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Allan Ahlberg at the London Lit Festival, Kings Place

October 5, 2013 @ 11:30 am - 5:00 pm

| £6.5

One of Britain’s best-loved children’s authors, Allan Ahlberg tells us about his own oddly enchanted childhood lived out in the Black Country during the 1940s.

He remembers a father in overalls smelling of wood shavings and oil, of a fiercely protective mother who cries when he discovers that he is adopted, of life insurance policies (‘£6 if the child dies under age 3′) and fearsome bacon slicers. And of his first days at school: ‘Allan could do much better. He is most inattentive and dreamy at times’ (school report, December 1946).

‘My mother, who was not my mother, I see her now, her raw red cleaner’s hands twisting away at her apron as she struggled to speak. Adoption was a shameful business then in many people’s eyes, the babies being mostly illegitimate. Better not speak of it.’

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Details

Start:
October 5, 2013 11:30 am
End:
October 5, 2013 5:00 pm
Cost:
6.5
Event Category:
Event Tags:
Website:
http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on-book-tickets/spoken-word/allan-ahlberg#.Ukr5oBYTHzI

Organizer

Literature at Kings Place
Website:
http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on-book-tickets/

Venue

Kings Place
90 York Way London , N1 9AG United Kingdom
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Website:
http://www.kingsplace.co.uk