April 17, 2026
Photo: James Garn
The queue outside west London’s All-Star Boxing Gym hugs the wall. “Who’s fighting tonight? I haven’t seen it like this in a long time,” remarks a local shopkeeper, who looks again, observing women in vintage fur coats and tabi flats of all colors. “Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like this.”
Tonight, Dream Baby Press is hosting its first London event in the family-run community gym, which is also the first reading outside of the U.S.—a WWE of readings, more like. Filmmaker, poet, and Dream Baby Press founder Matt Starr has a penchant for hosting in off-beat locations: in New York’s oldest donut shop Peter Pan Donuts, a multi-level Burger King, and the oldest magic shop in the states. Past readers have included Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell and Jemima Kirke. And if you haven’t chowed down on a Whopper or a gargantuan apple fritter while hearing writers pour their guts out with D.B.P., you’ll probably be familiar with their love/hate lists on Substack and Instagram. (Lena Dunham’s is among the most recent.)
“I’ve wanted to do a Dream Baby event in London for two years,” Starr tells Vogue. “I’m obsessed with London. Always have been. I love the rom-coms, Paddington Bear, the historic buildings, walking around the old streets late at night. I know I’ll move here one day.” What started as a passion project in 2022 with a goal of making reading and writing fun, accessible, and sexy, Starr notes that the U.K. is the publisher and entertainment platform’s second largest audience outside of the United States: “I kept getting messages from people asking when we were coming to town.”
The night was an instant sell-out. Guests climbed the creaking stairs and entered the high-ceilinged gymnasium, where boxing bags and team flags hung from wooden beams. The old-school ring dominated the room. Upstairs on the balcony, a makeshift bar served plastic pints of wine, beer, and chips.
The inaugural London line-up included Starr, musician Kate Nash (who read work by anonymous London author and chef Slutty Cheff, Emma Forrest, Camille Charrière, Industry co-creator Mickey Down, British Vogue contributing editor and goth it-girl Tish Weinstock, The Moment writer Bertie Brandes, Vogue Business contributing editor Amy Francombe, and presenter Lea Ogunlami.
“I actually reached out to Prue Leith and Paddington Bear to be surprise guests, but both were busy,” adds Starr. Instead, he settled on a local Elvis impersonator, who opened the evening with all of Presley’s hits, dressed the part in a white jumpsuit and with his hair slicked back. The hip swivels, cowboy struts, and a particularly rousing go at “Suspicious Minds” got the boxing ring bouncing.
Photo: Miyuki Wang
“[I’m] not sure what it says about myself or my work that I synonymize pleasure and horniness,” Down says, “but when Matt said the readings were meant to be about pleasure, my brain went to what could potentially be the horniest subsection of literature—fan fiction—and then, to the horniest subsection of the horniest subsection: Harry Potter fan fiction. Thankfully, there are thousands of entries online.”
Down kicked off the readings with an excerpt of steamy, dense prose that focused on a sexual tryst with Harry Potter character Neville Longbottom. “I considered some Draco and Harry stuff, but in all honesty, it was just too horny, and most of it concerned ‘school age’ wizards… so was a little unsettling,” Down continues. “So I settled for some soft core pansy Neville, Sex and the City-adjacent fantasy action that had some nice feminist inflections, despite using the words ‘her aching cunt’ to describe a children’s books character.”
Director, novelist, and Father Figure author Emma Forrest was up next, wearing slinky cream Paloma Wool trousers and a green Jacquemus top—“young brands,” as she put it. “I think I was hyper-aware that I was entering into a young person’s arena, and maybe that’s also why I read a piece that culminates in the embrace of the female aging process, an erotic thrill to being deemed a hag,” she says. Forrest entered the ring as one absolutely should, crossing the threshold and dropping to the floor for some energizing press-ups. “Having directed a movie [Untogether, starring Jemima and Lola Kirke], I like to block out the full use of a space.” She had arrived early to plan her entrance.
Charrière read a snippet of her forthcoming debut memoir, Ashamed. She chose a part of her second chapter, “Pardon My French,” where she explores her relationship with home as she moves to London from France to work at a hedge fund. “It ties quite nicely with the theme of pleasure,” explains Charrière, “because it’s about the agony and ecstasy of discovering a new city, working in your first job, and the excitement and freedom that comes with that…but there’s also all the pain and homesickness. It’s also about how terribly incompetent I was because I accepted this job in finance to follow a boy.”
Reading this early work was a terrifying and galvanizing experience for her. “My piece was a bit more earnest,” she says of her contribution to the night’s readings, “but there’s still a lot of pleasure to derive from that. I found the experience quite exposing. Getting into the ring, you feel naked. It’s like any form of sport…it pushes you to be better, to train more, to have endurance and consistency with your writing. I’m grateful to Matt for the invitation. I’ve gone through a rollercoaster of emotions since.”
“I’ve accepted at this point that writing a memoir is a real journey of self discovery, because there’s the book you think you’re going to write, the story that you’ve been telling yourself and the world. And once you start digging—especially because the book explores vulnerability and shame, as well as the themes in the lives of many women like fertility, dating, pretty privilege—trying to untangle the story you tell yourself versus the honest one is very hard.”
There have been some hard emotional hangovers when she’s handed in chapters, and spurts of loneliness, but the highly anticipated book is coming. “I’m much more comfortable now with having found my voice, and saying to my editor when I need more time,” she shares. “Because I care about this!” While there’s no set release date yet for the memoir, Charrière teases the announcement of a column soon, where more of her writing will be shared.
Brandes also took her opportunity in the ring to officially announce her forthcoming book, Problematic Faves, which is coming out in 2027 via Bloomsbury. She read one passage about horrible perfume with a hint of insulin, and a pithy poem about the store Brandy Melville. The latter includes two of her favorite personal lines: “Girl, interrupted from her phone,” and “You do not get the clothing you desire, you get the clothing you deserve.” “I had the best time,” says Brandes, “Matt is so brilliant, and I hope we get to do many more.”
Weinstock read passages from Cookie Mueller’s ‘Ask Dr. Mueller’ columns, while Starr himself closed the night reading from his own tender, horny, humorous poetry collection, 2024’s Mouthful.
Below, a visual diary of a night of sexy readings, shop-bought wine, and “Suspicious Minds.”
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: Miyuki Wang
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: Miyuki Wang
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: James Garn
Photo: Miyuki Wang
Photo: Miyuki Wang
Photo: Miyuki Wang
Photo: James Garn
Anna Cafolla is American Vogue’s news editor, working across fashion, beauty, culture and living from London. Previously, she has worked at Dazed, Cosmopolitan, and ELLE, and has written for The Guardian, The Face, AnOther, and Conde Nast Traveller. She will hold you hostage until you agree to her restaurant recommendations. ... Read More
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