The Frontline Club

The Frontline Club FRONTLINE CLUB | CHAMPIONING INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM Frontline Club is a gathering place for journalists, media & their friends.

Founded by Vaughan Smith from his 90s news agency “Frontline Television News”, it was created to support freelance journalism and champion the safety of those who did this as their life’s work. We are a members club, with a public restaurant on the ground floor with private dining and busy events space on the top floor with interesting weekly events that are open to anyone. The club’s very mission

is to champion independent journalism and stimulate public discussion of current affairs. As the foreign news industry’s watering hole, we are informal, edgy and relevant. Norfolk place our newly-refurbished public Restaurant (75 cover) delivers casual fine dining, using local meat and ethically sourced produce. Instead of chasing you down the street with a bucket, we fundraise by selling food and drink, event ticket sales & member bedroom hires & of course by the recruitment of membership that enrich our ever growing community, that as we say in the Club, helps us keep fighting the good fight!

Monday 22nd June 2026 19:00 in the Club Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989989998655?aff=oddtdtcreatorAndrey Ku...
19/06/2026

Monday 22nd June 2026 19:00 in the Club Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989989998655?aff=oddtdtcreator
Andrey Kurkov (Three Years on Fire: The Destruction of Ukraine) and Manisha Ganguly (investigations correspondent and visual forensics lead, The Guardian) join Kim Darroch, Chair of the Orwell Foundation, to discuss their Orwell Prize shortlisted reporting on war crimes in Ukraine, and our age of impunity.
Three Years on Fire is this third volume of Andrey Kurkov’s war diaries, in which Ukraine’s greatest living writer chronicles the third year of the full-scale invasion from his home in Kyiv and from journeys all over the country – capturing moments of horror, resilience, absurdity and grace with an unmatched clarity. Orwell Prize judge Sir Lawrence Freedman says ‘In a series of moving and compelling essays Andrey Kurkov describes life in war-time Kyiv, full of illuminating observations on how Ukrainians have adapted to the dangers and sorrows of a conflict without apparent end, combined with informed political analysis.’
Dr. Manisha Ganguly is an investigative journalist and filmmaker covering the intersection of technology and human rights. A pioneer in using open-source investigations to expose war crimes, her work has been cited by the United Nations, UK Parliament, and led to EU and US sanctions — reaching over 300 million viewers across four wars. A European Press Prize laureate, two-time Amnesty International Media Awards winner, and recipient of the George Weidenfeld Prize for Courageous Reporting, she is writing her first book, on impunity.

Tomorrow Thursday 18th June 2026 at 18.00 we are hosting at the Frontline Club a special live THE SRMC TRIBE podcast liv...
17/06/2026

Tomorrow Thursday 18th June 2026 at 18.00 we are hosting at the Frontline Club a special live THE SRMC TRIBE podcast live with Staz, co-founder of ThruDark and former UK Special Forces operator.
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-srmc-tribe-presents-live-podcast-with-thrudark-co-founder-staz-tickets-1984885721625
Join us at the Frontline Club for a special live podcast recording featuring Staz, co-founder of ThruDark and former UK Special Forces operator. In this exclusive event, we’ll sit down with Staz to explore his journey from elite military service to building one of the UK’s most respected performance apparel brands.

During the conversation, we’ll dive into the mindset forged through special operations, the transition from military life to entrepreneurship, and the lessons learned from leading in some of the world’s most demanding environments. Staz will also share the story behind ThruDark—how the brand was built on principles of resilience, performance, and purpose.

This live recording offers the audience a rare opportunity to hear unfiltered insights from someone who has operated at the highest levels of both military and business leadership. Expect an honest discussion about discipline, risk, leadership, and what it takes to perform under pressure.

Following the podcast conversation, there will be an opportunity for audience questions and informal networking and drinks.

Tomorrow Wed 17th June 2026 19.00 at the Club. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/panel-discussion-the-long-reach-o...
16/06/2026

Tomorrow Wed 17th June 2026 19.00 at the Club. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/panel-discussion-the-long-reach-of-authoritarianism-tickets-1986437808960?aff=oddtdtcreator

Long before Putin's invasion of Ukraine, conflict was simmering on Europe's borders. In overlooked corners of the eastern Mediterranean, Balkans, Caucasus and Black Sea, Putin and his favoured strongmen have spent years stoking territorial disputes in order to destabilise an increasingly fragile European democratic order, abetted by Turkish president and regional linchpin Recep Tayyip Erdogan.Once a shining portal that straddled East and West, Istanbul's streets now teem with nationalistic fervour, political repression and rampant corruption. Local conflicts are spiralling into regional crises, deepening the fault lines now fracturing Europe and the Middle East.
In their respective works, Suzy Hansen and Hannah Lucinda Smith trace the rise and reach of authoritarianism in Turkey and beyond by offering a first-hand account of the hidden places and people whose lives have been shaped by geopolitical forces. These struggles are both intensely local and undeniably global - and it's here where Turkey, and Europe's future could be decided.

Forty years of returning to the same Kabul hotel. The result: The Finest Hotel in Kabul, now winner of the 2026 Women's ...
13/06/2026

Forty years of returning to the same Kabul hotel. The result: The Finest Hotel in Kabul, now winner of the 2026 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. Congratulations Lyse Doucet, who tells Afghanistan's recent history through the staff and guests who lived it. From everyone in your Frontline family, our hearts are full watching you celebrated like this. You have carried these stories with such care for so long, and now the world is celebrating you right back. We are so proud of you, Big love to you Lyse. 👏❤️
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Monday, June 15th, 2026, 19.00 at the Frontline Club in Paddington. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-talk-on...
11/06/2026

Monday, June 15th, 2026, 19.00 at the Frontline Club in Paddington.

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-talk-on-thin-ice-tickets-1989093407928?aff=oddtdtcreator

Join Charlie Walker as he recounts his 600-mile hike across Siberia's frozen landscape. What began as a journey of exploration in the extreme cold ended in a Russian jail cell on an unfounded suspicion of spying. In this talk, Charlie will recount his prison experience, share stories of the people he met, how they reckon with their haunted past, and what the future might hold for this remote corner of our world. This is the extraordinary story of one man’s walk through the most inhospitable place on earth and a powerful insight into a deeply troubled – and troubling – nation. Photo: courtesy of Charlie

Book talk, 19.00 Thursday 11th June 2026 Tickets: https://events.haymarketbooks.org/events/haymarketbooks/2179724 With s...
11/06/2026

Book talk, 19.00 Thursday 11th June 2026
Tickets: https://events.haymarketbooks.org/events/haymarketbooks/2179724

With sharp intellect and warm humour, Lionel Morrison tells the story of the struggle for freedom in South Africa and beyond, revealing the intimate experience of grand geopolitical shifts
Speakers: Liz Morrison, Gary Younge, Atiha Sen Gupta, Francis Beckett.

Apartheid in South Africa was arbitrary and ferocious, its end is widely celebrated. Yet the monumental difficulties faced by the movement for liberation and the sacrifices made by ordinary yet remarkable individuals have been hidden in the broad sweep of time.

Celebrated journalist Lionel Morrison brings this history to life, honoring his forgotten comrades. He shares memories as a defendant in the Treason Trial and of periods in prison before being forced to flee South Africa as a stow away, meeting leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement, the heady days of pan-African and Asian nationalism, and fighting racism in Britain.

Completed by Liz Morrison after her husband’s death, Footprints is an ode to community, truth, and resistance.

📚 Booktalk 19.00 Tuesday 9th June 2026 📍Frontline Club 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ London 🎟️ Tickets https://www.eventbr...
08/06/2026

📚 Booktalk 19.00 Tuesday 9th June 2026 📍Frontline Club 13 Norfolk Place W2 1QJ London 🎟️ Tickets https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-talk-in-the-steps-of-jan-morris-tickets-1988419907470?aff=oddtdtcreator

Everest. The Eichmann trial. Che Guevara. Suez. One reporter was there for all of it Jan Morris broke the news of the 1953 summit to a young Queen and scooped the story of the century. Then, in the early 1970s, she did the bravest thing of her life: she transitioned, living openly as a woman at a time when almost no one did, and wrote about it in "Conundrum", now a classic of trans literature. She and her wife Elizabeth stayed together until death parted them in 2020.Sara Wheeler's new biography "Jan Morris: A Life" is the portrait of a trailblazer who saw everything and never stopped longing for home. A Welsh nationalist who wasn't Welsh. A preacher of kindness with a cruel streak. The most famous journalist in the world, and still a mystery.Read the life that defined a century
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18:30pm Celebrate World Oceans Week on June 4th Thu, 4 Jun, 2026 Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/celebrate-world-o...
03/06/2026

18:30pm Celebrate World Oceans Week on June 4th Thu, 4 Jun, 2026
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/celebrate-world-oceans-week

Join us for an inspiring evening with 4 of the world's leading marine biologists and filmmakers at the Club

Dr Natalie Sinclair, a marine biologist, National Geographic Explorer and underwater noise specialist. She holds a PhD on the cultural evolution of humpback whale song and works at the intersection of science, policy, and public engagement, focusing on how human behaviour and ocean noise are shaping the future of marine ecosystems. She is committed to widening access to nature, working with underrepresented communities to build more inclusive approaches to conservation.

Tom Mustill is a biologist turned filmmaker and writer, specializing in stories in which people and nature meet. His first book, How To Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication, was published in 2022 and was selected as one of Amazon's 'Best Books of the Year'.

Paul Cox, CEO of The Shark Trust, is a marine biologist with a background in conservation communication and education. At the Trust, he and his team work globally to improve the conservation status of sharks, skates and rays, advocating for policy changes, working within communities and generating collective action.

Ollie Scholey is a wildlife filmmaker and cinematographer who has worked in remote locations around the planet, with a specialty focus in underwater filming. He was the field producer for the underwater sequences in the recent feature documentary Ocean with David Attenborough, including the jaw-dropping bottom trawling scene, and is passionate about using this film to drive impact for the ocean.

**SOLD OUT** Wednesday June 3rd 2026 18.00 'The New Byzantines' London Book Premier HOSTED at the Frontline Club. 📚 Join...
02/06/2026

**SOLD OUT** Wednesday June 3rd 2026 18.00 'The New Byzantines'
London Book Premier HOSTED at the Frontline Club. 📚

Join Sean Mathews for a discussion hosted by Middle East Eye and moderated by Peter Oborne on his book, The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East.
Caught between wars raging in both Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Greece is an island of relative stability. Popularly considered the cradle of Western civilisation, this is a Christian Orthodox state on the edge of the Islamic world. And, after a half-century of integration into NATO and the EU, Greece is now reabsorbing into the Near East, as the West fractures and new Middle Eastern powers rise. The country’s importance as a cultural and geopolitical hybrid is growing.

Travelling through the region, Sean Mathews explores at ground level the tectonic shifts reshaping Europe and the Middle East. He meets the last Greek merchants in Cairo, and hears from Istanbul’s remaining Greeks about Turkey’s break with the West. In Jerusalem, he discovers a budding alliance between Greece and Israel; and in a faded Ottoman port, he encounters football hooligans loyal to a Russian oligarch.

This bold reappraisal of Greece as a Near Eastern nation uncovers its Byzantine and Ottoman past as a key to survival in today’s chaotic, shrinking world.

Sean Mathews is a Greek-American journalist who has covered a wide swath of the Middle East. He is a correspondent with Middle East Eye, and has also written for The Economist and Al-Monitor, among others. He calls Athens home and travels often in the region. This is his first book.

David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was The Guardian’s foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined The Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.

Peter Oborne is associate editor of Middle East Eye and columnist for Byline Times and Declassified UK. He has worked as political editor of The Spectator and political columnist for the Daily Mail & Daily Telegraph

*SOLD OUT* Panel Discussion 19.00 tonight Tuesday the 2nd June 2026 at the Frontline ClubToday, Lebanon is once again at...
02/06/2026

*SOLD OUT* Panel Discussion 19.00 tonight Tuesday the 2nd June 2026 at the Frontline Club
Today, Lebanon is once again at a turning point, shaped by an accelerating regional conflict, a fragile cease-fire, tentative talks unfolding between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, Hezbollah’s evolving role within the current balance of power, internal political paralysis, and a deepening economic crisis that continues to reshape daily life.
What does Lebanon’s current trajectory reveal about the wider geopolitical moment it is embedded in, and about the fragile space between war, negotiation, and containment in the region?
Co-organised by L’Orient Today and the Frontline Club, this conversation looks at Lebanon as a central but unstable node within today’s regional order. It examines a country where political tensions, security dynamics, and social fragmentation are unfolding in parallel, closely tied to broader regional developments and shifting lines of negotiation and confrontation.
As Lebanon once again stands between an expanding war dynamic and an uncertain future, the panel also asks a broader question: how does a state navigate survival when its internal fractures are inseparable from the geopolitics around it?

Tonight 1900 at the Frontline Club Monday 1st June 2026 Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989320680707?aff=oddtdt...
01/06/2026

Tonight 1900 at the Frontline Club
Monday 1st June 2026
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1989320680707?aff=oddtdtcreator

The democratic self-governing territory of Taiwan lives in the shadow of an evermore assertive Communist Party of China which sees the island as a breakaway province that it’s vowed to take back force if necessary. But is it really as black and white as a potential full-scale military invasion, and how might evolving identities be shaping China’s strategy towards the island?
We will discuss the threats posed by China through the lens of changing identities, and how the island’s 23 million people are increasingly identifying as Taiwanese and not Chinese - and what this might mean for China and their push for Taiwan.

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W21QJ

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Tuesday 11am - 11pm
Wednesday 11am - 11pm
Thursday 11am - 11pm
Friday 11am - 11pm

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