Jessie Burton Reads Extract at launch of Margaret Atwood’s BOOK OF LIVES
We were thrilled to see Jessie Burton read an extract at the launch of BOOK OF LIVES by Margaret Atwood, alongside Ruth Wilson and Atwood herself. The launch of Atwood’s memoir was held at Waterstones Piccadilly and attended by about 250 fans.
The evening offered a panel event about the "enduring impact of one of the most exciting voices of our time", a creative writing workshop inspired by Atwood’s poetry, a doodling workshop inspired by Atwood’s own drawings, the opportunity to recreate the BOOK OF LIVES cover for a portrait photographer, a raffle to win a copy of the memoir, and it culminated with the three readings. As you can see in the below video, the reaction to the readings was rapturous.
Jessie reminisced in an Instagram post that she first met Margaret Atwood when she was shortlisted for the Creative Writing Competition for London Schools and Colleges at age sixteen and was given a signed copy of CAT’S EYE by Atwood at the prize ceremony. She added, ‘Fast-forward twenty-six years, and tonight, to celebrate the publication of her luminous memoir of life and the writing life, BOOK OF LIVES, and in her presence, I read an excerpt about her childhood, about the genesis of Cat’s Eye, and really, how all the terrible things that happen to you can be turned into something else—like a novel, for example, or maybe a poem’.
Congratulations, Jessie!
Video credit: Amy Frances