The acclaimed author of Little, Edward Carey, presents a tribute to connection and creativity in a time of isolation and upheaval in his latest book B: A Year in Plagues and Pencils.

In March 2020, as lockdowns were imposed around the world, Edward came up with a plan to post a sketched drawing a day on social media until life returned to normal.  This is a collection of the wonderful drawings that he produced, along with essays reflecting on the project.

Edward will also talk about his book The Swallowed Man, a beautiful and haunting imagining of the years Geppetto spends within the belly of a sea beast.

Venue: Cressing Temple Barns, Witham Road, Braintree, Cressing, Essex, CM77 8PD

Tickets: £10 / £8 concessions (Students, Under 27s and Jobseekers)

Date and time: Saturday 25th June, 3.30pm

Box Office: Book online or via Mercury Theatre 01206 573948 (10am – 8pm Tuesday to Saturday)

B: A Year in Plagues and Pencils by Edward Carey

B, named after Edward’s preferred grade of pencil, is a collection of the wonderful drawings that he has produced over the past year, along with essays reflecting on the project

In March 2020, as lockdowns were imposed around the world, Edward Carey published a sketch of a determined young man on social media, with a plan to keep posting a drawing a day from his family home in Austin, Texas, until life returned to normal. Over one hundred and fifty Tombow B pencil stubs later, he is still drawing.

Edward’s drawings reflect the past and the present, ranging from authors including Charlotte Brontë and Zadie Smith, to wildlife such as puffins, alligators and grackles. They reflect the turbulent events of 2020, including the pandemic itself, the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the climate protests, and the American election.

Some are from Edward’s own imagination. Some are deeply personal, featuring his own family, or reflecting his longing to return home to England. It is both an individual and collective account of a tumultuous year in pencil, finding beauty amid the horror of extraordinary times.

“A beautiful and soulfully assembled museum, unfolding unpredictably every day as life itself must… I for one am very grateful to Edward, and to all those dozens of pencils that sacrificed themselves to this great project.” Max Porter, author of Lanny

The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey

From the acclaimed author of Little comes this beautiful and haunting imagining of the years Geppetto spends within the belly of a sea beast.

Drawing upon the Pinocchio story while creating something entirely his own, Carey tells an unforgettable tale of fatherly love and loss, pride and regret, and of the sustaining power of art and imagination.

Buy a copy of The Swallowed Man from bookshop.org

About the Author

Edward Carey is a novelist, visual artist and playwright. He is the author of four acclaimed novels, Observatory Mansions, Alva & Irva, Little, and The Swallowed Man. Little has been published in 19 countries, was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Walter Scott Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, and shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown, and was a Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year. His YA series The Iremonger Trilogy is published in 13 countries and has been optioned for film adaptation. Born in England, Edward teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.

Photo of Edward Carey © Elizabeth McCracken

Praise for Edward Carey

‘Don’t miss this eccentric charmer’ Margaret Atwood

‘Edward Carey writes wonderfully weird books about wonderfully weird things’ Celeste Ng

‘Strange and lovely’ Rhik Samadder

‘Strange, moving and musical… a delight ’ A.L. Kennedy

‘It surprises and delights, and saddens and gladdens, from start to finish’ The Big Issue

‘A marvellous feat of storytelling that dives deep into the madness accompanying solitude and creativity ’ Daily Mail

‘Haunting… offers much in which to luxuriate’ The Sunday Times

‘Conveyed with so much sympathy and acute observation that it is hard not to be beguiled’ The Times

‘A playful writer whose charming sentences are works of careful craftsmanship’ Washington Post