This Ragged Grace - A Talk by Octavia Bright

A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: BIOGRAPHY

This Ragged Grace tells the story of Octavia’s journey through recovery from alcohol addiction, and the parallel story of her father’s descent into Alzheimer’s. Looking back over this time, each of the seven chapters explores the feelings and experiences of the corresponding year of her recovery, tracing the shift in emotion and understanding that comes with the deepening connection to this new way of life. Over the course of this seven-year period, life continues to unfold. Paths are abandoned, people fall ill, waters get choppy, seemingly impossible things are navigated without the old fixes.

As Octavia moves between London, the island of Stromboli, New York, Cornwall and Margate, each place offers something new but ultimately always delivers the same message: that wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

Octavia will be in conversation with Imogen West-Knights.

Octavia Bright is a writer and broadcaster. She co-hosts Literary Friction, the literary podcast and NTS Radio show, with Carrie Plitt. Recommended by the New York Times, Guardian, BBC Culture, Electric Literature, Sunday Times and others, it has run for ten years and has listeners worldwide. She has also presented programmes for BBC R4 including Open Book, and hosts literary events for bookshops, publishers and festivals – such as Cheltenham Literature Festival and events for The Southbank Centre. Her writing has been published in a number of magazines including the White Review, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Wasafiri, Somesuch Stories, and the Sunday Times, amongst others. She has a PhD from UCL where she wrote about hysteria and desire in Spanish cinema.

Imogen West-Knights is a writer and journalist based in London. She writes most regularly for the Guardian, the FT, Slate and the New York Times. Her debut novel, Deep Down, is out now from Little, Brown. She also writes video games.
@octaviabright_ | octavia.bright

This event will take place in our library and is in-person only and won't be recorded. Copies of This Ragged Grace will be available to purchase on the evening.

Image of Octavia (c) Richard Round-Turner