Rimbaud and Verlaine in London: Poet in the City at Kings Place

In 1872 two French poets ran away to London together, in one of the most notorious love affairs in literary history. Living at No 8 Royal College Street in Camden, fuelled by poetry and absinthe, the young men lived intensely, quarrelled explosively, and wrote some of the greatest poetry in the French language. Arthur Rimbaud probably wrote both his Illuminations and his Saison en Enfer in London, before giving up writing poetry forever. Becoming an explorer in Africa, he died at the age of only 37. Paul Verlaine was eventually rehabilitated as a man of letters in France, living out his last years on the Left Bank in Paris. Featuring a specially commissioned short film written by screen writer and poet David Harsent, and live readings of poetry in French and English tranlsation, this is a unique event exploring the story of Rimbaud and Verlaine in London.