Jeanette Winterson

Advance tickets for this event are now available for MLF Get Closer Members to buy. Memberships start at £25 per year - for full details of membership benefits and buying options click HERE. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday 14 August at 10am.

I can change the story because I am the story. Forty years after her era-defining debut Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson returns with One Aladdin Two Lamps - a bold, brilliant celebration of the transformative power of storytelling and a radical look at the future.

Written in Jeanette’s unique style, One Aladdin Two Lamps, cracks open the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights to reveal timeless questions and answers such as: Who should we trust? What makes us happy? Is love the most important thing in the world?

In her guise as Aladdin – the orphan who changes his world – Jeanette Winterson asks us to reread what we think we know and look again at how fiction works in our lives, giving us the courage to change our own narratives and alter endings we wish to subvert.

This is a chance to hear one of Britain’s most pioneering writers share her vision of reading, rewriting, and radical hope.

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. She published her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, at twenty-five. Over two decades later she revisited that material in her exceptional, bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. She has written thirteen novels for adults alongside two collections of short stories, non-fiction and screenplays. She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester.

Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester. Sponsored by Weightmans.

If you would like to book disabled access seats for this event, please book directly through the RNCM by emailing box.office@rncm.ac.uk or phoning 0161 907 5555. Please note that during August 2025, the booking line is open 2-5pm on Mondays only (excluding the bank holiday Monday 25th August). From September 2025, the booking lines are open 2-5pm on Mondays and Thursdays.