Will You Read This, Please? Joanna Cannon talks to Andrea Russell | GLADFEST 2023 - 13 seats left



Will You Read This, Please? Joanna Cannon talks to Louisa Yates
Saturday 9th September 5.00pm to 6.00pm

Tickets can no longer be purchased via our website. The remaining in-person tickets can be bought from our Reception and will be available at our on-site box office on September 8th and 9th.


In Joanna Cannon’s own words, ‘my work as a psychiatrist and my interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire my writing’. If you’ve read any of Joanna’s books or articles, listened to her on the radio, or seen her on the TV, you’ll know this for yourself. Joanna’s latest project takes her away from her own stories to the stories of others; released this year, Will You Read This Please? gives a voice to people dealing with mental illness as they tell their stories to writers like Tracy Chevalier, Jenn Ashworth and Catherine Cho.

We’ve been lucky enough to regularly welcome Joanna to Gladfest, and we’re thrilled she’s back to chat with the Library’s Warden, Andrea Russell. 

After graduating from Leicester Medical School, Joanna Cannon’s first job was in a hospital. In her hurried lunchbreaks, taken in the carpark, she wrote a book, just for fun. That became The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, a Sunday Times bestseller.

The hospital doctor job became a specialism in psychiatry; Joanna’s first non-fiction book, Breaking and Mending (2019), told the story of her time as a junior doctor and her latest collection, Will You Read This, Please? (released May 2023) contains twelve powerful stories as told to some of the UK’s finest writers.

Joanna now writes full time. Her second and third novels, Three Things About Elsie (2018) and A Tidy Ending (2022) have established her as a writer whose stories are always darkly funny, keenly observed, and devastatingly everyday.

Joanna lives in the Peak District with her beloved dog Lewis, where they seem to walk endlessly (if you follow her on social media you’ll know it as ‘almost Wales’). 

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As part of an accessible events initiative here at the Library, all our non-residential events will have one free place available for people on limited incomes. Please email [email protected] for details.