A. K. Blakemore in conversation with Rebecca Perry

About this event

We’re excited to welcome the prize-winning historical novelist A. K. Blakemore to speak about her dazzlingly inventive new novel, Doom Painting , in conversation with the Booker Prize longlisted author Rebecca Perry . Set during the sixteen days of the Peasant ’ s Revolt, this is a thrilling retelling of a definitive moment in British history . ‘ Blakemore is a formidable talent. Few can evoke the past in such an urgent, deft way – and with Doom Painting she surely joins the first rank of historical fiction writers alongside Mantel and Tremain. ’ – Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies It is 1381. England, reeling from plague and years of conflict abroad, is a tinderbox waiting to spark. Two childhood friends ride into the town of Brentwood, Essex, where they come upon an altercation with a local Justice bent on squeezing more coin from the masses. Thus begins a rebellion of the common folk – loyal to the king, but not to those wealthy landowners who curtail their freedoms; the multitude finding cause against the powers that threaten their livelihoods. Set over sixteen days, Doom Painting roves across England as the revolt grows and swells and the rebels march to London to take their demands to the child-king Richard II. Out of the rebellion emerges its enigmatic and charismatic leader Wat Tyler, an opportunistic and mercurial rogue whose morality is birthed by the cause, and who shapes an identity for the English which has never been lost. In the meeting of peasantry and nobility, new versions of England are born, and – for one bloody summer – the people of England seize control. ‘Truly astonishing. Blakemore has the rare gift of capturing the beating heart of events centuries past in all their complexity and unruliness, not for a second taking an eye off the tender, the human, the exquisite. Every page buzzes with the life of it.’ – Rebecca Perry, author of May We Feed the King A. K. Blakemore ’s The Manningtree Witches won the Desmond Elliott Prize, was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and was a Waterstones Book of the Month. Her second novel The Glutton was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She is the author of two full-length collections of poetry and has also translated the work of Sichuanese poet Yu Yoyo. Her writing has appeared in the Guardian , the London Review of Books , Poetry and the Poetry Review among other publications. Rebecca Perry ’s debut novel May We Feed the King won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, is longlisted for the Booker Prize and was an Observer Debut of 2026. Rebecca is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Beauty/Beauty and Stone Fruit , both published by Bloodaxe Books (2015, 2021), as well as four pamphlets. Her poetry has been shortlisted for awards including the T. S. Eliot Prize, and her first collection won the Michael Murphy Memorial Prize. Her first work of creative non-fiction, On Trampolining , was published by Makina Books in 2023. Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.