Fern Brady in conversation with Michael Pedersen

Comedian Fern Brady joins Michael Pedersen to talk creativity, comedy and books.

21 March 2025
6pm - 7pm
Hybrid event
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Fern Brady in conversation with Michael Pedersen

21st March 6:00 PM 7:00 PM GMT

Free

A conversation between comedian Fern Brady and poet, University of Edinburgh writer-in-residence, and Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen. Fern and Michael will discuss comedy, creativity and books, including Fern’s hilarious and heart-breaking memoir Strong Female Character. Covering the years from realising she had autism in her teens to her diagnosis at 34, Fern tells the story of how being female can get in the way of being autistic and how being autistic gets in the way of being the ‘right kind’ of woman’. 

Speaker Biographies

Headshot of Fern Brady

Fern Brady is a woman. She is also autistic. She was born in Scotland (no, not Glasgow). She has no presets for being a ‘good woman’ – she never hated her body or indulged in messy millennial shame. She now lives out of wedlock in London. She has zero children. Fern’s caustic wit, exceptional writing and electric stage craft has made her one of the UK’s hottest comedy stars. As seen on Live from the BBC, Live from the Comedy Store, The Russell Howard Hour, and Live at the Apollo. She’s had viral success with her BBC Life Lessons and supported Frankie Boyle and Katherine Ryan on tour. She can currently be seen on Taskmaster on Channel 4. Her triumph of a debut book, Strong Female Character, won, among other accolades, Best Non-Fiction at the Nero Book Awards and the Books Are My Bag Awards 2023, and was the winner of the Audiobook of the Year 2024 at the British Book Awards. She has just announced a second book, High Energy Unpleasant, due for release in 2026. 

Headshot of Michael Pedersen

Michael Pedersen: is a prize-winning Scottish poet and author, the Writer in Residence at The University of Edinburgh, and the Edinburgh Makar (Poet Laureate). His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published by Faber & Faber to rave reviews and was a Sunday Times Critics Choice 2022. He’s unfurled three collections of poetry, the most recent being The Cat Prince & Other Poems – which won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry 2023. Pedersen has been shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and The Scottish National Book Awards and won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has attracted praise from the likes of: Stephen Fry, Bernardine Evaristo, Kae Tempest, Irvine Welsh, Nicola Sturgeon and many more. His debut novel, Muckle Flugga, will be published by Faber in May 2025. 

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