Olivia Laing discusses their latest novel The Silver Book, a stylish shadow play of secrets, lies and queer love set against the shimmering scenery of 1970s Italian cinema

7:00pm-9:00pm Where Else?

The Silver Book opens in September 1974, as two men meet by chance in Venice. One is Nicholas, a young and beautiful English artist fleeing London, and the other is iconic cinema designer Danilo Donati. He makes Nicholas his apprentice – and his lover – bringing him into the looking-glass world of the Cinecittà film studio in Rome and then to the set of Salò, Pasolini’s horrifying fable of fascism. But Nicholas has a secret, and in Donati's realm of constant illusion, his real nature passes unseen. Amidst the rising tensions of Italy’s ‘Years of Lead’, Nicholas acts as a catalyst, setting in motion a tragedy he didn’t intend...

Internationally acclaimed writer and critic Olivia Laing is the author of eight books, including non-fiction bestsellers The Garden Against Time, The Lonely City and Everybody, and their lauded first novel, Crudo. They are a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts. As well as signing copies of the brand-new paperback edition of The Silver Book, Olivia will be talking about the novel in conversation with Margate's own Robert Diament, Director of Carl Freedman Gallery and Counter Editions, co-host of the Talk Art podcast and co-author of the wonderful Art School (in a Book).