Events

Launches

We’ve hosted many successful book-related parties. Our bookshop and office spaces open out to create a really great location for events.

The shop also offers two high vantage points for speeches, which is ideal for commanding the attention of your guests, and a gallery which is an ideal area for musicians to perform from.

We have previously hosted successful launches for books as diverse as Stillicide (Granta), Guest House for Young Widows (Scribe) and The Witchfinder (Hodder). We particularly enjoy launching debut novels and many authors have kicked off their careers at L&R.

Our capacity

The bookshop and office spaces combined can hold up to 100 people (standing up) at a time. We can also host smaller launches, in the shop alone, for around 45 people.

External Events

We are very happy to travel to events of all sorts, and to sell books at both talks and launches outside the shop.

All sales at external events (as with internal events) go through Batchline, and can count towards the book’s position on the national and independent bookshop best seller lists.

Books we’ve helped launch away from the shop include The Life of the Party, Amazing Disgrace and The Poetry Pharmacy Returns. Locations we’ve visited with cash box and card machine in hand include The British Library, The Tabernacle, Ognisko Polskie, French Institute, Quo Vadis, The Groucho Club, Ham Yard Hotel and more.

Talks and Readings

We have held many successful book events and readings at L&R, from our regular poetry nights with the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, to London and UK exclusive events with international authors including Karl Ove Knausgaard, Elizabeth Strout and Amor Towles.

We sell event tickets in the shop and through our website. We offer ticket-holders a glass of wine before the event, and the opportunity to have their book signed afterwards.

Our spaces

The bookshop and office spaces combined can hold up to 45 people sitting down. This creates a lovely intimate event, with no need for amplification.

We also use Notting Hill Community Church, directly opposite the bookshop on Kensington Park Road, for events. The seated capacity of the church is 250, which we have filled for several events, including Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi discussing Jerusalem with Giles Fraser, Andrew Solomon in conversation with Stephen Grosz, and a panel discussion about JG Ballard with Will Self and Iain Sinclair. There is an upstairs space in the church, which holds about 100 people, which we have also used for several events.