Hackney books in brief: July 2010

Stoke Newington-based author Yang Lian. Photo by Qiu Leilei

A Stoke Newington-based poet who was exiled from China after the Tiananmen Square massacre spoke alongside Iain Sinclair last month (June) as part of World Literature Weekend. Yang Lian’s latest collection, Lee Valley Poems, is his first book to be conceived and written in London and explores the landscapes of Hackney drawing traditional Chinese literature.

Iain Sinclair said: “I was intrigued, last year, to come across Lee Valley Poems by Yang Lian. And to find out that he lived in Stoke Newington. Leaving China – pretty much expelled – he felt a powerful sense of recognition in this marsh landscape, with its reed beds. ‘There is no international, only different locals,’ he insists. It is ironic, of course, that the very thing he left behind, monolithic development, blitzed territory, forced evacuations, landed slap-bang on the new pastoral he was attempting to celebrate.”

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Independent bookshop Pages of Hackney’s series of summer events continues with a wide range of talks. On Wednesday 14 July at 7pm Nicholas Jubber will discuss Drinking Arak Off an Ayatollah’s Beard, described as part travelogue part history about Iran and Afghanistan. On Wednesday 21 July at 7pm there is a talk on the history and future of South Africa. Contact Eleanor at eleanor@pagesofhackney.co.uk

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A Hackney church features in a spooky story in the latest issue of One Eye Grey – series of short stories set in London that are written in the style of a Victorian ‘penny dreadful’. On the Back of a Pig by Sean Elliott is about a man who finds treasure hidden in St Mark’s Church in Dalston. Published last month, the collection, called East of Westminster Bridge, costs £1 and is available from Housmans Bookshop in King’s Cross or online at www.fandmpublications.co.uk

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A book is to be published later this year about the so-called ricin trial, at which a five men loosely connected through Finsbury Park Mosque were accused of conspiring to manufacture the toxic chemical ricin for use in terrorism. Four of the five were acquitted at the trial but have since been subject to the continued attentions of the authorities.

 The book is noteworthy as it has been written by Lawrence Archer, who served as a juror at the trial. There is no absolute ban on jurors publishing books about trials they have taken part in, but it is believed Archer’s book will be only the second such account to be published in the UK. Former jurors are permitted to talk about evidence presented and events surrounding trials they have served at, but they are banned from giving details of deliberations. The book is due to be published by independent publisher Pluto Press in September.