We are very excited about our first fiction author event of 2023 with novelist Sophie Haydock. Sophie’s debut novel The Flames, about the four muses who posed for the artist Egon Schiele in Vienna in the early 1900’s, won the Impress Prize for New Writers and has received widespread critical acclaim. This will be an ‘open book group’ style event – the ticket price includes a paperback copy of ‘The Flames’ and we encourage members of the public to pop into the shop to claim their free book PRIOR to the event, and come primed with questions / observations for the author! There will be lots to talk about as Sophie opens up about her research into the elusive, provocative figure of Schiele, his real-life muses, how they relate to her fictionalised creations, not to mention all the bohemian glamour of Secessionist Vienna!
About The Flames Vienna, 1912. Behind every painting, there is a story… Vienna is at its zenith, an opulent, extravagant city teeming with art, music and radical ideas. It is a place where anything seems possible… Edith and Adele are sisters, the daughters of a wealthy bourgeois family. They are expected to follow the rules, to marry well, and produce children. Gertrude is in thrall to her flamboyant older brother. Marked by a traumatic childhood, she envies the freedom he so readily commands. Vally was born into poverty but is making her way in the world as a model for the eminent artist Gustav Klimt. Fierce, passionate and determined, none of these women is quite what they seem. But their lives are set on a collision course when they become entangled with the controversial young artist Egon Schiele whose work – and private life – are sending shockwaves through Viennese society. All it will take is a single act of betrayal to set their world on fire…
Event Details
Doors Open at 7:00PM Starts at 7:30PM
Steyning Bookshop Book Group Members £10 (Must be purchased via the shop) (includes your copy of The Flames)
Public tickets £13 includes a copy of The Flames in paperback, please let the bookshop know whether you’d like to collect the book to read before the event or will be picking it up it on the night. Call 01903 812062 or email info:steyningbookshop.co.uk . Ticket price includes a glass of something upon arrival.
Steyning resident, historian, and writer David Boyle is the author of numerous books on a huge range of subjects – from history and economics, through alternative currencies, grass-roots politics and parenting in the computer age, to allotments and fairies!
We are thrilled that David has agreed to introduce his latest book, TickBox, at an evening event at the lovely Gluck Studio on Thursday 30th January. 7.30pm.
Tickbox is a powerful expose of modern ‘Tickbox’ culture – that is; official or corporate incompetence, whereby a company / organisation will ‘tick the box’ but fail to act. It is increasingly used to describe the gap between official spin and reality.
In the book, David uncovers the insidious philosophy of automation and the misuse of data which lies behind this tickbox culture. It makes our public services less effective – and makes them soar in costs – it lies behind so many stark injustices and disasters, from Grenfell Tower to the deportation of the Windrush generation. It vacuums up the resources of the NHS pursuing pointless targets, badgers us to evaluate every purchase or experience, and consumes vast swathes of TIME!
Always arguing for the human spirit against technocratic reductionism, David suggests a series of ways out – starting with recognising the danger and calling it out for what it is – a massive system failure, corroding our lives and our ability, as human beings, to act on the world!
Come and hear all about ‘TickBox’ distilled into an hour-long talk, with free wine & refreshments.
Ticket Price £5. Ticket bearers entitled to £5 off book.
Thursday 28th June at 7.30pm – Rescheduled from the Steyning Festival event on June 8th. Original tickets still valid.
An amazing opportunity to meet Salley Vickers, author of the highly acclaimed Miss Garnett’s Angel, and The Cleaner of Chartres, in conversation about her wonderful new novel, The Librarian.
Salley Vickers’ writing is filled with subtle wit and lucid observations of human nature and has been compared to Penelope Fitzgerald and Barbara Pym. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a cleaner, a dancer, a teacher of children with special needs, a university lecturer specialising in Shakespeare, and a psychoanalyst.
Salley will be interviewed by Sara Bowers, the owner of The Steyning Bookshop.
The ticket price of £12 includes wine/soft drink, nibbles, and £5 voucher towards purchase of a book.
‘Salley Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand. She’s a presence worth cherishing’ Philip Pullman.
‘Vickers is a novelist in the great English tradition of moral seriousness. Her characters suffer, they struggle to be true to both themselves and the promptings of the human heart. If you enjoy reading the work of Marilynne Robinson, Penelope Fitzgerald and James Salter you should be reading Vickers.’ MICHAEL DIRDA Washington Post
Upcoming events
Julia Donaldson Book-Signing for The Tooth Fairy & The Crocodile
