Collected Live: How does writing change the writer?

Join us on Thursday 27 August for a live panel discussion with Royal Literary Fund writers Rebecca Tantony, Robin Mukherjee and Franny Moyle. Together, they will explore the question: How does writing change the writer? The conversation will be followed by an opportunity for audience questions and discussion.

This will be an informal and welcoming space for writers, readers and anyone interested in the relationship between writing and personal transformation. Please note that all sales for our paid events are final and go towards supporting future Gloucestershire Libraries events. Refunds are only allowed in limited circumstances: if the event has been cancelled, rescheduled, or moved.

Gloucestershire Libraries are committed to creating an inclusive community and are working towards a place where everyone feels welcome, safe and valued for who they are. Our events are for everyone: We welcome you whatever your socio-economic background, ability, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, age, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. If you have any access requirements or if you need further information about the event, please contact [email protected] ahead of the session.

About the panellists Robin Mukherjee studied Law at Nottingham University but abandoned his legal career to pursue the literary arts. Since then he has written for film, television, radio and theatre. His first feature film, *Dance of the Wind*, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and won the audience prize at the London Film Festival.

His second feature, *Lore*, was critically acclaimed worldwide, winning numerous awards, including the Australian Writers Guild award for best adapted screenplay. It was Australia’s official entry to the Oscars. His television work includes series such as *The Bill*, and *Casualty*, alongside serials and features such as *Grushko* with Brian Cox, and *Plastic Man* with Frances Barber.

His original three-part series for CBBC was nominated for a Bafta for best children’s drama. Robin has taught seminars, lectures and script labs around the world; including in Warsaw, Sydney and Toronto, as part of their respective film festivals. He teaches regularly at Arvon, and co-created the MA Scriptwriting programme at Bath Spa University which he subsequently ran.

Although a Londoner by birth and upbringing, Robin now lives in Bristol with his partner, also a writer, a very energetic dog and a rather old cat. He loves to walk, read, teach, watch movies and write. Franny Moyle is a critically acclaimed biographer whose work focuses on historic cultural figures.

Passionate to engage the widest possible audience in tales about British art, she has written about Hans Holbein, J. M. W.

Turner and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Her work also extends to excavating women whose contribution to their time has been overlooked. *Constance*, Franny’s exploration of the life of Oscar Wilde’s wife, was her first piece of work in this area. Meanwhile, published in 2025, her account of *Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun* reveals the story of two eighteenth-century women painters who found international success and produced groundbreaking work, but whose reputations unjustifiably diminished in comparison to their male peers.

BBC Radio 4’s *Book of the Week* has adapted two of Franny’s books, whilst her tale of the Pre-Raphaelites, *Desperate Romantics*, was made into a six-part drama for BBC Two. Before becoming an author, Franny pursued a career in television. Joining the BBC in the early 1990s, she worked her way through its ranks to Creative Director of Arts and ultimately Head of Arts Commissioning.

In 2005 she left the corporation for a freelance, portfolio career, executive-producing arts documentaries alongside writing, and taking up trusteeships, most recently at Turner’s House in Twickenham. In 2022, Franny moved from London’s Hackney to Bristol, with her Bedlington terrier, Minsli, and her film-producer husband. They still keep a Belgian Spitz barge called Anton moored in the capital.

Rebecca Tantony is the author of three poetry and flash nonfiction collections, all published by Burning Eye Books (2015, 2017, 2019). She has a First-Class Honours in Creative Writing and the Study of Religion and in 2016 received an MA in Creative Writing, both from Bath Spa University. After education, she taught BA Creative Writing at the same institution and then went on to teach MA students during a month-long research trip at Wits University, Johannesburg.

She has been commissioned by BBC Radio 4 and Nowness and has read her writing in numerous venues and literary festivals such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Natural History Museum, Southbank Centre and in Romania, Turkey, Sweden, South Africa and America. She curates and hosts literature programmes for leading creative and community events, includingBath