by Gudrun Bowers | 30, Apr 2024
Guardian journalist and nature writer PATRICK BARKHAM will discuss his book The Swimmer, about the life of Roger Deakin.
Roger Deakin wrote the nature writing classics, Waterlog and Wildwood. But he was also a maverick ad-man, a seller of stripped-pine furniture, an inspirational teacher, filmmaker, music promoter and eco-warrior. Today, he lives on as the patron saint of wild swimming.
Patrick brings this great romantic alive in an illustrated talk, and tell stories of Roger and his generation – perhaps the luckiest and most distinctive that ever lived.
About Patrick Barkham
Patrick Barkham is OUR FAVOURITE nature writer and has been to Steyning on a number of occasions – his talks are always highly informative and he is a lovely chap! Patrick is Natural History Writer for The Guardian and the award-winning author of many brilliant non-fiction books including The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, Coastlines, Islander and Wild Child. He lives in Norfolk with his family.
The event will be held at Steyning Methodist Church, teas & coffees will be on offer from the church volunteers (small cash donation appreciated). Doors open 7pm, talk starts at 7.30pm.
Tickets from the shop, by phone on 01903 812062 or click below to book online (small booking fee applies)
by Gudrun Bowers | 18, Apr 2024
Join JULIA DONALDSON for a very special book-signing to celebrate the release of her brand new book The Tooth Fairy & The Crocodile, her latest book with superstar illustrator LYDIA MONKS. The Tooth Fairy and the Crocodile tells the tale of Ruth Mary the tooth fairy, who gets more than she bargained for when she collects the teeth of some jungle animals, including a less-than-friendly crocodile!
ABOUT THE BOOK SIGNING
PLEASE BOOK IN ADVANCE – 1 ticket per family group
Your £12.99 ticket includes 1 hardback copy of The Tooth Fairy & The Crocodile, and allows entry of one family group (of up to 5 people) to the book-signing. You’ll be able to purchase more copies of the new book and all Julia’s previous books on the day, from the Steyning Bookshop. Julia will sign AND name-dedicate ALL books either pre-ordered or purchased at The Steyning Bookshop that day! We regret that we will not accept books from home or books purchased elsewhere for signing.
The book-signing begins at 2pm and is split into 40-minute time-slots to reduce queue times, with 25 family groups in each time slot, starting from 2pm. As each time slot fills up, we will start ticket sales for the next time slot. Feel free to call us for more info!
The signing will take place mainly outdoors, under cover in the beautiful back garden of the Steyning Bookshop, Julia’s local bookshop.
There will be activities, music & refreshments for children while you wait to meet Julia.
Book online via our TICKETSOURCE page via the button below, or by phone on 01903 812062.
by Gudrun Bowers | 13, Apr 2024
Join us as we celebrate Independent Bookshop Week and our 40th year in business with a fabulous crime-writers event!
A star-studded evening with best-selling cosy crime writer REVEREND RICHARD COLES and master thriller-writer ELLY GRIFFITHS in conversation, chaired by fellow crime-writer WILLAM SHAW.
The Reverend Richard Coles will be celebrating the release of Murder at the Monastery, the 3rd book in his best-selling Canon Clement Mystery series, published on 6th June. Murder at the Monastery sees Canon Daniel Clement taking respite at the monastery where he was a novice, only for a suspicious death to occur… As dark secrets unfold, can Daniel solve the mystery at the monastery without the help of Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo?
Elly Griffiths will be celebrating the release of The Man in Black & Other Stories, a collection of short stories featuring all her best-loved characters including Dr Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson, Max Mephisto, Detective Harbinder Kaur alongside ghost stories and cosy mysteries; tales of psychological suspense and poignant vignettes of love and loss.
The discussion will be ably chaired by fellow thriller writer William Shaw, whose latest book The Wild Swimmers will be on sale on the night.
All tickets include a copy of either Murder at the Monastery or The Man in Black (please choose which book when booking tickets). Further books and all authors’ previous titles will be available to purchase & to be signed by the authors on the night.
Tickets can be purchased in person from the bookshop, by telephone on 01903 812062, or online here and via the button below (a small booking fee applies to online bookings)
ABOUT REVEREND RICHARD COLES
Richard Coles is a writer, broadcaster and an Anglican priest. He co-presented Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 for eleven years and appears, from time to time, on QI, Have I Got News For You, and Would I Lie To You? He has won Christmas Masterchef, Celebrity Mastermind twice, and captained Leeds to victory in Christmas University Challenge in 2019. A contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, he scored a lamentably low mark for a Paso Doble. He writes regularly for the Sunday Times, and is the author of half a dozen books, including a bestselling autobiography, Fathomless Riches, and the bereavement bestseller The Madness of Grief, after the death of his partner, Rev David Coles. Murder Before Evensong and A Death in the Parish, the first two books in the Canon Clement Mystery series, were both instant number 1 Sunday Times bestsellers.
ABOUT ELLY GRIFFITHS
Elly Griffiths is the bestselling author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries and the Brighton Mysteries. She has won the CWA Dagger in the Library, has been shortlisted five times for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for The Lantern Men. Her new series featuring Detective Harbinder Kaur began with The Stranger Diaries, which was a Richard and Judy book club pick and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in the USA. It was followed by The Postscript Murders, shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and Bleeding Heart Yard. Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband.
ABOUT OUR CHAIR WILLIAM SHAW
William Shaw has been shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger, longlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and nominated for a Barry Award. A regular at festivals, he organises panel talks and CWA events across the south east. His books include the acclaimed Breen & Tozer crime series set in sixties London, the newest series featuring DS Alexandra Cupidi, and the standalone bestseller The Birdwatcher. He worked as a journalist for over twenty years and lived in Brighton until a recent move to Ireland!
by Gudrun Bowers | 4, Apr 2024
THURSDAY 2nd MAY at 7.30pm
Join award-winning journalist Rafael Behr as he discusses his book ‘Politics, A Survivor’s Guide: How to Stay Engaged without Getting Enraged‘.
We live in an age of fury and confusion. A new crisis erupts before the last one has finished: financial crises, Brexit, pandemic, war in Ukraine, inflation, strikes. Prime Ministers come and go but politics becomes ever more divided and toxic. It is tempting to switch off the news, tune out and hope things will get back to normal. Except, this is the new normal, and our democracy can only work if enough people stay engaged without getting enraged.
But how? To answer that question, award-winning journalist Rafael Behr takes the reader on a personal journey from despair at the state of politics to hope that there is a better way of doing things, with insights drawn from three decades as a political commentator and foreign correspondent.
Rafael will be in conversation with our very own local political poet, Simon Zec.
ABOUT RAFAEL BEHR
Rafael Behr is a political columnist for the Guardian. He is a former Political Editor for the New Statesman, Chief Leader Writer and Online Editor for The Observer, a business news reporter for BBC online and a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, based in the Baltic region and Russia. Rafael is a regular contributor to Prospect Magazine, a guest on BBC and Sky News and a speaker at UK think tanks. His book, Politics, A Survivor’s Guide, is published by Atlantic. He hosts the Politics on the Couch podcast.Before becoming a journalist, Rafael was a political risk analyst covering countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He studied modern languages at Merton College, Oxford and took a Master’s degree in Russian Studies at the School for Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. He lives in Brighton with his family.
TICKETS
£10 Ticket Price includes a drink upon entry.
£15 Ticket Price includes a copy of Politics, A Survivor’s Guide and a drink upon entry.
Tickets avaiable from the bookshop or online via link below (booking fee applied to online bookings)
by Gudrun Bowers | 28, Feb 2024
This is going to be a really special evening!
We are delighted to welcome writer, literary critic and cultural historian ALEXANDRA HARRIS to Steyning to discuss her new book The Rising Down.
Alexandra grew up in Sussex and was educated at schools in Storrington and Horsham, so the Arun valley, the Wealden mud and the chalky sweep of the South Downs are in her blood, and The Rising Down sees her returning to West Sussex to consider the layers of buried lives beneath this familiar landscape…Who has stood here, she asks; what did they see?
As Alexandra excavates archival records and everyday objects, hundreds of unexpected stories and hypnotic voices emerge from the area’s past, from the painter John Constable and the modernist writer Ford Madox Ford, to the lost local women who left little trace. She uncovers the unexpected stories behind hidden places: an ancient church sheltering a medieval anchorite who chose to be buried alive, the country estate parading a menagerie of exotic animals, the cottage where William Blake received the poetic spirit of Milton, and a safe house harbouring secret agents from wartime French resistance networks.
Alexandra will be ‘in conversation’ with an interviewer (TBC) and will also answer audience questions and sign books at the end of the evening.
ABOUT ALEXANDRA HARRIS
Alexandra Harris is a British writer and academic. She was born in Sussex and spent her childhood in the Arun Valley area. She is the author of Romantic Moderns, on modernism in inter-war Britain, and Weatherland on weather in English art and literature. She has also written a short biography of Virginia Woolf. Her radio work includes a series following Virginia Woolf’s walks, a ten-part ‘British History in Weather’, as well as programmes on candlelight, fireworks, coldness, and an excursion to ask shepherds about pastoral literature. She is a Professor of English at the University of Birmingham.
Tickets £8 ticket only or £20 including a signed copy of The Rising Down (RRP £25!!)
Book online via the button below, alternatively pop into the bookshop or call us on 01903 812062.
by Gudrun Bowers | 28, Feb 2024
This gorgeous book is an illustrated, children’s version of Isabella Tree’s fantastic Wilding, the story of the pioneering rewilding project at Knepp, near Horsham.
Angela Harding’s beautiful linocuts, as well as fascinating photos, illuminate the progression of Knepp from an intensively farmed landscape to a much wilder one, thrumming with life (and PHD students), with sections on different ecological processes and different species.
Informative, beautiful, and hopeful, this is a lovely gift. Age 8+
by Gudrun Bowers | 15, Jan 2024
Join writer, broadcaster, musician and all round bard & chronicler IAN MARCHANT, as he discusses his book ONE FINE DAY: A JOURNEY THROUGH ENGLISH TIME, upon its paperback release.
One Fine Day is Marchant’s story of digging around in his family history and discovering the detailed diaries, written from 1714 to 1728, of his Great (x7) Grandfather Thomas Marchant, a Yeoman famer and Jacobite sympathiser.
Thomas wrote about life on his family farm in Sussex, about fishponds, dung, horses, mud, and about the making and drinking of beer. Marchant was able to map, day-by-day, the life of Thomas in 1720 to his own, in 2020 – a letter from a world on the brink of industrialisation, to one now exhausted by it.
By exploring the Marchant family’s journey – and how their England (rainy, muddy, politically turbulent and illness ridden) became the England of today, Marchant discovers just how much we have to learn from our ancestors. By turns funny, lyrical, moving and illuminating, this is a conversation with the dead to find out what is still alive.
‘Bloody marvellous.’
Nicholas Lezard, New Statesman
ABOUT IAN MARCHANT
Ian Marchant is originally from Newhaven in East Sussex, and now lives with his family in neither England, nor Wales, but Radnorshire. He is the author of A Hero for High Times : A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994, which was long-listed for the Gordon Burns Prize in 2018, the railway travelogue Parallel Lines, musings on nightime in Something of the Night and The Longest Crawl, a hilarious account of a month long pub crawl. He has played in numerous bands, written for The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday, The Times, The Sunday Times and Metro, and presented documentaries about talking trees, scary buses, ghost trains, the self-service nation and the history of barbed wire on Radio 4.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Doors open 7pm, Talk starts 7.30pm. Ian will be in conversation with SIMON ZEC, the Bard of Steyning. Plus Q & A at the end. No bar but teas and coffees will be served.
Ticket only price £7. Book with ticket £14 – includes a copy of One Fine Day in paperback. Additional books and hopefully a few of Ian’s previous books will be on sale on the night.
by Gudrun Bowers | 15, Jan 2024
Join children’s author HANNAH PECKHAM for an hour of stories and crafts to celebrate the release of her new book The Get Well Spell and to help children’s charity The Rockinghorse Charity.
ABOUT THE EVENT
Hannah Peckham will read her stories and lead a simple craft activity suitable for ages 3-7 – please bring a glass or plastic jar for each child if possible.
Ticket price of £4 is fully redeemable to get £4 off your purchase of The Get Well Spell.
Hannah Peckham and AWARD publications have teamed up with Rockinghorse Charity for a special ‘buy one, gift one’ offer – for every purchase of The Get Well Spell at The Steyning Bookshop, the publishers will gift a copy to a child in need with The Rockinghorse Charity. Doors open 10.45am event starts 11am.
ABOUT THE GET WELL SPELL
When Morris wakes one misty morning under the shadow of Dragon’s Ridge, the kind-hearted unicorn doesn’t feel well at all. As he sets out on a quest to find a fabled ‘Get Well Spell’, he discovers the need to fill his own cup back up, so that he can continue to share love and kindness and look after others. With delightful illustrations by Hannah Tkachenko, a Ukrainian / German artist.
ABOUT HANNAH PECKHAM
Hannah Peckham is a children’s author and young person’s counsellor, and is the author of Bronty’s Battle Cry, Climb, and Conker the Chameleon. She is passionate about encouraging children’s emotional literacy. Since her son Bodhi’s diagnosis of leukaemia, Hannah has raised thousands of pounds for leukaemia research and was appointed as an Ambassador for Leukaemia UK in November 2023.
ONLY 20 TICKETS AVAILABLE (due to space constraints) so we recommend you book in advance for this event
by Gudrun Bowers | 12, Jan 2024
We are delighted to welcome author KATE MORGAN to talk about her new book THE WALNUT TREE: WOMEN, VIOLENCE AND THE LAW, A HIDDEN HISTORY.
Kate Morgan’s fascinating new book The Walnut Tree lifts the lid on the shocking history of women under British law, and what it means for women today.
ABOUT THE WALNUT TREE
“A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better they’ll be.” So went the proverb quoted by a prominent MP in the Houses of Parliament in 1853. But were things about to change?
Kate investigates the legal campaigns, test cases and individual injustices of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, and explores the untold stories of women whose cases became cornerstones of our modern legal system; the uniquely abusive marriage which culminated in the dramatic story of the Clitheroe wife abduction, the domestic tragedies which changed the law on domestic violence; the controversies surrounding the Contagious Diseases Act and the women who campaigned to abolish it; and the real courtroom stories behind notorious murder cases such as the Camden Town Murder.
ABOUT KATE MORGAN
Kate Morgan is a writer and former solicitor. She worked as a senior in-house lawyer in the water industry for most of her legal career. Long fascinated with the darker side of the law, her writing focuses on British legal history and the stories behind the important cases that have shaped the law over the centuries. Her first book, Murder: The Biography, was published in 2021.
ABOUT THE EVENING
Kate will discuss her book, her research and inspirations with an interviewer from The Steyning Bookshop. The venue is the warm and comfortable Steyning Methodist Church.
Teas & Coffees will be available.
Doors open 7pm, start time 7.30pm.
‘Book with ticket’ option = £18 – Amazing value as the book alone is RRP £20
‘Ticket only’ option = £8 – Books available to buy on the night
Tickets available in the Steyning Bookshop, by phone on 01903 812062 or buy online tickets here:
by Gudrun Bowers | 9, Jan 2024
Saturday 17th February at 2.30pm
A creative writing workshop for budding writers with children’s author LIZ FLANAGAN.
Ideas are all around us – but how do you catch one?
In this fun, interactive workshop, author Liz Flanagan will lead children through a series of creative exercises to inspire and develop some new ideas. She will describe the surprising places she found ideas for the Legends of the Sky and Wildsmith series, before inviting children to start a story using material from their own lives. Dragons, pirates, witches … harness the power of your imagination!
For children aged 7-12
ABOUT LIZ FLANAGAN AND HER BOOKS
Liz Flanagan is an award-winning author who writes for children and young adults. Her books include the Wildsmith series of cute illustrated chapter books for emergent readers, wonderfully illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, the exciting, inventive Legends of the Sky fantasy series, and the YA novel Eden Summer, which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.
CHILD TICKET £5 – ticket can be used to get £5 off one of Liz Flanagan’s brilliant books! Accompanying adults do not need a ticket.
You can purchase tickets in the shop or click below to book via Ticketsource
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