An Evening with Juliet West
We are delighted to welcome novelist Juliet West to the bookshop for an intimate evening as part of our celebrations for Independent Bookseller’s Week 2017. Weds 28th June at 7.30pm.
Juliet will introduce her new novel ‘The Faithful’, a rich and gripping tale of deception and desire, set against the very well-researched historical background of Sussex in the 1930’s. Tensions mount in the seaside Sussex village of Aldwick as Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts arrive to set up camp, and local girl Hazel finds herself torn between friendship and desire. Secrets and betrayals take the story to London, the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War and beyond. It will be fascinating to hear Juliet share her passion for history – her best-selling first novel ‘Before The Fall’ was also inspired by a true story, set in the First World War.
Juliet lives near Chichester and both her novels are published by Pan Macmillan.
Tickets are £7 to include wine/soft drinks and a voucher towards Juliet’s new book ‘The Faithful’.
A272, An Ode to a Road – An Illustrated Talk with Pieter and Rita Boogaart
You may love or hate the A272, a 99 mile stretch of road winding between Hadlow Down and Winchester, but we, like many locals, have long been baffled as to why a Dutch couple decided to write a book about it!
‘A272 An Ode to a Road’ has been an unlikely bestseller for Pieter and Rita Boogaart. Tonight is your chance to find out the romantic story behind their long-standing obsession with the road, as well as to hear fascinating insights about the buildings, landscape and landmarks you might encounter if you journeyed the whole stretch. Pieter and Rita will illustrate their talk with a Powerpoint presentation, and will take questions at the end.
Ticket price includes a voucher towards purchase of the book, and wine, soft drinks and nibbles will be provided.
The venue is the Gluck Studio, a lovely converted artist’s studio with beautiful gardens, just off Church St in Steyning.
An Evening with Peter James
Need You Dead
We are delighted that best-selling thriller writer Peter James is once again coming to Steyning, celebrating the release of ‘Need You Dead’, the thirteenth novel in his hugely popular ‘Roy Grace’ series.
In ‘Need You Dead’ D.I Inspector Roy Grace faces his most mysterious case yet, when he is called to investigate the body of a woman found in a bath in Brighton. Unfortunately for Grace, what initially appears to be an easy, open-and-shut case soon becomes a labyrinth of sinister possibilities….
Peter is always an immensely entertaining speaker and we can’t wait to hear the grisly details and amusing anecdotes behind his latest work!
Ticket price of £15 INCLUDES a hardback copy of ‘Need You Dead’.
Tickets available direct from the shop or from TicketSource https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/355194
Drinks will be on sale from a licensed bar before and after the event.
Doors open at 7 pm, talk starts at 7.30 pm.
We will have the full range of Peter’s other books on sale, and Peter is always happy to sign books at the end of the event.
An Evening with Scarlett Thomas
Wednesday 3rd March 7.30pm.
We are very excited to announce that we have managed to bag novelist Scarlett Thomas for an intimate evening event at the bookshop! Scarlett will be in West Sussex promoting her brilliant new children’s book, ‘Dragon’s Green’ but we’ve persuaded her to stay for the evening to talk to her grown up fans.
Scarlett Thomas is the author of 9 novels, including ‘The Seed Collectors’, ‘Our Tragic Universe’, ‘The End of Mr Y’, ‘PopCo’, ‘Going Out’ and ‘Bright Young Things’, all of which are firm favourites here at the Steyning Bookshop! She has also published short stories, non-fiction and journalism, and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Kent.
Scarlett’s novels are unique and genre-defying – she excels at creating smart, geeky, relatable characters who struggle with finding their place in the world, and her social observation is deft and spiked with sharp and sometimes filthy humour. What really characterises Scarlet’s novels though is the breadth and wondrous tangle of her narratives – she will weave in subjects as diverse as alternate dimensions, ethnobotany, code-breaking, literary theory, and knitting, all the while considering corporate control, the nature of consciousness, veganism, post-capitalism, faith, science, love and death….. So expect an illuminating evening from one of the UK’s most exciting writers!
We are very fortunate to have Scarlett appearing at our little shop, as she does not do many events, so please make sure you book early as places are limited.
Ticket price includes wine and nibbles. All Scarlett’s 6 novels currently in print will be on sale, as well as her new children’s book – this event is not for kids though.
Your ticket will give you £5 off the price of 1 book.
The Seed Collectors
The End of Mr Y
PopCo
Dragons Green
An Author Supper with Richard Fortey
On Thursday 4th May at 7 for 7.30pm we are thrilled to present a very special author supper with natural historian, writer, palaeontologist and TV presenter Richard Fortey.
Richard will be talking about his book ‘The Wood for the Trees’ which tells the story of the four acre beech and bluebell wood, nestled deep in the Chiltern Hills, which he purchased after retiring from his position as senior palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum. What began as an ‘escape into the open air’ after a lifetime locked away in dusty museums, became a deep analysis of the wood, its inhabitants, and its history, through diverse moods and changing seasons. Fortey’s remarkable scientific knowledge, intense curiosity and deep love of nature bring the habitat to life, from the flint substrate, the dormice, woodpeckers and deer, the mosses and liverworts, and the 300 species of fungi, to its role through human history.
Richard Fortey has published numerous popular science books, including ‘Fossils: The Key to the Past’, ‘The Hidden Landscape’, ‘Life: An Unauthorised Biography’, ‘A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth’, ‘Trilobite!: Eyewitness to Evolution’, ‘The Earth: An Intimate History’, and ‘Survivors:The Animals and Plants that Time has Left Behind’.
He has also presented the BBC 4 series ‘Survivors: Nature’s Indestructible Creatures’ and ‘Fossil Wonderlands: Nature’s Hidden Treasures’, as well as individual BBC 4 programmes about fungi, islands and rock pools. And alongside all of this, he had a long career at the Natural History Museum as a palaeontologist, studying trilobites and graptolites.
Tickets at £28 include a delicious 2 course meal, a copy of ‘The Wood for the Trees’ in paperback, and of course, a fascinating talk, plus a chance to pose the palaeontological/ natural history question of your choice to one of the world’s most eminent natural historians!
The Wood for the Trees
Dry Store Room No 1
Survivors
Pony Tails with Susan Jameson
On Tuesday 11th April at 2.30 come and meet author and actress Susan Jameson for pony stories and horsey fun!
Susan is very well known as an actress, and has starred in many popular TV programmes, including the BBC crime drama ‘New Tricks’, ‘Midsommer Murders’, ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘When the Boat Comes In’. She is more familiar to younger viewers for her role as Great Aunt Loretta in the children’s BBC TV show ‘Grandpa In My Pocket’. She has also dabbled in screen writing, including writing three episodes for the famed children’s series The Hoobs.
Now Susan has written her first novel for children, ‘Pony Tails’, the story of 4 amazing ponies; A Connemara, a Shetland, a Welsh Cob, and an Exmoor, and the people whose lives they changed. The book is loosely based on ponies that Susan and her husband, the actor James Bolam, have rescued over the years. ‘Pony Tails’ is published by Forelock Books, a new publisher dedicated to publishing equestrian titles.
Susan will share her pony stories, and talk to children about animals, acting and writing.
Suitable for ages 8-11 years.
Free refreshments will be served, ticket price gives the bearer £3 off a Forelocks Books pony book.
Pony Tails
Double Signing – Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury
We are dizzy with excitement at the prospect of having 2 legends of children’s literature in our shop at once!
At 12 midday on Saturday 8th April Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury will be at the shop to sign copies of their beautiful new picture book collaboration, ‘The Giant Jumperee’ (published by Puffin, hardback £12.99).
Helen Oxenbury is the hugely talented illustrator of ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’, but she has a host of other wonderful books to her name, which we will also have on sale, as well as a big selection of Julia’s previous books.
There will be free refreshments and children’s activities for queuing customers in our back garden marquee.
This is a signing event, not a talk or show, so we won’t be selling tickets – just turn up! The shop will be open from 9.30 am for those who wish to beat the ‘buying’ queue, and all early-bird customers who wish to attend the signing later will be given a numbered ticket to help reduce queue time for the signing. Signing will begin at 12 sharp and continue until everyone’s books are signed – barring disaster or repetitive strain injury!
If you are not able to attend you can pre-order a copy of ‘The Giant Jumperee’ via our website shop or by phoning us on 01903 812062.
Helen Oxenbury
An Evening with Alison MacLeod
We are very excited to welcome novelist, short-story writer and essayist Alison MacLeod to Steyning for the first time. She will speak at The Gluck Studio in Steyning at 7.30 pm on Thursday 30th March.
Alison is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at Chichester University and is a novelist, short story writer and essayist. Her novel The Unexploded was long-listed for the 2013 Man-Booker Prize and selected as one of The Observer’s ‘Books of the Year’. Her latest book is a wonderful short story collection, showing her at the height of her storytelling powers, taking us into history, literature and the hidden lives of iconic figures……In 1920s Nova Scotia, as winter begins to thaw, a woman emerges from mourning and wears a new fur coat to a dance that will change everything. A teenager searches for his lover on a charged summer evening in 2011, as around him London erupts in anger.
A cardiac specialist lingers on the edge of consciousness as he awaits a new heart – and is transported to an attic room half a century ago. In an ancient Yorkshire churchyard, the author visits Sylvia Plath’s grave and makes an unexpected connection across time. On a trip to Brighton, reluctant jihadists face the ultimate spiritual test, and at Charleston, Angelica Garnett, child of the Bloomsbury Group, is overcome by the past, all the beloved ghosts that spring to life before her eyes.
“These exquisitely crafted stories explore memory, the media and mortality, unfolding at the line between reality and fiction. Written with vigorous intelligence and delicate insight, this collection captures the surprising joys, small tragedies and profound truths of existence.” Bloomsbury Publishing
Alison will be interviewed by Zoe Gilbert, who is a perfect choice for this role. Zoe is the winner of the Costa Short Story Award 2014 and her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals. She is working on a PhD in Fiction and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, focusing on the influence of folk tales on contemporary short stories and Bloomsbury will be publishing an anthology of her work in 2018. She chairs the Short Story Critique Group at Waterstones Piccadilly and co-hosts the Short Story Club at the Word Factory. She is also the co-founder of London Lit Lab, providing creative writing courses for Londoners.
Tickets, priced £10, include a glass of wine and a £5 voucher towards any purchase of ‘All the Beloved Ghosts’
Tickets available from the shop!
All the Beloved Ghosts
Creative Writing Workshop with Helen Peters
2.30 pm on Tuesday 21st February.
A fun half-term workshop for budding writers aged 7-12 with brilliant children’s writer Helen Peters.
Helen is the author of 2 of our favourite children’s novels, the charming ‘Secret Henhouse Theatre’ and its exciting follow up ‘The Farm Beneath the Water’, as well as a new series of animal stories for younger readers, beginning with the very sweet story ‘A Piglet called Truffles’ and the soon-to-be-released ‘A Duckling called Button’, all published by Nosy Crow.
Helen will help children to create their own stories providing top tips on creating lovable characters and gripping storylines.
Free refreshments will be provided.
Ticket entitles bearer to money off one of Helen’s great books.
Upcoming events
Christmas Crafting Workshop – Make an Xmas Decoration from Upcycled Books
18th December, 2025, Steyning Bookshop