The eagerly awaited sequel to the Costa Award winning Days Without End by one of Ireland’s greatest writers and current Irish Laureate.
A Thousand Moons extends the sequence of Barry’s eight novels, which touch each time on the worlds of two families – the Dunnes and the McNultys. In this novel, as in Days Without End, we meet with Thomas McNulty and John Cole, American Civil War soldiers, now a couple, living on a tobacco farm in Tennessee. Their adopted Sioux daughter Winona is the narrator this time, and we follow her journey as she deals with the consequences of a violent act against her. Full of memorable characters and written in Barry’s gorgeous lyrical prose, dreamy yet unflinching when confronted by the darker side of humanity, this is a wonderful book.
Lucia Berlin’s collection of short stories, A Manual for Cleaning Women was published posthumously to great acclaim, and Evening in Paradise is a follow-up selection from Berlin’s remaining stories.
The stories are loosely autobiographical, arranged chronologically to follow the arc of Berlin’s life, and take us from a pair of seven year olds running a scam in El Paso, through the beauty and disillusionment of a young girl’s first romantic liaison, to young wives coping with kids, their husband’s addiction, abandonment, to a furious old woman on the roof of her own house while her family try to celebrate Christmas. Savage, funny, shocking and beautiful, they present some unforgettable images – the iridescent, sulphurous smoke of the smelter in a mining town, the yellow aromo blossom sticking to a couple’s skin – in concise writing that brings the reader up short with its power. The dark thread of alcoholism runs through many of the stories as well as the brighter threads of love, romantic and maternal, and of beauty found in the most unlikely places. Outstanding.
We are thrilled to present a fantastic science event with science writer Dr Michael Brooks and TV presenter/writer Rick Edwards. This entertaining and informative show, based on their hit podcast and upcoming book Science(ish) examines the science behind the movies. Illustrating their theories with film clips from iconic movies, Michael and Rick will ponder whether it’s really possible to bring back an extinct species (Jurassic Park), whether we will ever be able to travel back in time and meet our parents (Back to the Future) and if it is possible that we are, in fact, already living in a computer simulation (The Matrix).
Dr Michael Brooks is an author, journalist and broadcaster, holds a PHD in Quantum Physics and is editor-at-large of the New Scientist, as well as writing a weekly column for the New Statesman. He is the author of At The Edge of Uncertainty, The Secret Anarchy of Science and the bestselling 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense.
Rick Edwards is a TV presenter and writer with a particular interest in mathematics and the natural sciences. As a broadcaster Rick has most recently made a foray in to the world of quizzing as the host of BBC1’s daytime show !mpossible which aired in January 2017 and will return for an extended second run in May this year. Amongst his other numerous presenting credits are: ITV2’s comedy roast Safeword, BBC Three’s live current affairs debate show Free Speech and Channel 4’s Paralympic Breakfast Show. He also writes a monthly fashion column for The Observer, and has made forays into stand-up comedy.
Advance booking highly recommended for this event, as it promises to be fantastic fun and very popular!
Start time is 7.30pm, wine and soft drinks will be on sale, and a reduced price of £7 is available for under 18’s.
Booking is available online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/FDFIGM
or by phoning us on 01903 812062.
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.
