Join The Beaumont for a complimentary digital evening with author and journalist Sam Knight. Celebrating the best of British writing, The Beaumont has launched a hybrid digital and in-person version of its literary series, bringing together the world’s best and brightest non-fiction writers to read from their latest work.

TIMINGS

19.30 (BST) | 14.30 (EDT): Reading and In-Conversation with Sam Knight, followed by a Q&A

THE PREMONITIONS BUREAU by Sam Knight

Premonitions are impossible. But they come true all the time. Most are innocent. You think of a forgotten friend. Out of the blue, they call. But what if you knew that something terrible was going to happen? A sudden flash, the words Charing Cross. Four days later, a packed express train comes off the rails outside the station. What if you could share your vision, and stop that train? Could these forebodings help the world to prevent disasters?

In 1966, John Barker, a dynamic psychiatrist working in an outdated British mental hospital, established the Premonitions Bureau to investigate these questions. He would find a network of hundreds of correspondents, from bank clerks to ballet teachers. Among them were two unnervingly gifted 'percipients'. Together, the pair predicted plane crashes, assassinations and international incidents, with uncanny accuracy. And then, they informed Barker of their most disturbing premonition: that he was about to die.

The Premonitions Bureau is an enthralling true story, of madness and wonder, science and the supernatural - a journey to the most powerful and unsettling reaches of the human mind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sam Knight is a British journalist who has covered subjects such as the plans for the death of the Queen, sandwiches, late capitalism and art fraud, as well as profiles of Ronnie O'Sullivan, Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May. His work for the 'Long Read' section of the Guardian and for the New Yorker has become influential and widely shared. 'London Bridge is Down,' published in 2017, was viewed four million times and remains the most popular Guardian long read ever published. Knight, a staff writer at the New Yorker since 2018, has won two Foreign Press Association awards and was shortlisted for the 2018 Orwell Prize for political writing.

THE BEAUMONT LITERARY SERIES

The Beaumont Hotel launched its literary series in 2018, bringing together the world's best and brightest non-fiction writers to read from their latest works. As part of the series, we showcase young writers alongside established literary names, putting a spotlight on intelligent and intriguing non-fiction stories with our overall aim being to put together a series of stimulating and engaging events.

With every hotel bedroom brimming with hard-bound books and a private dining room named after The Lotos Club in New York - one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States - The Beaumont is a fitting host for this celebration of authors and writing.