Talks / Ideas / Philosophy

Rozie Kelly and Marcia Hutchinson in conversation with Imani Thompson

83 Marylebone High Street

Thu 29 Oct · 18:30 · £6

Talk

About this event

We are excited to welcome not one but two Women’s Prize shortlisted authors from this year’s cohort: Rozie Kelly , author of Kingfisher , and Marcia Hutchinson , author of The Mercy Step . ‘A gentle and compassionate novel that explores the nuances of queer love and friendship. ’ – Derek Owusu on Kingfisher Kingfisher is a beautifully crafted novel of queer desire and ambition, grief and creativity, and the fine lines between intimacy and obsession. It follows a creative writing academic, who falls under the spell of his colleague, a lauded author whose life seems to shimmer with a freedom he cannot reach. At home, there is Michael: beautiful, steady, safe. But this wordsmith is something else entirely – she is restless, luminous, untouchable. As his fixation deepens, the boundaries between admiration, desire and possession begin to blur. His Kingfisher – as he thinks of her – draws him further from the life he knows, into a world shaped by art, longing and illusion. Then illness arrives, closing in on them all, and the tightrope he’s been walking starts to sway. On Kingfisher : ‘ Takes us to the brink of what’s possible … a really compelling, original voice. It’s a voice I’ve never heard before, and a beautifully crafted story. ’ – Mona Arshi, Women’s Prize for Fiction (2026) On The Mercy Step : ‘ A beautiful and tender portrait of what it takes to leave where you’ve come from and forge your own future . ’ – Cariad Lloyd, Women’s Prize for Fiction (2026) The Mercy Step is a sharply-witted, raw and tender portrait of a young girl, and of Black British culture, family and survival in 1960s Britain. In Bradford, Mercy, a precocious young child, faces a world far too big for her small body. She lives with her Windrush-generation parents in a crowded household where her mother’s attention is stretched between church and family, and her father’s temper is something to be endured or avoided. Feeling like an outsider within her own home, Mercy retreats into books and the companionship of her beloved doll, Dolly, while learning early how to navigate the flaws and failings of the adults around her. Yet Mercy is nothing if not resilient. Armed with humour, style and fierce imagination, she quietly begins to plot her escape from a traumatic childhood. ‘ Dark, humorous, and passionately captures the unique realities of the northern Black experience. ’ – Observer on The Mercy Step Rozie Kelly is a novelist based in West Yorkshire, where she works for the Arvon Foundation. She has been shortlisted and longlisted for a variety of prizes, including the PFD Queer Fiction Prize, a Northern Writer’s Award, and the Writing East Midlands Short Story Award. She won the 2024 NorthBound Book Award for Kingfisher , her debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026. Marcia Hutchinson is the author of The Mercy Step , was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026, and won the Bookseller ‘s Discover Award 2026. Marcia was named one of the Observer’s Best New Novelists of 2025. Previously, she worked as a lawyer, before founding educational publishing company Primary Colours, which she ran until 2014. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for services to Cultural Diversity. They’ll be in conversation with Imani Thompson, a British writer with Jamaican heritage. During her time studying Sociology at Cambridge University, she was published in The Mays and won the Vogue new writer’s prize. She wrote her debut, Honey , while working as a bookseller at Daunt Books, and is now working on her second novel. Ticket price includes a glass of wine or a soft drink.