Robin Bayley – The Mango Orchard

FREE – (booking required)

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As a boy, Robin Bayley loved the stories of his great-grandfather’s Latin American adventures but there was something in these family tales that he felt was missing: the truth. Following in his ancestor’s footsteps, he sets out to discover the real story.

‘A magical Mexican adventure’  The Independent

Vampirates!

£5 full / £4 child. / £15 Family*

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A swash-buckling, fang-baring adventure story, based on the award-winning novels by Justin Somper.
Twins Grace and Connor Tempest are evicted from their lighthouse home, and separated by a violent storm. Rescued by a notorious pirate ship, the adventure begins!

Age 9+ (*2 adults & 2 Children under 12)

Thomas Penn – Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England

£6 full / £5 conc. / £4 Friends

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Whilst studying English at Oxford University, Thomas Penn first encountered the strange, seductive world of Henry VII through the Tudor poet John Skelton. Having gained a PhD in early Tudor history from Cambridge University in 2001, he moved to London, where he works in publishing and remains immersed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.
Winter King is his first book.

Professor Michael Slater – Dickens’s “picturesque story”:
The writing of A Tale of Two Cities – Festival Read Event

£6 full / £5 conc. / £4 Friends

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Professor Michael Slater, Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck, University of London and Past President of the International Dickens Fellowship will explore the origins of this most intensely dramatic of all Dickens’s novels. Focusing on the author’s own personal turmoil at the time of writing, and delving into his deep-rooted obsession with prisons and prisoners, his long-standing, passionate admiration for Carlyle’s The French Revolution, the ‘attraction of repulsion’ he felt for anarchic mobs, and a love of France that once moved him to sign a letter ‘Charles Dickens, citoyen français’.

Professor Slater will be signing copies of his latest biography ‘Charles Dickens’.

Wendy Cope – Family Values

£8 full / £7 conc. / £6 Friends

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Award winning poet Wendy Cope’s new collection Family Values contains poems about her childhood, many of them rather sad and unhappy…she wouldn’t want anyone to think she was advocating family values as the politicians do. Wendy charms and amuses her audience with her wry, ironic poetry. At times sharp and punchy, at times soft and contemplative,
These new poems will be read alongside a selection of favourites from her previous bestselling collection Two Cures For Love.

£15 full / £12.50 Friends

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Following three sell out shows at the Edinburgh Festival, a successful UK tour and 9 glorious years as House Band for the BAFTA award winning Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC1, the fabulous foursome are raring to go and delighted to present their Edinburgh smash Smoke and Mirrorballs.

Nigel Cawthorne – The Beastly Battles of Old England

£6 full / £5 conc. / £4 Friends

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Nigel Cawthorne, author of the bestselling Sex Lives of… series, has penned over eighty books. 

The Beastly Battles of Old England, an unflinching look at the gorier side of English history, is the latest in Cawthorne’s bestselling Old England series, which includes The Strange Laws of Old England, The Curious Cures of Old England and The Sex Secrets of Old England. 

Ed Stafford – Walking the Amazon
860 Days. The Impossible Task. The Incredible Journey
In conversation with Peter Guttridge

£6 full / £5 conc. / £4 Friends

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In April 2008, Ed Stafford began his attempt to become the first man ever to walk the entire length of the River Amazon. In this special event Ed joins us with a fascinating account of a world-first expedition that will take the audience on the most daring journey along the world’s greatest river and through the most bio-diverse habitat on Earth.

Author Event – Joe Dunthorne

£3

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Best selling author Joe Dunthorne talks about the transition of his first novel, Submarine into a successful film. He will also be discussing his new novel, Wild Abandon.

Francine Stock – In Glorious Technicolor: A Century in Film

£7 full / £6 conc. / £5 Friends

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In this fascinatng, entertaining and illuminating book, television and radio presenter Francine Stock takes us on a personal journey through a glorious century of cinema, showing in vivid detail how film both reflects and makes our world.