n Strangers on the Shore, Michael Smith – author of cult classic The Giro Playboy, which captured the arty demi-monde of Shoreditch gentrifying into a hipster hellscape – stays one step ahead of the property developers as he stumbles through the uncanny psychic landscape of Hastings, in an astonishing work of autofiction that explores the experience of becoming a father and the disarming grief of leaving your youth and its dreams behind. The flâneuring Michael at the centre of the book has moved to Hastings, started a family and opened a bar. He finds himself pouring wine in a ‘drinking town with a fishing problem,’ philosophising, procrastinating, and morbidly obsessed with Aleister Crowley. A book about what it is like to live on the margins, sliding into a precarious middle age in turbulent times, both giving up and starting a-new, Strangers on the Shore is deeply and unashamedly romantic, whilst also angry about the dystopian Britain we’ve sleepwalked into.
At this event Michael will talk about his writing life, read from Strangers on the Shore and answer questions from the audience. His book will be on sale at the Festival and he will be happy to sign copies after his talk.
You can see all seven of our Local Heroes, including this event, for a discounted price of only £30.
