Book club
A little under five years ago, writer and one half of pop duo Everything But The Girl, Ben Watt, approached Whitbread-winning novelist and fellow Penguin stablemate, Patrick Neate, with the idea of organising a one-off literary evening in west London. The night was held at Cherry Jam and went down well enough for Ben and Patrick to consider making it a regular thing. And so it was that Book Slam – “London’s first/best/only literary night out featuring all the top writers, the finest live music and a semi-professional Serbian DJ” – was born.
These days Book Slam has no difficulty attracting Booker Prize-winning authors and Brit-bagging musicians, but this wasn’t always the case. At first, Patrick says, “It bumbled along relatively unsuccessfully, but slowly it picked up an audience”. Although Ben was instrumental early on, after a year he drifted away to concentrate on other things. Patrick takes up the story: “Then I started doing more bespoke events in other places like the Hay Festival... Publishers became more interested and I started working out that I couldn’t do it on my own, so I got another couple of people involved who I now work with. In fact, I don’t actually do an enormous amount any more.” Although he may not chase after the acts and organise the line-ups as much as he used to, Patrick still hosts most of the events, still records the podcasts and is still very much the face
of Book Slam.
Also, it is Patrick’s vision that has shaped the event. “I had this idea that it would be any form of storytelling,” he explains. “Initially, we’d have two or three novelists but that was all a bit boring, so we tried to make it more varied and diverse, and we hit upon a format, which we mostly stick to. But not always.” In a nutshell however: “We have lots of music, verse of some description and some prose.”
Although the people who now do most of the organising are paid to do so, Patrick is amused by the idea that Book Slam might be a profitable venture. “God, no,” he says. “It’s not profitable. I mean, we charge people money, so there is money…” The admission fee however – a snip incidentally, at only £6 a head in advance - goes to the organisers and the acts. “We pay the performers – particularly the musicians. It’s the writers who are often prepared to do it for promotion, but musicians not.” So as far as Patrick himself goes, it’s very much a labour of love. He covers his expenses but that’s as far as it goes. “I think in many ways there is a certain beauty in things that are not profitable,” he says.
“It keeps people honest.”
In the flesh, Patrick Neate is not the bubbliest person you will ever meet, but beneath his laconic and – despite the occasional, unexpected bark of laughter - ever so slightly gloomy exterior, beats the heart of a man who is passionate about story-telling. And although he doesn’t show it, one can’t help feel that he must be very proud of what he’s achieved with Book Slam.
Event highlights so far include appearances by Jonathan Coe, Irvine Welsh, Monica Ali, Will Self, Zadie Smith, Scroobius Pip, Nick Hornby, Kiran Desai and so on. Musicians have included Kate Nash, Soweto Kinch and Adele. Importantly, you can also hear new voices at Book Slam, unpublished writers and unsigned bands who are not prepared to sit around waiting to be discovered, but instead are taking this opportunity to make themselves heard.
All in all, Book Slam represents an exciting, fun night out in a capacious venue which has much more in common with a bar than it does a bookshop (this primarily on account of it being a bar, and not a bookshop.)
For the first three years, Book Slam resided at Cherry Jam, but then moved to the decidedly more spacious Neighbourhood at 12 Acklam Road W10. Patrick has previously described the evening as “clubbing for grown-ups” and “a book event for people who don’t like book events”, both of which make perfect sense. Bearing this in mind, it’s hardly surprising that Book Slam will be appearing at various festivals this year, including Bestival, the Edinburgh Book Festival and “a couple of things on the South Bank”.
All of which may seem like quite a commitment, but of course, first and foremost Patrick Neate is a novelist. And the path to becoming a novelist was fairly straightforward. “I wrote lots of novels,” he says. “I suppose I was a journalist really but I never really wanted to be a journalist. I was just doing it to try and earn a buck, while writing novels.” So far, Patrick has written four novels and two non-fiction books, as well as a number of plays and screenplays and a fair bit of poetry. “I’ve just finished another novel and thereafter I’m writing a screenplay for Pete Travis, the guy who directed Vantage Point.” Patrick delivers this with his standard laconic drawl, as if he were discussing plans to have his bathroom regrouted. Isn’t he excited? “Not really. The things about films - I’ve written scripts before and there’s such a long wait between writing the script and actually making the film. I think I’ll get excited when they find ten million quid or however much it’s going to cost to make the thing.”
After our interview, Patrick sets off across London to a Soho screening house to review a film. He has his fingers in many pies. “I think, as a writer, unless you’re hugely successful, you probably do a diversity of things to try and keep the taxman away.”
We wish him luck and hope that he manages to keep the wolves sufficiently far from the door to allow him to carry on with Book Slam, because the whole of London is much better for it. l
Book Slam mostly takes place at Neighbourhood, Acklam Road W10 on the last Thursday of every month.
For a flavour of previous evenings, check out the Sony Radio Academy Award-winning podcast at www.bookslam.com.