[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Join Index on Censorship, Free Word Centre and Islington Library and Heritage Services as we celebrate our freedom to read as part of Banned Books Week.

Every day, across the globe, writers are being censored in a hundred different ways. Some face persecution, others are imprisoned, some have their work banned and some are subject to more insidious means of censorship.

So, who are the modern-day censors? And what ingenious evasions – both modern and ancient – have writers and publishers used to protect our right to read?

Join award-winning journalist David Aaronovitch in conversation with Irish author Claire Hennessy and publisher Lynn Gaspard, as they explore what happens when ideas are silenced.

With readings by Moris Farhi and Bidisha.

The event will be followed by free drinks courtesy of Flying Dog Brewery and Index on Censorship.

Part of Banned Books Week 2017. Presented by Free Word and Index on Censorship in partnership with Islington Library and Heritage Services[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Speakers:[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95061″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]David Aaronovitch is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and author and chair of free expression organisation Index on Censorship. He is a regular columnist for The Times newspaper.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95058″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Claire Hennessy is the Irish author of several young adult novels that boldly tackle many complex issues for young people. She has written about anorexia and, most recently in her new book Like Other Girls, Ireland’s archaic abortion laws and queer culture.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”95059″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Lynn Gaspard is the Publisher of Saqi Books, who claim a history rather more dramatic than most bookshops or publishing houses: obstacles over the years have included wars, censorship, political instability and export embargoes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Readings:[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”95062″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Moris Farhi is a Turkish novelist and essayist who for over twenty-five years has campaigned for writers persecuted and imprisoned by repressive regimes. In 2001 he was elected a Vice President of International PEN. In the same year he was appointed an (MBE) for services to literature.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”95425″ img_size=”200×200″ alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Bidisha is a British newspaper journalist, critic and broadcaster/presenter for the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky. She specialises in international human rights, social justice, gender and the arts and is a trustee of the Booker Prize Foundation. Her most recent book, Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices of London, is based on her outreach work, most recently with young asylum seeker mothers[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

When: Wednesday 27 September 2017, 6:30-8:15pm
Where: Free Word Centre 60 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3GA
Tickets: From £5 via Free Word Centre

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1504267800522-bc1f7362-e99f-2″ taxonomies=”5844″][/vc_column][/vc_row]