by Gudrun Bowers | 26, Apr 2017
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’.
by Gudrun Bowers | 28, Mar 2017
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.
by Gudrun Bowers | 27, Mar 2017
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
by Gudrun Bowers | 13, Mar 2017
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
by Gudrun Bowers | 14, Feb 2017
On Wednesday 8th March at 7 for 7.30 pm, we are delighted to present an author supper with award-winning crime writer Mick Herron, and Steyning favourite Elly Griffiths.
Mick Herron is the author of the acclaimed Jackson Lamb series, the first of which, the Steel Dagger-nominated SLOW HORSES, appeared in the Daily Telegraph’s list of “the twenty greatest spy novels of all time”. The second in the series, DEAD LIONS, won the 2013 CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, and was picked by the Sunday Times as one of the best 25 crime novels of the past five years. The third novel in the series, REAL TIGERS, garnered rave reviews. Mick was described by the Telegraph as “shaping up to be the great spy novelist of our age”.
He’ll be introducing his newest novel in the series, ‘Spook Street’, an absorbing tale peppered with fascinatingly flawed characters and studded with dark humour. Jackson Lamb is certainly a louche and slightly repellent anti-hero, who specialises in politically incorrect one-liners!
Mick Herron was born in Newcastle but now resides in Oxford.
Elly Griffiths is no stranger to our Sussex Produce author suppers, and readers will be overjoyed to hear there is a new installment (the ninth!) in her series featuring lovable forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway. ‘The Chalk Pit’, set as always in and around Norwich, sees Ruth investigating some ancient boiled bones found in a mysterious network of underground chalk tunnels….do they have any link to the disappearance of a local rough-sleeper?
Elly Griffiths is the pen name of Domenica de Rosa, who has also written 4 Italian themed novels under her own name, and who lives in Brighton with her husband and kids.
Mick and Elly will be in conversation about their writing after we enjoy the delicious 2 course meal provided as part of the ticket price by our fantastic hosts, the Sussex Produce Café.
Ticket price also includes 1 hardback book (a choice of Spook Street or The Chalk Pit ) …how we spoil you!
