Please join us on Tuesday the 21st of July in the Aylsham Friendship Hall to celebrate John Grindrod’s incredible new book Tales of the Suburbs which tells the relatively untold twentieth century tale of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people in small towns and suburbia. Free event but booking essential. More details here.

Social historian John Grindrod joins us to discuss Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains, his fascinating new history of queer life beyond the city centre.

Expect an illuminating, warm and sharply observed evening about the queer lives lived behind net curtains, and a new way of seeing the suburbs.

This event welcomes everyone interested in our shared social history. The event forms part of Pride week. Join us in the bar downstairs after the event for a social drinks gathering to continue the conversations. Tickets here.

John Grindrod uncovers Croydon’s secret LGBTQ+ history at Braithwaite Halls. Readings, Q&A, and networking. Free entry – book your spot now!

Ever wondered what was really happening behind the twitching net curtains of suburban Croydon?

For Pride Month 2026, Croydon Pride is hosts an exclusive evening with acclaimed social historian John Grindrod. Join us at the historic Braithwaite Halls as we dive into his latest work, Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains. Tickets are free but must be reserved here.

Join John Grindrod talking about his new book Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains, at Real Magic Books in Wendover, near Aylesbury. Real Magic Books is an independent family bookshop at the heart of Wendover High Street, celebrating the people and pages where real magic is made. It features the very best new fiction; children’s and young adult literature; nature and the outside world; people and places; modern thinking and philosophy; local writers and artists; selected classics and other carefully chosen titles from the world of publishing. Tickets here.

John Grindrod will be conversation with Emmett Scanlon, architect, curator and director of the Irish Architecture Foundation, talking about Tales of the Suburbs. Presented in partnership with the Irish Architecture Foundation. Tickets here.

Concrete Atlantis present: Sumer is icumen in a Roundabout Way. An afternoon of dark-edged spoken word, lively talk about concrete buildings and live music for dancing to architecture. With performance from Mira Aroyo (aka Ladytron), live discussion with John Grindrod and Gillian Darley (recording a live edition of Monstrosities Mon Amour ). Hosted by Travis Elborough & Stonecirclesampler. Tickets here.

In conversation with Cara Courage (a writer who is also interviewed in Tales of the Suburbs). Supported by Margate Bookshop and Margate Pride. More information here. Part of Words Change Things festival organised by local artist (and former Monstrosities Mon Amour guest) Dan Thompson.

A screening of Graham Williamson’s short documentary film Song of the Suburbs, with a Q&A between the director and John Grindrod. Tickets here.

Screening of Graham Williamson’s short documentary film Song of the Suburbs, with an introduction to the film by Graham Williamson and a discussion between Graham and John Grindrod. A Manchester Modernist Society event at BDP in Manchester.

"With the help of the British Film Institute's Our Screen Heritage programme, I've made a short film remixing nearly a century of archive footage from movies, television, amateur film and video and the internet to tell the story of the British suburbs. Are they conformist or eccentric? Conservative or radical? Normal or surreal? Song of the Suburbs reveals they're all these things, and much more.

Among the things you'll see in this film are: extreme slum clearance allotments, the foundation of the welfare state, poltergeists in suburban London, the North Korean embassy in a suburban semi, the rise of new towns, the fall of the high-rise flat, solstice rituals at Milton Keynes, house name plates, extremely dangerous children's games, a house shaped like a UFO, a child stroking a caterpillar, and a man who has redecorated his entire home in 1970s fashions.

The footage gathered includes TikToks and YouTube travelogues, silent documentaries made by anti-slum campaigners, films by Jill Craigie and Charlotte Regan, animation from Bob Godfrey and Derek Phillips, Super 8 home movies and student films, news reports from Nationwide, government information films and more, all to tell the story of a part of Britain too often mislabelled as boring." 

Graham Williamson is an artist and film-maker whose work frequently examines the social and folkloric history of overlooked places. He co-directed the documentary Where the Stone Dropped, about Teesside's man-made South Gare, and his work was recently shown as part of the exhibition Unsettled Grounds at Scarborough's Old Parcels Office. He is a regular contributor to The Geek Show and Byline Times.

Book tickets here.

For Milton Keynes residents and locals. As part of MK Lit Fest’s new project, Raising Voices, they’re running three workshops in centre:mk this summer for anyone aged 16+ to write about the city.

Do you enjoy observing and writing about places – be they your everyday surroundings or somewhere new and exciting? But could you do with some advice, structure and a bit of time to really concentrate on seeing what you can really do?

Join Milton Keynes-based writer John Grindrod for an inspiring, fun and productive creative non-fiction workshop. In the session you'll get advice about different approaches to writing about place, find new ways of tackling familiar topics, and encouragement to help motivate you in your writing. From countryside to cityscape, suburban streets to thundering motorways, the most spectacular view to the cosiest room, see Milton Keynes through new eyes with tips and techniques to get you observing, thinking and writing about your surroundings afresh – whatever they might be.

This two hour workshop will include writing exercises and prompts, and you will have opportunities after the event to submit writing that it has inspired to MK Lit Fest's Raising Voices Project, which is developing an online interactive audio-visual map of people's responses to and relationships with particular locations across our home city. Free to attend but booking esential.

Explore London through its architectural and literary heritage. Author John Grindrod and Mike Althorpe, the London Ambler, are your guides for a revolution-themed stroll around old Finsbury and Clerkenwell. faber Members walk, tickets here.

If you are considering writing non-fiction, or maybe you are part way through your non-fiction book and wondering what happens once you’ve finished, this is the session for you. Join us online in conversation with agent Anna Pallai and non-fiction author John Grindrod as we discuss the world of non fiction publishing.

From how to get started to whether to write to the market or to your heart; the unique challenges (and joys) of writing non-fiction; to submitting to agents, working with publishers and promoting your book.

Anna and John also have extensive experience working in publishing prior to their current roles so this is a great opportunity to learn about all aspects of non-fiction publishing to inform your own non-fiction journey.

The session will be hosted by Kelly Weekes and there will be plenty of time for your questions.

You can book the talk here, it’s free for members of Byte the Book.

Join architectural photographer Simon Phipps and writer John Grindrod as they take us on a tour of some of the amazing modern places in Britain that Simon has captured in his acclaimed books, including Brutal London and Brutal North.

From London's South Bank to the futuristic Forton Services in Lancaster, Newcastle's 'Get Carter' Trinity Square Car Park to spectacular new town public art, Simon will take us on a visual journey to places familiar and unexpected.

With a photographic slideshow, plus an in-depth in-conversation between John and Simon, this promises to be an evening that no fan of modernist architecture will want to miss.

Simon Phipps was born in Leeds and lives and works in London. He is a graduate in sculpture from the Royal College of Art and an acclaimed photographer of post-war modernist architecture, art and design. He is the author of a number of books including Brutal London, Finding Brutalism, Concrete Poetry, Brutal North, Outer Brutal London and the recently published Brutal Wales / Cymru Friwtalaidd  (2024). Finding Brutalism was a winner of the 2018 DAM Architectural Book Award and won a bronze medal at the German Photobook Award 2018; Outer Brutal London was shortlisted for the Architecture Book of the Year Award 2023.

Event to be held on Zoom. Book here.

As part of Open House weekend join John Grindrod, author of 'Iconicon' and 'Concretopia', on a walk around the endless rebuilding of Croydon town centre.

More information and how to book here.

As part of Open House weekend join John Grindrod, author of 'Iconicon' and 'Concretopia', on a walk around the endless rebuilding of Croydon town centre.

More information and how to book here.

Join John Grindrod, author of Iconicon and Concretopia, on a walk around the Barbican. Exclusively for Faber Members.

When the area around St Paul's in the City of London was razed in the blitz, plans slowly emerged for ambitious rebuilding: the Golden Lane estate, the Barbican, and a new raised walkway system above the ancient London Wall. Join John Grindrod, author of Iconicon and historian of modern places, on a fascinating walk around one of the world's most celebrated Brutalist architectural estates and its surroundings, to help recapture some of the excitement and optimism of London's Cold War-era masterpiece.

The duration of the event will be approximately two hours. Sign up here.