Salman Rushdie: Knife

Hear Salman Rushdie speaking out for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of his attempted murder on August 12 2022. He answers violence with art and reminds us of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable.
 
In an evening combining live readings from actors Adeel Akhtar and Anjana Vasan, and candid reflections from Salman Rushdie, who joins us via video livestream, this unique event offers a deeply personal account of the attack and its aftermath.
Join the event in-person or online to hear directly from the internationally renowned and Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie as he talks openly about enduring – and surviving – an attempt on his life.
 
Salman Rushdie is the author of fifteen previous novels, including Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, and Quichotte, all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
 
He is a former president of PEN America and the recipient of the PEN Centenary Courage Award. His books have been translated into over forty languages. In 2023, he was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year.
 
In June 2007 he received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. He joined the prestigious Companions of Honour in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in her Platinum Jubilee year.
Erica Wagner’s books include Mary and Mr Eliot: A Sort-of Love Story; Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge; First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner and a novel, Seizure. She was the literary editor of The Times for seventeen years and is a contributing writer for the New Statesman and consulting literary editor for Harper’s Bazaar. She is Goldsmiths Distinguished Writers’ Centre Fellow and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
 
Adeel Akhtar is an award- winning British actor, who has most recently been seen as the title role in Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava, for which he won Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards, and was BAFTA-nominated. His recent film roles include Netflix’s Enola Holmes, James Vanderbilt’s Murder Mystery franchise on Netflix, The Nest, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Will Sharpe’s The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. He has most recently starred as the lead in Netflix’s smash hit thriller Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben.
Anjana Vasan was born in Chennai, India, and moved to Singapore when she was four. She is an actress and singer-songwriter based in London. Anjana is known for her stage work, winning a Laurence Olivier Award for her role in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida Theatre in 2023, opposite Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran. Anjana was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for her role in the Channel 4 sitcom We Are Lady Parts. Other TV appearances include Black Mirror and Killing Eve, among many others.