A L Kennedy: Contact and biographical information

" In two captivating readings, she demonstrates her ability to grasp characters in the bleakest of circumstances and illuminate them with a mixture of humour and insight."
Susan Mansfield "The Scotsman"

A.L.Kennedy spends day after pathetic day locked in what is effectively a book-filled cupboard, suffering the sad, manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive vocation which is the novelist's burden. This means there is very little time left over for anything else - even things she really likes.
But.
She does need to get out every now and then and meet people - once she's stopped screaming, "The light, the light! It burns my eyes ! What are those things with leaves ?" etc.
So.

Alison Kennedy
She is available to give readings from her work, to take part in Question and Answer sessions and the usual range of literary and festival events.
She would rather not take part in discussions entitled "Is There Such A Thing As Women's Writing ?" because they give her cluster headaches. She also gives lectures on a variety of themes - one of which you can listen to through this site by clicking here

She is also available to provide what can only be described as stand up comedy for which she apologises sincerely in advance. More details on that can be found on the appropriate page. She also occasionally provides “humour” at political meetings and rallies. Both of these activities are severely limited by the lack of hours in any given day.

This page is designed to help event organisers and others by providing contact details, brief biographical details, downloadable photos - as splendid as photos of the author can be without surgical intervention and suitable for pre-comedy or pre- reading publicity. Other relevant information is also here, or hereabouts. Publicists, arts administrators, students, researchers and other good-hearted folk are welcome to download whatever they find in this site that might be of use, or support their research. Obviously, if you pass off material your found here as your own, or make money from it that you don't immediately render up - with added lavish gifts - to the author your soul will very probably shrivel and die within your deformed and pain-wracked body. Such is life.

BIOGRAPHICAL PARAGRAPH FOR BROCHURES, ETC:
A.L. Kennedy has written four collections of short fiction and five novels, along with two books of non-fiction – many of these have won awards. Her latest novel “Day” appeared in 2007. She produces a variety of journalism for UK and European newspapers. She also writes for the stage, radio, film and TV. She is currently developing a number of film and drama projects. She has sold brushes door-to-door. In 1993 and 2003 she was listed among Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. She would rather be someone else.
Photos are available below.

Comedy and literature-friendly photos for download: PHOTO1 :: PHOTO2 :: PHOTO 3 :: PHOTO 4
All colour pictures are copyright to Kevin Low. www.kevinlow.co.uk

AGENT:
Antony Harwood c/o
Antony Harwood Ltd
103 Walton Street
Oxford
OX2 6EB
Phone: 01865 559615
Fax: 01865 554173
Email: ant@antonyharwood.com
or james@antonyharwood.com
URL: www.antonyharwood.com

PUBLISHER:
c/o Robin Robertson
Jonathon Cape
Random House
24 Vauxhall Bridge Road
London
SW1V 2SA
Phone: 0207 840 8400
Email:
URL: www.randomhouse.co.uk

FRIENDLY BUT INSISTENT ADVICE:
(Which is apparently very funny if you ask your browser to translate it into German)

If you are planning an event, please

DO:

Advertise the event beforehand, unless you have a guaranteed, existing audience - like a whole wing of a very secure prison.
Provide a working microphone, if necessary. That's really working - not one you thought was working last time you checked, which was last year sometime, you’re not sure, you get headaches.
Provide water for the author to drink during performance/workshop. Non-fizzy is best - we wouldn't want hiccoughs breaking out. Lots of water. Pints.
Provide any other equipment which may be requested for a workshop - like flip charts, video players, giant fur-lined Faberge egg, etc.
Provide a space which allows audience/participants and author to be warm, comfortable, safe and undisturbed and which has decent sight-lines and sufficient chairs, and which isn't prone to power cuts, or attack by genetically modified killer bees. Acoustics better than the bottom of a steel bin in a quarry would be handy, too.
Agree, and abide by your agreement to provide a suitable payment. If you are a charity, or small organisation, you may not have to pay anything, but do arrange this beforehand. Or the author will work powerful black magic against you. And weep openly.
Provide clean, quiet accommodation, if the author is staying overnight.
Agree, and abide by, what the author will be expected to do.

DON'T:

Force yourself to introduce the event if you are crippled with nerves. The author will introduce herself, rather than see you in pain. Unless you think pain is character-building.
Forget to tell anyone about the event.
Dump the author in a cold, foul-smelling B&B, or dump the author into any hotel or B&B that you haven't checked out yourself. (Tell the author if you are a masochist with a love of mould.)
Pay the author in foreign currency, live stock, or objects unless this has been arranged beforehand.
Fail to pay the author.
Do the soundcheck while the audience are in their seats.
Start more than ten minutes late, unless you really can't help it.
Set up the event in a noisy, through-way to some other location.
Fail to pick up the author from the airport/station, if you have arranged to.
Fail to take the author back to the airport/station, if you have arranged to.
Forget that the author needs to eat and take in non-alcoholic beverages.
Forget that the author needs to sleep. For long periods, maybe even all night.
Trap the author for hours somewhere for no reason, drag her on cultural tours that would bore a horse to death, or otherwise painfully dominate her time when she isn't actually working for you.
Expect the author to get drunk with you all night, get stoned with you all night, or do anything else with you all night - you have paid for the event, not the author.
Expect the author to wake at dawn, spend all day travelling by the cheapest, most ludicrous route, without nourishment and then give a splendid performance. She will try to, but only because she thinks the audience deserves a break. You deserve bad stuff that someone who isn't a pacifist may one day do to you.

Following these guidelines should mean that everyone manages to have a good time and that people who may well have paid to be entertained don't feel they've been short-changed.