CLICK HERE: Download the official Off The Shelf 2009 guide - with all events and ticket details, for October 10 to 31, 2009.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

10.45am-12 noon: Heroes and Heroines
The Space Centre, Above Park Library, Duke Street, S2
Admission free. Places must be booked - Tel. 0114 272 3906
Taking the theme of this year's National Poetry Day - 'Heroes & Heroines' - you are invited to bring a poem or a song in any language (if it is not in English, please bring a translation) on this subject to read or just come to listen. Debjani Chatterjee will lead a short workshop after the reading for anyone interested in writing a poem about this topic.
Organised by Sahitya Press in celebration of National Poetry Day

11.30am: Picnic of Words
The Centre in the Park, Norfolk Heritage Park, S2
Admission free. No need to book.
Friends and members of Bengali Women's Support Group invite you to join them in Norfolk Heritage Park. Please bring along food, poetry and songs!

1pm: William Dalrymple
The Showroom, Paternoster Row, S1
Tickets £6/£4 (cons) from The Showroom - Tel. 0114 275 7727
The writer of the prize-winning White Mughals, William Dalrymple's latest work is an original, informed and beautifully written book about modern India - Nine Lives. In it he describes the unforgettable lives of nine people who each take a different religious path. Dalrymple's name is synonymous with the very best writing on India and Nine Lives lives up to all expectations, an exquisite exploration of this fascinating country and its religious traditions, taking you deep into worlds that you would never have imagined even existed.
'William Dalrymple is that rarity: a scholar of history who can really write.' Salman Rushdie
In collaboration with The Showroom


Sunday, October 11, 2009:

12noon-4.30pm: Edward Carpenter
A Walk with Sheila Rowbotham and Sally Goldsmith
Park and meet at top end of Holmesfield Village Hall Car Park, Vicarage Close, Holmesfield, S18.
Approximately 5 miles with stops along the way. Expect wet walking with gradients. Please bring strong walking boots and packed lunch.
Tickets £5 Places must be booked with RRI - Tel. 0114 273 4737
Sheila Rowbotham, Carpenter's acclaimed biographer, and Sally Goldsmith, local enthusiast,
will lead a walk around some of the places associated with Carpenter and his circle, especially Millthorpe where he entertained many of the prominent thinkers and writers of his day including EMForster, George Bernard Shaw and Olive Schreiner.


2pm: Randolph O Douglas:
The Man Who Helped Houdini. An Illustrated talk by Ann Beedham
Museums Sheffield: Weston Park, Western Bank, S10. Tickets £4/£3 (cons). Places must be booked with Museums Sheffield - Tel. 0114 278 2655 (Mon-Fri) or e-mail learning@museums-sheffield.org.uk
Houdini was the master of escapology, but his most iconic escape, from a straitjacket whilst suspended upside down hundreds of feet in the air, wasn't invented by him but by Sheffielder Randolph
Douglas - Randini. Randolph dreamed of becoming an escapologist and was a life long friend of Houdini after they met at The Empire on Charles Street, Sheffield. When his plans to become a performer were wrecked by ill health, Randolph created a different kind of illusion; a world in miniature at his Castleton "House of Wonders".
In collaboration with Museums Sheffield. An exhibition of magic tricks, ventriloquist dolls and Punch and Judy puppets used by Sheffielder Professor De Lyle and his daughter Wynne De Lyle is now on show at Museums Sheffield: Weston Park until August 29, 2010.

5pm: Joan Bakewell
The Showroom, Paternoster Row, S1. Tickets £6/£4 (cons) from The Showroom -
Tel. 0114 275 7727
Joan Bakewell; broadcaster, journalist and author of the highly-praised autobiography The Centre of the Bed will be talking about her first novel All the Nice Girls. Set in 1942 this stirring story powerfully evokes the atmosphere of those dark wartime days.
Joan has waited till her mid-70s before writing her first novel but it is well worth the wait! Ask her about this new work or any other burning questions about her long and illustrious career.
"Bakewell conjures up a cracking wartime atmosphere." The Daily Mail
In collaboration with The Showroom

7.30pm: Vic Reeves
in Conversation with Paul Allen Lyceum Theatre, Tudor Square, S1. Tickets £10/£8 (cons) from Sheffield Theatres - Tel. 0114 249 6000
James 'Jim' Roderick Moir, more commonly known as Vic Reeves, is most famous for his work alongside Bob Mortimer with hit comedy TV shows including Vic Reeves Big Night Out and Shooting Stars, but Jim Moir is also a successful artist who has exhibited around the world.
New book Vic Reeves' Vast Book of World Knowledge is an education - with pictures - a revelation, a celebration, a magnificent aberration! It takes you on an irresistible visual romp through his head from exploding jellyfish to revolving toupees. Prepare to go where no-one has been before - prepare to enter the world of Vic Reeves…
Broadcaster, playwright and biographer Paul Allen has presented arts programmes on BBC Radio 3 and 4.
In collaboration with Sheffield Theatres

Monday, October 12:

10am: Book Of The Festival: The Taint of Midas - meet the Author Anne Zouroudi.
Greenhill Library, Hemper Lane S8 Admission free. Places must be booked - Tel. 0114 203 7707
We are delighted to announce that this year's Festival Read will be The Taint of Midas by Anne Zouroudi. Anne Zouroudi was born in England and has lived in the Greek Islands.
She now lives in the Peak District.
The Taint of Midas is the second in the Hermes Diaktoros series following The Messenger of Athens.
Anne's highly acclaimed series of novels is set amongst the beautiful landscapes of Greece where time has little meaning and the pressures of modern life are easily forgotten.
Here she will be reading from and talking about the book at this readers' group event.
"Diaktoros is a delight. There is also a cracking plot, colourful local characters and descriptions of the hot, dry countryside so strong that you can almost see the heat haze and hear the cicadas": The Guardian
Thanks to Bloomsbury for supporting this project.


2pm: Darnall Daydreamers
Darnall Library, Britannia Road, S9. Admission free. No need to book
Poets, storytellers and singers come together to tell tales of Darnall's past. They are joined by special guest Albert Jackson, the Burngreave cemetery digger, who will speak on writing for history.


6pm: Book Of The Festival: The Taint of Midas - meet the Author Anne Zouroudi.
Upperthorpe Library, Upperthorpe Healthy Living Centre, 18 Upperthorpe, S6 Admission free. Places must be booked - Tel. 0114 270 2048
A second chance to meet the author – see 10am.


7pm: Sarah Dunant
The Showroom, Paternoster Row, S1 Tickets £6/£4 (cons) from The Showroom -
Tel. 0114 275 7727
Sarah Dunant is a writer, broadcaster and critic and the founding patron of the Orange Prize for women's fiction. She is renowned for her bestselling Italian Renaissance novels which have been translated into 30 different languages. Her most recent work,
Sacred Hearts, is set in 1570 in the Italian city of Ferrara and concludes the trilogy of novels set in the period joining The Birth of Venus and In The
Company of the Courtesan. Meticulously researched, they bring alive not just the people and
their stories but also the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of the world they inhabited.
"A writer of powerful historical imagination and wicked literary gifts" Simon Schama.
In collaboration with The Showroom


7.30pm: Haunted Sheffield - A Walk
Meet on the Old Town Hall steps, Pinstone Street, S1 at 7.30pm prompt
Tickets £5/£4 (cons)/ £2.50 children under 13 years
Join Mr P Dreadful on a ghostly walk through Sheffield and hear tales of the haunted city. Walks will also take place every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday during the Festival.


7.30pm: The Shadow of a Smile with Kachi Ozumba
Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James St., S1. Tickets £4/£3 (cons) from RRI - Tel. 0114 273 4737
Nigerian writer Kachi Ozumba's poignant debut novel The Shadow of a Smile reveals the darker side of a country striving to consolidate democracy after years of dictatorship and tribal in-fighting. It tells the tale of a young student imprisoned for a crime he has not even thought about committing - a story based on fact as Kachi was himself detained in a Nigerian prison for a non existent offence and began writing this book whilst in his cell.
Do you have an out of the ordinary story to tell?
There will be an opportunity for some of the audience to share their story at this event in an open mic slot led by Ralph Hancock. Ralph is a poet and chair of Sheffield Conversation Club which provides a haven for asylum seekers and refugees to meet and practise English.
Part of the In My Shoes Project


7.30pm: Edward Carpenter:
A Life of Liberty and Love with Sheila Rowbotham and Sally Goldsmith. Central United Reform Church, Norfolk Street, S1. Tickets £5/£4 (cons) from RRI - Tel. 0114 273 4737
The return of Sheila Rowbotham - Carpenter's award winning biographer and Sally Goldsmith - writer and local Carpenter enthusiast. This illustrated talk will look again at the extraordinary
life of this Victorian writer, anarcho-socialist, sandal wearer and simple-lifer who lived openly with his male lover at Millthorpe near Sheffield. Sheila will also talk about the reception of her acclaimed biography and Sally will share new local discoveries about Carpenter and his circle.

8pm: PoetStars
The Hubs, Sheffield Hallam University, Students Union, Paternoster Row, S1. Tickets £4/£3 (cons). From Sheffield Theatres - Tel. 0114 249 6000. Participating poets free.
Do you write poetry for performance? Or maybe you have always wanted to have a go? Can you impress a live audience? Then sign up for PoetStars - this year's most exciting performance poetry contest…
The twelve contestants will give a five minute performance of their work in front of a live
audience, judges Peter and Ann Sansom from The Poetry Business will comment on the performances and the audience will vote for the winner. Prizes for the winner and 2 runners-up. The winner will be invited to be guest performer at the launch of Sheffield Hallam's e-zine E-Sheaf. Last year's winner, Sarah Thomasin, will read at the event.
To apply, e-mail offtheshelf@sheffield.gov.uk with your contact details or tel. 0114 273 4400. Good luck! You could be Sheffield's newest and hottest PoetStar!

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