“The Little Book of Prison, A Beginners Guide” – Frankie Owens
Tuesday 21 February 2012 – Book signing from 4pm. Talk from 7:00 pm
A Beginners Guide is the award winning book by ex prisoner Frankie Owens. Written during his time behind bars, the book aims to be the little helping hand that first time offenders might need as they enter the system.
Frankie Owens wrote The Little Book of Prison, A Beginners Guide to help future inmates, their families and loved ones to help make sense of what they would all go through when someone goes to prison. He writes from his own experience as a prisoner living at Her Majesties Pleasure.
The book won the 2011 Koestler Platinum award for non-fiction http://koestlertrust.org.uk/ judged by Will Self. “Our awards judges don’t give a Platinum Award lightly, and this book is a winner on more than one level. It is a practical and totally frank introduction to real life in the British prison system – probably the best introduction there is. But it is also a wonderfully human narrative and a sharply argued critique – the wit and wisdom of one inmate who turns out to be a born writer. I was gripped from start to finish – roared with laughter one minute, winced with pain the next, and was left wondering why we have prisons at all.
Accoustic Evening
Friday 24 February 2012 – 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
An evening of acoustic music from the talented songwriters at Bristol Institute of modern music. Please come along and show your support for some local unsigned musicians and support a great local business at the same time.
Old Market March & Riot – 80th Anniversary – History Talk
Saturday 25 February 2012 – 4:00 pm
Historians Roger Ball and Dave Backwith will consider the impact of the events of that day and the wider context of the struggles of the unemployed during the great depression.
Dave Backwith is a researcher of Bristol’s working class history in the inter war years particularly 1919 and the unemployed workers movement in the 1930s. He is a family and community studies lecturer at the Anglia Ruskin University. Roger Ball is a doctorate researcher in the history of riots from the University of the West of England.
Old Market March & Riot – 80th Anniversary –History Walk
Sunday 26 February 2012 – 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Meet at 2pm at Hydra Books for a History Walk through the streets of Old Market and Central Bristol, where Roger Ball and other Bristol Radical History Group members will recount the stories associated with the various scenes on route.
Exhibition – Lesbian and Gay Switchboard
Sunday 26 February – 4:00 pm
Bristol’s Lesbian and Gay Switchboard has been running for 37 years. Come and see an exhibition to celebrate its history at the bookshop. This will be followed by a party at 7pm at the Old Market Tavern for volunteers, friends and supporters of the Bristol Lesbian and Gay Switchboard.
