Click here to book tickets.
Category Archives: Author Events
World Book Night 23rd April 2013 – Flagship Events
Details from a FMcM Associates PRESS RELEASE dated 12 April 2013:
Click on the image for more information about World Book Night.
A record year and rising – more authors, poets, libraries, prisons, shelters, schools, nurses, care homes, teenagers, parents and general public, than ever before…
…World Book Night events deliver on 23rd April 2013
On 23rd April 2013 something magical will take place across the country, as the ‘World Book Night Experience’ plays out. Complete strangers will become friends, colleagues will pause and reflect, libraries and bookshops will go the extra mile to ‘stay up late’, and authors of all genres will share their writings and love of the written word with audiences of all ages.
“For me, World Book Night 2012 turned into a day about people, sharing and passing on a bit of hope to those who doubt that there is anything worth hoping for.” -World Book Night 2012 Giver, Emily Hunter
Now in its third year, World Book Night is a celebration of generosity, passion, participation and inclusion, known as the ‘World Book Night Experience’. On 23rd April – UNESCO’s International Day of the Book – many experiences will unfold simultaneously across the UK, the USA and Ireland. With major UK events in Liverpool, London, Edinburgh and beyond**, a host of world-renowned writers have given their time – and their books – to inspire regular readers to harness their role as World Book Night ‘Givers’ and help spread a love of reading.
World Book Night’s flagship event will this year be held in Liverpool, where bestselling authors Frank Cottrell Boyce, Jasper Fforde, Philippa Gregory, Jackie Kay, Patrick Ness and Jeanette Winterson take part in a series of free, themed literary sessions at St George’s Hall and the brand new Liverpool Central Library, in association with Liverpool City Council and the BBC. The event features an impromptu Speakers’ Corner, a Book Exchange, Poetry Waiters, a Literary-themed Café and much more.
The second major event will be held at London’s Southbank Centre where Continue reading
Crime and Thriller and Other Interesting Events at the Hay Festival 2013
Crime and thriller events for Hay 2013 have a focus on the world of espionage plus there’s the return of favourite McCall Smith for another likely ‘giggle fest’. Other events of interest:
- Rick Gekoski on books (always entertaining and informative)
- keeping up with the times we have a call on ‘social entrepreneurs’
- extending its reach further, Hay delivers a ‘Writing for Radio Masterclass’ from Sue Roberts
- a provocatively titled ‘The Necessity Of Poverty’ with John Bird, founder of The Big Issue
- in the year after E L James re-coloured it, four ladies – excluding James – in The Good Housekeeping Debate discuss ‘Is erotica changing the literary landscape?’
Click here for booking the programme and here for the programme in quick view. Further detail (from the programme) of some events follows below.
Kate Manning and Kate Summerscale talk to Sarah Crompton
Notorious
Event 132 • Monday 27 May 2013, 10am • Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage
In Manning’s My Notorious Life By Madam X the headstrong daughter of Irish immigrants, forced to beg for pennies as a child on the brutal streets of New York City, grows up to become the most successful – and controversial – midwife of her time. The story chimes perfectly with Kate Summerscale’s tale of Victorian scandal and divorce Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace.
Price: £5.00
Stella Rimington talks to Gaby Wood
Fictions – Spooks
Event 144 • Monday 27 May 2013, 1pm • Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage
The former MI5 chief discusses The Geneva Trap, the latest of her Liz Carlyle spy novels, and the fictions and facts of espionage.
Price: £6.50
Andy McNab talks to Paul Blezard
Bravo Two Zero At Twenty
Event 184 • Tuesday 28 May 2013, 11.30am • Venue: Barclays Pavilion
On the 20th anniversary of publication of his iconic tale of disaster and endurance in the first Iraq War, the Special Forces veteran revisits the story with new material.
Price: £7.00
Maggie O’Farrell and Rupert Thomson talk to Stephanie Merritt
Fictions – Secrets And Lies
Event 224 • Wednesday 29 May 2013, 10am • Venue: Digital Stage
The stunning new book from Costa Novel Award-winning novelist O’Farrell Instructions For A Heatwave is a mystery portrait of an Irish family in crisis in the legendary heatwave of 1976. Thomson’s Secrecy is set in Florence in 1691. It is a love story, a murder mystery, a portrait of a famous city in an age of austerity, an exercise in concealment and revelation, but above all it is a trapdoor narrative, one story dropping unexpectedly into another.
Price: £5.50
Roger Hermiston and Sinclair McKay talk to Chris Morgan Jones
Secrets And Lies
Event 310 • Friday 31 May 2013, 10am • Venue: Google’s Big Tent
We kick off this day devoted to espionage with two revealed stories that changed the course of the C20th – The Greatest Traitor: The Secret Lives Of Agent George Blake and The Secret Listeners: How The Y Service Intercepted The German Codes For Bletchley Park.
Price: £7.00
Chris Morgan Jones talks to Marcel Berlins
Fictions – Spying And Thrilling
Event 321 • Friday 31 May 2013, 1pm • Venue: Digital Stage
The new thriller writer tipped as one of le Carré’s heirs discusses his Iranian industrial espionage story The Jackal’s Share.
Price: £6.00
John le Carré
Event 324 • Friday 31 May 2013, 2.30pm • Venue: Barclays Pavilion
In an unprecedented double-length interview, the creator of George Smiley and author of spy masterpieces such as The Constant Gardener, The Honourable Schoolboy, The Russia House and The Tailor of Panama makes his first visit to the festival and talks about his work to Philippe Sands. His new novel A Delicate Truth is launched on 25 April.
Sold Out
Alexander McCall Smith talks to Paul Blezard
Happy Birthday Precious Ramotswe
Event 334 • Friday 31 May 2013, 5.30pm • Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage
Please join us to celebrate fifteen years of The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and catch up with favourite characters from Botswana, Scotland and beyond.
Price: £9.00
Irvine Welsh talks to Stephanie Merritt
Trainspotting at 20
Event 399 • Saturday 1 June 2013, 8.30pm • Venue: Barclays Pavilion
The Scottish novelist celebrates the 20th anniversary of his iconic book, and discusses his recently-published prequel Skagboys.
Price: £10.00
William McIlvanney talks to Irvine Welsh
Tartan Noir
Event 422 • Sunday 2 June 2013, 1pm • Venue: Digital Stage
An interview with the razor king of Scottish crime fiction as his modern classic Laidlaw books are republished by Canongate.
Price: £6.00
Other Events of Interest:
Rick Gekoski
Lost, Stolen or Shredded: Stories Of Missing Works Of Art And Literature
Event 204 • Tuesday 28 May 2013, 4pm • Venue: Sky Arts Studio
Gekoski tells the very human stories that lie behind some of the greatest losses to artistic culture and explores the greater questions these tremendous losses raise – the rights artists and authors have over their own work, the importance of the search for perfection in creativity, and what motivated people to queue to see the empty space where the Mona Lisa once hung in the Louvre. Chaired by Clemency Burton-Hill.
Price: £5.50
Thomas Keneally talks to Damian Barr
Fictions – The Great War
Event 150 • Monday 27 May 2013, 2.30pm • Venue: Llwyfan Cymru – Wales Stage
The Booker-winner’s The Daughters Of Mars vividly experiences the Dardanelles and the Western Front in the First World War through the eyes of two Australian nurses.
Price: £7.00
James Daunt, Rodric Braithwaite and guests
The Pushkin House Waterstones Russian Book Prize
Event 239 • Wednesday 29 May 2013, 2.30pm • Venue: Sky Arts Studio
The Waterstones chief and the chair of judges host a discussion on writing about Russia with shortlisted authors. The shortlist is announced on 25 April. Fuller details of the line-up for this event will be announced on 1 May.
Price: £5.00
Calling All Social Entrepreneurs
Event 240 • Wednesday 29 May 2013, 2.30pm • Venue: Landmarc 100 Stage
Want some guidance, mentoring or financial support? Whether you are just starting out or needing to grow, drop in to meet the people who can help you out and to network with other like-minded souls.
FREE – DROP IN
Sue Roberts
Writing For Radio Masterclass
Event 246 • Wednesday 29 May 2013, 5.15pm • Venue: The Cube
The BBC Radio Drama Executive leads this workshop seminar in writing for radio. Numbers are limited.
Price: £30.00
Nikki Gemmell, Brooke Magnanti, Jojo Moyes and Linda Kelsey
The Good Housekeeping Debate: Sex Changes Everything
Event 256 • Wednesday 29 May 2013, 7pm • Venue: Sky Arts Studio
Is erotica changing the literary landscape? Gemmell (The Bride Stripped Bare), Magnanti (Belle de Jour series, televised as Secret Diary of a Call Girl) and Moyes (Me Before You) talk to Kelsey, GH contributor and ex-editor of Cosmopolitan. We’ve been going to bed with them for years. Isn’t it time we were seen together in public?
Price: £8.00
John Bird in conversation with Marcel Berlins
The Necessity Of Poverty
Event 411 • Sunday 2 June 2013, 10am • Venue: Landmarc 100 Stage
The founder of The Big Issue mounts a blistering attack on orthodox thinking around the gap between rich and poor, sparing neither himself nor others in identifying what needs to be done to end poverty.
Price: £6.00
Sarah Dunant in conversation with S J Parris
Fictions – Blood And Beauty
Event 420 • Sunday 2 June 2013, 1pm • Venue: Google’s Big Tent
The acclaimed novelist of the Italian Renaissance takes on the era’s most infamous family – the Borgias.
Price: £6.00
Coming Up Over Easter Weekend …
… a visit from Mo Hayder. Mo’s latest Jack Caffery novel – Poppet – has just been published and she’s having a brief tour. On Sunday we are publishing a short interview with Mo, where she’s agreed to be the first victim in our new interview series.
Here’s the poster so you can catch Mo’s other events which started with this exclusive extract at Dead Good Books – the site of her publisher – last Thursday. Come back tomorrow for more. Today, Mo is here at Raven Crime Reads.
More book launches like this?
“… so to have books and music in the same place at the same time: I’m happy, absolutely…”
The launch of R J Ellory’s Bekraste zielen (Bad Signs) in the Netherlands last month. Some interesting comments from Ellory on mainland Europe’s ‘cultural’ festivals on top of the book, writing and life. Worth a listen. Good music too (from Dotan).
In the UK, R J Ellory’s next novel arrives in early June: The Devil and The River.
The Story of Crime Fiction – British Library Event
From earlier in February:
Introduced by British Library curator Kathryn Johnson, Mark Lawson chairs the event with authors P D James, Jason Webster and Henry Sutton. The authors discuss the history of the crime genre, their favourite classics and their own work.
Mari Hannah Deadly Deceit Events
Mari Hannah’s third Kate Daniels novel, Deadly Deceit is published on 11 April and she has a number of events planned. The list as it currently stands follows below. Stay aware of additions by keeping an eye on her events page.
Click to order from Amazon UK.
SIGNING: Forum Books – Corbridge
Saturday, 13th April, 11am – 12 noon
8, Market Place, Corbridge NE45 5AW
SIGNING: Waterstones Newcastle
Saturday, 13th April, 2pm – 3pm.
Emmerson Chambers, Blackett St, Newcastle, NE1 7JF
READ REGIONAL event at Stockton Central Library
Wednesday, 17th April, 6.30 pm
Church Road, Stockton, TS18 1YU
SIGNING: Waterstones Hexham
Saturday, 20th April, 12 noon until 1pm.
33 Fore Street, Hexham, NE46 1LU
SIGNING: Waterstones Morpeth
Saturday, 20th April, 2pm – 4pm
5, Sanderson Arcade, Morpeth, NE61 1NS
WORLD BOOK NIGHT – Read Regional event at Central Library Theatre, South Shields
Tuesday, 23th April at 6pm
Prince George Square, South Shields, NE33 3PE
Launched today: a free creative writing for crime course with M. R. Hall plus competition
From a Pan Macmillan email:
Today we launch a free creative writing course by twice CWA Gold Dagger shortlisted M. R. Hall. By visiting- and hitting the ‘like’ button at- www.facebook.com/MRHallAuthor , readers can discover M. R. Hall’s Seven Secrets of Successful Crime Writing, through conversational videos and downloadable worksheets. The course at www.facebook.com/MRHallAuthor is completely free and a new secret will be revealed each week, along with three more detailed podcasts, during which M. R. Hall expands on his advice. At the end of the course four amazing prizes will be awarded to the winner of our writing competition:
- A place on an intensive two day creative writing for crime course, run by M. R. Hall and fellow author William Ryan at Goldsboro Books in central London.
- A detailed email critique of the first three chapters of their novel, from Pan Macmillan editor Sophie Orme.
- £200 worth of Pan Macmillan crime books.
- Signed copies of all M. R. Hall titles.
The competition will be judged by M. R. Hall together with Maria Rejt and Sophie Orme, Publisher and Editor at Pan Macmillan imprint Mantle.
This course concentrates on storytelling techniques, how to build dramatic tension, tips for writing conflict, and gives practical advice on structure and characterisation. It is informed by M. R. Hall’s years of experience as a Bafta-nominated television crime writer (on shows including Kavanagh QC and Daziel and Pascoe) as well as his more recent career as the writer of the Coroner Jenny Cooper series.
The course can be found at www.facebook.com/MRHallAuthor from January 28th, with one video a week being revealed. Six out of the seven videos will only be accessible via the author’s facebook page, but one will be widely available for everyone, which you can see below.
Click on image for Amazon UK link.
The launch of the course coincides with publication of M. R. Hall’s new hardback The Chosen Dead and new paperback The Flight, both part of the Coroner Jenny Cooper series.
Both The Flight, and the first book in the series, The Coroner, were shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association’s prestigious Gold Dagger award for best crime novel of the year.
London, 18 Feb 2013, free historical crime event with…
… Andrew Williams, Mike Ripley and Robert Ryan at Victoria Library, SW1, 18:00.
Bitter Lemon Press and Dedalus present: an evening of Polish literature with Zygmunt Miloszewski & Jacek Dehnel
Received from Bitter Lemon Press:
Bitter Lemon Press, in collaboration with Dedalus, invites you to a night of the very best in Polish literature with Zygmunt Miloszewski & Jacek Dehnel:
Monday, 5 November, 7pm, Daunt Books, 158-164 Fulham Road, London SW10 9PR
The event is free but places are limited so please contact books at bitterlemonpress dot com to book a free ticket. Alternatively, you can visit or call Daunt Books on 020 7373 4997 to reserve your place.
Celebrated crime novelist Zygmunt Miloszewski and international prize-winning poet and author Jacek Dehnel will be appearing at Daunt Books, Fulham Road, London for an evening of Polish literature chaired by BBC producer and journalist Henrietta Foster. There will also be wine and nibbles.
A Grain of Truth, Miloszewski’s latest instalment in the hugely successful State Prosecutor Teodor Szacki trilogy, has just won the High Calibre Award for best crime novel of 2011. Dehnel’s historical novel Saturn was shortlisted in Poland for the prestigious Nike Award.
Praise for A Grain of Truth: “A satisfying thriller that relies on familiar pleasures but it also maintains our interest through an intelligent analysis of Polish society and its values.” Crime Chronicles
Event sponsored by the Polish Cultural Institute.
