Enter a world of excess, of glittering parties, great palaces, beautiful people - and of course powerful words.

In Tom Beckerlegge’s book The Carnival of Ash, the city of Cadenza with its skyline of libraries is under threat. Run by poets who care more about words than budgets and politics, the looming prospect of war with their rival Venice is ever-present. A war that threatens not only to destroy Cadenza but remove it from history altogether …

Meet the Glitterati in Oliver K. Langmead’s latest novel, an elite living lives of luxury and leisure, slaves to the ever-changing tides – and brutal judgements - of fashion. When Simone accidentally starts a new fashion with a nosebleed at a party, another Glitterati takes the credit. Soon their rivalry threatens to raze their opulent utopia to the ground, as no one knows how to be vicious like the beautiful ones.

Chaired by Anna Stephens

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Venue: Pleasance Upper Hall

Price: £10/£8 concession - In Person - or £6/£4 concession - Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

About the authors

Tom Beckerlegge grew up in the northwest of England in a house filled with books. He decided that he wanted to be a writer at the age of four, and is yet to have a better idea. Writing as Tom Becker, he won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize with his debut novel; The Carnival of Ash is his first adult book. He currently lives in Enfield with his wife and young son.

Follow Tom Beckerlegge on Twitter @tbeckerlegge.

Oliver K. Langmead lives and writes in Glasgow. He is the author of Glitterati and Birds of Paradise, out now. Oliver’s long-form poem, Dark Star, featured in the Guardian’s Best Books of 2015, and he is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Glasgow, where he is researching terraforming and ecological philosophy. In late 2018 he was the writer in residence at the European Space Agency’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne.

Follow Oliver K. Langmead on Twitter @oliverklangmead or visit his website.