Join writer, vinyl collector and music buff Jonathan Scott as he takes us on a journey to the very beginnings of recorded sound, to celebrate the release of his new book Into the Groove: The Story of Sound from Tinfoil to Vinyl.. We are really excited about this fascinating music/science blend event, which will hopefully answer that eternal question “Just HOW can discs of bumpy plastic capture sound?” Into the Groove follows the grooves from the first capture of airborne sounds, to steampunk synthesisers, from Thomas Edison’s eureka, to first-wave turntablists, from tin-foil to gold, from cylinder to disc, from swinging shellac to victorious vinyl…
Jonathan’s talk will take us on a whistle-stop tour of his fascinating findings, including audio of the earliest sounds – from the first live performance to the first F-bomb! This is vinyl’s origin story, a format repeatedly written off, threatened by radio, tape, compact disc and download, only to endure and come back stronger. A story which starts in 1877 with grooves of tin foil in a workshop in New Jersey, and ends a century later as the format goes interstellar.
An illustrated talk with slides & audio. Complimentary wine / soft drinks will be served. Doors open 7pm, event starts 7.30pm We regret that the venue is not wheel-chair accessible.
Join the fabulous Sophy Henn for an afternoon of DEADLY fun, as we peek inside an alligator’s jaws, investigate why a lion’s tongue is so dangerous, and learn about the world’s ONLY poisonous primate! *With animal draw-along at the end! This fun, interactive event is based on Sophy’s brand new bookLIFESIZE DEADLY ANIMALS,a fact-filled picture book that’s FULL of the world’s DEADLIEST creatures! Ticket gives £4 off one of Sophy Henn’s LIFESIZE books. AGE GUIDE: for children aged 5-9. FAQS: This event will take place in the bookshop back kitchen, so space in limited, therefore we are only issuing 20 tickets. Accompanying adults do not need to purchase a ticket, but as space is very tight, please keep number of adults / baby siblings to a minimum! Parents of children over 7yrs are welcome to drop n go. The event will last 1 hour.
We are delighted to welcome veteran broadcaster Edward Stourton back to Steyning, for an enlightening evening in conversation with guest interviewer Richard Burge, discussing Ed’s new memoir Confessions.
Edward Stourton has worked in broadcasting for over forty years, and regularly presents BBC Radio Four programmes such as The World at One, The World This Weekend, Sunday and Analysis. He has been a foreign correspondent for Channel Four, ITN and the BBC, and for ten years he was one of the main presenters of the Today programme.
Confessions is a fascinating read, describing the “awokening”, as Stourton puts it, of someone born to privilege who has begun to question the assumptions of his class. Ed was born to wealthy, upper-class expat parents, in colonial Nigeria. He was sent back to Britain to be educated first at Ampleforth, and then at Cambridge University. As a young journalist he reported first from party conferences and picket lines and then from war zones, witnessing international headline-making events, from Haiti to Hong Kong, before returning home to present the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
During this time, the Empire has given way to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, men-only clubs have been replaced by Me Too, and instead of a choice selection of voices on a handful of radio and television channels, we have millions of voices on YouTube, Instagram, Tik Tok. The world has changed, and so has Ed.
We know that guest interviewer Richard Burge (ex Head of Wilton Park, now CE of London Chamber of Commerce) will do a marvellous job of drawing out the most thrilling anecdotes from Ed’s remarkable life.
Wine & soft drinks will be served. The historic Brotherhood Hall venue is accessed by a staircase, we regret there is no disabled access.
Join us for a convivial, cosy evening at the Bookshop, celebrating the launch of local historian Chris Hare’s new book Hilaire Belloc – The Politics of Living, on Thursday 8th December at 7.30pm. Wine & nibbles will be served, and Chris will give a talk about his insights into the life and work of the controversial figure.
Hilaire Belloc was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century, who grew up in Slindon in West Sussex, and is buried in the Catholic church at West Grinstead. He is famous for his poetry and song celebrating the Sussex countryside, but was also an orator, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. Chris Hare – a lifelong Belloc reader – takes a fresh look at Belloc’s career and his attitudes towards religion, politics, war, nature, and mortality, as well as examining claims made alleging Belloc to be anti-Semitic.
Chris Hare runs his own heritage consultancy, History People, and has written extensively on the history of Sussex, its folk music, and Worthing, his home town, in particular. Chris has an MA in Life History from the University of Sussex.
Join us for an evening with GREG MOSSE as he discusses his debut novel The Coming Darkness – in conversation with his wife, best-selling novelist KATE MOSSE. The Coming Darkness is a gripping eco-thriller, set in an eerily prescient, not-too-distant future, which is already being hailed as a successor to Terry Hayes’ I Am Pilgrim. About the Evening We are thrilled that Kate Mosse, best-selling author of Labyrinth, Citadel, City of Tears and many more, will be interviewing Greg. There will also be an audience Q & A and both Greg and Kate will sign books at the end. Tickets are £16.00 (admits one, includes signed hardback copy of The Coming Darkness) or £7 (admits one, no book – but ticket can be redeemed against a purchase of The Coming Darkness on the night). Copies of Kate Mosse’s recent books will also be on sale. This will be a ‘book-group’ style event where members of the public are warmly invited to join our 3 book groups, who will have read the book, but we promise – no spoilers! About Greg Mosse Greg Mosse is a creative writing tutor, playwright, and the founder and leader of the Criterion New Writing script development programme at the Criterion Theatre, London. Since 2015, he has written and produced 25 plays and musicals, often in collaboration. He created the Southbank Centre Creative Writing School – an open access program of evening classes, delivering MA level workshops, and also wrote and validated the MA Creative Writing that he taught for four years for the University of Sussex at West Dean College. The Coming Darkness is his first published novel. About The Coming Darkness Paris, 2037. Global warming and pandemics have torn through the fabric of society. Alexandre Lamarque of the French external security service has lost faith in his job – hunting eco-terrorists, and is ready to give up. But he is drawn back in by an ominous sequence of events: a theft from a Norwegian genetics lab; a string of gory child murders; his mother’s illness; a chaotic coup in a breakaway North African republic… He rapidly finds himself in a heart-thumping race against chaos and destruction, the one man with the ability to see through to the deranged intelligence that is plunging the world headlong into ..the coming darkness.
Join us on Sunday 20th November, from 2pm, for a very special book-signing with Julia Donaldson as she celebrates TWO lovely new picture books; the stunning Colours, Colours Everywhere, beautifully illustrated by Sharon King-Chai, and the long awaited return of everyone’s favourite little ladybird in What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas, charmingly illustrated by Lydia Monks.
How it Works The book-signing will be split into 40-minute time-slots to reduce queue times. Each single ‘ticket’ admits ONE FAMILY GROUP of up to 5 persons (please specify how many adults / children). A £12.99 ticket includes a copy of What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas, a £14.99 ticket includes a copy of Colours, Colours Everywhere, and a £27.98 ticket includes both books. You can buy additional copies at the bookshop on the day. If you want to purchase multiple 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 will provide fun activities and free biscuits / juice for children while you wait to meet Julia. We are sorry, but Julia will not sign books purchased elsewhere or brought from home.
About the Books Colours, Colours Everywhere is Julia’s third book with the talented illustrator Sharon King-Chai, following the stunning Animalphabet and Counting Creatures. In lyrical rhyme, follow the adventures of a little girl and her tree frog friend as they discover a world of colours, sumptuously illustrated with fold-out pages and peep-through cut-outs. What the Ladybird Heard at Christmas is the fifth book in Julia Donaldson & Lydia Monks’ best-selling What the Ladybird Heard series, and sees the plucky little ladybird once again foiling the dastardly plans of those baddies, Hefty Hugh and Lofty Len as they plot to steal the children’s Christmas presents from their stockings! A lively rhyming story with vibrant illustrations.
To celebrate release of the book The Repair Shop: Life in the Barn, Kirsten Ramsay,ceramics expert from the smash hit BBC TV show will be joining us for a very special event. Hear how Kirsten developed her craft and her most memorable restorations to date, and dive behind the scenes of the show to reveal the inside stories from guests and presenters. Also – you may bring interesting / unusual ceramic items for Kirsten to examine – but not repair! Evening format: Interview ‘in conversation’ with Kirsten Ramsay, Audience Q and A, book-signing. Complimentary tea, cake and soft drinks will be served.
Join us for an evening with best-selling thriller writer Peter James, as he celebrates the release of his latest thriller, Picture You Dead – the 19th book in his well-loved DS Roy Grace series – now a hit ITV series starring John Simms as Grace. Picture You Dead finds Roy Grace plunging into the rarified world of fine art, pitting his wits against a deadly collector who’ll stop at nothing to get his hands on the rare landscape painting that Harry and Freya Kipling discovered hidden beneath a drab portrait they purchased at a car boot sale. Beneath the gentlemanly veneer, this is a world of greed, deception and violence… We are so excited to welcome Peter James back to Steyning, and can’t wait to hear all his intriguing research and inspiration from the cloak-and-dagger world of international art dealing! Event tickets are £20 per person which includes a hardback copy of Picture You Dead, or £27 for a couple, to include one copy of the book. Enjoy a complimentary glass of wine / soft drink upon arrival, and of course, the chance to get your copy personally signed & dedicated by Peter after his talk! Peter’s backlist titles will also be on sale and available for signing at the event, payment by cash / card will be accepted.Peter will not have time to sign books purchased elsewhere or brought from home.
A mesmerising, hard-hitting and heart-wrenching historical novel, based on a real shipwreck in 1629, which interweaves the parallel stories of two unforgettable child narrators, 350 years apart. The Night Ship of the title is the Dutch merchant vessel Batavia, which set sail to the Spice Islands (present-day Indonesia) in 1628. Aboard are over 300 souls: sailors, soldiers, merchants, wives & children, including our narrator, 9-year-old Mayken, travelling with her beloved nurse-maid Imke to join her father on his Batavian estate, following the death of her mother in Holland. Feisty Mayken soon wins the hearts of all on board, both above and below deck. As the months of gruelling sailing tick by, conditions deteriorate in the sweltering heat, and Imke becomes gravely ill. Mayken becomes convinced that a monster, the Bullebak, has bitten Imke, and is still lurking aboard, and her investigations below deck also reveal simmering tensions and mutinous intentions amongst the crew. When the Batavia runs aground and is wrecked on a coral reef, Mayken is amongst the survivors who eke out a living on a tiny island, but the horror is just beginning… 350 years later, in 1989, this same island has become the home of a small community of Australian crayfisherman, living roughly in beachfront shacks. 9-year-old Gil has just arrived on the island, sent to stay with his reclusive grandfather Joss, after the death of his mother. Gil becomes fascinated by local folklore about the little ghost-girl May, and ancient Aboriginal legends about the monster Bunyip, and here lie the stitches that weave the two stories delicately together. Gil’s unconventional ways and dark past do not endear him to the islanders, who already have a bitter feud against his surly grandfather, and tensions begin to escalate, until the island erupts in violence, echoing the horrors of its history. The Night Ship is a jaw-dropping story about the beauty and horror of human nature, rendered in exquisite prose, and Gil and Mayken will stay with you forever!
Come and meet Julia Donaldson at a special book-signing to celebrate the release of her 2 brilliant new books, The Baddies and Rock a Bye Rumpus, with special guest THE GRUFFALO!
Saturday 17th September, timed slots from 2pm. How it Works:
Your ticket to the signing admits 1 FAMILY GROUP of up to 5 people, and includes EITHER: 1 copy of The Baddies (£12.99 ticket), 1 copy of Rock a Bye Rumpus (£14.99 ticket) or BOTH books (£27.98 ticket).
You will receive your book/s when you arrive at your allotted time, and will have the opportunity to buy additional books before you go to meet Julia. Julia will sign all books purchased at the Steyning Bookshop.
Each family will have a couple of minutes with Julia. Photographs are permitted.
There will be free refreshments and activities for children while you wait.
You do NOT need to book more than one ticket if you want multiple copies.
You will be able to purchase additional copies of both new books AND all Julia’s other books from the Steyning Bookshop on the day of the signing, or if you prefer to pre-order additional books please phone the shop on 01903 812062 or shop via our website here selecting LOCAL PICKUP as your delivery option, and adding in the ORDER NOTES that you’ll be collecting it at the signing.
We are sorry, but we cannot allow customers to bring books from home for signing by Julia.
The signing may take place in the bookshop garden if the weather is fine.
THE SIGNING IS NOW SOLD OUT. PLEASE CALL US ON 01903 812062 IF YOU WISH TO CHANGE YOUR BOOKING OR ASK ABOUT A PLACE ON THE WAITING LIST FOR TICKET RETURNS.
