Writing has always been a precarious profession. From Petronius in ancient Rome to the 20th Century Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima, writers, more than any other artists, have taken their own lives in an extraordinary number of ways. With bullets, poison, drugs and swords, poets, playwrights, novelists and philosophers have sent themselves off into the big sleep. Others, one step shy of that last exit, have made great literature about the urge to self-destruction.

In this talk, Gary Lachman explores the different ways in which this disparate group of men and women of letters have put finis to their often troubled lives and the motivations that sent them on their way.

Tickets £12 including a Hendrick's gin cocktail. Please click here to buy.

Gary Lachman
Gary Lachman is the author of twenty-two books on a variety of subjects, from the history of esotericism to the influence of the occult on popular culture, mystical politics and writers and suicide. He writes for several journals in the UK, US and Europe and lectures widely on his work. A founding member of the rock group Blondie, in 2006 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Find out more at garylachman.com