Night of tales, music and more to mark Refugee Week

Ali Smith, the recently-announced recipient of the £30,000 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel How to be Both, visits Crawley’s Hawth on Sunday, June 21, as part of the Refugee Tales show organised by the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group.
By Phil Hewitt
Published 19th Jun 2015, 17:18 BST
Ali Smith. Picture by Sarah WoodAli Smith. Picture by Sarah Wood
Ali Smith. Picture by Sarah Wood

When she won the prize, Ali said: “It’s unbelievable, it’s glorious and it feels like an astonishing fluke. It was such a strong, versatile shortlist, and I can’t believe this has happened.”

Refugee Tales offers an evening of tales, music and more to mark Refugee Week. Come and welcome the Refugee Tales walkers at the end of their walk from Dover to Crawley in solidarity with refugees and detainees.

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Hosted by journalist and author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, the evening features the Ex-Detainees Tale by Bridges Arts Group and tales of the refugee experience read by contemporary writers including Ali and British poet Patience Agbabi and a British novelist of Ukrainian origin Marina Lewycka.

Poet Patience Agbabi was born in London to Nigerian parents in 1965 and grew up in North Wales with her adopted family. She was educated at Oxford and has appeared at numerous venues in the UK and abroad.

Marina Lewycka was born in a refugee camp in Germany in 1946 and moved to England with her family when she was about a year old. She spent most of her life since then trying to become a writer and finally succeeded in 2005 with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, which has sold more than a million copies in the UK. This was followed by Two Caravans in March 2007, We Are All Made of Glue in July 2009 and Various Pets Alive and Dead in 2012.

The Refugee Tales is a walk on paths taken by travellers over the centuries along the North Downs Way from Dover to Crawley via Canterbury, while reflecting on the dangerous journeys that many refugees make, seeking a safe place to live.

Tickets on 01293 553636 and online at www.hawth.co.uk.

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