Winter Words Festival 2023

Thursday 9 February

7-8.15pm

Viv Groskop hosts a lively conversation about Chekhov and why his writing is still relevant today, including a performance by Ali Watt of About Love, a play adapted from Chekhov’s short story by Elizabeth Newman.

Viv is a writer, critic, broadcaster, stand-up comedian and the author of The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature, reviewed as “delightful” (The Times), “wonderfully entertaining” (Sunday Telegraph) and “enchanting” (The Observer). It went on to become a bestseller in translation in Russia and has also been translated into Arabic and Chinese. She is a fluent Russian speaker who has lived in Russia and Ukraine and was Contributing Editor at Russian Vogue for ten years. She appears regularly on BBC Radio 4 as a guest presenter of Saturday Review, Saturday Live and Front Row.

Viv will be joined by Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, and Ali Watt, acclaimed Scottish TV and theatre actor.

Viv Groskop is also the host of the hit podcast How to Own the Room featuring women from Hillary Clinton and Margaret Atwood to Professor Mary Beard and Julie Andrews talking about power, presence and performance. Viv has performed stand-up in Russian and is currently writing a play about the summer she spent in Zelenskiy’s home town, Krivih Rih. Viv’s latest book on our lives as readers , Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature (Abrams), is out now.