Events

David Keenan is the author of six critically-acclaimed novels; the cult classic This is Memorial Device, which won the London Magazine Prize; For the Good Times, which won the Gordon Burn Prize and was shortlisted for the Encore Award; The Towers The Fields The Transmitters, Xstabeth, which was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, Monument Maker, which was a Rough Trade Book of the Year and Industry of Magic & Light. He is also the author of England’s Hidden Reverse, a history of the UK’s post-punk and Industrial music scenes. He has been writing about music since he was seventeen years old. His selected music writing was published in 2025 as the collection Volcanic Tongue.

Glasgow, 1979. A young boy is abducted outside a football ground.

Nine years later. The boy’s brother, Aaron Murray, is facing the final days of his youth. His own journey of grief and recovery has been guided by an angel, The Precious Gift – perhaps imagined, perhaps real – who has blessed Aaron with redemptive, messianic powers. These have enabled him to see through the past and present, joining the dots between a vast array of characters; ballerinas, soldiers, burlesque dancers, East End gangsters and the Vampire of Derry, all tied up in each other’s fate.

As Aaron’s visions span cities and decades, from wartime Paris to the Troubles in the 1970s and Mexico City in the 1980s, Boyhood builds to an extraordinary, intense, climactic moment of redemption.

A book of great joy, of laughter in the face of horror and delight in storytelling by the beloved and critically acclaimed author of This Is Memorial Device, Boyhood is a hymn to the resilience of youth, to the brave dreams of artists and lovers and a love letter to Glasgow – a city where magic happens.

‘I didn’t think it was possible to be this impressed, challenged and entertained by a novel. Boyhood is a complete triumph … It slaps our dull, sterile culture hard across the face with a studded, uncompromising literary glove… What. A. Fucking. Book.’ – Irvine Welsh

Jake Wild Hall is an award winning poet and one half of Bad Betty Press. He has performed on BBC Radio and at festivals and literary events across the UK. He is a multiple slam champion and his work has been published in magazines, anthologies and online journals. He is the Author of two pamphlets Solomon’s World which was longlisted for the Saboteur award for best pamphlet and Blank.

He has worked with partners including Penguin, Apple’s and Snakes, Writing East Midlands, Derby Poetry Festival and Pearsons. He has also been a guest tutor for Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham University, King’s College London, Lincoln University and others.

His debut collection Alanis Morissette was published by Broken Sleep Books in January 2026.

This event will take place at The Heath Bookshop and tickets are on sale now.

We look forward to seeing you.

Catherine & Claire