Victor Richards poetry reading

“Already acclaimed for his one-man plays (Streets Paved With Gold, Return to the Caribbean and Children of the First Generation), Victor now brings his unique experience, sensitivity and perspective to his first poetry trilogy. Initially adopting the persona of first-generation Barbadian Augustus Cleveland Johnson, every poignant word takes you on a heart-wrenching journey through the decades. You’ll share the joys and disappointment as he builds his new life. Later, his son Granville takes up the storyteller’s baton to highlight British West Indians’ experiences from 1948 to the present.”

One City One Read

Spread the Word

	Catch a fish by Nasreen Akhtar Insightful and gripping, this is the true story of the realities of searching for a lifetime partner using the internet. It is the powerful memoir of a thirty-something British Muslim woman of Pakistani origin who embarks upon a remarkable journey of the self, society, soul and love.
	Bad traffic by Simon Lewis Inspector Jian, a Chinese cop from the Siberian border, thinks he’s seen it all. But when his student daughter phones him frantic for help, he is pitched into an alien and frightening world – the mean streets of rural England. He needs to hunt down a gang of ruthless people traffickers and he needs to do it fast, but he has two problems: no English and no cash.
	Season of the witch by Natasha Mostert Season of the Witch tells the haunting story of a man who gets drawn into the mysterious world of two beautiful witch sisters who are practitioners of the lost, ancient Art of Memory. Part murder mystery, part love story, this novel is wholly original in both theme and scope and takes on big themes.
	Fifteen modern tales of attraction by Alison MacLeod In Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction you will meet lovers, would-be lovers and lovers gone wrong. You will discover modern life laid bare and the literature of the past re-imagined. You will travel from the Brighton seafront to the Nova Scotia coast. You will be in Ikea one minute and in the Hayward Gallery the next…
	The opposite of love by Julie Buxbaum Emily, a successful young Manhattan attorney, should be overjoyed when her boyfriend seems on the verge of proposing. Instead she finds herself abruptly ending her happy relationship for reasons she can’t even explain to herself. As her world gradually starts to unravel there are laugh-out-loud moments but also times when the reader may be moved to tears.
	Vicky had one eye open by Darryl Samaraweera Vivid, honest and heart-wrenching, this novel chronicles how a patient, Vicky, and her family deal very differently with her lapse into a coma. Vicky’s Sri Lankan family struggles to cope with the traditional closeness of their family unit, made increasingly claustrophobic by the confines of the NHS. Tensions amongst the waiting family rise, whilst Vicky openly invites the reader into her mind.
	The fantastic book of everybody's secrets by Sophie Hannah Sophie Hannah, already well known for her acclaimed crime fiction and award-winning poetry, serves up these contemporary tales of the unexpected with a relish rarely matched since the offerings of Roald Dahl. The more comic the scenario, the scarier the consequences…
	Random deaths and custard by Catrin Dafydd Sam Jones is a perfectly ordinary Valleys girl. Except for the random deaths, that is. Random deaths she only just manages to avoid. Narrowly escaping decapitation by the kitchen cupboard, concussed by a fall on the bus, then saved from choking on a fish finger by a complete stranger on her doorstep, she begins to see her life as a succession of near misses.
	Wild by Jay Griffiths Wild is the product of Jay Griffiths' journey to find a childhood view of wilderness. She spent seven years on the book and to complete her journey she gave everything that she had – time, money and energy. Her search took her from the freedom fighters of West Papua to icebergs where polar bears slept, from kindly cannibals to sea gypsies, and finally it yielded a sweet surprise, the knowledge that "what is savage is in the deepest sense gentle, and what is wild is kind".
	Imagine this by Sade Adeniran Lola is a nine-year-old child who is wrenched from all that is familiar and thrust into village life in Nigeria, a culture so alien and removed from her childhood in Kent, that she is left bereft and adrift.