Taunton Literary Festival 2025

Zoe Langley-Wathen – 630 Miles Braver: Midlifing on the South West Coast Path

Wed 1 Oct 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
On a mission to prove that adventure has no age limit, South Somerset couple Zoe Langley-Wathen (54) and Mike Langley (73) will set off from Poole, eastwards, to walk the entire coastline of mainland Britain, 7,300 miles. They are raising funds for the Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance and inspiring others to step outside their comfort zones through Zoe’s role as an AdventureMind Ambassador. Mike, who is the proud owner of two new hips, aims to become the oldest person to complete the walk as a thru-hike. Zoe, author of the newly published adventure memoir 630 Miles Braver – Midlifing on the South West Coast Path, continues her mission to showcase the transformative power of walking, resilience, and midlife reinvention.
Tickets: £8 Book/Ticket: £12.99

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Catherine Hanley – Nemesis: Medieval England’s Greatest Enemy

Fri Oct 3 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
This captivating narrative by acclaimed medieval historian Catherine Hanley traces Philip’s relentless struggle against Henry II of England and his ambitious sons. Unlike his English rivals, Philip wielded not just the sword but also the pen, ensuring his reign was meticulously recorded by chroniclers and administrators. Nemesis is not a conventional biography but a focused exploration of Philip’s enduring rivalry with the Plantagenets – a family as brilliant as it was self-destructive. Catherine has written six books of popular history including Matilda: Empress, Queen, Warrior (Yale University Press, 2019), which was named by both the Financial Times and BBC History Magazine as one of their ‘Best Books of 2019’. Tickets: £8 Book/Ticket: £25

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Robin Ince – Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal : My Adventures in Neurodiversity

Thu 9 Oct 2025, 7PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

What if being a bit weird is actually entirely normal? What if sharing our internal struggles wasn’t a sign of weakness, but strength?
For over thirty years, award-winning broadcaster and comedian Robin Ince has entertained thousands in person and on air. But underneath the surface, a whirlwind was at play – a struggle with sadness, concentration, self-doubt and near-constant anxiety. But then he discovered he had all the hallmarks of ADHD and his stumbling blocks became stepping stones.
Tickets: £10

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Nicola Wilson – Recommended! : The influencers who changed how we read

Fri 10 Oct 2025, 6.30PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Priestley, Sylvia Lynd, Cecil Day-Lewis, and Edmund Blunden were the literary influencers of their day; household names whose personal lives,affairs, and politics informed their recommendations, mixing the personal and professional; social history with the domestic; love, disappointment, and war. They made global bestsellers with books that saw readers through Empire and the growth of fascism and antisemitism, the Great Depression, Spanish Civil War,and World War Two. Recommended! explores how a group of writers shook up the interwar book world, changing forever how we buy and think about books.
Tickets:£8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Sam Leith – The Haunted Wood : A History of Childhood Reading

Wed 15 Oct 2025, 6.30PM Venue: Brendon Books, Taunton TA1 4ER

Can you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?The stories we read as children matter. The best ones are indelible in our memories; reaching far beyond our childhoods, they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past – collective and individual, remembered and imagined – and invite us to dream up different futures. In a pioneering history of the children’s literary canon, The Haunted Wood reveals the magic of childhood reading, from the ancient tales of Aesop, through the Victorian and Edwardian golden age to new classics. Excavating the complex lives of our most beloved writers, Sam Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre and celebrates the power of books to inspire and console entire generations. Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Kate Lord Brown – The Golden Hour

Thu 16 Oct 2025, 6.30PM Venue: Brendon Books, Taunton TA1 4ER

From Cairo 1939 on the eve of the war and then thirty years later to 1970s Beirut on the eve of yet another conflict, The Golden Hour is an epic dual timeline story which interweaves glory-seeking desert archaeologists, priceless treasures, Nefertiti’s tomb and the decadent cabarets of WW2 Cairo with restless expat lives in bohemian Beirut.  Archaeologist Lucie Fitzgerald’s mother is dying – she’s also been lying. As her home, the ‘Paris of the East’, Beirut, teeters on the brink of war in the ‘70s, Polly Fitzgerald has one last story to tell from her deathbed.  It’s the story of her childhood best friend Juno and their life in 30s Cairo. Lucie travels home to be with her dying mother and discovers the truth about her family, Juno’s work and their shared search for the greatest undiscovered tomb of all – Nefertiti’s.  From the cities to the deserts, this transporting and moving story of a lost generation transformed by war is a study of great love and sacrifice in all its forms.   

Kate Lord Brown was a finalist in ITV’s The People’s Author contest, and her novel The Perfume Garden, which has been published in nine languages, was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year 2014. In 2020 she was highly commended in the RNA Elizabeth Goudge Trophy. Kate has also written editorial, reviews and regular columns for Traveller, Conde Nast, Good Housekeeping, Writers’ News, Arts Business, Gulf Times, Woman, the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Express and others. She wrote the first book club column in the Middle East for two years, introducing a host of writers to the region through the pages of Ahlan! After many years living overseas, she has returned to the wild and beautiful southwest of England, where she grew up. 

Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Nigel Planer – Young Once: A Life Less Heavy

Fri 17 Oct 2025, 7PM Venue: Tacchi-Morris Arts Ctr, School Rd, Monkton Heathfield, Taunton

The hilarious and heart-warming memoir of actor and comedian Nigel Planer. Most famous for playing Neil the hippy in The Young Ones and a pillar of the 80’s alternative comedy (the Comic Strip Presents and Bad News) and inspired by a recent sold-out tour where the audiences lapped up his witty and self-depreciating stories, Nigel Planer wants to take us back through the roles, the friendships and the rivalries, the triumphs and comic disasters that have taken him to where he is now. Nigel will be bringing his memoir to life and taking questions from the audience. He will also be reading from his poetry collection, Making Other Plans. A book signing will follow the event. Ticket: £15 NB TICKETS AVAILABLE DIRECT FROM THE VENUE ONLY www.tacchi-morris.com or 01823 414141

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Paula Byrne – Six Weeks By the Sea. The Summer Jane Austen Fell in Love

Sat 18 Oct 2025, 7PM Venue: Brendon Books, Taunton TA1 4ER

Jane’s brother, Frank, is on leave from the Royal Navy, and dearly wishes to unite his sister with his friend Captain Peter Parker. But another holidaymaker, a handsome stranger, catches sight of Jane and is determined to make her acquaintance. This rival to Captain Parker is Samuel Rose: a lawyer, literary man and abolitionist. As the weeks pass, Jane’s relationship with both men brings about unexpected surprises. By the end of the summer, the course of her life will have changed forever. Set against the backdrop of Austen’s family, the tensions of the war against France, and naval and colonial politics, SIX WEEKS BY THE SEA is the fascinating story of how the most famous romance writer of all time fell in love for the first time.Tickets: £8 Book/Ticket: 16.99

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Mike Berners-Lee – A Climate of Truth : Why We Need It and How To Get It

Sun 19 Oct 2025, 12:30PM Venue: Temple Methodist Church, Upper High St, Taunton TA1 3PY

PLEASE NOTE, THIS TALK IS IN ASSOCIATION AND WITH THE SUPPORT OF CLIMATE ACTION TAUNTON

We have all the technology we need to live better than ever before, and yet humanity is still accelerating into a climate and ecological emergency. To understand why – and to give ourselves a chance of doing better – we have to look at the challenge from new angles. A Climate of Truth does this by standing further back from the problem to gain perspective, by digging deeper under the surface to see the root causes, by joining up every element of the challenges we face, and by learning from our failures so far. This urgent and practical book points to what all of us can do to maximise our impact and be part of the evolution that humanity so urgently needs to avoid the polycrisis. Tickets: £9

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Rob Hopkins – How to Fall in Love With the Future:Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World

Wed 22 Oct 2025, 6:30PM Venue: Temple Methodist Church, Upper High St, Taunton TA1 3PY

PLEASE NOTE, THIS TALK IS IN ASSOCIATION AND WITH THE SUPPORT OF CLIMATE ACTION TAUNTON

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted every aspect of daily life, climate activist and Transition Network cofounder Rob Hopkins responded the way a lot of people did: by starting a podcast. But it wasn’t any ordinary podcast. In each episode, Hopkins and his guests would “time travel” together to the year 2030—walking down imagined future streets, talking with imagined future neighbours, visiting imagined future local businesses. What Hopkins discovered was no less profound: this simple exercise of visiting a positive future forced him to rethink the work he’d been doing as a climate activist for decades. How to Fall in Love with the Future is the result of that radical disruption
Tickets: £10

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Adam Nicolson – Bird School: A Beginner in the Wood

Thu 23 Oct 2025, 2:30PM Venue: Venue: Taunton Library, Paul Street, Taunton TA1 3XZ

Step into the hide for a glorious new encounter with wildlife. Close to Adam Nicolson’s home in Sussex, there is a forgotten field overrun by bracken and thicketed by brambles. It is the haunt of deer and many birds – nightingales, the occasional cuckoo, ravens, robins, owls and in summer the sweet-singing warblers that come north from Africa to breed in English woods. This gorgeous book charts his attempt to encounter birds, to engage with a marvellous layer of life he had previously almost ignored. Cocooned inside, season after season, he got to know the birds: where they nest, how they sing, how they mate and fight, what preys on them, what they are like as living things.
Ticket: £5 Book and Ticket: £22

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Tim Gregory – Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World

Thu 23 Oct 2025, 7PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

PLEASE NOTE, THIS TALK IS IN ASSOCIATION AND WITH THE SUPPORT OF CLIMATE ACTION TAUNTON

In this visionary book, Dr Tim Gregory urges us to rethink the path to net zero. He argues that the solution to climate change lies not simply in replacing fossil fuels with renewables, but in fully embracing another energy source that emits zero carbon dioxide: nuclear power. Going Nuclear calls for decarbonisation to be the twenty-first century’s Apollo programme. By interweaving scientific optimism, myth-busting data, and ambitious policy ideas, Gregory illustrates the untapped and boundless potential of the atom beyond just clean energy: from advanced medicine and forensics to atomic gardening and space exploration. Tickets: £8 Book and Ticket: £25

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Nicola Chester – Two Women’s Journeys Through Time, Land and Community

Fri 24 Oct 2025, 7PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

From the Wainwright Nature Prize Highly Commended author Nicola Chester, a rural narrative between two women in two different eras who both wanted to become farmers.
Was it easier for women to become farmers in the 1940s than it is now?Moving between Nicola’s own attempts to work outdoors and Miss White’s desire to farm a generation earlier, Nicola explores the parallels between their lives – and the differences. Miss White buys a derelict farm and begins to renovate and modernize it. As ghost (barn) owls flit between these two worlds, Nicola draws connections with farming and rural life in both times, from the role of women in rural communities in the modern day to Miss White’s experiences in the 1940s. Tickets: £8 Book and Tickets: £20

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Countess Carnarvon – A Year at Highclere

Wed 29 Oct 2025, 6.30PM PM Venue: Castle Hotel, Castle Grn, Taunton TA1 1NF

Join Lady Carnarvon as she exclusively reveals into the daily rhythms, seasonal changes and timeless traditions of one of Britain’s most iconic stately homes. Built in a bygone era, Highclere Castle and its surrounding five-thousand-acre estate is a place where history breathes through its walls and verdant landscapes. From the grandeur of Victorian architecture to the whispers of Anglo-Saxon roots, every stone and tree has a story to tell throughout its sweeping grounds.
Tickets: £15 There is also the opportunity to join the author for a 2-course meal with a glass of wine (£45 including the talk). For this option, contact The Castle Hotel: 01823 272671 www.the-castle-hotel.com

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Fiona Williams – House of Broken Bricks

Thu 30 Oct 2025, 7.00PM PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Every marriage has its seasons, Richard and Tess’s is in a deep winter. As day breaks over the Somerset Levels, Tess watches the chamomile clouds part. This morning, two sunrises graze the frosted floodplains: one rises low over a stretch of willows, while the other shines brightly from beneath the water. The light paints the house a startling crimson: a painful beauty that Tess, Richard and their son Max – riddled with grief – find easy to ignore. But none of them can ignore Sonny, who desperately wants things to go back to the way they were before. As the seasons change, and the cracks in the bricks let in more light, might this broken family find a way to start to heal? Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Saul David – Tunisgrad : Victory in Africa

Tue 4 Nov 2025, 6:30PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

On 8 November 1942, British and American troops invaded French North Africa as part of Operation Torch, the largest amphibious operation of the war to date. Historians have recognized the significance of the others, but not Tunisia which they have either ignored or characterized (as the Americans did at the time) as a sideshow. Tunisgrad is the first comprehensive 360-degrees history, told from the pe rspective of all the combatants, and ranging in focus from politicians and senior commanders to ordinary servicemen fighting in and over the mountains of Tunisia, and across the Mediterranean. Using a variety of first-hand sources, it restores the campaign to its rightful place as a defining moment of the war. Tickets: £8 Book and Ticket: £25

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Michael Benton – Extinctions : How Life Survives, Adapts and Evolves

Thu 6 Nov 2025, 7PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Some of the great diversifications in the history of life were triggered by the opportunities afforded by mass extinctions. But extinction in the context of modern life, especially the needless slaughter of species by human action or carelessness, is inexcusable. Who does not mourn the loss of the Polynesian tree snail or the dodo? Palaeontologists of course work on longer time scales and can see how extinction events have released the potential of new groups to show their evolutionary mettle. This is one of the wonders of exploring the geological record but should not allow us to think we can hasten the extinction of any modern species.
Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Andrew Ziminskic- Church Going : A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles

Fri 7 Nov 2025, 2:30PM Venue: Taunton Library, Paul Street, Taunton TA1 3XZ

Churches are many things to us – they are places of worship, vibrant community hubs and an oasis of calm reflection. To know a church is to hold a key to the past that unlocks an understanding of our shared history. Andrew Ziminski has spent decades as a stonemason and church conservator, acting as an informal guide to curious visitors. Church Going is his handbook to the medieval churches of the British Isles, in which he reveals their fascinating histories, features and furnishings, from flying buttresses to rood screens, lichgates to chancels. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, it is a celebration of British architectural history.
Ticket:s £5 Ticket including a copy of the book and complimentary entry: £11.99

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Christian Wolmar – Fire and Steam : How the Railways Transformed Britain

Fri 7 Nov 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Fire and Steam celebrates the vision and determination of the ambitious Victorian pioneers who developed this revolutionary transport system and the navvies who cut through the land to enable a country-wide network to emerge. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the railways’ magnificent contribution in two world wars, the chequered history of British Rail and the disaster of privatization, Fire and Steam examines the social and economical importance of the railway and how it helped form the Britain of today. Christian Wolmar is a writer and broadcaster, principally on transport matters. He writes regularly for a wide variety of publications including the Independent, Evening Standard and Rail magazine, and appears frequently on TV and radio as a commentators. Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Richard Whitehead-Victory in Australia

Sat 8 Nov 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

England’s triumph in the 1954-55 Ashes series marks a watershed moment in the history of English cricket. Under the leadership of Len Hutton, the country’s first professional captain, one of the greatest group of players ever to represent England won an Ashes series in Australia for the first time in more than 20 years. The England players – Hutton, Denis Compton, Godfrey Evans, Bill Edrich, Trevor Bailey, Peter May and Colin Cowdrey – were household names, and the series was followed with rapt attention via radio bulletins and daily newspapers. One of the greatest Ashes series is brought to life in this momentous slice of sporting and social history. Tickets: £8 Book /Ticket: £20

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Susannah Fisher – Sink or Swim : How the world needs to adapt to a changing climate

Wed 12 Nov 2025, 6:30PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

PLEASE NOTE, THIS TALK IS IN ASSOCIATION AND WITH THE SUPPORT OF CLIMATE ACTION TAUNTON

This will not be enough. Sink or Swim explores the hard choices that lie ahead concerning how people earn a living, the way governments manage relationships between countries, and how communities accommodate the movement of people. Should people be encouraged to move away from the coast? How can global food supplies be managed when parts of the world are hit by simultaneous droughts? How can conflict be handled when there isn’t enough water?Drawing on cutting edge research, interviews with experts, and practical examples from across the world, Susannah Fisher tells the story of the tough choices on adaptation that lie ahead, and looks at ways we can still have a liveable planet later in this century and beyond. Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Elizabeth Delo – Writing Workshop: Show Don’t Tell

Thu 13 Nov 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
This famous quote by Anton Chekhov is often used in creative writing teaching to demonstrate the use of descriptive language to convey meaning, rather than directly stating it. ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ is one of the first rules of writing. In this workshop we will practise ways to apply it to your prose, so that your reader becomes immersed in your story, and not only believes it, but feels it.
This workshop is suitable for beginner writers.
Elizabeth Delo is an award-winning writer with an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.
Tickets: £10

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Fire River Poets – Slavi Ukraini!

Wed 19 Nov 2025, Venue: 6:30PM Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Since the Russian invasion of February 2022 there has been a renaissance of poetry in Ukraine. A population under daily bombardment has turned to creative expression, especially the craft of the spoken word, to process their suffering, to stiffen the courage of resistance and to gain solace from shared humanity in a world turned upside down. Drawing from a wide range of Ukrainian poetry in translation the evening also features original responses to these poems from Fire River Poets, plus actual poetry performed by Ukrainian speakers. Join us for a moving and powerful evening that will testify to the abiding strength of poetry, an art form that grows with meaning under the utmost pressure.Tickets: £5

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Nigel Phillips – The Nature of the Quantocks

Thu 20 Nov 2025, 7pm Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Nigel Phillips is here to talk about the nature of the Quantocks, an intimate mixture of hilltop heathland, oak woodland set in deep combes, and many fast-flowing streams, combine to create the Quantock Hills National Landscape. This detailed and informative book covers the well-known flowering plants and ferns, birdlife and mammals of these magnificent hills. It also explores lesser-known wildlife, with chapters on mosses and liverworts, fungi and lichens, and invertebrates. Living in Nether Stowey, on the lower slopes of Quantock, has given Nigel the opportunity to explore the hills on an almost daily basis. ‘The Nature of the Quantocks’ is the product of something like thirty years of in depth research and photography. Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Michael Burn – Mr Lyward’s Answer: From Square Pegs to well-rounded adolescents

Fri 21 Nov 2025, 7.00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Described at the time as “one of the most important educational experiments of the century,” Finchden Manor was a therapeutic community from 1939 to 1974 where visionary George Lyward OBE healed troubled adolescents. Please join us at Brendon Books for the relaunch of Michael Burn’s timeless true story, “Mr. Lyward’s Answer”, first published by Hamish Hamilton in 1956. Hear from Sarah Anderson on her deep connection to the book and determination to republish it. Then, Jeremy Harvey, former headmaster of Bishop Fox’s School, Taunton, and author of ‘Valuing and Educating Young People: Stern Love the Lyward Way.’
Tickets: £5 Book and Ticket: £12.99

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Brian Clegg – The Multiverse : When One Universe Isn’t Enough

Tue 25 Nov 2025, 7PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

NB PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN MOVED FROM FRI 14 NOVEMBER

The universe was supposed to be all there was – the whole of existence. For centuries the size of the universe and whether or not it is finite, fascinated scientists and philosophers. But however big the universe may be, there being only one gave astronomers and cosmologists a headache. Existence as we know it is contingent on so many constants in nature which, if altered only slightly, would make life impossible.
This seems so unlikely to happen by chance. What if, instead, there is in fact a vast range of different universes, with many variants of the universal contents, making ours just one of many that happens to be viable for life?
Tickets: £8

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Graham Fawcett – Auden in Europe NB UNFORTUNATELY THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL THE NEW YEAR

Wed 26 Nov 2025 6.30PM Venue:Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Auden in Europe is the latest chapter of the poetry memoir I have been sharing with Brendon Books audiences over the last year or so. Auden’s nostalgia for Europe after the war he had spent in America is powerful and productive. How he longed back to the Old World past, present and future. I follow him from New York to Ischia and Ancient Greece and from there north to Austria. My own Tuscan hilltop village life, which he helped inspire the very idea of, so often chimes with his. About the House is one of his greatest collections, his sequence of poems for each of the rooms in his Kirchstetten cottage welcomingly ingenious. Graham Fawcett worked as a writer, deviser, interviewer and presenter with BBC Radio Three for twenty-five years and has also broadcast on Radio 4, the World Service, and the Italian Service. Tickets: £12.50

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Lionel Ward – Somerset Odyssey: Volme 3 of the Elliot Todd Mysteries

Thu 27 Nov 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Following his earlier adventures in Rome, Elliot Todd finds himself in possession of an early edition of The Lyrical Ballads by Wordswoth and Coleridge, the seminal work of literature often identified as the origin of the Romantic Movement. He decides to donate the book to The Coleridge Society in Somerset by way of a walk along the Coleridge Way. It is a revelatory experience but things take an unexpected and menacing turn both for himself and his mother – who just happens to be in the area researching her dissertation in religious cults as a mature student.
This is the third volume of the Elliot Todd Mysteries following The Shakespeare Thief and Roman Holiday. Tickets: Free but please book in advance or reserve a copy of the book to include entry: £10.99

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

An Evening of Music with Amy Jeffs, Gwen Burns & Natalie Brice

Sat 29 Nov 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Tacchi-Morris Arts Ctr, School Rd, Monkton Heathfield, Taunton

Amy and Natalie will perform some ballads based on Amy and Gwen’s book Old Songs: Stories of Love and Death from Traditional Ballads. Old Songs fuses short stories, histories, lyrics and illustrations in an enthralling reimagining of traditional folk ballads. Sunday Times Bestselling historian Amy Jeffs and Illustrator Gwen Burns combine forces to create a rich compendium, singing of travel, mystery, magic and the essential urges of humanity. Featuring iterations of fairy tales and sinister descendants of Greek myths and bible stories, as well as a cast of lesser-known characters with names like Tam Lim, Child Wynd and Maisery, Old Songs threads a tapestry of Britain’s landscape, history and cultures.
Tickets: £15 NB TICKETS AVAILABLE DIRECT FROM THE VENUE ONLY www.tacchi-morris.com or 01823 41414

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742

Jo Middleton – Not Another Bloody Christmas

Tue 2 Dec 2025, 7:00PM Venue: Brendon books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER

Anna’s taking the family away for Christmas. Unlike last year, there will be no risk of her burning the turkey, far less nagging from her mother-in-law and – crucially – a zero per cent chance of finding a dead body in her larder. All she wants is to relax with a glass of wine in front of the fire.
  But when another group of guests show up just before a snowstorm, her plans begin to go awry. And the appearance of a dead body threatens to bugger up Christmas once again… Can Anna get merry and root out the murderer? Or will this be another bloody Christmas nightmare? A hilarious whodunnit that will keep you guessing this Christmas, perfect for fans of Gill Sims, Ian Moore and Richard Osman. Jo’s first two books, Playgroups and Prosecco’s and happy Bloody Christmas will be available to purchase and be personally signed after the talk, along with her new book.
Tickets: £5 Book

For further information/to book, click here or visit us: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER 01823 337742