Absolutely delighted – ‘The Night Brother’ has received good reviews in both The Times and The Sunday Times!

“The Night Brother by Rosie Garland is a rich and ambitious tale set in late Victorian Manchester… Garland’s prose is a delight: playful and exuberant. There are shades of Angela Carter in the mad world she creates... Full marks for style”.

Toni Senior 3rd June 2017
Full review here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/historical-fiction-w09l76frb

“Echoes of Angela Carter’s more fantastical fiction reverberate through this exuberant tale… Garland’s narrative is enjoyably energetic.”
Nick Rennison 18th June 2017

Full review here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/books-fiction-at-a-glance-all-the-good-things-by-clare-fisher-the-answers-by-catherine-lacey-the-night-brother-by-rosie-garland-splash-by-stephen-glover-the-idiot-by-elif-batuman-gkbbb3852

The Time-Travelling Suffragettes

Photographed by Chris Keller Jackson at Cherie Bebe Burlesque.
https://www.crankphoto.co.uk/

In 2018, to celebrate the centenary of some women getting the vote in the UK, I devised the Time-Travelling Suffragettes. (Music performed by pianist Éilish McCracken).

“Armed with banners, a twinkle in their eye and a spanner or two for throwing into the works, The Time –Travelling Suffragettes have travelled to the present day to raise their voices in rousing song. They perform updated versions of nineteenth-century popular classics, making lyrical stops along the way in their musical journey towards the twenty-first century.
Inspired by the enduring influence of Music Hall and its power to subvert whilst being thoroughly entertaining, they cast a queerly suffragette eye upon songs such as The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery, I’m Shy Mary Ellen and Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy – and many more.
A timely reminder that suffragettes were far more than Nice Ladies In Hats, that the battles are never done, and how far we still have to go.
In Kitty’s words – ‘we are historical oddities from a time of struggle and dissent. We beg your forbearance! After all, 21st century audiences cannot possibly comprehend what it is like to live in a world which harbours inequality…”
YouTube links:
‘I’m Bi, Mary Ellen, I’m Bi’ at Club Big, Rock Art, HOMEMcr
https://youtu.be/rbt16fUeNAY
‘A Little Of What You Fancy’ at Club Big, Rock Art, HOMEMcr
https://youtu.be/fMZVYsdLDnA
#Vote100

Antwerp Queer Arts Festival

De Studio
Maarschalk Gerardstraat 4,
2000 Antwerpen,
Belgium

Lecture / Cabaret
13:30 - 15:00

Rosie Garland, writer and cabaret performer from Manchester (UK), will tell us about the suffragette movement in the UK in a lecture, and jazz it up with a Victorian suffragette song or two.
After her talk she is invited to Fleur Pieret’s salon, where Els Flour of het Archief- en Onderzoekscentrum voor Vrouwengeschiedenis (AVG-Carhif) will address the similarities and differences with the struggle for women’s vote in Belgium.

From there we take it to a salon discussion on which battles still need to be fought today. For this discussion, we invited several panellist, all believing in the benefits of an intersectional feminism and will discuss what that means to them.

Clarice M.D. Gargard (NL) is journalist and UN-Women Representative. In March 2019, her documentary film Daddy and the Warlord (director Shamira Raphaela) was released. The doc deals with her family background and the Liberian civil wars. Her book ‘Drakendochter’ (Arbeiderspers),will be launched in september 2019.

Ilse Ghekiere (BE) is a dancer and activist (#Wetoo, ENGAGEMENT). In 2017 Ghekiere received a grant from the Flemish government in order to research sexism within the Belgian dance scene. She is author of several #metoo-related articles, amongst which #Wetoo: What Dancers Talk About When They Talk About Sexism. She founded ENGAGEMENT, an artist movement that puts issues concerning sexual harrasment, sexism and abuse of power in the art world on the agenda.

Simon(e) van Saarloos (NL) is a writer, performer and philosopher. Her manifest “Het monogame drama” (by August available in English as “Playing Monogamy”) did not go unnoticed. In September the essay “Herdenk herdacht”, about queer oblivion, white remembering and physically commemorating.

AQAF is an international arts festival, questioning gender and sexual diversity, that takes place each year at the beginning of August. Entering its sixth edition, each year we have programmed both local performers and international talent within a variety of art forms: music, literature, film, dance, theatre, exposition, performance…

https://www.queerarts.be/sunday-august-11?fbclid=IwAR2ASQb7qtlvhjDp8hZoZUYu2ZvGRQl4wpbqH2D-TXh-vMHSZsKq2KlOY1E

What an adventure!
On Saturday December 1st I sang the Pankhurst Anthem – specially written by Helen Pankhurst & Lucy Pankhurst - in Etihad Stadium in front of the Manchester City crowd at half time! I can honestly say I've never sung in front of a crowd of 50,000 people.

All part of the run-up to the unveiling of Hazel Reeves wonderful statue of Emmeline Pankhurst in St Peter’s Square, Manchester on December 14th 2018.

Manchester Histories Festival launch

Manchester City Art Gallery,
Mosley Street,
Manchester M2 3JL
Free event – 6-9pm

Celebrate the launch of the 2018 Manchester Histories Festival with us. Meet the festival team and volunteers and discover what’s on over the weekend in more detail. Throughout the galleries hear protest poetry and trailblazers of our Soapbox project, drop into our Debate Café, catch Thinking Out Loud: Speech Acts talk.

Includes Rosie Garland reading her piece ‘Syrinx’ right next to the painting that inspired it.

See the full festival programme at

https://manchesterhistories.co.uk

3rd May 2018 - Very excited to announce paperback publication day of The Night Brother!
With a superb new cover.

WOMEN’S words MCR – Suffragette Tea Party gala event

Manchester Central Library,
St Peter's Square,
Manchester M2 5PD

Doors 5.30pm
Event starts at 6pm

A celebratory event to launch the collection of real life stories built around women’s experience of living, working and growing in Manchester.
A selection of the stories will be published in a beautiful, hand-crafted magazine based on the historic The Suffragette magazine to honour 100 years since women got the right to vote in 1918.
It will also feature commissioned writers such as Rosie Garland, Reshma Ruia, Kate Feld and Michelle Green.
PLUS The Time Travelling Suffragettes!

http://womenswordsmcr.com/blog/2017/12/14/selections-for-the-suffragette/

http://womenswordsmcr.com/

Cherie Bebe’s Burlesque Revue

Matt and Phreds
64 Tib Street,
M4 1LG Manchester

Sunday 10th December 2017
Doors at 7pm with the show starting at 8pm.

Enjoy an evening of live cabaret entertainment, music and burlesque debauchery featuring performances from some of the finest burlesque performers in the UK, held at Manchester's iconic Matt & Phreds.

Starring:
Cherie Bebe ~ Burlesque sensation and producer of Cherie Bebe's Burlesque Revue

Kitty & Lilibet The Time Travelling Suffragettes ~ Back by popular demand after their debut at Cherie Bebe's Burlesque Revue 2016.

and compere Jonathan Mayor ~ The cheeky and utterly fabulous diva of the night.

The event will be taking place on

Tickets are £8 (plus booking fee) if booked in advance via billetto / £10 on the door. Tickets are nonrefundable.

PLEASE CALL MATT & PHREDS TO RESERVE SEATING ONCE YOUR TICKETS HAVE BEEN PURCHASED AS THE TABLES ARE STRICTLY LIMITED ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS AND WE DO SELL OUT.

0161 273 5495

www.mattandphreds.com

Here is a sneak peek of what to expect at Cherie Bebe's Burlesque Revue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHpqFwp4dEg

The Time-Travelling Suffragettes, Louder than Words Festival, Manchester

The Principal Manchester
Oxford Street
Manchester
M60 7HA

Sat 11 November 2017
18:15 – 19:30 GMT

Armed with banners, a twinkle in their eye and a spanner or two for throwing into the works, Kitty and Lilibet have travelled to the present day to raise their voices in rousing song. Inspired by the enduring influence of Music Hall and its power to subvert whilst being thoroughly entertaining, they cast a queerly suffragette eye upon songs such as The Boy I Love Is Up In The Gallery, I’m Shy Mary Ellen and Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy – and many more. The duo combines the musical talents of multi-instrumentalist Éilish McCracken (Rose McDowall, Sgt Buzfuz, Slate Islands, Ida Barr) and cabaret performer, novelist & lyricist Rosie Garland (The March Violets, Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen).

Tickets £8 – available here
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/time-travelling-suffragettes-tickets-36245562453

http://louderthanwordsfest.com/