dulwichbooks

Fiona Sampson, acclaimed poet and biographer of Mary Shelley, will be in conversation with Manderley Press publisher Rebeka Russell to discuss a brand-new collection of Mary Shelley’s work – all written during, and inspired by, the short yet influential time the author spent living in the historic literary city of Bath in 1816. Step into the intriguing world of Mary Shelley’s transformative time in Bath, a period that deeply influenced her literary genius. Against the backdrop of Bath’s grand architecture, bustling social scene and serene countryside, Shelley grapples with personal loss, burgeoning ideas and the societal constraints of her era. Yet during her time in the city, she finds solace and inspiration, leading to the development of her iconic novel, Frankenstein. This collection of her journals and letters – as well as the chapter of Frankenstein that Mary penned during her stay in Bath, and additional short stories inspired by her time living there – reveals to us the true nature of her closest relationships, the influence of the city’s intellectual circles on her work and the profound impact of Bath’s haunting beauty on her imagination. Mary Shelley in Bath thus explores how a place can shape a writer’s life and work, offering readers a deeper understanding of the woman behind one of literature’s most enduring masterpieces. Discover through her work the city that helped to forge a literary legend. Book tickets here

Start your Christmas celebrations slightly differently this year and join us for an evening about the darker side of the festive season as Sarah Clegg uncovers the folk tales and arcane traditions that still haunt Europe’s winter months. Sarah will take us on a journey through midwinter to explore the lesser-known Christmas traditions, from English mummers plays and Austrian Krampus runs, to modern pagan rituals at Stonehenge and the night in Finland when a young girl is crowned with candles as St Lucy - a martyred Christian girl who also appears as a witch leading a procession of the dead. Learn about wassails and hoodenings and winter gatherings, attended by ghastly, grinning horses, snatching monsters and mysterious visitors, as we discover how these traditions originated and how they changed through the centuries. Book tickets for the talk HERE

Few women had the luxury of writing down their thoughts and feelings during medieval times. But remarkably, there are at least four who did: Marie de France, a poet; Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress; Christine de Pizan, a widow and court writer; and Margery Kempe, a no-good wife. Hetta Howes has spent her working life uncovering these women’s stories to give us unique historical and political insight that challenges what we hold to be common knowledge about medieval women in Europe. Her new book, Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife, is an exquisite portrait of the world in which these women lived, told like never before. A spectacular, vivid, groundbreaking work of history, it shows women of the Middle Ages as leaders and innovators, who changed the world around them, even as they faced challenges surprisingly similar to those that women still have to navigate today. Don't miss the chance to hear Hetta speak about these remarkable women. We think this event will be the perfect accompaniment to a visit to the British Library's upcoming event, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words. Book tickets for the talk HERE

For over two decades, Lara Maiklem has scoured the banks of the Thames to find objects – lost or discarded – that tell the greatest stories. Now, having propelled mudlarking into the popular consciousness with her debut book Mudlarking, Maiklem returns with A Mudlarking Year. Reflecting on a year of her life searching the foreshore, she reminds us that it’s possible to draw meaning from the most unlikely of places. Lara carefully searches the riverbank through the changing seasons of 2022 – at times aided by the illumination of the falling winter sun or hindered by overcast skies and the high tides of spring. Yet, working in harmony with the unpredictable foreshore, she finds solace in the elements and wonder in the treasures bestowed by the tide. From medieval pilgrim badges and Tudor shoes, to Georgian wig curlers and Victorian pottery, each passing day unearths the ordinary objects that tell the rich story of London’s history and its inhabitants. Guided by Maiklem’s curiosity, wisdom and obsession, A Mudlarking Year is an invitation to discover the forgotten objects in the most overlooked part of London – uncovering the stories patiently waiting to be told. Join Lara Maiklem as she discusses A Mudlarking Year, the follow-up to her bestselling book, Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames. For more info and to buy tickets, click here.

The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill and Light Perpetual, returns with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments. Cahokia Jazz is a thrilling tale of murder and mystery in a city where history has run a little differently. In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper. It’s 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on – a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city’s secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth. Don’t miss the chance to hear Francis speak about this brilliant new novel. Tickets: Admission - £10 / Admission + copy of Cahokia Jazz (RRP £20) - £25 Book Tickets HERE About Francis Spufford 'Francis Spufford has one of the most original minds in contemporary literature' - Nick Hornby Francis Spufford is the author of five highly-praised works of non-fiction, most frequently described by reviewers as either ‘bizarre’ or ‘brilliant’, and usually as both. His debut novel Golden Hill won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and the British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year. His second novel, Light Perpetual, was awarded the 2022 Encore Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2007 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and lives near Cambridge.

A Bird in Winter is the electrifying new novel from Sunday Times bestselling writer Louise Doughty, author of Apple Tree Yard and Platform Seven, both adapted for major TV series. Come and hear Louise discuss this brilliant new novel and what it's like writing thrillers for page and screen. Tickets: £10 (Admission + glass of wine/soft drink) / £22 (Admission + copy of A Bird in Winter RRP £16.99 + glass of wine/soft drink) Book Tickets Here About Louise Doughty 'Doughty is a brilliant storyteller who knows how to build suspense to breaking point.' - The Times Louise Doughty's novels include Platform Seven, recently filmed for a major new ITV series; Black Water, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; the bestseller Apple Tree Yard, which was adapted for BBC One; and Whatever You Love, nominated for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize for fiction. She has been nominated for many other prizes including the Sunday Times Short Story Prize and the CWA Silver Dagger, along with creating and writing the hit BBC drama Crossfire. Her work has been translated into thirty languages. She lives in London.

We're thrilled to welcome Mick Herron to Dulwich for his gripping new thriller, The Secret Hours. Mick is the author of the fantastic Slough House series, much-loved by many Dulwich Books customers, and he has been described by fellow crime writer, Val McDermid, as 'the John le Carré of our generation'. The Secret Hours is a dazzling spy thriller that is at once unnerving, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny. With a riveting reveal about a disastrous MI5 mission in Cold War Berlin, it is an absolute must-read for Slough House fans. Don't miss the chance to hear Mick talk about this brilliant novel and get your early copy of The Secret Hours (published 14th September). Tickets: £25 (Admission for one + copy of The Secret Hours RRP £22) / £30 (Admission for two + copy of The Secret Hours RRP £22) Book Tickets Here About Mick Herron ‘Herron is at the summit of a new golden age of spy fiction.’ - Sunday Times Mick Herron is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Slough House thrillers, which have won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award, two CWA Daggers, been published in 20 languages, and are the basis of a major TV series starring Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. He is also the author of the Zoë Boehm series, and the standalone novels Reconstruction and This is What Happened. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford. About James O'Brien James O'Brien is an award-winning writer and broadcaster whose journalism has appeared everywhere from the TLS to the Daily Mirror. His daily current affairs programme is the most popular show on LBC with over 1.3 million weekly listeners and his first book, How To Be Right, was a Sunday Times bestseller, which won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Political Book by a non-politician.

In The Year of the Cat, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett explores the enduring relationship between women writers, artists and their cats as winter turns to spring over the course of a locked-down year. Navigating trauma and mental illness, what it means to care and artistic freedom, this tender memoir charts the way a kitten called Mackerel walked into Rhiannon's home and heart and taught her to face down her fears and appreciate quite how much love she had to offer. Why Women Grow is a much-needed exploration of why women turn to the earth, as gardeners, growers and custodians. Alice Vincent fosters connections with gardeners that unfurl into a tender exploration of women’s lives, their gardens and what the ground has offered them, with conversations spanning creation and loss, celebration and grief, power, protest, identity and renaissance. Join Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett and Alice Vincent for a fascinating discussion about their brilliant books, gardens, motherhood, art, creativity and cats! Speaker Bios Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett writes columns and reviews fiction for the Guardian, and has also written for the Observer Magazine, I Paper, Vogue, Stylist, Elle, and many more. Her first novel, The Tyranny of Lost Things, was published in 2018. She also co-wrote The Vagenda (based on the successful feminist satire website) with Holly Baxter. Born and raised in Wales, she now lives in north London with her husband and cat. Alice Vincent is a journalist and the author of three books, including Rootbound: Rewilding a Life, which was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize and named as one of the books of 2020 by the Financial Times and the Independent. A self-taught gardener, Alice is a columnist for Gardens Illustrated and writes for titles including Vogue and the New Statesman. She has been documenting her gardening online since 2015 and has since launched a newsletter and podcast. She lives in South London.

Join bestselling espionage historian Ben Macintyre for a talk about the Second World War's most notorious prison, the subject of his latest book Colditz. The inside story of Colditz is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of snobbery, class conflict, homosexuality, bullying, espionage, boredom, insanity and farce. Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters of multiple nationalities, with captors and prisoners living for years cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse. 'Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . Macintyre has thrown fresh light on Colditz and aligned the scratches left on its walls into another compelling narrative' - Spectator Tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/colditz-the-prisoners-of-the-castle-by-ben-macintyre-tickets-582368348407 This event is part of the Dulwich Festival.

Join Clare Paterson, as she talks about her wonderful book, Mr Horniman’s Walrus, which explores the rise and fall of the remarkable and dysfunctional Horniman family, including Frederick, who created the Horniman Museum, and Annie, a theatrical impresario responsible for founding Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey. Drawing on her years of research and unfettered access to the family archive, Mr Horniman's Walrus unpicks the lives of this fascinating family, including their slips from grace as well as their astounding achievements. Buy tickets here. This event is part of the Dulwich Festival.

Come and hear ‘Britain’s answer to Donna Tartt’, Benjamin Wood and local author Alex Hyde discuss their experiences of writing historical fiction. Local author Alex Hyde's astonishing debut novel, Violets, is about motherhood and loss in the dying days of the Second World War. One young woman, Violet, lies in a hospital bed after a miscarriage, while in the Welsh valleys, another Violet contemplates the fate she shares with her unborn child. As their lives begin to intertwine, a spellbinding story of women's courage emerges. Set in 1950s rural England, The Young Accomplice by Benjamin Wood follows siblings Joyce and Charlie, just released from borstal, as they begin a new life as apprentices at Leventree, an architecture practice motivated to give young offenders second chances. Finalist for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Benjamin Wood's writing has been compared to that of Thomas Hardy. Join these two rising stars of the literary scene as they discuss their novels and their experiences of writing historical fiction. Buy tickets here. This event is part of the Dulwich Festival.

Join the Artistic Director of the Barbican and former BBC Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, as he talks about his latest book, See What You’re Missing, which guides the reader through the eyes and minds of great artists – from contemporary icons to old masters – and looks at how to notice and experience beauty, colour and emotions in everything we see around us. Will Gompertz is a world-leading expert in, and champion of, the arts. Having spent seven years as a Director of the Tate Galleries followed by eleven years as the BBC's Arts Editor, he is now Artistic Director at the Barbican. His previous books are The Art of Monarchy, Think Like an Artist and What are you Looking At? This event is part of the Dulwich Festival. Book tickets here. Tickets £12.50 (plus Eventbrite booking fee)

In his brilliant new book, Taking Flight, Lev Parikian, fast becoming one of Britain’s best loved nature writers, explores the how, why and when of flight in four distinct groups of animals: insects, pterosaurs, birds and bats. The miracle of flight has evolved in hugely diverse ways, with countless variations of flapping and gliding, hovering and diving, murmurating and migrating. Conjuring lost worlds, ancient species and ever-shifting ecologies, this exhilarating new book is a mesmerising encounter with fourteen flying species: from the first fluttering insect of 300 million years ago to the wonders of the dragonfly, albatross, pipistrelle and monarch butterfly with which we share the planet today. Taking Flight is a mind-expanding feat of the imagination, a close encounter with flight in its myriad forms, urging us to look up and drink in the spectacle of these gravity-defying marvels that continue to shape life on Earth. Don't miss this wonderful event with Lev - perfect for any nature lovers! About Lev Parikian Lev is a writer, birdwatcher and conductor. He is the author of Into The Tangled Bank, longlisted for the Wainwright Prize, Light Rains Sometimes Fall and Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? He lives in South London with his family, who are getting used to his increasing enthusiasm for nature. As a birdwatcher, his most prized sightings are a golden oriole in the Alpujarras and a black redstart at Dungeness Power Station. About Event Location: Dulwich Books, 6 Croxted Road, West Dulwich, SE21 8SW Time: 19.00 – 20.30 Price: £5 (Admission) / £20 Admission + copy Ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/taking-flight-lev-parikian-tickets-598320240947