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Events

Simon Armitage + LYR

An unmissable evening of poetry and music featuring Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and the band LYR. A poetry performance by Simon will be followed by a live performance by the band, comprising Simon, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist and producer Patrick Pearson.

Simon’s new collection of lyrics, Never Good with Horses, demonstrates the rich range of his repertoire and celebrates his ear for the music of language. LYR’s blend of soaring vocal melodies and ambient instrumentation creates an evocative and enchanting soundscape for the poetic spoken passages.

Note: there will be a short interval between the poetry and musical performances.

About LYR: formed in 2018, LYR are now a firmly established in the contemporary music scene following the release of two critically acclaimed albums Call in the Crash Team (2020) and latest release The Ultraviolet Age (2023). They have appeared at many major festivals, including Green Man and Blu Dot, and have sold-out venues across the UK.  https://www.lyrband.com/

About Simon Armitage: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage was born and grew up in West Yorkshire. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and the PEN Prize for Translation. He has published over a dozen poetry collections, including Magnetic Field: the Marsden Poems and acclaimed medieval translations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Owl and the Nightingale. He also writes, records and performs with the band LYR and has received an Ivor Novello Award for his song writing. His recent collection Never Good with Horses features his song lyrics. He is also the author of two novels and three non-fiction bestsellers: All Points North, Walking Home and Walking Away. A regular broadcaster, Armitage presents the popular BBC Radio 4 series The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed. An award-winning dramatist, his play Hansel and Gretel: A Nightmare in Eight Scenes is in performance at Shakespeare’s Globe this winter. Armitage is Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds. www.simonarmitage.com

Please note: booking for this event is via the Lawrence Batley Theatre box office: 01484 420528; [email protected]; https://www.thelbt.org/

Booking page: https://www.thelbt.org/what-s-on/spoken-word-and-talks/simon-armitage-lyr/

Date: Thursday 11 April

Time: 7pm-8.30pm

Venue: Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

Tickets: £25 (£20 conc)

Age guidance: 14+ (U16s should be accompanied by an adult)

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/lawrence-batley-theatre

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.

Helen Lederer – Not That I’m Bitter

Enjoy a riotously enjoyable evening with the Absolutely Fabulous star, stand-up, and writer, who was at the heart of the alternative comedy scene of the 1980s.

Helen Lederer was a regular on the stand-up circuit and in sketch shows from the 1980s, appearing on screen with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, among many others. Best known for her role as Catriona in all six series and the film of Absolutely Fabulous, she now reveals all in her frank, moving and characteristically funny memoir, Not That I’m Bitter.

Even in the ground-breaking, anti-Thatcher days, there was only room at top for so many women. For the rest, it was as much a struggle to be seen and heard in the world of comedy as in any boardroom or workplace, and just as difficult to avoid the predators. This is more than the story of one decade, however.

The child of a Jewish-Czech wartime refugee, Helen Lederer was never part of the mainstream. How do you make humour from a lifelong battle against problems with weight and low-self-esteem? How do you cope with constant self-sabotage when, despite enormous success, you still feel like a failure? Helen raises an important and open discussion around mental health alongside the evolved attitudes to women today.

A genuinely funny memoir with lots of heart (and just the right amount of bitterness!), she pulls no punches, but every blow is wrapped in a laugh of recognition.

Alongside her acting career, Helen has written radio shows, performed in the West End and written books, including the comic novel Losing It, after which she set up Comedy Women in Print to shine a light on other women who write funny books.

 

Please note: booking for this event is via the Lawrence Batley Theatre box office: 01484 420528; [email protected]; https://www.thelbt.org/

Booking link: https://www.thelbt.org/what-s-on/spoken-word-and-talks/helen-lederer/

Date: Friday 19 April

Time: 7pm-8pm

Venue: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

Tickets: £12 (£10 conc)

Age guidance: 16+

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/syngenta-cellar

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.

 

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