Two writers. Two extraordinary books. One electrifying conversation. Damian Barr and Andrew Durbin are both, in their very different ways, chroniclers of the outsider experience - artists, lovers, misfits and trailblazers who refused to fit the mould.
 
In this unmissable headline event, chaired by Gill Lowe and supported by Suffolk Book League, Damian Barr (BBC R2 Book Club hit The Two Roberts) and Andrew Durbin  (The Wonderful World That Almost Was) discuss their brilliant books and the real artists - Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, Peter Hujar and Paul Thek - whose lives and work inspired and feature in them. Join us as our guest authors discuss the artistic legacies and love stories that these two extraordinary books finally bring into the light.
 
We would like to note that this event borrows its title from the exhibition that Damian curated at Charleston, Lewes, earlier this year.
 
Format: Interview & Q&A
Themes: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Adults, Headliner, Art, LGBTQ+, Literary, Book Club
Access: Hearing Loop
 
Damian Barr Books: The Two Roberts, Maggie & Me
Damian Barr is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and journalist. His memoir Maggie & Me, won Stonewall Writer of the Year and Sunday Times Memoir of the Year. His debut novel, You Will Be Safe Here, was shortlisted for six major awards and named a Book of the Year in the Observer, Guardian and Mail. He has written columns for The Times and Sunday Times and hosted Front Row on BBC Radio 4 as well as his own series Guide Books. In 2019, Damian brought books back to television with the Big Scottish Book Club, now in its sixth series and syndicated internationally. Also on BBC TV, he presented Shelf Isolation and the landmark documentary for Sir Walter Scott’s 250th. Damian holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His world-famous Literary Salon ran from 2008 to 2023, celebrating writers from around the world and widening the cultural conversation. He is a trustee of Gladstone’s Library and a campaigner for libraries. He lives in Brighton.
 
Andrew Durbin Books: The Wonderful World That Almost Was
Andrew Durbin is the author of The Wonderful World that Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek (2026) and two novels, MacArthur Park (2017) and Skyland (2020). He is the editor in chief of frieze magazine and lives in London. 
 
Gill Lowe
Gill Lowe is programming lead for Suffolk Book League. She is Visiting Fellow in English at the University of Suffolk where she was Course Leader for English. Her academic interests are auto/biography, narrative and modernist literature. She has published widely on Virginia Woolf, Bloomsbury and related topics.