Following sell-out book events in Liverpool, New York, Boston, Sheffield, and Suffolk, the Wild Dances book tour is finally headed to London.
Please join our editors William Lee Adams and Deban Aderemi at HMV’s iconic London flagship store (363 Oxford Street) on Sunday 7 April at 12:00.
As ever, we’ll open with a brief reading, followed by an interview and Q&A. We’ll also open the floor to questions about this year’s song contest. We’ve also got a very special musical guest who will perform on the day. A book purchase from HMV secures admission.
You can RSVP on the HMV event listing now.
The event is taking place just hours before the London Eurovision Party, so the contest and the current odds will definitely be on our minds. HMV is just a three-minute journey to HERE at Outernet on the Elizabeth Line, and a hop, skip, and a jump from some of London’s busiest shopping thoroughfares.
HMV’s Oxford Street branch re-opened last November following a four-year hiatus. For our event they’re opening the second floor performance space, which is normally closed to the public and which has hosted some of the U.K.’s best-known bands.
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Book talk: “Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision”
Although the book ends up at Eurovision, it’s more about the journey and how our backgrounds can shape our passions — and how those passions can ultimately nourish us. The book discusses issues from growing up with a disabled sibling to coming out in the Deep South to the traumatic aftermath of violence and death to the power of pop music to help us heal and forgive.
Nigella Lawson, the television cook and a former judge of The Booker Prize, described “Wild Dances” as “breath-taking and beautifully written,” explaining that it is “about so much more than Eurovision.”
Writing for National Public Radio in the U.S., literary critic Thúy Đinh called it “a page-turning, tragicomic memoir.”
“By ingeniously weaving improbable and conflicting forces that make up his personal history, Adams affirms a resilient idea of home that yearns to transcend space and time.”
You can hear a bit more about the topics covered on the BBC World Service podcast “Lives Less Ordinary.” The two-part episode “The invisible child who now shines at Eurovision” is available on Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcasts.
Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision is available now in hardback and as a 12-hour audiobook. Remember to buy your book through HMV to secure admission to the talk.
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I almost succeeded in signing up to this one, but I was stopped at the last hurdle: There appears to be only one payment method, and I don’t use it. Would it be possible to expand the payment options?
Hello, Purple Mask! I just saw that I only have the PayPal option as well — how strange. I’ve written to HMV to check and will report back to you soon. Thank you for your interest!
Thank you. Yeah, it’s frustrating. Hopefully it can be fixed.
It is now fixed with HMV, and I have booked. So, fingers crossed, see you on the 7th of April! 🙂
That’s fantastic news! See you then : )