Join us on Saturday 16th September, 7:30pm at Ignition Brewery as we welcome Emmett de Monterey, in conversation with Mateo Oxley!
BOOK HERE
AN EXTRAORDINARILY MOVING AND ORIGINAL MEMOIR OF GROWING UP GAY AND DISABLED IN 1980S LONDON
When Emmett de Monterey is eighteen months old, a doctor diagnoses him with cerebral palsy. Words too heavy for his twenty-five-year-old artist parents and their happy, smiling baby.
Growing up in south-east London in the 1980s, Emmett is spat at on the street and prayed over at church. At his mainstream school, teachers refuse to schedule his classes on the ground floor, and he loses a stone from the effort of getting up the stairs. At his sixth form college for disabled students, he’s told he will be expelled if the rumours are true, if he’s gay.
And then Emmett is chosen for a first-of-its-kind surgery in America which he hopes will ‘cure’ him, enable him to walk unaided. He hopes for a miracle: to walk, to dance, to be able to leave the house when it rains. To have a body that’s everyday beautiful, to hold hands in the street. To not be gay, which feels like another word for loneliness. But the ‘miracle’ doesn’t occur, and Emmett must reckon with a world which views disabled people as invisible, unworthy of desire. He must fight to be seen.
When Emmett came by Penguin to drop off a proof, we knew immediately that we wanted to host an event with him. Go the Way Your Blood Beats is an absolutely extraordinary book and we can’t wait to hear Emmett talk about it with Mateo Oxley, who recorded the audio-book version.
Tickets are £5*
We’re excited to be working once more with Ignition Brewery, who hosted two of our events during Kirkdale Lit Fest 2022.
Ignition is a gorgeous, vibrant not-for-profit South London brewery here in the heart of Sydenham, employing people with learning disabilities. We couldn’t think of a better place to host this evening’s event.
Go the Way Your Blood Beats was recently reviewed in The Guardian – the article can be found here
Copies will be available for sale on the night and can also be pre-ordered with us. Just send us an email!
*plus a small booking fee