RSL Vital Discussions: Remembering Kay Dick
Channel: British Library
Date: 2022-03-14

Rediscovered after 40 years, Kay Dick’s radical dystopian classic They is a stunning meditation on art, memory, and nonconformity. To celebrate its timely re-publication, speakers include poet Jay Bernard, novelist Claire-Louise Bennett and Kay Dick’s family friend, actor Natascha McElhone, join a conversation led by editor Lucy Scholes.

Kay Dick (1915–2001) was a novelist, the first woman director in English publishing, and a campaigner for the Public Lending Right.

'Kay Dick's mind is a delicate instrument, aware, sensitive, intelligent, alive to every shade of feeling and sensation'
- L. P. Hartley

Join a panel of admirers and friends as they dust off a dystopian gem and remember the remarkable Kay Dick.

Marking LGBTQ+ History Month

Jay Bernard is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is a writer from London and the author of Surge (Chatto and Windus, 2019). Jay won the Ted Hughes award 2017 and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award 2020.

Claire-Louise Bennett’s debut book, Pond, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. Her work has appeared in White Review, Stinging Fly, gorse and New York Times Magazine. Her new novel, Checkout 19, was shortlisted for the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize.

Lucy Scholes is a critic for The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The New York Times Book Review and Granta, among other publications. She writes the column ‘Re-Covered’, and is the Managing Editor of The Second Shelf: Rare Books and Words by Women.

Natascha McElhone has starred in a range of TV, film and theatre including The Truman Show and Californication. Her book After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband and Father (2010) documents the aftermath of her husband’s sudden death. She lives in London with her three boys.