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!
We are SO EXCITED to have bagged author, broadcaster and zoologist Lucy Cooke for what will be a FASCINATING evening as she discusses her brilliant book BITCH.
BITCH will change how you think about sex, sexual identity and sexuality in animals and also the very forces that shape evolution. What does it mean to be female? Mother, carer, the weaker sex? Think again. In the last few decades a revolution has been brewing in zoology and evolutionary biology… Lucy Cooke will introduce us to a riotous cast of animals, and the scientists studying them, that are redefining the female of the species…. From the female lemurs of Madagascar, our ancient primate cousins that dominate the males of their species physically and politically, to female albatross couples, hooking up together to raise their chicks in Hawaii. How about the meerkat mothers of the Kalahari Desert – the most murderous mammals on the planet? The bitches in BITCH overturn outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour. TICKET PRICE of £12 includes a paperback copy of Bitch, a glass of something upon entry, and all the revolutionary de-bunking of gender stereotypes you need!
ABOUT LUCY COOKE
Lucy studied zoology under Richard Dawkins at New College, Oxford where she specialised in evolution and animal behaviour. She left academia to become an award-winning writer, producer and presenter of documentaries for both TV and radio. Lucy is also the author of four books, which have been translated into over 20 languages, and a columnist for BBC Wildlife magazine. She is, at heart, a story-teller with a reputation for mixing rigorous cutting-edge science, in-depth investigation and a wry sense of humour to reveal surprising truths about the natural world.
Tickets available from the bookshop, by phone on 01903 812062 or online via Ticketsource, click below.
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.
