London Burlesque Festival
This London festival of neo-burlesque variety and striptease hits the capital for nine nights of glamorous shows and titillation with 100 performers, including UK premieres and top international acts – the global flavour takes in everything from ‘Best of British’ to ‘Shanghai Surprise’.
Jim Rose, of the infamous Jim Rose Circus (guys hanging massive weights off their nuts and doing things you wouldn’t believe with their unnervingly flexible, contorting bodies), headlines the final four evenings.
May 10-19, times vary
Venues vary, £25
londonburlesquefest.com
Bedtime Stories
This month’s shows are based on the themes Urban Love (May 15) and Tales of Terror (May 16), the former promising stories of love and sex in the city courtesy of Zoe Strimpel, the latter a terrifying tome by famed ghost-loving author MR James. Wear your PJs and enjoy a cocktail on arrival. One of London’s most sumptuous nights out.
May 15 & 16, 7pm, £30
40 Winks, E1 4UJ
Tube | Stepney Green
40winks.org
Walking Book Club
Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel The Enchanted April is the focus for this book club with a difference – rather than sitting down in the back of a pub or a crammed coffee shop, you go for a stroll along Hampstead Heath and talk literature. A cultured and scenic alternative for a Sunday morning.
May 12, 11.30am, free
Daunt Books, NW3 2QB
Tube | Hampsted Heath
dauntbooks.co.uk
Nick The Greek Gangster Tour
Stephen Marcus, aka ‘Nick the Greek’ in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, returns with this popular tour of gangster London from the movies and the real life Kray-ruled locations that inspired them. He reveals the colourful characters that became celebrity icon thugs. It’s the dogs!Saturdays, 1pm.
Until Sep 30, £20
The Blind Beggar pub, E1 1BU
Tube | Whitechapel
britmovietours.com
Photos: facebook.com/pages/40winks, facebook.com/pages/Daunt-Books, YouTube
