Gravity Festival at Mansion House Liverpool

Gravity is an exciting festival hosted from Liverpool’s Calderstones Park over the weekend of 29 September to 2 October, described as “a festival for our times that fuses great writing with intimate conversations about life’s ups and downs”.

Take tea with Kit de Waal, whose debut novel My Name Is Leon became an international bestseller, winner of the Irish Novel prize and was recently adapted for the BBC.

This year’s programme takes place both online and in person, and includes talks from guest speakers along with wellbeing activities such as poetry walks and Shared Reading. Headline speakers include writer of BBC1’s The Responder Tony Schumacher, Bootle-born writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Lissa Evans (Wed Wabbit), Katherine May (Wintering) and Roosevelt Montas (Rescuing Socrates).

Take tea with Kit de Waal, whose debut novel My Name Is Leon became an international bestseller, winner of the Irish Novel prize and was recently adapted for the BBC starring Sir Lenny Henry, Malachi Kirby, Monica Dolan, Olivia Williams and Christopher Eccleston.  Or join in the Grand Finale Poetry Party, which is being live streamed, so even if you can’t make it in person you can still take part by watching online or sending a video of yourself reading your chosen poem. 

You’re also invited to explore black writing in Britain, with a series of events curated by Hannah Chukwu, series editor of Penguin’s Black Britain: Writing Back. Marking the start of Black History Month this October, this is a celebration of Britain’s most exciting black writers, including Ashleigh Nugent, Hannah Azieb Pool, Jacqueline Roy, Judith Bryan, Kadija Sesay and Tomiwa Owolade.