Sidecar Sally

Every festival should have its accompanying fringe event, so while we're happy to see the arrival of the London Literary Festival at the Southbank Centre this weekend, we suspect we'll also be spending a bit of time exploring its punky, petulant little brother: London Lit Plus.

Billing itself as an 'open literary festival' London Lit Plus seems intent on bringing drugs, sex and rock and roll back into the bookworld.

So whereas you'll find Roger McGough and Iain Sinclair on the Southbank, LL+ offers up the slightly more subversive Martin Millar and his new novel Lonely Werewolf Girl; readings from the fantastically bizarre 'Perverted by Language: Fiction inspired by The Fall'; and a couple of spooky 'penny dreadful' walks through Southwark and Waterloo.

They're adding new events to the programme all the time, but we're particularly looking forward to seeing how our novelistic knowledge stands up after a few rounds at the Through A Glass Darkly literary pub quiz this evening. Even if we lose, at least there's something about an 'intellectual hangover' that just makes it a little easier to bear come Saturday morning.

London Lit Plus - June 29-July 13 around town
London Literature Festival - June 29-July 12 at SBC

by RH