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

Celebrating 15 years of the RSL Ondaatje Prize, four past winners discuss the challenges and delights of writing to evoke the spirit of a place. Pascale Petit’s collection of poetry, Mama Amazonica, which explores motherhood, illness and pain through the foliage and creatures of the Amazon rainforest, won the 2018 Prize. Peter Pomerantsev’s winning book in 2016, Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible, is a journey into the political and ethical landscape of modern Russia. In 2013, former Home Secretary Alan Johnson won the Prize with This Boy, a visceral memoir of growing up poor in 1950s and 60s London. Hisham Matar’s debut novel set within the highly charged political landscape of Libya, In the Country of Men, won in 2007. In this event, chaired by presenter and broadcaster Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough, past winners discuss their prize-winning books and how the connections between the physical, cultural and personal landscapes of our lives can be revealed through literature.

This event will be preceded by a free Book Group for RSL Members. Places are limited and must be booked in advance.

This event will be broadcast by BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme and available as an Arts & Ideas podcast.

The RSL Ondaatje Prize was founded in 2003. We are grateful to Sir Christopher Ondaatje for sponsoring the Prize.