John Healy Q & A – cancelled

We are sorry to have to let you know that due to unforeseen circumstances this event is now cancelled. 

A rare and exclusive chance to hear writer and outsider John Healy talk about his world famous memoir, The Glass Arena. John is going to be interviewed by Nell Leyshon, Artistic Director of The Outsiders Project.

John Healy was born in London in 1942. After a troubled childhood he became a boxer and according to his trainer the late great George Francis, ‘Healy at sixteen was a stylist with concussive power in both hands, he was tipped for the top but unfortunately it was drink in the end that carried the knockout blow.’

Already an alcoholic by his late teens John was pressed into the army and went awol – on recapture he was transferred to a penal battalion at a military prison. Dishonorably discharged onto the street he spent 15 years in the violent subculture of a wino jungle. During one of his prison sentences a fellow prisoner Harry Collins known as the Brighton fox taught him to play chess. Showing a remarkable aptitude for the game he won ten major tournaments. In 1986 living hand to mouth on a council estate at Kings Cross he wrote his ‘savage masterpiece’ The Grass Arena which won the Pen Ackerley Award, Europe’s top prize for literary autobiography. ‘One of the great works of the 20th century’ Mathew Sweet BBC radio 4. The book was made into a film and between them they have a clutch of major national and international awards.

The recent documentary, Barbaric Genius, about John, will also be shown at the festival.

John Healy. Image ©️ Paul Duane

Please note this is a 16+ event. Content warning: This event will contain strong language.

Please note that this performance is an alcohol-free space. We won’t be offering drinks and please do not bring your own drinks in. Our theatre in B.A.D. is part of our Safe Homes Network.

Supported by Lottery Community fund.

Tickets: PWYC Tickets: £5 / Solidarity ticket: £10 / Free tickets available. Combined ticket with film screening £8 / Solidarity ticket: £15

Ticket info: We want to keep prices to a minimum so as many people can come as possible, so we are offering a pay what you can system, as well as solidarity tickets for those who are able to pay a little more.

Free tickets are also available for those with low income, outsider artists, asylum seekers, refugees and vulnerable migrants.

BEAF Arts Co is a not-for-profit organisation. All profits from our ticket sales go back into supporting our work, community and artists.

Refunds: If you can no longer make this event, then please contact us a week in advance of the event to request one. Refunds after then will not be accepted and please note Eventbrite’s fee cannot be refunded.

Access info: B.A.D. is on the ground floor and has wide doors for access. We are currently fundraising to build accessible toilets, in the meantime accessible toilets are available in the sovereign centre.

Getting to us: If you are coming by foot or by bus, take the M2 bus and get off near Boscanova if coming from Southbourne or next to Aldi if coming from Poole and Bournemouth. Walk along the high-street and please come to the main entrance at B.A.D. directly opposite Costa.

If you are coming by car we would recommend parking in the sovereign centre car park, then come to the main entrance on the high-street.

Pokesdown for Boscombe train station is a 15-20 minute walk from B.A.D. along Christchurch Road.