Join us to celebrate the publication of Nikolai Duffy’s debut novel Common, where he will be in conversation with Jenn Ashworth (The Parallel Path).

Doors: 6.30pm, starts: 6.45pm

Tickets are £4. Admission is free when purchasing a copy of the book.

About the book:

In the wake of his aunt’s death, Robert travels from Manchester to his childhood home in Hampshire to settle the affairs of her estate. Confronted with the debris of a life left behind, Robert goes for a walk on nearby Ludshott Common, a large area of ancient heathland. While there, Robert takes the impulsive decision to build a ramshackle hut on the common, where he stays for seven days, attempting to come to terms with his marriage and career, parenthood, the life-long impact of his father’s alcoholism, and his aunt’s insistent example to live an unroofed life.

Lyrical and irreverent, Common offers a moving reflection on solitude, freedom, responsibility, and the repeated attempt to transcend the legacies of the past.

About the author:

Nikolai Duffy is the author of two previous cross-genre poetry collections, and the literary non-fiction book Relative Strangeness: Reading Rosmarie Waldrop. His creative work has been read and performed internationally, including London, Manchester, Dublin, New York, Providence, Columbus, Ljubljana, and Bochum. In 2019 he was awarded a UNESCO City of Literature Residency in Ljubljana. He teaches American literature, poetry, and critical-creative writing in the English Department at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he is co-Director of the Manchester Poetry Group, part of the Manchester Writing School.

About the interviewer:

Jenn Ashworth is the author of the novels A Kind of Intimacy, which won a Betty Trask Award, Cold Light, The Friday Gospels, Fell and Ghosted: A Love Story, which was shortlisted for the Portico Prize. In 2011, she was featured on BBC Two’s The Culture Show as one of the twelve Best New British Novelists. She has also written a memoir-in-essays, Notes Made While Falling, which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. Her memoir The Parallel Path was published in 2024. Jenn lives in Lancashire and is a Professor of Writing at Lancaster University.