An evening with Raymond Antrobus

Join us on Tuesday 26th August, when we'll be joined by the acclaimed, award-winning poet, Raymond Antrobus, to celebrate the publication of his debut memoir, The Quiet Ear.

Raymond will be reading from the book, before being in conversation with writer, editor and co-host of the Backlisted podcast, Andy Miller, before answering questions from the audience and signing copies of his books.

Tickets are £8 standard admission or £22 including a copy of The Quiet Ear. Tickets are non-refundable and if you can't make the event and would like a signed/ dedicated copy of The Quiet Ear, please do email us and we'll be very happy to help.

This event is being held at West Kirby United Reformed Church, a short walk from the bookshop and a few minutes from West Kirby train station. The venue is wheelchair accessible and if you have any further accesibility queries, do get in touch.

We look forward to seeing you there!

About The Quiet Ear:

'This book left me transformed.' --- Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water

'Read this book.' --- Lemn Sissay, author of Let the Light Pour In

'Destined to become a modern classic.' --- Roger Robinson, author of Portable Paradise

'Brilliant.' --- Seán Hewitt, author of Open, Heaven

A memoir. A cultural history. A call to action.

Raymond Antrobus was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds – bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn’t believe he was deaf at all.The Quiet Ear tells the story of Raymond’s upbringing at the intersection of race and disability. Growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father, educated in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, Raymond explores the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community and shines a light on the decline of deaf education in Britain.Throughout, Raymond sets his story alongside those of other D/deaf cultural figures – from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers – the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity he did not have growing up.The Quiet Ear is a groundbreaking and much-needed examination of deafness.

About Raymond Antrobus:

Raymond Antrobus is the author of three poetry titles: The Perseverance, All The Names Given and Signs, Music; and two children’s books: Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses. His work has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his poems have been added to GCSE syllabi. In 2019 Raymond became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020 and appointed an MBE in 2021. The Quiet Ear is his first work of prose.

About Andy Miller:

Andy Miller is a reader, author and editor of books, most notably The Year of Reading Dangerously. He writes about culture for the Quietus, the Spectator, the New York Times and more. He is also the co-host of Backlisted, the UK’s most popular and influential independent literary podcast, now in its tenth year and going strong.