Kate Figes and Joanna Kavenna

KATE FIGES on the truth about Couples and JOANNA KAVENNA on The Birth of Love.

Being a couple is one thing; having a baby is another.

But both situations have shared elements and emotions, challenges and joys.

Kate Figes, married woman, mother, erstwhile fiction editor of Cosmopolitan, is author of 7 books, of which the latest, Couples, is reckoned to be ‘the most comprehensive summary we currently have of the changing nature of relationships’.

In it, she uses the term marriage as shorthand for all long-term partnerships; and in noting that no two couples are alike and that all relationships are shadowed by others, unachieved, a series of potential parallel universes in every household, she cites Anna Karenina’s observation that ‘there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts’.

Joanna Kavenna, mother and writer, who has held writing fellowships in both Oxbridge universities, and is now the first writer in residence at St Peter’s College Oxford, has written three books, the most recent of which is The Birth of Love.

It explores the intense and conflicting emotions of motherhood, while also being a story of rebellion, isolation, and the damage done by rigid ideologies.

Tickets - £6 (£5)

DOUBLE TICKET - £10 for two events:

Kate Figes/Joanna Kavenna at 6.30pm
Tahmima Anam/Mirza Waheed at 8.00pm

Please call the Arts Centre Box Office to book tickets for this event or contact the Swindon Festival of Literature for any further information.