Date/Time
Date(s) - 08/12/2019
11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Location
Brixton tube station

Set in a neighbourhood that was created by the criss-crossing of railway lines created by rival companies, Stella Duffy‘s novel  “The Room of Lost Things” is a wonderful atmospheric evocation of place, worthy of being explored in our next Between the Lines reading walking book club.

It is as much a love story as a social critique of multi-cultural London.  The story of Robert Sutton, the owner of a well-established dry cleaners in Loughborough Junction, that has witnessed the comes and goings of the local residents, and has built up a secret knowledge of their lives and livelihoods.

Ever wondered what happens to things left behind in the pockets of items taken to the dry cleaners?  Well Robert Sutton knows only too well.

Duffy brilliantly portrays this hermit-like figure as he comes to sell his dry cleaners to Akeel, a budding entrepreneurial British muslim 20 something year-old from east London.  The clash in cultures, aspirations and expectations are deftly revealed as the hide-away of unclaimed items is slowly exposed.

Stella Duffy Tweets: “I LOVE the idea of this. #TheRoomofLostThings is a favourite of my own books and it’s rooted in #loughboroughjunction people & place, now & then. And male friendship. It’s a book of male friendship.”

Ali Smith wrote that “Stella Duffy is a writer who never lets you down, and this is her most ambitious, satisfying book yet.” Similarly Isobel Montgommery in The Guardian described the novel as “satisfyingly mesmerising.”

The walkshop route is linear – we start at Brixton tube station (Victoria Line) (Brixton Road), weaving our way along Coldharbour Lane towards Loughborough Junction and beyond to Ruskin Park, to return to finish at Loughborough Junction station (Thameslink)

Ticket prices: Early bird £12 before 30 November /  £15 thereafter / £20 on the day / Concession £12 On-line booking closes at midnight 7 December

When booking, if you are not a PayPal account holder, an option to use a credit / debit card will be available once purchasers have clicked the PayPal button.

What3words – is a location finding app – and we’ve been asked to use it – so here goes: //first.shadow.hint  should get you to the start of this walkshop.

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