The RSL is taking bookings from Members and Fellows only. For public tickets visit the British Library website.

Why do we read? Why do we write? What do we reveal when we do? Join a writer, a psychotherapist and a philosopher as they discuss what we reveal about ourselves through literature and the difference, if any, between non-fiction, novels and the psychotherapist’s couch. Deborah Levy is a playwright, novelist and poet. In her ‘living autobiography’ The Cost of Living, she considers what it means to live with value, meaning and pleasure. Adam Phillips is a practising psychoanalyst and Visiting Professor in the English department at the University of York. Amia Srinivasan is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford, and works on topics in epistemology, metaphilosophy, social and political philosophy, and feminism. She is a contributing editor of the London Review of Books. Their conversation will be chaired by writer and broadcaster Matthew Sweet. 

This event will be British Sign Language interpreted.

Literature Matters: Writing and Frankness will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3’s Arts and Ideas programme Free Thinking on Tuesday 11 December.

We are grateful to the Royal Literary Fund for sponsoring this event.