PHOTOGRAPHY Pete Woodhead, courtesy of Southbank Centre
“Books should benefit other people,” Patti Smith asserted to a packed Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night. She sat across from Dua Lipa, whose cultural platform Service95 curated this year’s London Literature Festival line-up at Southbank Centre.
The duo were discussing Smith’s latest memoir, Bread of Angels, along with her best-selling autobiography, Just Kids. Over the course of an hour and a half, Lipa questioned Smith about memories shared in the new book from throughout her life, from growing up in condemned buildings with her siblings as her support system, to her years as a rock-and-roll icon, before stepping away from public life for 16 years to raise her family.
“Well, after I wrote Just Kids – because Robert asked me to write it hours before he died – I promised him I would,” she recalled. “I didn’t know anything about writing a memoir or non-fiction; I liked to write poems and fairy tales. It was so much responsibility and took me so long. I swore I’d never write another memoir, but then, truthfully, I had a dream.” She explained that in her dream, she saw a messenger bring her a white book, and inside were all the stages of her life, depicted through dresses: a childhood dress from her uncle, her “art dress” gifted by Robert Mapplethorpe, and her wedding dress from her husband, Fred “Sonic” Smith.
I didn’t know anything about writing a memoir or non-fiction; I liked to write poems and fairy tales. It was so much responsibility and took me so long. I swore I’d never write another memoir, but then, truthfully, I had a dream.
Patti Smith
“I realised that all [these] men had died,” she paused. “In writing about these dresses, I would be writing about them; my childhood, my evolution as an artist… my public life, and then marriage, and then eventual loss, and starting life again. It seemed so daunting, but I felt… it was as if all those people were calling, ‘don’t forget us, write our little story too,’ and so, that’s what I did. I didn’t really want to have another task like that, but it was such a worthy task that I spent the next few years writing it.”
At around 30, Smith left New York and her band to move to Detroit with Fred and raise their family. As her fame was growing, she felt she had stopped developing as a person and an artist. “The vow I took at 12 was to do great work; it wasn’t to become rich and famous, or even a big rock star or something,” she said. “The vow that I took made it necessary for me to keep growing. And to keep growing, not just as an artist, but as a human being.”
The years that followed were sometimes mistaken for an absence. Smith was quick to correct that impression. “Some people think that in the 80s I disappeared and didn’t do anything because I wasn’t in public life,’ she said. ‘But I worked really hard in the 80s. I washed the diapers, I made the food. I’m not a great housekeeper, but I did my best.”
The vow that I took made it necessary for me to keep growing. And to keep growing, not just as an artist, but as a human being.
Patti Smith
Alongside raising her children, Smith continued to write, gradually coming to understand herself as a writer. Her creative practice remains a daily commitment, and one she recommends to aspiring writers. “I wake up every morning, I have my coffee, I write, I work, and that’s my daily practice,” she said. “I’m almost 80 years old; I’m not going to walk around acting like I’m a big rock star at 80 years old, you know. I was a rock and roll star in the 70s; I liked being a rock and roll star, I felt cool being that, but I’ve done that. Now I’m just like, I’m working. And I can. And if I get paid, it’s a job.”
There were lighter moments, too; in the audience Q&A, both were asked what their ideal day off might look like. While Lipa suggested a long dog walk, a Sunday roast, and an evening “lying horizontal” on the sofa, Smith’s response was much more succinct: “I love ITV.” The answer was met with murmured laughter throughout the audience, yet Smith doubled down: “I love Inspector Morse, Lewes, Vera, and Louis and Dalgleish.”
The event comes as part of Lipa’s star-studded London Literature Festival line-up, which also saw the singer join Zadie Smith and Mustafa on Saturday 24 October. The festival continues with Hollywood A-lister Michael Douglas, alongside a Translated Fiction Showcase, on Wednesday 28 October, followed by Fierce Sounds with Kae Tempest on Friday 30 October, and more conversations exploring male tenderness and censorship on Saturday 31 October. Alongside the programme, a free book swap at the Royal Festival Hall invites readers to exchange books and recommendations, with Dua and other celebrity guests contributing their own reads and handwritten notes.
Founded by Dua in 2023, the Service95 Book Club has grown from her personal reading recommendations into a global community built around books and the conversations they spark. Through monthly picks, author interviews and a podcast, Lipa brings readers into her own literary world while introducing them to writers they might not otherwise encounter. That curiosity makes her a fitting curator for the London Literature Festival, which she has approached by bringing established literary names into conversation with emerging voices – including Tice Cin and several writing award showcases across the programme. After fellow musician Self Esteem curated the festival in 2025, Lipa has put her own reading life at the centre of this year’s programme, while making space for others to discover theirs. In curating a community around reading, she isn’t simply leading it from the stage; she’s part of it, too.
Smith, too, has always marched to the beat of her own drum, and this became a fervent topic of discussion between the pair. At one point, Lipa cited moments when Smith had rejected joining another band’s troop, and how she’d described herself as “a leader who broke bread with her troops.”
Sometimes, you just have to stand alone. You have to make your own choices and go against the grain.
Patti Smith
“Sometimes, you just have to stand alone. You have to make your own choices and go against the grain. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t have some respect for the grain – but you’re still going to go against it,” Smith explained. “Even the people I rebelled against, or when I said I left this whole scene to be with ‘my own people’, I was still grateful to them. I was grateful to my mother; although I rebelled against her and I left home, I was still grateful. I just feel it’s hard to explain because I don’t really see myself as intensely gifted in any specific way. But the one thing is that I have my imagination, and I’m a hard worker. I know that if I apply myself, I’ll be able to deliver the best work that I can.”
Throughout the conversation, Smith’s humility radiated across the Royal Festival Hall, and she was moved to tears at several points. She recited this idea of being a “worker” more than once throughout the evening – whether speaking about making music, songwriting, or in later life publishing poetry and memoirs – and regularly cited “imagination and hard work” as the secrets to her success. “Put it on my tombstone: worker,” she laughed.
Smith’s warmth and candour were matched by the care Lipa brought to the conversation. Having spoken virtually about Just Kids three years earlier, Lipa returned to Smith’s work with a new memoir to discuss. This time, the conversation reached beyond the familiar stories of Smith’s early career, making space for the life and work that came after.
The London Literature Festival continues until 1st November at Southbank Centre.
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