Enjoy a date with Richard Littlejohn
OUR LITERARY lunch will take you on two remarkable journeys: around the world with Brigid Keenan, and down memory lane with Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn (below).
Brigid Keenan was a successful young fashion journalist when she fell in love with a diplomat and exchanged the gilt chairs of the Paris salons for a big chicken shed in Nepal.
Her new book, Packing Up: Further Adventures Of A Trailing Spouse, recalls her adventures in Kazakhstan and a final posting to Azerbaijan while shuttling between London and Brussels, until Brigid and husband ‘AW’ face the daunting prospect of finally packing their diplomatic bags and returning home.
Hilarious and hair-raising by turns, Keenan’s book has also been described as ‘ sad, touching, honest and observant’, and the author hailed as ‘a comic genius’.
Sherbet l emons, Jubblies and National Health orange juice were the stuff of Richard Littlejohn’s childhood in Fifties Essex, l eading to tooth decay and dental visits that were like ‘a visit to Torquemada’s torture chamber’.
T he Mail’s s t ar columnist recalls what life was like when there were libraries instead of the internet, milk came from the cows at the dairy and there were no suffocating elf’ n’ safety rules, allowing Richard and his friends to roam the countryside and play in the air-raid shelters.
From Muffin the Mule to Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, the award-winning writer and broadcaster vividly recreates life in a lost world still cherished by so many.
And finally, award-winning Mail literary critic Peter Lewis will share stories from his memoir A Rogue’s Gallery.
Over a long and distinguished career in Fleet Street, Peter met many of the era’s leading writers, actors, gurus, politicians, heroes and villains.
Expect stories about celebrities from Marilyn Monroe and Judi Dench to P.G. Wodehouse, John Betjeman and Noel Coward — the ones that didn’t get into the paper.
As ever, our Master of Ceremonies, author, broadcaster and humorist Gyles Brandreth ( right) will be cracking the whi p and entertaining us with a cocktail of jokes and anecdotes. And t here’s another chance for Daily Mail readers to be entertained by our inimitable host at a special performance of his show Looking For Happiness.
For details go to dailymail.co.uk/books.
HOW TO BOOK: Our lunch takes place on Monday, May 12, from noon with a three-course lunch and wine preceded by a reception and cash bar at which guests can meet our authors. There will also be book signings after lunch.
Tickets cost £75 per person. Please send cheques payable to The Lancaster London Hotel with the name(s) of your guest(s) for the table plan to Caroline Hamilton Fleming, 27, Baalbec Road, London N5 1QN.
Tickets will be sent out during the week beginning April 28 and cheques will be returned to unsuccessful applicants.