and Spoken Word, she is one of the ‘essential voices of our time.’ Most of her books

Words at the Southbank

If ever we needed proof that literature is relevant, universal and timeless, the Southbank Centre’s summer and autumn programme provides it. Across the next few months authors, poets and writers will be responding to the current political and social climate through the magic or words. John le Carré introduces his new novel, A Legacy of

Changing Minds Festival

Bringing the topic of mental health out of the medical setting into the mundane reality is an important and laudable endeavour – particularly when it comes to the arts. I fear that some of the less knowledgable, or less open minded, might see any link as implying that severe illnesses can be ‘cured’ by a

My Beautiful Black Dog

It’s running late, and if we don’t start soon, I’ll have to miss it.The packed line up at the Southbank’s Changing Minds festival means I’ve booked events back to back and delays are screwing my schedule. A one woman musical soirée about depression – I get where this is going, it’s fine. But I am aware it