Bad Language

Our first open mic event for over five years. Sign up now for Bad Language at The Cultural Welcome, Manchester on 8 October. It's good to be back! badlanguagemcr.wordpress.com/2025/09/24/bad…

Or maybe it was at the Jeremy Corbyn book tour with Jess Green. Crumbs. We have so many memories of Jackie, it all mushes together like a kaleidoscope of unicorn farts. What a loss. A truly magical animal. We will miss you, @JackieHagan.

Joe has one of those old-fashioned shepherds' crooks to yank waffly poets off stage, but Jackie was too entertaining to stop. Fats was so in awe, he drank glitter-flecked booze from her prosthetic leg - or maybe that was at Kendal Calling. >

In July 2017, Bad Language got too popular, so we moved venue from The Castle to the bigger stage at Gullivers. We needed to start our new era with a rock-solid headliner. Someone with the personality and the talent to ensure literary bums on seats. We chose Jackie Hagan. 🧵>

Bad Language co-founder Daniel Carpenter reads from his collection HUNTING BY THE RIVER, with a Manchester-inspired story especially for us.

"Friends!" Glen James Brown reads from MOTHER NAKED, evoking the city walls is Durham.

(As in, she's reading an ape story. We haven't stolen a load of primates from Chester Zoo and let them into the event.)

And now here's Abi Hynes reading from MONSTROUS LONGING. Everything's going ape. 🦧

We're off! The first Bad Language in forever and Matt Hill is reading from his latest book LAMB.

TONIGHT! @BadLanguageMcr is back for a special one-off event celebrating the launches of @DanCarpenter85’s HUNTING BY THE RIVER and @Glen_J_Brown’s MOTHER NAKED. They’ll be joined by @AbiFAHynes and @matthewhill. Doors: 6.30, starts: 7.00 Venue: @anthonyburgess 🎫👇🏻

Get your ticket here: eventbrite.co.uk/e/blackwells-x…

Presenting MOTHER NAKED, the new book from @Glen_J_Brown. We're launching this tonight in Manchester with @BlackwellsMcr, with Joe and Fats leading audience questions pretty much in the style of the wonky minstrel on the book cover. Come along! Doors at 6.30pm.

We're going to have a real good time together. We shall listen to words and we shall clap and rollerskate and high-five each other until our hands fall off. Make sure you grab your ticket! x.com/DanCarpenter85…

Matt Hill's latest novel LAMB (@DeadInkBooks) has plants growing on the cover. We put it in a plant pot to make sure it doesn't wilt before this Thursday's event. He'll be reading alongside Dan Carpenter, Glen James Brown & Abi Hynes. Doors are at 6.30pm. eventbrite.co.uk/e/blackwells-x…

Watch me host a book launch with @BadLanguageMcr @BlackwellsMcr on Thursday. But watch only me. Do not look at the guest authors: they may get ideas. eventbrite.co.uk/e/blackwells-x…

Our co-founder Dan keeps banging on about his new book. If you want to tell him to shut up, come to the launch of HUNTING BY THE RIVER, launching alongside Glen James Brown's MOTHER NAKED, this Thursday evening. x.com/DanCarpenter85…

One of our two support readers at our Bad Language / Blackwell's bash this Thursday is ABI HYNES. Her impressive CV includes an adaptation of Anne Of Green Gables featuring Catherine O'Hara -- a.k.a. Moira from Schitt's Creek! Fold in the cheese, David! eventbrite.co.uk/e/blackwells-x…

On Thursday, we welcome back @Glen_J_Brown to Bad Language. He headlined for us in 2019, and as a direct result of that (probably), he was shortlisted for the Orwell & Portico Prizes. Book your ticket or be disappointed forever. eventbrite.co.uk/e/blackwells-x…