Fantasy Books

Two speakers, two subjects, twenty minutes each. The subject matter is a mystery - the audience finds out when the talk begins! One of our newest events and already a firm favourite. So far, topics have included a '90s pro wrestler running a scam, the first portable synthesiser, aphasia (effects on the brain after a stroke), Hamlet through the decades, cryptic crosswords and the impact on pop culture of Little Richard. What's next? Come along and find out! Tickets £8 available on the door - advise booking on our website. Bar available. All children to be accompanied by adults.

**Failure to follow the event’s guidelines will exclude you from Poetry Nights.** A lyrical, chill pill for the soul! An opportunity to brush on your Persian reading and make friends. In a world that often feels divided, let’s come together to explore the power of connection and community through poetry. UCL is opening its doors to invite us to a relaxed and inspiring poetry night. This is a free event. The room is only confirmed half an hour before. Join the Whatsapp group to receive the PDF of the poetry that will be read and room number. Capacity is limited and failure to update your attendance a day before will exclude you from future poetry nights. We‘ll meet at UCL’s reception at 5.51pm. I will not wait for anyone or answer messages past 6pm. The session is 1 hour long. We’ll gather for a chat after the poetry reading. Are you interested in reading fiction and non-fiction in French and Spanish, and English? Join me on: -[www.meetup.com/gaia-books](www.meetup.com/gaia-books) [-www.meetup.com/gaia-libros](http://-www.meetup.com/gaia-libros) [-www.meetup.com/gaia-livres](http://-www.meetup.com/gaia-livres) -Instagram: @persian_culture_ -Persian Culture Whatsapp group: [https://chat.whatsapp.com/EZk35ZbJZ6W6wwyHyuxoS2](https://chat.whatsapp.com/EZk35ZbJZ6W6wwyHyuxoS2)

ENGLIGH BELOW. La Londona Esperanto-Klubo (LEK) kutime kunvenas ĉeeste en Highbury la duan vendredon de ĉiu monato kaj virtuale, per la retprogramo Zoom, la aliajn vendredojn. Ni okazigas ankaŭ aliajn eventojn de tempo al tempo. Vi trovos nian plej ĝisdatigitan programon en nia retejo: [https://londonaesperantoklubo.com/eventoj.html](https://londonaesperantoklubo.com/eventoj.html) ENGLISH: The London Esperanto Club meets on the 2nd Friday of every month in Highbury and online (Zoom) the other Fridays. Our meetings are held in Esperanto but you're more than welcome to come if you're still learning the language. In fact, some of them are specifically aimed at people who are not fluent speakers yet. Just [let us know](https://londonaesperantoklubo.com/kontakto.html) in advance and we will make sure that someone is here to help. You will find our program on our website: [https://londonaesperantoklubo.com/eventoj.html](https://londonaesperantoklubo.com/eventoj.html) We also offer weekly online Esperanto classes. Please visit [this page](https://londonaesperantoklubo.com/online-esperanto-courses.html) for more information.

If you are you interested on creating your own comic, but need help to put your vision together or do not know were to start then we may have the solution for you. Come talk shop with fellow creators, share experiences, ideas, techniques and tips to help each other grow and have a chance in the industry.

🌟 Hello Everyone, 你好 • こんにちは • 안녕하세요 • Kamusta • สวัสดี • Halo • Hai Our next **WE L❤️VE ASIA** gathering takes place on **Friday 13th March 2026**, for **After-Work Social + Live Music at BOX Piccadilly**, from **6:30 PM onwards**. 📍 **Venue** BOX Bar Piccadilly Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1 [https://www.theboxbar.co.uk/bars/london-piccadilly](https://www.theboxbar.co.uk/bars/london-piccadilly) Let’s start the weekend together in the heart of the West End. BOX is just moments from Chinatown and Piccadilly Circus, making it easy to find and perfectly located for a Central London meet-up. The venue offers great food and drinks, including strong non-alcoholic options, ideal whether you're coming straight from work, university, or simply joining to meet new people from our community. 🎶 **Live music begins from 8:00 PM**, and the venue becomes much busier as the night builds. That’s why we’re meeting earlier — so we can connect comfortably before the Friday energy rises. I have **reserved spaces from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM**. You’re very welcome to stay later and enjoy the music and atmosphere if you wish. ✨ **Expect** • Friendly conversations • Relaxed after-work vibes • A lively West End setting • A fun way to begin the weekend 📩 **RSVP** Limited, Friday evenings here can fill quickly. If you decide to join last minute, feel free to message me so I can accommodate where possible. 🎶 Warm regards, Suki Reno

Join **Large Outdoors** for a relaxed small-group walking break exploring the famous waterfalls, woodlands and river valleys of Bannau Brycheiniog. This weekend is perfect if you enjoy scenic walking at an easier pace and want time to take in the landscape without heading for the summits. ### **What to Expect:** **Guided Walks** – Discover Waterfall Country with an experienced guide leading the way. **Scenic & Low-Level Routes** – Woodland paths, river gorges and iconic falls like Sgwd yr Eira. **Hotel Stay** – Comfortable base with shared meals and social evenings. **Public Transport Accessible** – Free collection from Merthyr Tydfil station at 18:00 (must be booked in advance). **Sociable Format** – Ideal for solo walkers and anyone looking to walk with friendly company. 💸 **Save £50 per person** with code **WATERFALL26** when you book by **30th November 2025**. 🔗 **Full details & booking:** [https://www.largeoutdoors.com/waterfall-country-walking-weekend-bannau-brycheiniog](https://www.largeoutdoors.com/waterfall-country-walking-weekend-bannau-brycheiniog) A lovely introduction to the National Park’s peaceful valleys, waterfalls and woodland paths.

Join our informal meet and greet with Ayn Sullivan and get your own signed copy of the Celtic Elemental Tarot, an enchanting deck grounded in Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend. Weaving wisdom from the Otherworlds, this tarot draws you into the evocative world of Arthurian legend and Celtic mythology. With hand-drawn artwork and poetic language, 78 colorful cards help you develop intuitive awareness and multilayered insight for your life. Expanding on the traditional tarot, the Major Arcana divides into allies, challenges, virtues, and cosmic forces while the Minor Arcana follows the elements earth, air, water, and fire. You will meet Grail champions, including the Heroine Dindraine, as well as Lancelot, Guinevere, King Arthur, Galahad, and other characters of Grail lore. Wisdom codes interwoven in the deck—such as bird, animal, and insect totems and astrological influences—add different levels of awareness. The guidebook offers creative spreads and, for each card, divinatory meanings, challenges, and three Grail questions. A unique deck, the *Celtic Elemental Tarot* encourages you toward a deeper understanding of yourself and the challenges, as well as the opportunities, you face in life. This deck presents the Major Arcana cards as allies, challenges, virtues, and cosmic forces, while the elemental Minor Arcana offers court cards featuring characters of Arthurian and Grail lore. Ayn also shows how to combine this deck with others for more complex readings and nuanced interpretations.

If you're looking for a laid back Saturday playing some board games and talking nerd stuff in a pub with some awesome people, this is the meetup for you! Whether you're new to London or just want to get some long-lost in-person socialisation, we're a friendly community and welcome you all. **What to expect:** We officially play from **2 PM to 7 PM**, but we keep it casual. Show up when you can, and stay as long as you like. If you’re having a good time, there’s usually a group that stays late for a few extra pints and chat. **Some house rules:** * We aim to ensure these events are friendly, welcoming and safe, and so we ask you abide by our [Code of Conduct](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YEl0gv61SkBFN-YF6fyVvuQYicWbWhRL/view?usp=drive_link) * We have a community box of games we keep in the pub, but please feel welcome to bring your own games along. Just be prepared to teach us how to play! * We don't charge a cover fee, so please help support the pub by ordering food and drink throughout the afternoon. * Please keep your RSVPs updated so we can manage numbers and ensure we can reserve enough tables.

**Address: 210-212 Southwark Park Road, London SE16 3RX** **Doors Open 11am Event starts 12:30pm-5pm** **Player Capacity: 12 players** Welcome to our **Final Fantasy TCG** Constructed Tournament. The event consists of 3 to 5 rounds of Swiss and prizing is distributed to players with a positive record. To participate in the event, alongside your **ticket purchase on [our website](https://www.thebrotherhoodgames.co.uk/final-fantasy-tcg-events)**, you will be asked to register on the desk to be entered into the tournament. We will hand out a booster pack for entry to the tournament. If you are unfamiliar, please ask our member of staff upon arrival to the store where a member of staff will be happy to assist. If you haven't already, please join our Instagram, YouTube and Discord Server for news about upcoming events, announcements, and social interaction with your fellow players! *The Brotherhood Games Discord* https://discord.com/invite/SJaQXyeNXx

Welcome to our second ever coffee catch-up! There is no set agenda but we could discuss books and reading goals as we approach the first quarter of 2026. Also a space to discover other interests and hobbies, like movies etc.

## In this talk, hear how contemporary artists and storytellers, Arsalan Akhavan and Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, are reconceptualising the Iranian epic *Shahnameh* for contemporary audiences. *Shahnameh*, or *The Book of King*s, is an epic poem recounting the history of ancient Persia, completed at the start of the 11th century by one of the greatest Persian poets of all time, Ferdowsi. Considered the national epic of Iran and one of the most important Persian texts, *Shahnameh* is made up of more than 50,000 beautifully composed couplets recounting the heroes, quests and mythical creatures central to Persian culture. First, join Hollywood producer and cultural storyteller Arsalan Akhavan on a personal journey of discovering the Persian *Book of Kings* and reimagining its epic stories for a new generation through digital media. Next, multi-award-winning writer, artist and scholar Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh will talk about her project *The Book of Queens*, a song cycle in collaboration with composer Emily Hazrati about the queens, women and magical creatures found in *The Book of Kings*, and how she has, from Ferdowsi's ink well, re-written the characters and stories of this historical epic poem through a contemporary feminist lens. The talk will conclude with a Q&A with Arsalan and Nazli. Speakers **Arsalan Akhavan** After learning of his family’s unique connection to a masterpiece edition of the *Shahnameh*, Arsalan’s life changed forever. He traded sunny California for rainy Britain to launch Rug Entertainment, a multimedia company dedicated to making Persian stories both accessible and engaging for English-speaking audiences. Arsalan’s roots in entertainment trace back to the 1950s, when his grandfather, Mostafa Akhavan, founded Cinema Moulin Rouge, Iran’s first major film studio bridging Hollywood, Cannes, and Tehran. Arslan’s recent projects include *Healing History*, an immersive art history exhibition; *The Good Iranian*, a one-man show performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (dir. Sepy Baghaei); *Shahnameh Quest*, a storytelling podcast; and *Billion Dollar Masterpiece*, a documentary short about the *Shahnameh* of Shah Tahmasb. He previously served as Director of Scripted TV Development at Lesli Linka Glatter’s Backyard Pictures with Universal Television and worked in the TV Packaging department at Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Arsalan has also spoken on the *Shahnameh* at Cambridge University and the House of Lords. He holds a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. For more information about Arsalan, please visit the [Rug Entertainment website](https://www.rugentertainment.com/about). **Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh** Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh BSc. Hons, MLitt, MA, SFHEA is a multi-award-winning international leader and collaborator working across artistic disciplines and contexts in opera, theatre, dance, visual arts, film and performance poetry. Her credits include Royal Ballet and Opera, Welsh National Opera, Birmingham Opera, Britten Pears and Aldeburgh Festival, Oxford Song, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Atmosphere Festival, Tete a Tete, National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse Theatre, Bush Theatre and City Theater Tehran. At the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, she is Professor of Dramatic Writing on the MA in Opera Making & Writing, and she is the inaugural practice-based Post Graduate Researcher in Libretto. She is the inaugural Associate Artist at the Oxford School of Drama and is an External Examiner for the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her work as a coach, mentor and facilitator spans Clore Leadership, IETM and Edinburgh Performing Arts Development. For the International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), based in New York, of which she is an Arts Council England Grad Fellow, she serves as a member of the Governance Committee. Her ever-evolving portfolio of new work and reinterpretations of existing work is infused by her country of birth, Iran, and is interwoven by the cultures she reconnects with locally across the UK and internationally across continents. For more information about Nazli, you can check out you can check out her [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/nomadicnazli/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Nazli_Tabatabai) profiles. This is a free event but you need to reserve a spot. Reservation details: [https://www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk/whats-on/shahnameh-reunited](https://www.lauderdalehouse.org.uk/whats-on/shahnameh-reunited) Are you interested in reading fiction and non-fiction in French Spanish, and English? [www.meetup.com/gaia-books](https://www.meetup.com/gaia-books) [-www.meetup.com/gaia-libros](http://-www.meetup.com/gaia-libros) [-www.meetup.com/gaia-livres](http://-www.meetup.com/gaia-livres) -Instagram: @persian_culture_ -Persian Culture Whatsapp group: [https://chat.whatsapp.com/EZk35ZbJZ6W6wwyHyuxoS2](https://chat.whatsapp.com/EZk35ZbJZ6W6wwyHyuxoS2)

This will be the first ever Book Club Meet up for this group! * We will be discussing Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose (if you would like a free EPUB copy of this book to read on kindle, message me & I can send you the ebook) * ***Changed the book from Daggermouth due to it being independently published and hard to find in print**** * Feel free to attend even if you haven't started or finished the book ◡̈ ! * Small snacks will be provided. You’re welcome to bring your own snacks & drinks too! * Even if the meetup event shows full, you are welcome to come. If you can no longer attend the event, no worries, just please try to update your status on meetup for it.

Come join us for coffee at Matari Coffee to discuss our March book, "The Enchanted Greenhouse"! Book description: Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home. But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.

**Our March pick is *God of the Woods* by Liz Moore.** **This month’s novel is an award-winning literary mystery that blends family drama with psychological suspense. It explores women’s voices and relationships while delivering an exciting, eerie, and deeply suspenseful story. The book is 576 pages in print or 14 hours and 35 minutes on audiobook.** Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

This month we’ll be ready The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin. Feel free to come even if you don’t finish the bookk!

Join us for our March Book Club gathering where we will come together to discuss *The Manor of Dreams* by Christina Li in a safe and welcoming environment. Make new friends who share your passion for books and connect with fellow LGBTQ book enthusiasts.

Private Group. Closed to the Public Knowing ourselves and understanding our abilities is the first step toward wielding our gifts with control and accuracy. In subsequent classes we will verify and hone our talents with activities and discussion. These are hands-on workshops and participation is expected. The goal of our series will be to develop expertise in areas of particular interest such as mediumship, channeling, divination, healing and, etc.. Our ultimate directions will be determined by class members as we evolve. I look forward to sharing and discovering with you. - Cynthia