BLF: Falling Through The Cracks

BLF: Falling Through the Cracks
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025
Date and time
12 Oct 2025 2pm - 3pm
Location

Eastside Jazz Club, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR

Price

£8
£6.40 concessions

Book now

Birmingham Literature Festival: Falling Through the Cracks with Shady Lewis and Tawseef Khan

Shady  Lewis’s novel, On the Greenwich Line, is both a funny and scathing indictment of the experiences of migrants seeking refuge in the UK and the endless layers of bureaucracy that keeps their lives in stasis. Following the journey of a jaded London housing officer, tasked with organising the funeral of a young Syrian refugee, it traces the absurdities of racism, austerity, and bureaucracy in contemporary England.

Tawseef Khan’s Determination follows exhausted immigration solicitor, Jamila Shah, as she battles against hostile government policies in the hopes that their ‘determinations’ will keep her clients from being deported. Jamila’s law firm, Shah & Co, is a beautifully drawn reminder that there is human kindness and resistance pushing back against a broken system.

Join Shady and Tawseef as they discuss their novels and the very real challenges and injustices their books reflect.

Chaired by Kavita Bhanot

Running time approx. one hour

Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

Events include:

BLF: Poetry on Demand

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 12pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Life Writing

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 10.30am
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Smoke and Mirrors

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 10.30am
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: The Quiet Lives of Working-Class Men

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 12pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Creative Non-Fiction

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 1.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Writing Grief

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 1.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Boater with Jo Bell

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 1.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Searching for my Slave Roots

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 3.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Art Under Capitalism

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 4pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Rethinking the Nuclear Family

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 5.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Verve Open Door x BLF

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 6pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: The Big Payback

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 7.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: A Guided Journey through The Infernal Garden

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 8pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025