We Don't Have to Live Like This: experiments in utopian living

Why are utopian communities so appealing and are they always doomed to failure? The panel discuss utopian experiments in British history and consider whether utopian living would be possible today.

Michael Caines (@michaelscaines) is an Assistant Editor of the Times Literary Supplement.

Benjamin Markovits is the author of six previous novels: The Syme Papers, Either Side of Winter, Imposture, A Quiet Adjustment, Playing Days and Childish Loves. He has published essays, stories, poetry and reviews in the Guardian, Granta, The Paris Review and The New York Times, among other publications. In 2013 Granta selected him as one of their Best of Young British Novelists and in 2015 he won the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence Award. He teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. His latest novel You Don’t Have to Live Like This  explores a utopian plan to regenerate a Detroit neighbourhood.

Jacqueline Yallop (@jacqyallop) is author ofDreamstreets: A Journey through Britain’s Village Utopias, as well as three novels and a history of Victorian collecting. She has a PhD in nineteenth-century literature and culture, and has worked as a museum curator in Manchester and Sheffield. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Aberystwyth.

Robin Archer is Chair of the Ralph Miliband Programme.

The Ralph Miliband Programme (@rmilibandlse) is one of LSE's most prestigious lecture series and seeks to advance Ralph Miliband's spirit of free social inquiry.

This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016, taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February 2016, with the theme 'Utopias'.

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