A event on Friday 10th October. The event starts at 19:00.
East Bristol is thrilled to host artist and writer Richard Foster reading from his latest collection *The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club* (Ortac Press, 2025) and discussing the book with author Joshua Jones.
*The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club* has been described as a batch of psychedelicized, autofictive fairy tales from the Netherlands. Introducing a diverse cast of voices - from addicts to grandmothers - it presents eight stories dealing with the major social changes that country underwent during the mid-noughties.
We learn of the upheavals brought on by the Euro and the influx of Polish workers alongside the slow disappearance of the British and Irish worker-raver tribes post-Schengen, all set against a backdrop of rising costs, political murders and foreign wars. We also learn of the shock of new party snacks, like asparagus sticks wrapped in ham. Like *Flower Factory* (Ortac Press, 2022), *The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club* is set in the southern part of the Dutch Bollenstreek: an agro-industrial district that is always changing, but somehow manages to stay exactly the same.
'A charming and caustic book ... the subtly and experience of Foster’s pen means that what appears on its surface as an autofictive middle-aged bildungsroman runs far deeper, tapping into the murkiness of societal and individual psychology that examines how things both seemingly change and forever stay the same.' - Louder Than War
'Through his stories, Richard Foster has the rare talent of casting the world anew. Under his eye, nothing is safe; the mundane becomes magical, the magical mundane. A collection to delight and destabilise.' - Ali Millar, author of *The Last Days* and *Ava, Anna, Ada*
'A magnificent collection. Like a bouquet of condolence flowers for the casualties of late capitalism, Foster's stories brilliantly capture the alienation and gratification of hard graft in the 21st century with total authenticity and total sensitivity. Taking us on pushbike derives around the lowlands or chasing the next fleeting high with a motley cast of wreckheads, these are some of the most entertaining, elegant stories I've read about the various ways people struggle and strive to make work work for them.' Richard Milward, author of *Man-Eating Typewriter*
Richard Foster is an artist and writer. He is known for writing about popular culture for the likes of The Quietus, Caught By the River, Gonzo Circus, The Wire and Louder than War. A regular public speaker on alternative music culture, he is also the author of two autofictions based on his time working in the bulb factories of the Netherlands during the 2000s, *Flower Factory* (2022) and *The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club*, (2025), both by Ortac Press. Richard's work on the history of Dutch post-punk is published by Routledge, Cambridge Scholars and Intellect Books. He works as advisor on marketing and communications at WORM, in Rotterdam. Between 2004 and 2015 he was co-editor of Incendiary Magazine, a website whose main focus was increasingly based around new Dutch underground pop music. He runs the ongoing conceptual art project, The Museum of Photocopies.
Joshua Jones (he/him) is a queer, autistic writer and artist from Llanelli, South Wales. He co-founded Dyddiau Du, a NeuroQueer art and literature space in Cardiff. His fiction and poetry have been published by Poetry Wales, Broken Sleep Books, Gutter and others. He was a Literature Wales Emerging Writer for 2023, and is currently working with the British Council to connect Welsh and Vietnamese queer writers. In 2023, he published his first work of fiction: *Local Fires* (Parthian).
Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)
*The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club* has been described as a batch of psychedelicized, autofictive fairy tales from the Netherlands. Introducing a diverse cast of voices - from addicts to grandmothers - it presents eight stories dealing with the major social changes that country underwent during the mid-noughties.
We learn of the upheavals brought on by the Euro and the influx of Polish workers alongside the slow disappearance of the British and Irish worker-raver tribes post-Schengen, all set against a backdrop of rising costs, political murders and foreign wars. We also learn of the shock of new party snacks, like asparagus sticks wrapped in ham. Like *Flower Factory* (Ortac Press, 2022), *The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club* is set in the southern part of the Dutch Bollenstreek: an agro-industrial district that is always changing, but somehow manages to stay exactly the same.
'A charming and caustic book ... the subtly and experience of Foster’s pen means that what appears on its surface as an autofictive middle-aged bildungsroman runs far deeper, tapping into the murkiness of societal and individual psychology that examines how things both seemingly change and forever stay the same.' - Louder Than War
'Through his stories, Richard Foster has the rare talent of casting the world anew. Under his eye, nothing is safe; the mundane becomes magical, the magical mundane. A collection to delight and destabilise.' - Ali Millar, author of *The Last Days* and *Ava, Anna, Ada*
'A magnificent collection. Like a bouquet of condolence flowers for the casualties of late capitalism, Foster's stories brilliantly capture the alienation and gratification of hard graft in the 21st century with total authenticity and total sensitivity. Taking us on pushbike derives around the lowlands or chasing the next fleeting high with a motley cast of wreckheads, these are some of the most entertaining, elegant stories I've read about the various ways people struggle and strive to make work work for them.' Richard Milward, author of *Man-Eating Typewriter*
Richard Foster is an artist and writer. He is known for writing about popular culture for the likes of The Quietus, Caught By the River, Gonzo Circus, The Wire and Louder than War. A regular public speaker on alternative music culture, he is also the author of two autofictions based on his time working in the bulb factories of the Netherlands during the 2000s, *Flower Factory* (2022) and *The Punk Rock Birdwatching Club*, (2025), both by Ortac Press. Richard's work on the history of Dutch post-punk is published by Routledge, Cambridge Scholars and Intellect Books. He works as advisor on marketing and communications at WORM, in Rotterdam. Between 2004 and 2015 he was co-editor of Incendiary Magazine, a website whose main focus was increasingly based around new Dutch underground pop music. He runs the ongoing conceptual art project, The Museum of Photocopies.
Joshua Jones (he/him) is a queer, autistic writer and artist from Llanelli, South Wales. He co-founded Dyddiau Du, a NeuroQueer art and literature space in Cardiff. His fiction and poetry have been published by Poetry Wales, Broken Sleep Books, Gutter and others. He was a Literature Wales Emerging Writer for 2023, and is currently working with the British Council to connect Welsh and Vietnamese queer writers. In 2023, he published his first work of fiction: *Local Fires* (Parthian).
Entry requirements: no age restrictions (under 18s to be accompanied by an adult over 21yrs, 1:1 ratio)