Join Henry Normal as he chats and shares poems with award-winning wordsmiths from Flapjack Press. With audience Q&A.
A series of free live stream events brought to you this summer by Flapjack Press, Manchester Libraries and New Poetry Society. What better way to spend your lunchtime?

Henry Normal is a poet, writer, TV and film producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Manchester Literature Festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival. Henry co-wrote and script edited The Mrs Merton Show and the spin-off series Mrs Merton and Malcolm. He also co-created and co-wrote the first series of The Royle Family and has collaborated extensively with Steve Coogan. Setting up Baby Cow Productions Ltd in 1999, Henry Executive Produced all and script edited many of the shows during his tenure as MD. Highlights of the Baby Cow output during this time include Oscar-nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf, Nighty Night and Alan Partridge. In 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to television. Since retiring, Henry has written and performed seven BBC Radio 4 shows in his ‘occasional series’ A Normal…, combining comedy, poetry and stories about his life and family.

“Shove up national treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal.” Radio Times

Geneviève L. Walsh founded Halifax’s spoken word night Spoken Weird in 2013, was a core member of the acclaimed troupe A Firm of Poets until their 2017 swansong, and has been a host/curator with Manchester’s Stirred Poetry collective since the same year. Walsh debuted and toured their one-person show, A Place in the Shade, in 2019. Their second poetry collection, Vitriol Works, was published in 2021.

“A unique and passionately inclusive voice.” Steve Nash, UK Performer of the Year