Open 7.30pm
Anthony Toner is one of Ireland’s finest singer songwriters, steadily growing an audience across the UK for both his solo shows and his regular appearances with folk legend Barbara Dickson on her acoustic tours over the past decade. His engaging between-song banter, his insightful, heart-filled songs and his superb fingerstyle guitar technique have won him legions of new fans from Aberdeen to Truro.
Join him for a short series of intimate performances in literary locations (where he will undoubtedly feel at home – he was once memorably described as sounding ‘like James Taylor meets John Prine in a second hand bookshop’). In addition to his own songs you can expect some well-chosen cover versions, some Irish tunes and some blues, for good measure. Anthony’s songs are littered with little references to the thousands of novels and poems that have shaped him as an artist and a person. Usually Anthony includes some short verses from some of his favourite Irish poets as part of the show, as well as some of his own stories from the road.
He is delighted to be joined for this show by Kent based poet Rosie Johnston. Rosie's fifth book of poetry, 'Safe Ground', was published by Mica Press in spring 2025. Lapwing Publications published her first four books between 2010 and 2019 using their hand-powered printing press near the Cave Hill in Rosie's native Belfast.
Irish publisher and critic Billy Mills chose 'Six-Count Jive' (Lapwing) as one of his three poetry books of the year in 2020 and said: 'This is an important little book. Read it.' Rosie has contributed to a host of anthologies and literary publications in the UK, Ireland and the United States. She reads her poetry widely, including at the Faversham Literary Festival (each year since 2020, where she also hosts), Gloucester Poetry Festival, Canterbury Festival, Hungerford Literary Festival, Watford’s Big Word festival, Vigo and Glasgow Universities, In-Words in Greenwich, Winchester’s Loose Muse, the Linen Hall Library and Crescent Arts Centre in Belfast, the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden, the Troubadour, Torriano, the Norwich Bicycle Shop and the Pie Factory in Margate.
Rosie's been interviewed by Sian Thomas for the prestigious Poetry Bath radio programme and is currently part of Canterbury's Poetry and Prosecco series. Since 2014 Rosie has reviewed poetry for online culture magazine London Grip. Over the years she has run a variety of writing groups too and her new book on how to sustain a lifelong writing practice has been provisionally accepted by an American publisher. Her work in progress is a novel (to be her third) and, for herself as much as anybody else, she's running writing buddy or 'quiet writing' groups in Chapters, Sturry and The Old Curiosity Shop, Broadstairs.
Host for the night will be Sam Warner who will kick the evening off with one of his own compositions on piano.
£10
Address
An evening of Words & Music with Anthony Toner & Rosie Johnston
The Old Curiosity Shop
CT10 1ET
