*** This event has now been cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions ***

The line between memoir and biography has never been clear. A memoir is personal that is the most solid thing that can be said about it. Other than that, a memoir can be about a week in a life, an incident in a life, the story of an emotion in a life. Both tangible and intangible, it is one of the most exciting forms of writing and self-discovery. It is also one of the most difficult. Join Linda Wilkinson, ‘accidental memoirist’, as she takes you through some of the techniques and discusses the pitfalls and joys of the form.

About Linda Wilkinson 

Linda is a polymath, for over twenty years she worked in scientific research, she then became a playwright, a novelist and a human rights activist who was Chair of Amnesty International UK for six years. It is as a historian and storyteller that she is most recently known and she has written extensively about her corner of London’s east end. Her memoir Columbia Road of Blood and Belonging completes an unusual trilogy about the street, the first two books being social histories. She hadn’t intended to write a memoir, but somehow the stories from her life could only be connected by one person, herself.

“An astonishingly accomplished memoir, vividly written and evoking both a time that has changed for ever and a place that is transforming in front of our eyes. Written with a complete lack of self-regard and great originality. I’m a fan” Julie Christie.

lindawilkinson.org       @LindaSWilkinson

This event is part of Essex Book Festival’s PLACE weekend in Colchester. Click here for a list of events taking place as part of the hub.