Ages 8 - 10

One of our most popular storytellers, Vanessa Woolf brings to life two wonderful folk tales, The Stolen Smell and The Feast by the River.

Expect to be transported back to ancient Prague in this interactive storytelling session full of magic, music, and objects to look at, hear, touch... and maybe even smell!

Suited to ages 8 - 10 and their families.

The event accompanies the British Library's Fairy Tales exhibition (https://events.bl.uk/exhibitions/fairy-tales), which will be open on the day. Separate booking required.

Part of Jewish Culture Month, 16 May to 16 June, 2026.

A Feast of Tales: The Stolen Smell and The Feast by the River

The British Library, 96 Euston Rd., London NW1 2DB, UK

Best friends, collaborators and confidantes, broadcaster, chef and author Andi Oliver and singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry share their memories of lives lived side by side. Friends since 1981, the pair became instantly close as members of their band, Rip, Rig & Panic, and over the course of four decades they have been through the good and the terrible together - from the births of each other's children to the death of Andi's brother Sean, their former bandmate and a close friend of Neneh's.

Coming from very different backgrounds - Neneh grew up in Sweden and travelled the world with her musician and artist parents, while Andi grew up in Suffolk - the pair instantly connected, and their friendship has remained an anchor ever since. Throughout it all, there was food. Cooking together when they had little money to buy ingredients yet making enough for everyone; food as a means to connect to their heritages that span Sweden, West Africa, Jamaica, Britain and the US.

The pair come together to discuss friendship, family and food in an intimate discussion.

This event is part of the British Library Food Season (https://events.bl.uk/whats-on/food-season)

Neneh & Andi: 45 Years of Friendship, Family and Food

Join Seema Anand and Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah for an illuminating exploration of how ancient cultural traditions, ancestral rites and myth can reshape our understanding of modern female sexuality, offering practical and fun insights into navigating sex and intimacy today.

Drawing on their books: Seeking Sexual Freedom by Nana Darkoa, and Speak Easy: A Field Guide to Love, Longing and Intimacy by Seema, they uncover how ancient South Asian and African knowledge and enduring cultural practices can challenge stigma and open up more expansive, authentic ways of thinking about women's bodies, pleasure and agency.

Expect a candid, thought-provoking and wide-ranging conversation that bridges past and present, inviting new perspectives on desire, connection and sexual self-knowledge.

Sex, Rites & Pleasure: Embodying Ancient Feminine

Join three leading voices in queer literary history for a celebratory conversation about the books and bookshops that have shaped LGBTQ+ lives.

Layla McCay, author of The Queer Bookshelf, and A J West, author of How Queer Bookshops Changed the World, come together to explore how, in the face of government oppression, media hostility and violence, queer stories have been written, published, sold, shared and loved, often against the odds.

From back room bookshops and banned paperbacks to award winning novels and mainstream popularity, this discussion traces how authors and booksellers have helped queer readers find stories that matter both personally, and in shaping history.

Drawing on global histories, personal research, and a love of reading, Layla and West will discuss the power of queer books and bookshops to reflect different LGBTQ+ experiences through the decades, to challenge censorship, and to expand possibilities. The conversation will range across past, present and future: how queer literature has developed and flourished, why bookshops have mattered as cultural and political spaces, and how the way we find queer books still matters - and is evolving.

Minority Writes: How Queer Books and Bookshops Change the World

Somers Town

Abbeyhill & Meadowbank

Barnton & Crammond

Belsize Park

Bloomsbury

Bruntsfield & Morningside

Camberwell

Camden Town

Cameron Toll

Canonmills & Broughton

Colinton

Corstorphine

Craiglockhart

Craigmillar & Niddrie

Currie & Balerno

East Dulwich

Easter Road

Fitzrovia

Gilmerton

Gorgie

Gospel Oak & Queen's Crescent

Gracemount

Granton

Hampstead

Haymarket & Dalry

Highgate

Holborn

Holyrood Park

Inverleith

Kentish Town

Kilburn

King's Cross

Kirkliston

Leith

Leytonstone

Liberton

Little France

Marchmont & Meadows

Muirhouse

Murrayfield

Musselburgh

New Town

Northern Quarter

Northfield & Piershill

Old Town

Oxgangs

Peckham

Portobello

Primrose Hill

Regent's Park

Shandon

Slateford

South Queensferry

Southside

Stenhouse

Stockbridge

Stoke Newington

Swiss Cottage

The Grange

The Gyle

Tollcross

Trinity

West End

West End & Dean Village

Wester Hailes

West Hampstead

Qué Hacer en Somers Town: Puntuales

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