Most of you will know that our company name is a nod the classic illustrated children’s book Where The Wild Things Are, a tale of fear, adventure, friendship and most importantly the bliss of coming home to a bowl of comforting food. And that’s really what we do every day as well as we can at Where The Pancakes Are, to be a place to relax, unwind, connect with people, to eat the greatest and most comforting pancakes and even better, swap stories.

So, it’s was the enormous pleasure to host The Soho Reading Series at The Room Upstairs in our Charlotte Street restaurant last December.

The Soho Reading Series is a new phenomenon on the London literary scene, inspired by the art world of old Soho and the New York literary scene, where the founders of the Soho Reading Series met. At any of their events a mix of published and unpublished writers read for 15-20 minutes, with plenty of time for chatting and mingling in between. Absolutely no formalities – they try to connect writers with people who love to read in a relaxed and social atmosphere. The line-up of writers included:

Megan Nolan is the author of Acts of Desperation and Ordinary Human Failings. She has been nominated for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Dylan Thomas Prize, and the Nero Book Award. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, and Frieze among other publications.

Derek Owusu is the author of That Reminds Me, which won the Desmond Elliot Prize for debut fiction in 2020. His second novel, Losing the Plot, was published in 2022. He was featured on the 2023 Granta Best of Young British Novelists List.

Lamorna Ash won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2021 for her book Dark, Salt, Clear: Life in a Cornish Fishing Town, which was also a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. She writes for the Times Literary Supplement and is currently working on her second book.

Orlando Whitfield’s debut book, All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud, and Fine Art will be released in 2024. It has been described as an ‘art world Great Gatsby’ and chronicles a scandal in London’s contemporary art scene. His writing has appeared in the Paris Review and the White Review.

Ben Philipps has been published in Tablet, the Literary Review, Poetry London, and SPAM Zine, among many other publications. He was the founding editor of the Cambridge Review of Books. When not writing, Ben has also been spotted hosting pub quizzes in London.


We thank everyone who participated and hope to see you there or in our other events in the Room Upstairs