Join JULIA DONALDSON for a very special book-signing to celebrate the release of her brand new book The Tooth Fairy & The Crocodile, her latest book with superstar illustrator LYDIA MONKS. The Tooth Fairy and the Crocodile tells the tale of Ruth Mary the tooth fairy, who gets more than she bargained for when she collects the teeth of some jungle animals, including a less-than-friendly crocodile! ABOUT THE BOOK SIGNING PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE – 1 ticket per family group
Your £12.99 ticket includes 1 hardback copy of The Tooth Fairy & The Crocodile, and allows entry of one family group (of up to 5 people) to the book-signing. You’ll be able to purchase more copies of the new book and all Julia’s previous books on the day, from the Steyning Bookshop. Julia will sign AND name-dedicate ALL books either pre-ordered or purchased at The Steyning Bookshop that day! We regret that we will not accept books from home or books purchased elsewhere for signing.
The book-signing begins at 2pm and is split into 40-minute time-slots to reduce queue times, with 25 family groups in each time slot, starting from 2pm. As each time slot fills up, we will start ticket sales for the next time slot. Feel free to call us for more info!
The signing will take place mainly outdoors, under cover in the beautiful back garden of the Steyning Bookshop, Julia’s local bookshop.
There will be activities, music & refreshments for children while you wait to meet Julia.
Book online via our TICKETSOURCE page via the button below, or by phone on 01903 812062.
Join us as we celebrate Independent Bookshop Week and our 40th year in business with a fabulous crime-writers event!
A star-studded evening with best-selling cosy crime writer REVEREND RICHARD COLES and master thriller-writer ELLY GRIFFITHS in conversation, chaired by fellow crime-writer WILLAM SHAW.
The Reverend Richard Coles will be celebrating the release of Murder at the Monastery, the 3rd book in his best-selling Canon Clement Mystery series, published on 6th June. Murder at the Monastery sees Canon Daniel Clement taking respite at the monastery where he was a novice, only for a suspicious death to occur… As dark secrets unfold, can Daniel solve the mystery at the monastery without the help of Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo?
Elly Griffiths will be celebrating the release of The Man in Black & Other Stories, a collection of short stories featuring all her best-loved characters including Dr Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson, Max Mephisto, Detective Harbinder Kaur alongside ghost stories and cosy mysteries; tales of psychological suspense and poignant vignettes of love and loss.
The discussion will be ably chaired by fellow thriller writer William Shaw, whose latest book The Wild Swimmers will be on sale on the night.
All tickets include a copy of either Murder at the Monastery or The Man in Black (please choose which book when booking tickets). Further books and all authors’ previous titles will be available to purchase & to be signed by the authors on the night.
Tickets can be purchased in person from the bookshop, by telephone on 01903 812062, or online here and via the button below (a small booking fee applies to online bookings)
ABOUT REVEREND RICHARD COLES
Richard Coles is a writer, broadcaster and an Anglican priest. He co-presented Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 for eleven years and appears, from time to time, on QI, Have I Got News For You, and Would I Lie To You? He has won Christmas Masterchef, Celebrity Mastermind twice, and captained Leeds to victory in Christmas University Challenge in 2019. A contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, he scored a lamentably low mark for a Paso Doble. He writes regularly for the Sunday Times, and is the author of half a dozen books, including a bestselling autobiography, Fathomless Riches, and the bereavement bestseller The Madness of Grief, after the death of his partner, Rev David Coles. Murder Before Evensong and A Death in the Parish, the first two books in the Canon Clement Mystery series, were both instant number 1 Sunday Times bestsellers.
ABOUT ELLY GRIFFITHS
Elly Griffiths is the bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and the Brighton Mysteries. She has won the CWA Dagger in the Library, has been shortlisted five times for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for The Lantern Men. Her new series featuring Detective Harbinder Kaur began with The Stranger Diaries, which was a Richard and Judy book club pick and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in the USA. It was followed by The Postscript Murders, shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Bleeding Heart Yard. Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband.
ABOUT OUR CHAIR WILLIAM SHAW
William Shaw has been shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger, longlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and nominated for a Barry Award. A regular at festivals, he organises panel talks and CWA events across the south east. His books include the acclaimed Breen & Tozer crime series set in sixties London, the newest series featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi, and the standalone bestseller The Birdwatcher. He worked as a journalist for over twenty years and lived in Brighton until a recent move to Ireland!
Join award-winning journalist Rafael Behr as he discusses his book ‘Politics, A Survivor’s Guide: How to Stay Engaged without Getting Enraged‘.
We live in an age of fury and confusion. A new crisis erupts before the last one has finished: financial crises, Brexit, pandemic, war in Ukraine, inflation, strikes. Prime Ministers come and go but politics becomes ever more divided and toxic. It is tempting to switch off the news, tune out and hope things will get back to normal. Except, this is the new normal, and our democracy can only work if enough people stay engaged without getting enraged.
But how? To answer that question, award-winning journalist Rafael Behr takes the reader on a personal journey from despair at the state of politics to hope that there is a better way of doing things, with insights drawn from three decades as a political commentator and foreign correspondent.
Rafael will be in conversation with our very own local political poet, Simon Zec.
ABOUT RAFAEL BEHR
Rafael Behr is a political columnist for the Guardian. He is a former Political Editor for the New Statesman, Chief Leader Writer and Online Editor for The Observer, a business news reporter for BBC online and a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, based in the Baltic region and Russia. Rafael is a regular contributor to Prospect Magazine, a guest on BBC and Sky News and a speaker at UK think tanks. His book, Politics, A Survivor’s Guide, is published by Atlantic. He hosts the Politics on the Couch podcast.Before becoming a journalist, Rafael was a political risk analyst covering countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He studied modern languages at Merton College, Oxford and took a Master’s degree in Russian Studies at the School for Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. He lives in Brighton with his family.
TICKETS
£10 Ticket Price includes a drink upon entry.
£15 Ticket Price includes a copy of Politics, A Survivor’s Guide and a drink upon entry.
Tickets avaiable from the bookshop or online via link below (booking fee applied to online bookings)
This is going to be a really special evening!
We are delighted to welcome writer, literary critic and cultural historian ALEXANDRA HARRIS to Steyning to discuss her new book The Rising Down.
Alexandra grew up in Sussex and was educated at schools in Storrington and Horsham, so the Arun valley, the Wealden mud and the chalky sweep of the South Downs are in her blood, and The Rising Down sees her returning to West Sussex to consider the layers of buried lives beneath this familiar landscape…Who has stood here, she asks; what did they see?
As Alexandra excavates archival records and everyday objects, hundreds of unexpected stories and hypnotic voices emerge from the area’s past, from the painter John Constable and the modernist writer Ford Madox Ford, to the lost local women who left little trace. She uncovers the unexpected stories behind hidden places: an ancient church sheltering a medieval anchorite who chose to be buried alive, the country estate parading a menagerie of exotic animals, the cottage where William Blake received the poetic spirit of Milton, and a safe house harbouring secret agents from wartime French resistance networks.
Alexandra will be ‘in conversation’ with an interviewer (TBC) and will also answer audience questions and sign books at the end of the evening.
ABOUT ALEXANDRA HARRIS
Alexandra Harris is a British writer and academic. She was born in Sussex and spent her childhood in the Arun Valley area. She is the author of Romantic Moderns, on modernism in inter-war Britain, and Weatherland on weather in English art and literature. She has also written a short biography of Virginia Woolf. Her radio work includes a series following Virginia Woolf’s walks, a ten-part ‘British History in Weather’, as well as programmes on candlelight, fireworks, coldness, and an excursion to ask shepherds about pastoral literature. She is a Professor of English at the University of Birmingham.
Tickets £8 ticket only or £20 including a signed copy of The Rising Down (RRP £25!!)
Book online via the button below, alternatively pop into the bookshop or call us on 01903 812062.
This gorgeous book is an illustrated, children’s version of Isabella Tree’s fantastic Wilding, the story of the pioneering rewilding project at Knepp, near Horsham.
Angela Harding’s beautiful linocuts, as well as fascinating photos, illuminate the progression of Knepp from an intensively farmed landscape to a much wilder one, thrumming with life (and PHD students), with sections on different ecological processes and different species.
Informative, beautiful, and hopeful, this is a lovely gift. Age 8+
Join writer, broadcaster, musician and all round bard & chronicler IAN MARCHANT, as he discusses his book ONE FINE DAY: A JOURNEY THROUGH ENGLISH TIME, upon its paperback release.
One Fine Day is Marchant’s story of digging around in his family history and discovering the detailed diaries, written from 1714 to 1728, of his Great (x7) Grandfather Thomas Marchant, a Yeoman famer and Jacobite sympathiser.
Thomas wrote about life on his family farm in Sussex, about fishponds, dung, horses, mud, and about the making and drinking of beer. Marchant was able to map, day-by-day, the life of Thomas in 1720 to his own, in 2020 – a letter from a world on the brink of industrialisation, to one now exhausted by it.
By exploring the Marchant family’s journey – and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent and illness ridden) became the England of today, Marchant discovers just how much we have to learn from our ancestors. By turns funny, lyrical, moving and illuminating, this is a conversation with the dead to find out what is still alive.
‘Bloody marvellous.’ Nicholas Lezard, New Statesman
ABOUT IAN MARCHANT
Ian Marchant is originally from Newhaven in East Sussex, and now lives with his family in neither England, nor Wales, but Radnorshire. He is the author of A Hero for High Times : A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994, which was long-listed for the Gordon Burns Prize in 2018, the railway travelogue Parallel Lines, musings on nightime in Something of the Night and The Longest Crawl, a hilarious account of a month long pub crawl. He has played in numerous bands, written for The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday, The Times, The Sunday Times and Metro, and presented documentaries about talking trees, scary buses, ghost trains, the self-service nation and the history of barbed wire on Radio 4. ABOUT THE EVENT
Doors open 7pm, Talk starts 7.30pm. Ian will be in conversation with SIMON ZEC, the Bard of Steyning. Plus Q & A at the end. No bar but teas and coffees will be served.
Ticket only price £7. Book with ticket £14 – includes a copy of One Fine Day in paperback. Additional books and hopefully a few of Ian’s previous books will be on sale on the night.
Join children’s author HANNAH PECKHAM for an hour of stories and crafts to celebrate the release of her new book The Get Well Spell and to help children’s charity The Rockinghorse Charity. ABOUT THE EVENT
Hannah Peckham will read her stories and lead a simple craft activity suitable for ages 3-7 – please bring a glass or plastic jar for each child if possible.
Ticket price of £4 is fully redeemable to get £4 off your purchase of The Get Well Spell.
Hannah Peckham and AWARD publications have teamed up with Rockinghorse Charity for a special ‘buy one, gift one’ offer – for every purchase of The Get Well Spell at The Steyning Bookshop, the publishers will gift a copy to a child in need with The Rockinghorse Charity. Doors open 10.45am event starts 11am.
ABOUT THE GET WELL SPELL
When Morris wakes one misty morning under the shadow of Dragon’s Ridge, the kind-hearted unicorn doesn’t feel well at all. As he sets out on a quest to find a fabled ‘Get Well Spell’, he discovers the need to fill his own cup back up, so that he can continue to share love and kindness and look after others. With delightful illustrations by Hannah Tkachenko, a Ukrainian / German artist. ABOUT HANNAH PECKHAM
Hannah Peckham is a children’s author and young person’s counsellor, and is the author of Bronty’s Battle Cry, Climb, and Conker the Chameleon. She is passionate about encouraging children’s emotional literacy. Since her son Bodhi’s diagnosis of leukaemia, Hannah has raised thousands of pounds for leukaemia research and was appointed as an Ambassador for Leukaemia UK in November 2023.
ONLY 20 TICKETS AVAILABLE (due to space constraints) so we recommend you book in advance for this event
We are delighted to welcome author KATE MORGAN to talk about her new book THE WALNUT TREE: WOMEN, VIOLENCE AND THE LAW, A HIDDEN HISTORY.
Kate Morgan’s fascinating new book The Walnut Tree lifts the lid on the shocking history of women under British law, and what it means for women today.
ABOUT THE WALNUT TREE
“A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better they’ll be.” So went the proverb quoted by a prominent MP in the Houses of Parliament in 1853. But were things about to change?
Kate investigates the legal campaigns, test cases and individual injustices of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and explores the untold stories of women whose cases became cornerstones of our modern legal system; the uniquely abusive marriage which culminated in the dramatic story of the Clitheroe wife abduction, the domestic tragedies which changed the law on domestic violence; the controversies surrounding the Contagious Diseases Act and the women who campaigned to abolish it; and the real courtroom stories behind notorious murder cases such as the Camden Town Murder. ABOUT KATE MORGAN
Kate Morgan is a writer and former solicitor. She worked as a senior in-house lawyer in the water industry for most of her legal career. Long fascinated with the darker side of the law, her writing focuses on British legal history and the stories behind the important cases that have shaped the law over the centuries. Her first book, Murder: The Biography, was published in 2021. ABOUT THE EVENING
Kate will discuss her book, her research and inspirations with an interviewer from The Steyning Bookshop. The venue is the warm and comfortable Steyning Methodist Church.
Teas & Coffees will be available.
Doors open 7pm, start time 7.30pm.
‘Book with ticket’ option = £18 – Amazing value as the book alone is RRP £20
‘Ticket only’ option = £8 – Books available to buy on the night
Tickets available in the Steyning Bookshop, by phone on 01903 812062 or buy online tickets here:
A creative writing workshop for budding writers with children’s author LIZ FLANAGAN.
Ideas are all around us – but how do you catch one?
In this fun, interactive workshop, author Liz Flanagan will lead children through a series of creative exercises to inspire and develop some new ideas. She will describe the surprising places she found ideas for the Legends of the Sky and Wildsmith series, before inviting children to start a story using material from their own lives.Dragons, pirates, witches … harness the power of your imagination! For children aged 7-12
ABOUT LIZ FLANAGAN AND HER BOOKS
Liz Flanagan is an award-winning author who writes for children and young adults. Her books include the Wildsmith series of cute illustrated chapter books for emergent readers, wonderfully illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, the exciting, inventive Legends of the Sky fantasy series, and the YA novel Eden Summer, which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.
CHILD TICKET £5 – ticket can be used to get £5 off one of Liz Flanagan’s brilliant books! Accompanying adults do not need a ticket.
You can purchase tickets in the shop or click below to book via Ticketsource
Manage your menopause symptoms and get in the best shape of your life.
We are embracing the spirit of January with a wellness event, welcoming author, menopause coach and personal trainer Kate Rowe-Ham who’ll discuss her new book Owning Your Menopause: Fitter, Calmer, Stronger in 30 Days.
Kate Rowe-Ham is a personal trainer who specialises in using exercise and fitness to help women through perimenopause and menopause. She is the founder of the app and website Owning Your Menopause which has supported thousands of women in the UK who are suffering from challenging menopause symptoms, and she has now turned this life-changing programme into a book.
Kate will discuss her own personal menopause story and her work as a personal trainer, and how these experiences have fed into her book. Kate’s book aims to transform your attitude to exercise and change your habits, and provides fitness plans as well as advice for every aspect of your life from alcohol and sugar consumption to mindfulness. Owning Your Menopause also includes a 30-day fitness plan complete with menu suggestions, movement goals and links to online videos.
Despite being a personal trainer, Kate found herself totally derailed in her early 40s as perimenopause started. Her usual strategies to stay well weren’t working and HRT wasn’t the magic bullet she hoped it would be. Only when she started changing the way she exercised, what she ate and drank, and lifting weights did she feel better… and now, a few years down the line she feels more energised than ever before. Kate wants to empower other women to experience the same revelation. Kate will be in conversation with Hannah Ebelthite, a Steyning-based health & wellness writer.
As part of our celebrations for Steyning’s special ‘Christmas Shopping Day’ on Sunday 3rd December we have award-winning, best-selling author VASHTI HARDY stopping by at 2pm to sign copies of her fantastically inventive books, including her new magical Christmas picture book Santa’s Marvellous Mechanical Workshop.
Vashti is the celebrated author of many exciting, imaginative fantasy novels for older children, including the award-winning Wildspark, the brilliant Brightstorm Chronicles, the shorter Harley Hitch novels for emergent readers, and the exciting Griffin Gate series for dyslexic / reluctant readers. Santa’s Marvellous Mechanical Workshop is her debut picture book. It’s a lovely story for ages 3-5 containing many of Vashti’s trademark features; ingenious contraptions and inventive recycling, all with a sprinkle of Christmas magic!
We’ll have ALL Vashti’s amazing books on sale and she will be happy to meet readers and sign any books purchased on the day or pre-ordered via our website. We can also take orders for customers who are not local or can’t attend, just order via our online store here, and add the names / messages for dedication in ORDER NOTES at checkout. Be sure to add postage if you are not picking up in store!
On Saturday 25th November at 3pm we are thrilled that explorer, entrepreneur, author and self-confessed ‘adventureholic’ Neil Laughton will be stopping by the shop to sign copies of his new book Adventureholic – Extraordinary journeys on seven continents by land, sea and air.
Please ORDER YOUR COPY of Adventureholic via this link and state in ORDER NOTES whether you’ll be coming to meet Neil & get the book signed in person, OR add the name / message for dedication if you’d prefer the book to be posted.
Neil Laughton is a successful business entrepreneur, multiple Guinness World Record breaking adventurer and a former Royal Marine Commando, helicopter pilot and Special Forces Officer. Neil has a passion for travel, sport and adventure. He has organised and led more than 50 expeditions on 7 continents – by land, sea and air. Adventureholictells the stories of Neil’s most unforgettable and daring adventures yet. From summiting Mount Everest with Bear Grylls and playing cricket at the Geographic South Pole to piloting the world’s first road-legal flying car on a 10,000km journey across the Sahara Desert to Timbuktu, running with bulls, and train-surfing in Myanmar, Neil really has seen and done it all.
Join Neil on a roller-coaster ride around the world, a perfect present for the (would-be?) adventurer in your life!
The book is a beautifully produced hardback published by WhiteFox Publishing at £20.
Join local historian and author Kevin Newman as he takes us on a whistlestop tour through the history of Sussex, from prehistory to the present day. This event celebrates the release of Kevin’s new book A Little History of Sussex, published by The History Press. Kevin will give an illustrated talk, with slides, featuring highlights from the book, which is an engaging and lively read, as Kevin has an eye for the absurd, droll and unusual!
EVENT INFO:
The venue is the historic Brotherhood Hall, part of the old Steyning Grammar School buildings in Church St – we regret that there is no disabled access to the Hall which is on the 1st floor, accessed by a staircase.
Doors open 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm
Tickets include welcome drink upon entry
Ticket prices: £14.99 for our bargain book with ticket deal – get the book and the ticket is free! Book RRP £14.99, hardback copy.
£7 for ticket only – you can purchase books on the night at RRP.
Tickets can be purchased online via TICKETSOURCE by clicking link below (booking fee applies) or by phone on 01903 812062, or in person from the Steyning Bookshop
Meet Jonathan Hollins, the vet at the end of the earth. As the resident vet for the remote British Overseas Territories of the Falklands, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan de Cunha, Jonathan Hollins has seen it all! From caring for the world’s oldest living reptile (a 200-year-old giant tortoise!) to relocating herds of reindeer, he has spent years working with every variety of animal, amidst extraordinarily rugged and challenging landscapes, from cloud forests to volcanic cliff faces. Jonathan’s book The Vet at the End of the Earth is a fascinating portrait of life in this remote outpost of the British Empire, where regimental pomp and circumstance abides alongside down-to-earth farming folk, battling the elements to survive!
The Vet at the End of the Earth is perfect for animal lovers, adventurers and armchair travellers alike, and Jonathan has a wealth of entertaining and hair-raising stories to tell from his years vetting at the back of beyond, we can’t wait to hear him bring the book to life in person!
Originally from the south of England, Jonathan Hollins MRCVS graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has been a working vet for four decades. Since the mid-2000s, he has spent long periods as a senior vet in the British Overseas Territories of the South Atlantic and has a home on St Helena. He has written for the UK national press and presented documentary features for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4
EVENT INFORMATION
Venue: Steyning Methodist Church
Doors open 7pm, Talk starts at 7.30pm. Jonathan will be ‘in conversation’ with an interviewer (TBC) but may also share slides of the island’s fauna and flora!
Teas & coffees will be served by the Methodist Church team.
Tickets are £16 for our great value book + ticket deal (just the book on its own is £16.99) we also offer just an entry ticket for £6.
Extra books will be available on the night, while stocks last, for the event price of £16
We are delighted to present an evening with local author TRACY FELLS, who’ll be introducing her debut short story collection The Naming of Moths – a real treat for those of us who enjoy dark, twisted fairy tales with a hint of Angela Carter! THE NAMING OF MOTHS features stories of magical realism, myths and legends re-imagined, where all the characters are undergoing transformation or facing a pivotal moment of change in their lives. People and animals interchange their shapes. Story landscapes flit from fairy-tale woods to urban homes. Here love, hope and kindness weave between the realities of man’s endless talent for cruelty. TRACY FELLS is an award-winning writer.
Tracy was the 2017 Regional Winner (Europe and Canada) for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Her novella-in-flash Hairy On The Inside (published by Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021) was shortlisted for the 2022 Saboteur and International Rubery Book Awards. Tracy has a degree in Zoology (Reading University), a MA in Creative Writing (Chichester University) and worked in clinical research until 2010. She lives in West Sussex with her husband and an abundance of garden wildlife.
Tickets are £5, to include a refreshing drink upon entry and £2.00 towards the book. Tix available in the shop, by calling us on 01903 812062, or via TICKETSOURCE here
Praise for The Naming of Moths
“Precise, imaginative, visceral, Fells never disappoints.” Angela Readman, author of The Girls are Pretty Crocodiles
– “The depth and scope of these beautifully crafted stories is a delight. This is a writer who has a deep understanding of the complexities of the human condition.” – Amanda Huggins, author of An Unfamiliar Landscape and talk to me about when we were perfect.
We are delighted that lovely Nick Sharratt is going to join us on SATURDAY 4th NOVEMBER at 11am for a book-signing at the shop celebrating his brilliant new book, You Choose Christmas! The You Choose books by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt are an ESSENTIAL part of every parenting toolkit, prompting hours of family discussion and fun, and we are over the moon that there is now a festive edition for family holiday fun!
The focus will be on this new book but we will have all Nick’s books on sale to get signed / dedicated.
We are not ticketing this book-signing, it is fine to just turn up, but if you want to be SURE you get a book and we don’t run out, you can pre-order yours via our website here Please mention in the order notes that you are coming to the book-signing!
Alternatively, if you’d like a book signed and dedicated, but cannot attend the book-signing, you can pre-order a copy using the same link above, please specify the name for dedication in ORDER NOTES, mention that you are NOT attending the book-signing, and make sure to include postage if necessary.
About YOU CHOOSE CHRISTMAS
The You Choose books are perennial favourites of parents and children alike, and we are so excited to reveal this new, CHRISTMAS version! From choosing where to sleep on Christmas Eve, which Christmas jumper to wear, what gifts you’d like to give and receive, and what job you’d like to do in Santa’s workshop, every page offers infinite possibilities and will trigger hours of festive discussion! Nick Sharratt’s detailed, jolly illustrations are a joy to behold, and this book is sure to become an essential part of every family Christmas!
Join ‘National Treasure’, broadcaster, author, and dog-lover Claire Balding for a canine adventure around Britain as she talks about her new book Isle of Dogs.
Clare Balding has always been fascinated by the impact dogs have on our lives and the way they have shaped Britain across the centuries. In Isle of Dogs, she explores the characteristics of our favourite breeds, why we’re drawn to them and what they bring out in us, from how we work to how we live.
Clare journeys from Battersea to the Orkney Islands meeting dogs and their owners, to explore the many roles dogs fulfil and the history of how they became such an intrinsic part of our lives. She meets people whose everyday survival depends on their dog, and those whose experience of life has been transformed by them. She also explores our long canine history, rediscovering long-lost working breeds and investigating why it was that our relationship with dogs changed during Queen Victoria’s reign.
We are famed as a nation of dog lovers, but do we truly appreciate how much our lives and our history have been shaped by our connection to dogs?
CLARE BALDING is an award-winning writer and broadcaster who has been at the forefront of TV sports presenting since 1998. She has presented the television coverage of Crufts for nearly two decades and presents Lost Dogs Live on Channel 5, which helps reunite missing dogs with their owners. During most of her childhood she thought she was a dog and has tried to live with the mentality of a Labrador puppy: be pleased to see everyone and treat every new task as an exciting adventure. Her first book, My Animals and Other Family, was published in 2012 and won the National Book Award for biography of the year.
EVENT INFORMATION: A SINGLE TICKET IS £22 AND ADMITS 1, INCLUDING A COPY OF ISLE OF DOGS(RRP £22) FOR COLLECTION ON THE NIGHT. COUPLES TICKETS ARE £32 AND ADMIT 2 PEOPLE INCLUDING 1 BOOK FOR COLLECTION ON THE NIGHT.
At the end of Clare’s talk she will meet the audience and sign books. Only copies of the book received on the night can be signed. There will be bar accepting payment by cash & card. DOORS OPEN 6.15pm, TALK STARTS at 7pm
THE DRAMA HALL IS SITUATED AT THE SHOOTING FIELD STEYNING GRAMMAR SCHOOL CAMPUS, POSTCODE BN443RX. Please access via SHOOTING FIELD, NOT from the coach park / leisure centre on the Horsham Road. There is a large car park within the school grounds after you pass through the green gates.
CLICK ABOVE OR HERE TO BE TAKEN TO OUR TICKETING WEBSITE (BOOKING FEE APPLIES) TiCKETS ALSO AVAILABLE IN STORE OR BY TELEPHONING THE BOOKSHOP ON 01903 812062
Meet Julia Donaldson at her local bookshop as she celebrates the release of her wonderful new book The Oak Tree – along with illustrator Victoria Sandoy! This is an amazing opportunity to get a first edition hardback copy, signed by both author AND illustrator. ABOUT THE OAK TREE The Oak Tree charts the life of a majestic oak tree, in rich, dramatic verse, with charming, colourful illustrations.
A thousand years ago, a tiny acorn fell to the ground. As the years pass, it grows and GROWS into an enormous oak tree. As the centuries sweep by, children play games around the tree, it gives food and shelter to a host of animals, from squirrels and badgers to birds and beetles, and a fleeing king even hides inside its hollow trunk! After a thousand years, the ancient tree finally falls in a storm – but a new acorn sprouts, and the cycle of life begins all over again.
Julia and Victoria’s previous book together was The Christmas Pine, the story of the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree – copies of this book will also be on sale for signing. Plus, Julia has 2 other new books out in September – a new ‘Acorn Wood’ story, Dormouse Has a Cold, and the paperback edition of The Baddies, and we’ll have plenty of these on sale, too! ABOUT THE BOOK-SIGNING It is essential to book your place in advance. Your £12.99 ticket includes 1 copy of The Oak Tree, and allows entry to 1 family group (of up to 5 people) to the book-signing.
The book-signing will be split into 40-minute time-slots to reduce queue times, with 25 family groups in each time slot, starting from 2pm. As each time slot fills up, we will open the next session. If you want to purchase multiple book copies – don’t buy multiple tickets please! You’ll have plenty of chance to buy more books on the day of the signing, and Julia will sign AND name-dedicate ALL books either pre-ordered or purchased at The Steyning Bookshop that day! We regret that we will not accept books from home for signing. The book-signing will hopefully take place under cover in the beautiful back garden of the Steyning Bookshop, weather permitting! We will provide fun games and craft activities and free biscuits / juice for children while you wait to meet Julia.
Do give us a ring if you have any questions or if the time-slot is full – we can open up the next one!
Click above or HERE to be taken to The Steyning Bookshop Ticketsouce page, and choose your time-slot to book.
We are delighted to welcome best-selling novelist and master storyteller Sebastian Faulks to Steyning for the very first time, to discuss his latest novel The Seventh Son – his most ambitious novel to date.
The Seventh Son is a gripping literary thriller which examines what it means to be human, by way of surrogacy, ethics, and power.
When a young American academic Talissa Adam offers to carry another woman’s child, she has no idea of the life-changing consequences….Behind the doors of the Parn Institute, a billionaire entrepreneur plans to stretch the boundaries of ethics as never before. Through a series of IVF treatments, which they hope to keep secret, they propose an experiment that will upend the human race as we know it….Seth, the baby, is delivered to hopeful parents Mary and Alaric, but when his differences start to mark him out from his peers, he begins to attract unwanted attention.
Sebastian Faulks is the author of Charlotte Gray, Birdsong, Engleby, Human Traces, and Snow Country, to name but a few of his acclaimed, award-winning novels.
Sebastian will be in conversation with novelist, academic, and creative writing tutor Suzanne Joinson , we will also have a few copies of her novel ‘The Photographer’s Wife’ on sale. Sebastian and Suzanne will be happy to sign books at the end.
APOLOGIES – EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO THE NEW DATE OF TUESDAY 17th OCTOBER!
We are delighted to present an evening with Gelong Thubten, a Buddhist monk and one of the UK’s most influential meditation teachers, in which he’ll explore how we can use meditation and mindfulness to provide new perspectives on life’s challenges.
Gelong Thubten trained at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Scotland for over 30 years, and is now a highly sought-after teacher of meditation and mindfulness techniques. He works with Silicon Valley tech giants, Hollywood stars, the NHS and schoolchildren, and in universities, hospitals and prisons. He was asked by Marvel to train Benedict Cumberbatch and Tilda Swinton in meditation on the set of their film Doctor Strange. He has even delivered keynote speeches for the United Nations, and collaborated with Ruby Wax for her book and theatre show ‘How to be Human’.
Thubten’s new book – AHandbook for Hard Times: A Monk’ s Guide to Fearless Living – explains how we can use meditation to lead a fearless life; one that is rich in compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and courage. Thubten believes that hard times present an opportunity to discover our true strength. By ‘leaning in ’ to our suffering we can re-frame our thinking and arrive at a deeper level of wisdom. Thubten’s previous book, A Monk’s Guide to Happiness, was a Sunday TImes bestseller.
Our evening with Gelong will take place at the Steyning Methodist Church and will include a talk by Gelong and a guided meditation. Those who purchase the book + ticket option will receive their books upon entry. Additional copies of both Thubten’s books will be on sale on the night and Gelong will be happy to sign your books.
Doors open at 7pm and the talk will begin at 7.30pm.
On Wednesday 9th August at 11am join children’s author / illustrator Vicky Woodgate on a tree-tastic journey through the world of forests as she celebrates her new book The Magic of Forests. This will be a fun, informative event for kids aged 5-10 years. Vicky will share lots of amazing forest facts, lead children in a fun draw-along, help them create some leaf art AND make a super duper twig flag! Ticket holders can get £3 off a copy of The Magic of Forests or one of Vicky’s other books in DK’s beautifully-designed MAGIC OF .. series. (RRP £9.99) If the weather is warm this event will take place under shelter in the beautiful bookshop back garden. Accompanying adults do not need to purchase a ticket.
Tickets can be booked online here or in person at the bookshop / by phone on 01903 812062. We prefer if you book in advance as Vicky needs to know numbers for the craft activities.
Join us as we welcome local thriller-writing legend Elly Griffiths for a very special event on the publication day of her new mystery novel The Great Deceiver. The Great Deceiver is the seventh book in Elly’s Brighton Mysteries series, which are set in the 50’s and 60’s and inspired partly by her grandfather’s life on the stage. The Brighton Mysteries are an engaging blend of colourful period detail, sharp plotting and lively, likeable characters, and we can’t wait to discover the next enigma for Max Mephisto the magician to solve! About Elly Griffiths Acclaimed crime author Elly Griffiths worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer. She is best known for her award-winning, chart-topping Dr Ruth Galloway series and The Brighton Mystery series, and has also written 3 standalone novels and a best-selling mystery series for children. Elly Griffiths lives near Brighton with her husband, an archaeologist. She is #18 on the list of most borrowed authors from UK libraries and is a hugely in demand for events, regularly holding audiences spellbound. About The Great Deceiver – published by Quercus Books 24/10/23 Magician Max Mephisto, now divorced and living in London, is on his way to visit daughter Ruby and her newborn baby when he is hailed by a voice from the past, fellow performer Ted English, aka the Great Deceiver. Ted’s assistant, Cherry, has been found dead in her Brighton boarding house and Ted is convinced that he’ll be accused of her murder. The inhabitants of the boarding house, most of whom are performing in an Old Time Music Hall show on Brighton pier, are a motley crew, and a sinister radio personality called Pal is also connected to the boarding house. Max agrees to talk to his friend, Superintendent Edgar Stephens, who is investigating the case. When a second magician’s assistant is killed, Edgar suspects a serial killer. He persuades Max to come out of semi-retirement and take part in a summer show….. But who can pose as his assistant? Edgar shocks the team by recommending someone close .. The venue for this event is the beautiful Church of St Andrew and St Cuthman in Steyning. Disabled access is available.
TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED ONLINE HERE or from the bookshop, in person or by phone on 01903 812062.
We look forward to welcoming historical novelist FRANCES QUINN to Steyning to discuss her latest novel That Bonesetter Woman, a heart-warming, uplifting story with an unforgettable heroine, set in Georgian London, inspired by the true stories of two infamous celebrities of the time. This event will be ‘bookgroup style ‘ – we invite audience members who’ve chosen the ‘book with ticket‘ option to pick up their copy of That Bonesetter Woman from the shop in advance of the evening, and come armed with questions / observations for the author. Our bookgroups will be in attendance and will have read the book so we cannot guarantee No Spoilers!
The£14 Book with Ticket option gives you a £1 saving compared to buying the book on the night.
Copies of both Frances Quinn’s books will be on sale at the event and Frances will be happy to sign & dedicateyour books.
About That Bonesetter Woman All the gossip and grime of Georgian London are vividly brought to life in this warm-hearted historical novel which tells the uplifting story of clumsy, plain Endurance (Durie) Proudfoot, who has inherited her father’s gift for ‘bone-setting’. But her father thinks it’s no job for a woman and Durie is sent to London to chaperone her beautiful, flighty sister Lucinda. While Lucinda dreams of fame and fortune on the stage, Durie sets up a bone-setting practice, quickly ascending to undreamt-of heights and becoming the toast of fashionable society! But what goes up must come down… Will Durie endure? An addictive, joyful read, filled with quirky characters and fascinating historical detail!
About Frances Quinn Frances Quinn grew up in London and read English at King’s College, Cambridge, realising too late that the course would require more than lying around reading novels for three years. After snatching a degree from the jaws of laziness, she became a journalist, writing for magazines including Prima, Good Housekeeping, She, Woman’s Weekly and Ideal Home, and later branched out into copywriting, producing words for everything from Waitrose pizza packaging to the EasyJet in-flight brochure! After completing the Curtis Brown Creative novel writing course, her first novel, The Smallest Man, was published to great acclaim in 2021. That Bonesetter Woman is her second novel. She lives in Brighton, with her husband and two Tonkinese cats.
TICKETS: Click the Ticket link or call us on 01903 812062
*STEYNING BOOKSHOP BOOK GROUP MEMBERS MUST PURCHASE THEIR TICKETS IN STORE OR BY PHONE*
Come and meet Julia Donaldson at our fun book-signing event, as she celebrates her new book JULIA DONALDSON’S BOOK OF NAMES. For many years, at every book-signing, Julia Donaldson has scribbled down any unusual names she encounters – she has been squirrelling them away for years, working on including them all in a book – and finally, here it is! Set in a magical transforming bookshop, The Book of Names is a love-letter to bookshops and young bookworms, with cute, charming illustrations by Nila Aye, an award-winning new illustrator. Julia has seamlessly woven the names together thematically, from months of the year, colours and flowers to food, history, and gemstones… “I’ve signed for boys called Romeo, and girls called Juliet . I’ve signed for Roman, Saxon, Dane – though not for Norman yet…” Young readers will enjoy trying to find their own name, and even if your name isn’t included, there is a special dedicated space to add it, or even better, for Julia to sign! How it Works It is essential to buy a ticket for the book-signing. Each ‘ticket’ entitles entry for the purchaser AND THEIR FAMILY GROUP (up to 5 persons, please specify how many adults / children) and includes 1 copy of Julia Donaldson’s Book of Names, in hardback, which you’ll be able to get signed & named by Julia. The book-signing will be split into 40-minute time-slots to reduce queue times, with 20 family groups in each time slot, starting from 2pm. As each time slot fills up, we will open the next time-slot. If you want to purchase multiple book copies – don’t buy multiple tickets please! You’ll have plenty of chance to buy more books on the day of the signing, and Julia will sign AND name-dedicate ALL books either pre-ordered or purchased at The Steyning Bookshop that day! The book-signing will hopefully take place under cover in the beautiful back garden of the Steyning Bookshop, weather permitting! We will provide fun games and craft activities and free biscuits / juice for children while you wait to meet Julia.
You can book your space via Ticketsource by following the link below. Do give us a ring if you have any questions or if the time-slot is full – we can open up the next one!
