Kathleen Sheppard – Women in the Valley of the Kings (Egyptian Society Taunton Talk)Tickets £10 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
The Egyptian Society Taunton are pleased to announce an event organised in association with the annual Taunton Literary Festival.
The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the so-called “Golden Age” of Egyptology, there were women working and exploring well before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Women were working in Egypt and in so doing, laid the groundwork for all future exploration. In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard tells the exciting stories of the earliest Western women Egyptologists.
Kathleen is a Professor in the History and Political Science department at Missouri S&T and lives in central Missouri with her husband, son, dog and cat.
Pen Farthing – Operation Ark
Brendon Books CIC, Taunton, TA1 4ER
Tickets £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Operation Ark is the powerful true story of the most controversial figure of the 2021 Afghanistan Evacuation.
Pen Farthing was branded a villain who put “pets over people”, blamed for deserting Afghans, and accused of risking British soldiers.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The government was “Missing in Action” with Pen caught in the crossfire. He had to steer his charity staff and animals through the dangers of a Taliban takeover and a political storm back home. This book is his account of the chaotic 14 days of the evacuation and its aftermath: offering a unique, important insight into the failures of the government, and setting the record straight.
“I do think it’s possible that as the government’s failures became evident, it needed a distraction. A bait and switch. In the hope that no one would notice the rank stench of failure, the narrative got flipped from me doing something decent against all odds, to me somehow being a villain putting others’ lives at risk.”
“Operation Ark was always about people and animals. Pen Farthing’s actions were nothing short of heroic.” – Ricky Gervais
Pen Farthing is an ex-Royal Marine Commando, founder of animal welfare charity Nowzad and author of Sunday Times bestseller, One Dog At A Time. While on tour in Afghanistan, Pen Farthing broke up an organised dogfight. Shocked by the experience, he founded the animal welfare charity Nowzad. For nearly two decades, Nowzad worked closely with coalition forces and the local community to provide lifesaving animal welfare, rabies prevention, and education for female vets. He was CNN’s Hero of the Year 2014 and was awarded the 2024 RSPCA Branch Award for Outstanding Contribution to Animal Welfare. Pen, and Nowzad, continue to work in Afghanistan and now Ukraine.
Roger Morgan-Grenville – Our Planet Our Choice
Tickets £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Roger Morgan-Grenville is a writer, speaker and campaigner on conservation, with a particular interest in biodiversity loss and recovery. As a story teller, he believes strongly in the power of persuasion and entertainment in the battle to halt decline, and promote regeneration. His recent books include Taking Stock: A Journey Among Cows, Across A Waking Land and The Return of the Grey Partridge, his latest book. He will give an overview on nature restoration and activism. His books will be available for sale at the event.
Brendon Books and Taunton Literary Festival in association with green groups in Taunton are delighted to bring you this author to discuss the climate and the ecological emergencies and their impacts. Strengthening partnerships between political and social movements is essential for driving positive change on climate, ecological, and social justice issues.These talks aim to amplify the community voices and ensure that they are heard loudly and clearly. Fostering an ongoing dialogue to support policy makers and to hold them accountable. You are welcome to add your views and concerns and strengthen the resolve for a brighter future. NB Please note, this talk was originally scheduled to take place on 27 June.
Elizabeth Delo – Writing the Natural World: Writing Workshop
Tickets £9 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Writers have always drawn inspiration from the natural world. In this workshop we will look at examples of nature writing in fiction and memoir and consider how the depiction of wildlife, landscape and weather can create mood. We will contemplate our changing world and whether we should all, as writers, be addressing the impact of climate change on our planet. Author Elizabeth Delo will guide you through a series of exercises to explore your relationship with nature and describe the physical world around you.
Everyone welcome. No previous writing experience needed.
Please bring your own pen and paper/writing pad if you can.
Dr Claire Plumbly – Burnout : How to Manage Your Nervous System Before it Manages You
Brendon Books CIC, Taunton, TA1 4ER
Fri 27th September 2024, 7pm
Tickets £5 or Book and Ticket £17.99 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Our human nervous system has the power to cope with high stress but not when it’s been ground down by the relentless stimuli of today’s world. Over time, these persistent demands leave us burnt out because our nervous system is stuck in survival mode. In this mode, we have reduced capacity for rational thinking and less capacity to care. It becomes hard to make decisions, rest, solve problems, be mindful and set boundaries.
Drawing on polyvagal theory and her professional insights as a trauma therapist working with clients experiencing anxiety, trauma and burnout, Clinical Psychologist Dr Claire Plumbly will help you understand:
– Why stress is different from burnout
– How burnout stifles your ability to interact, think clearly and be productive or creative.
– Why you get stuck in burnout and cannot ‘think’ your way out of it or engage in activities you know could help you.
– Cultural beliefs and psychological patterns that cause burnout
– How to soothe your nervous system back to full capacity using techniques and compassion.
By the end of this book, you will have tools to thrive amidst the challenges of modern life, at work, at home and through positive interactions and relationships.
Tom Heap – Land Smart : How to Give People and Nature the Space to Thrive
Temple Methodist Church, Upper High Street, TA1 3PY
Sat 28th September 2024, 7PM
Book and Ticket £25.00 General Admission: £9 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
We need land for so many of humanity’s growing needs, such as food, renewable energy, carbon storage and housing. Traditionally, we’ve stolen it from nature, but this has led to a mounting toll of extinction and pollution that is now punishing us. So, as there’s no land left to take, how do we get more from the same, or preferably less.
In Land Smart, Tom Heap, a presenter on BBC TV’s Countryfile, Radio 4’s new Rare Earth series and the anchor of The Climate Show on Sky News, tours the British countryside meeting the farmers, scientists, conservationists and even warehouse managers who are solving the most pressing challenges facing our countryside and the world. If we use land cleverly it can give both humanity and nature the space to thrive on just the one planet. If not, we’re in trouble.
‘A terrific book’ Michael Morpurgo. ‘Excellent’ Helen Czerski’ A clear, concise and accessible guide to the pivotal question of our age’ Guy Shrubsole.
Debbie Young, Frances Evesham and Lionel Ward – Crime Panel
Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER
Mon 30th September 2024, 7pm
General Admission: £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Join three writers for an evening discussion of their books plus crime writing in general. Frances Evesham’s is the author of the Exham-on-Sea and Ham Hill crime series (set in Somerset) while Debbie Young is the author of the Sophie Sayers Mysteries, The Gemma Lamb Cozy Mystery & Tales from Wendelbury Barrow – among other books. They will be joined by Lionel Ward of Brendon Books who is the author of the Elliot Todd Mysteries, The Shakespeare Thief and Roman Holiday.
Lucy Pollock – The Golden Rule : Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing
Temple Methodist Church, Taunton
Wed 2 Oct 2024, 6.30pm
Tickets £8 or £20 for ticket and book from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Today, we are living longer lives, and have choices now as never before about how we will age. What will make us happy? What are we frightened of, and what might allay those fears? What changes, made right now, will help us to flourish as we age?This book contains lessons I’ve learned from thirty years of working with older people and those close to them. It looks at problems that can be fixed with tests and tablets, and problems that require a different sort of medicine.
I explain what I have been taught about loss, about impossible families, about becoming older without children, and the important things I have learned about sexuality, race, love, and living with uncertainty. The power has been in the wrong place for too long – medical teams have not always heard the voices of older people or those who love them. But if we are given power to influence the lives of our future selves, how best shall we use it? What do we want? What difference can we make?This is the moment for us to act, to set in place a better society for older people, and to build the future we want for ourselves..
Helena Kelly – Jane Austen, The Secret Radical
Tickets £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Almost everything we think we know about Jane Austen is wrong. Her novels don’t confine themselves to grand houses and they were not written just for readers’ enjoyment. She writes about serious subjects and her books are deeply subversive.
We just don’t read her properly – we haven’t been reading her properly for 200 years. Jane Austen, The Secret Radical puts that right. In her first, brilliantly original book, Austen expert Helena Kelly introduces the reader to a passionate woman living in an age of revolution; to a writer who used what was regarded as the lightest of literary genres, the novel, to grapple with the weightiest of subjects – feminism, slavery, abuse, the treatment of the poor, the power of the Church, even evolution – at a time, and in a place, when to write about such things directly was seen as akin to treason.
Uncovering a radical, spirited and politically engaged Austen, Jane Austen, The Secret Radical will encourage you to read Jane, all over again.
A sublime piece of literary detective work that shows us once and for all how to be precisely the sort of reader that Austen deserves.’ Caroline Criado-Perez, Guardian
Lucy Ash – The Baton and the Cross
Tickets £8 or Book and Ticket £25 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
For more than a millennium, the Russian Orthodox Church has shown astonishing survival skills – from the Mongol yoke, to tsarist demagoguery and enlightenment, Soviet atheism, the chaotic 1990s and now two decades of Vladimir Putin. In this provocative new book, Lucy Ash reveals how, under Putin, religion is being stripped of its spiritual content and used as a weapon to control the population in a way never seen before. Orthodox clerics and their acolytes are trying to drag Russia backwards into a new Middle Ages.
Combining historical research with vivid present-day reportage, The Baton and the Cross explores the impact the Church is having on millions of Russians’ lives – from the tower blocks of Moscow and the big cities to far-flung villages in Siberia. Delving into the underbelly of politics, state security and big money, Ash shows how these forces have formed an unholy alliance with Orthodoxy.
Lucy Ash is an award-winning presenter of radio and TV documentaries. An expert on Russia and post-Soviet countries she was first sent to Moscow by the BBC in 1990 and has been covering the region’s social, political, and cultural issues ever since. The Baton and the Cross is her first book.
Where the Spirit Takes You – An evening with Fire River Poets
Tickets: £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we first started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot Four Quartets
Welcome to an exciting evening of new poetry read by Taunton’s longest-established, highly acclaimed poetry group, Fire River Poets.
With a dozen distinct and outstanding poetic voices – and a wealth of national publication and competition success between them – this high quality, entertaining evening of original verse explores the themes of journeys, homecoming and what it might mean to fully belong on this earth.
Robin Ince-An Obsessive’s Tour of Bookshops (& Libraries)& Reflections on Humour and Humanity
Tickets: £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Comedian, author and broadcaster Robin Ince (Of Infinite Monkey Cage fame) returns to Taunton.
Robin Ince’s stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to the pandemic. Rather than do nothing, he decided instead to go on a tour of over a hundred bookshops in the UK, from Wigtown to Penzance; from Swansea to Margate, including Taunton and Brendon Books. He returns to talk about his experience and the book that resulted and also to talk about his book I’m a Joke and So Are You: Reflections on Humour and Humanity, reprinted in paperback last year. Informed by personal insights as well as interviews with some of the world’s top comedians, neuroscientists and psychologists, this is a hilarious and often moving primer to the mind. We advise booking early as space in the bookshop is limited.
Robin Ince – Bookshop Stand-Up: The Universe and The Neurodiverse
Tickets: £10 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
A new poetry and story show from Robin Ince.
What if being a bit weird is actually entirely normal? What if sharing our internal struggles wasn’t a sign of weakness, but strength?
A quirky and witty dive into the world of human behaviour – and the workings of the universe
The show will be accompanied by books.
Sharon Jacksties – A History of the World in 100 Tales
Books and Ticket: £18.99 General Admission: £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
All humanity is described by its stories. They are as rich and varied as the landscapes and creatures with which we share our planet. It is our capacity for language and our need for storytelling that allow us to make sense of our existence.
This book not only travels across the surface of the world with its tales from every continent – it also travels through time itself. Retelling our oldest stories shaped by our distant ancestors, but still remembered even today, the journey begins with creation myths from every part of the world. Our timeline then brings us to mythological tales from the pantheons who populated this and their divine worlds, and who once were believed to influence the lives of everyone.
More recent history offers the vast store of folk tales characterizing cultures that have emerged in the last few hundred years, and new stories continue to be created
Alice McIlroy – The Glass Woman
Thu 24th October 2024, 12.00 mid-day
Tickets £15. from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
2-course lunch with a glass of wine (£40 including the talk) For this option book direct with the Castle Hotel here https://www.the-castle-hotel.com/diary/ Or telephone 01823 328303.
A message from Kit Chapman MBE, Proprietor, The Castle at Taunton.
Earlier this year, Alice McIlroy’s The Glass Woman, was given to me as a gift from a friend. The book is the author’s debut novel and after reading it, I immediately recognised a new and exciting young talent on the British literary scene. For this reason, I was keen to persuade Lionel Ward at Brendon Books to invite her to speak at this year’s Taunton Literary Festival.
Alice’s theme is the controversial world of Artificial Intelligence which she transforms into a spellbinding psychological thriller. It is a riveting read which will grip your attention to the novel’s final line.
Louise and I are delighted to be welcoming Alice to join us and other book lovers at The Castle for a special literary lunch on 24th October. All part of the town’s Literary Festival and Brendon Books’ Festival of Autumn Talks.
So do please join us.This is an event not to be missed. You will enjoy listening and chatting with her. Indeed, Alice is now completing the final edits to her second novel. And book three is already in development.
The Programme
We start at midday when Alice McIlroy will give a talk and be interviewed by Lionel Ward, Founder of the Taunton Literary Festival. After the talk and book signing, there is also the opportunity to join the author for a 2-course lunch with a glass of wine (£40 including the talk). The lunch will begin at about 1:15pm.
For those coming to the talk only(£15), you are welcome to reserve a table in Brazz. If you would like tickets for the talk-with-lunch offer, please book direct with the Castle Hotel here https://www.the-castlle-hotel.com/diary/ Or telephone 01823 328303.
About The Glass Woman
Pioneering scientist Iris Henderson awakes in a hospital bed with no memories. She is told that she is the first test-subject for an experimental therapy, placing a piece of AI technology into her brain. She is also told that she volunteered for it. But without her memories, Iris doesn’t know what the therapy is or why she would ever choose it. Everyone warns her to leave it alone, but Iris doesn’t know who to trust. As she scratches beneath the surface of her seemingly happy marriage and successful career, a catastrophic chain of events is set in motion, and secrets will be revealed that have the capacity to destroy her whole life.
Alice McIlroy graduated in English from Exeter University and has a post-graduate degree in Law. She completed Faber Academy’s novel-writing programme. Her writing has been longlisted for the Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction and the Grindstone International Novel Prize. The Glass Woman is her debut novel.
Matt Chorley – Planes, Trains and Toilet Doors : 50 Places That Changed British Politics
Tickets £9. Ticket and Book £18 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Forget Westminster bust-ups and PMQs, some of the key events that have shaped modern British politics happened not in the cloisters of parliament or Downing Street’s many corridors of power, but in car parks, village halls and seaside resorts where the mundane have played host to the mighty. From Pitt the Younger’s Putney Heath duel to finding Margaret Thatcher a voice coach on a train, Harold Wilson’s ‘Scilly’ season holidays to John Major’s dental appointment clearing his path to No10 – these (and many more) are the places where chance meetings, untimely deaths and snap, sometimes daft, decisions changed the course of politics. Matt Chorley has spent almost two decades covering Westminster, interviewing prime ministers, mocking ministers and chronicling the serious, and sometimes unintentionally absurd, events which act as unlikely turning points in the direction of a nation. Illustrated by award-winning political cartoonist Morten Morland,
“A rollicking ride” – William Hague “Like a bag of political nuts – moreish and fabulously salty” – Joe Lycett
Matt Chorley has been a Westminster-based political journalist since 2005, when politics was boring, and it has gradually got madder as he worked his way through the Press Association, Western Morning News, Independent on Sunday, MailOnline and The Times, where he now a columnist. Since 2020, he has presented the mid-morning show on Times Radio. A sell-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 led to a small 14-year break from comedy before his debut stand-up This. Is. Not. Normal. in 2019, during which somebody called an election. His second tour, Who Is In Charge Here?, only had to deal with a war and the collapse of the government.
John Lewis-Stempel – England : A Natural History
Book and Ticket: £25 General Admission: £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Our countryside is iconic: a series of distinctive habitats that unite to create a landscape that is unique for the rich diversity of our flora and fauna. In England, his most magisterial book to date, John Lewis-Stempel explores each in turn, taking us from coast to moor, from downs to field, from the park to the village to create a vivid living portrait of our natural history. In his trademark lyrical prose, Lewis-Stempel reveals the hidden workings of each habitat: the clear waters and dragonflies; the bluebells, badgers and stag beetles; wild thyme; granite cliffs; rock pools and sandy beaches; red deer standing at ancient oaks; the wayside flowers of the lane; hedgehogs and hares; and snow on the high peak.
Each landscape – be it calm green or wild moor, plunging cliff or flatland fen – has shaped our idea of ourselves, our sense of what it is to be in England. In a stunning package, complete with decorated boards, endpapers, chapter heads and a map, England: A Natural History is the definitive volume on the English landscape and the capstone of John Lewis-Stempel’s nature writing.
Christian Wolmar – The Liberation Line : The Last Untold Story of the Normandy Landings
Tickets £8 or Book and Ticket £25 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
They certainly were not soldiers, yet they suddenly found themselves in uniform, in a foreign land. But, as locomotive drivers, track-workers, conductors, porters, signalmen and engine cleaners, they knew how to run trains.
And their job was to bring them back to life. The Liberation Line tells the thrilling story of the British and American railway engineers who, in the months after D-Day, worked around the clock and in great danger to rebuild the ravaged railways of Europe and keep the Allied forces fuelled as they pushed on into Germany. As territory was taken, these soldier-railroaders were close behind, rebuilding the lines, putting up telegraph wires, replacing bridges and laying track, all the while dodging bullets, shells and booby traps.
Tales of extraordinary feats and heroism abound, including how 10,000 men rebuilt a 135-mile-long railway in just three days; the reconstruction of the bridge over the Seine in two weeks while under bombardment; and the use of cigarette lighters as improvised signalling systems. Despite being critical to Allied victory, the role of the railwaymen has been largely forgotten or ignored. In a vivid and gripping narrative, Christian Wolmar brings to life this colourful cast of generals and engineers, without whose extraordinary bravery the liberation of France and invasion of Germany might well have foundered – and the course of history changed.
‘Highly original’ Simon Heffer, Telegraph’Masterful… A gripping tale’ Giles Milton
Adrian Webb – Churchill’s Secret Chart Makers
Tickets £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
This new book records the trials and tribulations of staff in the Hydrographic Department during World War Two. The importance and secrecy during WW2 of the preparations for the Invasion of France is well documented and publicised. Eight decades later, British and foreign allied services still attend to remember and celebrate those heroes who ventured all. From these ports the Allies would sail for D-Day, delayed by storms until the 6th of June, went thousands men and ships in tight formation.The Hydrographic Department of the Navy was responsible for all the charts and navigational products designed, compiled, proofed, printed and distributed to the Allies. The vital work in Taunton and Bath, without which the invasion would fail, was undertaken in total secrecy. All that outsiders knew was that the buildings used were simply “the Admiralty”. The numbers of charts produced by the Department are staggering, as in 1938 only just over one million (M) were issued, compared with almost seven million in 1944. During the war 30.7M charts and diagrams were supplied to 4,969 vessels from fourteen allied countries, compared with an average of 3.5M over a similar period in peacetime. This increase had a tremendous effect on chart making staff in the Department. The stories of the secret chart making activities has not been told until the publication of this book – “Churchill’s Secret Chart Makers: the Road to D-Day and Beyond in Somerset, 1939-1945”. It details the work of the Hydrographic Department predominantly based in Taunton and Bath, with satellite operations in Exeter, Frome, Ironbridge, Armadale, Nottingham and London. Written by a local historian, Dr Adrian Webb, it brings to light the importance of the work undertaken by the Department. Based on a wide range of sources, including interviews with war-time staff. Dedicated to the staff who worked in the Department during World War Two.
Brian Clegg – Brainjacking: The Science of Influence and Manipulation
Tickets £8 or Book and Ticket £20 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Brainjacking takes us on a journey through advertising and marketing’s attempts to understand and influence our thoughts and desires, from the earliest billboards to the technologies of the future. To discover how science intersects with our desires and decisions, the book pulls together three strands that have a huge impact on our lives: advertising, how much privacy we can and should have in the new electronic world, and how to draw the line been information and influence. With Brian Clegg as your guide, this is a book that will help you unpick the insidious world of brainjacking.
Expertly pulling together different strands on disparate topics including AI, Big Data, subliminal advertising and more, this essential investigation shows how new and old technology and science can be combined to influence human behaviour and beliefs.
Cara Dillon – Coming Home
Tickets £12.50. In this case please book direct with the venue here or by telephone on 01823 414141
In the world of folk music, few shine as brightly as celebrated Irish singer Cara Dillon, renowned for her transcendent voice and emotional performances. This special event will see Cara discuss her debut book, Coming Home. Published in March 2024, it is a deeply personal narrative that sees her reflecting on her remarkable family and deep connection to the people, culture and land of her native Co Derry in the North of Ireland, alongside captivating insights into her place in the world and her journey – both as an artist and a mother. Evolving from a collection of original poems which form the basis of her acclaimed new album (her first in over six years) in which she presents the pieces in a stunning blend of spoken word and song. In addition to the interview, Cara will perform 3 or 4 pieces accompanied by her husband on guitar.
With both the book and album receiving five-star reviews, and completing three sell-out UK and Irish tours totalling over 45 dates, not to mention being a featured guest on Woman’s Hour, the impact of Cara’s latest work is undeniable.
Reflecting on her heritage, Cara shares, “I grew up in a small town in Co Derry, but my mother (92) and late father were both born on the same remote hillside in the Northern Sperrin Mountains on land my family still owns and farms. It’s a beautiful but barren place that evokes deep emotions in me, and the stories I grew up listening to were simply extraordinary. It’s taken me until now to realise how precious they are, and what a privilege it’s been to have a direct link through my parents to a time that seems truly a world away.”
Maria McManus, Director of Poetry Ireland, offers high praise for Cara’s book, describing it as, “Memoir, poems, guidebook, diary. It is a work of intimacy, love, and affection, unguarded and authentic. It’s both blanket & magic carpet. It’s the tent of childhoods spent dreaming under a night sky in summer. It’s boundless.”
Cara is no stranger to the West Country though, she is a longtime resident of Frome, Somerset, and together with her husband, fellow musician/producer, Sam Lakeman (who hails from West Devon), she can often be found performing intimate shows with Sam throughout the West.
Having previously given book talks at prestigious literary festivals in Belfast, Dublin, London and Bath, we’re thrilled to have Cara join us here in Taunton.
Certainly not one to miss.
Will include audience Q&A and book signing.
Hazel Prior – Gone With the Penguins
Tickets £5 or Book and Ticket £9.99 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
From the No.1 bestselling author of Away with the Penguins comes the heart-warming and charming final chapter of Veronica McCreedy’s story. “Emperor penguins defy the odds, and I shall too.”Still fiery and feisty at eighty-seven, Veronica McCreedy, the very first Penguin Ambassador, is determined to prove that nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it. Eileen, Veronica’s ever-patient assistant, is content taking care of other people.
But when a new adventure calls, it makes her question everything… Ten-year-old, penguin-obsessed Daisy can’t wait to be reunited with Mrs McCreedy in her huge house by the sea for the school holidays. When they discover that the local Sea Life Centre is under threat, the unlikely trio are determined to save it and the penguins that live there.
Inspired by the penguins and fuelled by Darjeeling and finger sandwiches, they embark on an epic fundraising walk. But soon, their mission becomes so much more and it might just lead each of them to a new beginning… PRAISE FOR HAZEL PRIOR‘Beautifully written by a born storyteller’LORRAINE KELLY’Funny, bittersweet and wholly original’DAILY EXPRESS ‘Veronica McCreedy will capture your heart’TRISHA ASHLEY”This adorable tale will put a smile on your face’GOOD HOUSEKEEPING‘A glorious, life-affirming story’CLARE MACKINTOSH
Damien Boyd – From The Ashes
Tickets £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Damien will be talking about his latest book From the Ashes and others in the bestselling DI Nick Dixon crime series set in Somerset.
FROM THE ASHES
Long lives are being cut short in this thriller from the bestselling DI Nick Dixon crime series. A retired teacher is found dead in her Somerset home on a cold January night. At first glance, it is a routine unexplained death and a simple referral to the coroner, until a neighbour reports an unscheduled visit from an occupational therapist an hour before the body was discovered.
Detective Chief Inspector Nick Dixon is convinced the elderly woman has been strangled—a cause of death confirmed by the pathologist—and a murder investigation is launched. More victims are soon found—a second retired teacher who died in eerily similar circumstances in Devon. Then a possible third victim is exhumed in Dorset.
Leading a regional task force, Dixon must find the connection between the victims. As the coincidences mount, he begins to fear he has stumbled on something premeditated and deeply sinister—a serial killer targeting the elderly in their own homes.
Nicola Tallis – Young Elizabeth
Tickets £8 or Book and Ticket £25 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Acclaimed Tudor historian, Nicola Tallis introduces her new book Young Elizabeth, a Times Book of the Week. This colourful and immensely detailed biography charts Elizabeth’s turbulent and unstable upbringing, exploring the dangers and tragedies that plagued her early life.
Elizabeth I is one of England’s most famous monarchs, whose story as the ‘Virgin Queen’ is well known. But queenship was by no means a certain path for Henry VIII’s younger daughter, who spent the majority of her early years as a girl with an uncertain future. Before she was three years old Elizabeth had been both a princess and then a bastard following the brutal execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn.
After losing several stepmothers and then her father, the teenage Elizabeth was confronted with the predatory attentions of Sir Thomas Seymour. The result was devastating, causing a heartbreaking rift with her beloved stepmother Katherine Parr. Elizabeth was placed in further jeopardy when she was implicated in the Wyatt Rebellion of 1554 – a plot to topple her half-sister, Mary, from her throne.
Imprisoned in the Tower of London where her mother had lost her life, under intense pressure and interrogation Elizabeth adamantly protested her innocence. Though she was eventually liberated, she spent the remainder of Mary’s reign under a dark cloud. On 17 November 1558, however, the uncertainty of Elizabeth’s future came to an end when she succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty-five.
When Elizabeth became queen, she had already endured more tumult than many monarchs experienced in a lifetime. This colourful and immensely detailed biography charts Elizabeth’s turbulent and unstable upbringing, exploring the dangers and tragedies that plagued her early life. Nicola Tallis draws on primary sources written by Elizabeth herself and her contemporaries, providing an extensive and thorough study of an exceptionally resilient youngster whose early life would shape the queen she later became.
The heart racing story of Elizabeth’s youth as she steered her way through perilous waters towards England’s throne is one of the most sensational of its time.
Make a Photo Album – bookbinding workshop with Megan Stallworthy
Tickets £60. In this case, please book direct here
Learn to make a small, hard cover album with Japanese style stitching, to use for photos, ephemera or as a memory book. This practical, hands-on workshop is suitable for beginners or those with some bookbinding experience, with all the materials and tools supplied. You will take home a beautiful album and the skills to make more independently. Please note, the workshop usually sells out quickly so please book early to avoid disappointment.
The Starling
Tickets £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Following his bestselling biographies of some of our favourite birds, including The Robin, The Wren and The Owl – author and naturalist Stephen Moss now turns his attention to an incredible bird that lives on nearly every continent and, despite seeming plain at first glance, takes our breath away when they take to the skies in huge flocks – the Starling. Though it is easy to overlook a solitary starling, even with its beautiful iridescent plumage, when they come together in the thousands they take to the skies in awe-inspiring swooping flocks called murmurations. Starlings live almost all over the world – they’re are common bird throughout Europe and the Palearctic to western Mongolia, and are recent residents of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji, migrating seasonally as far North as Scandinavia.
Discover how their love of fruit gets them into trouble, how they can help farmers by eating insects, how their skill for mimicry has inspired centuries of folklore and how they were brought to new continents by one man’s passion for Shakespeare.
Ursula Franklin – Mission Penguin : A photographic quest from the Galapagos to Antarctica
Tickets £5 or Book and Ticket £25 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
A beautiful photographic celebration of the world’s 18 species of penguin. Featuring breathtaking photographs of the world’s 18 species of
penguin, Mission Penguin takes you to many of the remotest places on earth, from the Falkland and Galapagos Islands, to the Antipodes Islands and Tristan da Cunha.
Following the loss of her husband, Ursula Clare Franklin embarked on a personal mission to see and photograph every species of penguin in their natural habitat. The result is a remarkable showcase of penguins – hundreds of striking photographs accompanied by engaging text that details the penguins’ features and characteristics. Each chapter explores a new penguin species and details Ursula’s spectacular journey to see and photograph these much-loved birds.
This astonishing and informative book explores the difficulties all penguins face and how humanity’s actions have threatened their very existence. Ursula warns of the devastating effects of climate change and the conservation efforts needed to ensure future generations can continue to experience the healing presence of penguins. This is a story that will inspire, uplift and educate.
Stuart Flinders – A Very British Cult : Rogue Priests and the Abode of Love
Book and Ticket £20 General Admission: £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
A rogue Anglican Priest. Ceremonial sex and mislaid fortunes.This is the almost-forgotten story of Victorian Britain’s strangest religious sect and its wealthy, mostly female, followers who believed they could ascend directly to heaven. Henry James Prince was a rogue Anglican Priest with a flare for the dramatic, and the founder of the Agapemone, or ‘Abode of Love’. He also claimed to be the immortal conduit of The Holy Spirit and purportedly engaged in free love and ceremonial sex with his mostly female followers.But Prince’s eventual death didn’t mark the end of this strange set… he was promptly replaced by another. John Hugh Smyth-Pigott – otherwise known as the Clapton Messiah.The Abode transformed a sleepy, rural corner of Somerset into one of England’s most notorious locations. While the followers shut themselves away and waited patiently for the end of the world, outrage grew – the word ‘Agapemone’ because a byword for licentiousness or idleness, used by Charles Dickens and Ford Maddox Ford. The reclusive Clapton Messiah became a fixture in the nation’s papers, with frenzied efforts to discredit the organisation and undermine its leader.And still the cult grew. Expertly drawing on primary sources to tell the story of the Agapemonites in details for the first time, Stuart Flinders shines a light on the people drawn to the cult – the forced marriages; the swindled fortunes; the women condemned to asylums; and those who managed to escape from the Abode. It is also the story of two extraordinary men, whose claims of divinity were at the heart of this very British cult.
Stuart Flinders has been a journalist for nearly four decades, with his work involving BBC News, fronting Radio 4’s You and Yours for many years, and presenting live concerts on Radio 3. He also writes and is the author of Cult of a Dark Hero: Nicholson of Delhi (2018).
Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
Brendon Books CIC, Taunton, TA1 4ER
Tickets £8 or book and ticket £30 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld takes readers behind the scenes of the amazing partnership between Sir Terry Pratchett and artist Paul Kidby. It shows how the Discworld was brought to visual life – from the earliest sketches to the final magnificent masterpieces – and how Terry and Paul absorbed influences from art and pop culture, fusing them into the Discworld landscape. Whilst Terry was the undisputed creative fountainhead, for three decades Paul has been the artistic force taking the people, places and piece of man-eating luggage from Terry’s ever-fertile imagination right into our world.
This is a unique insight into one of the great literary partnerships, packed full of hitherto unseen art and the real stories behind it.
Please note, Rob Wilkins, Pratchett’s former assistant, friend and head of the Pratchett literary estate will give a talk with illustrations. We hope that the author Paul Kidby will attend, but this is not certain.
.
Tim Pears – Run to the Western Shore
Book and Ticket £9.99 General Admission: £5 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
A powerful novel about destiny, home and surviving in a world in flux
Britain, AD 72.
Quintus, long exiled from his people, has travelled great odysseys in the retinue of a powerful Roman. Though a citizen of nowhere, is a man of reason, fluent in many languages. Olwen, imperious tribal royalty, is rooted in her native land – a volatile warrior, fiercely attached to the natural world.
Given away by her father as part of a peace treaty, Olwen flees during the night, taking Quintus with her. Hunted by an army, the two make their way across the country, living off the land, heading for the western shore…
‘A beautiful love story with an incredible sense of place’ – The Times
Tim Pears is a Lannan Prize-winning author and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His books include In the Place of Fallen Leaves (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award), In A Land of Plenty (made into a ten-part BBC series), Landed (shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, winner of the MJA Open Book Awards), and The West Country Trilogy.
Simon Elliott – Vincent: A Graphic Biography
Fri 22 November 2024, 7pm
Tickets £8 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
I know for sure that I have an instinct for colour, and painting is in the very marrow of my bones’ The life of Van Gogh has gone down in legend as the archetypal artist’s existence. He was irascible and short-tempered, hugely passionate and emotional, absurdly talented and, for most of his lifetime, notoriously misunderstood and under-appreciated. And yet today, we see him as one of the most inventive, influential and admired painters of the entire Western canon, if not a genius.
Taking us through his short but explosive life, this graphic novel paints a vivid picture of Van Gogh’s unusual youth, his famous early failures, his discovery of a new style of painting, his tragic suicide, and the meteoric artistic legacy that followed. For those looking for an introduction to this incredible artist, or searching for a fresh take on his story – this is Vincent Van Gogh’s life as you’ve never seen it before.
Countess Carnarvon – Seasons at Highclere
Ticket: £15 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
NB There is also the option 2-course lunch with a glass of wine (£40 including the talk) with this event . In this case, please book direct with The Castle Hotel here https://www.the-castlle-hotel.com/diary/ Or telephone 01823 328303.
Gardening, Growing, and Cooking through the Year at the Real Downton Abbey.
Join Lady Carnarvon as she opens the gates to Highclere Castle, the ‘real Downton Abbey’, and discover how the iconic British landmark celebrates and changes each season. This book reveals the treasures within Highclere Castle’s land and estates: Georgian architecture, follies, secret gardens, the monks’ garden, wildflower meadows and the woods of enchantment. Alongside history and anecdotes, this book also details sumptuous recipes for dishes inspired by local, seasonal produce, such as Heritage Tomato Tart, Highclere Baked Figs with Goats Cheese, and Honeyed Winter Vegetable Salad.
Beautifully illustrated with full-colour photography, Seasons at Highclere is full of gastronomical delights, the stories of the treasures within Highclere Castle’s grounds, untold secrets from the castle’s archives and much more. This is the perfect gift or keepsake, and a book to be cherished for years to come
Graham Fawcett – Dante
Tickets £12.50 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
Dante and Me tells the story of a life-changing coincidence of love-lives on the streets of Florence in 1273 and 1975 and how it led to Graham’s discovery of the poet of the Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri.
After three years spent living in Tuscany and working in Florence without having read a line of Dante, Graham moved to the French Catalan town of Cérét in the Eastern Pyrenees in 1976. One afternoon at the end of Winter, he writes, “an American couple asked us to tea just out of town. There was a thunderstorm on. We went anyway. Later, as we left, the elderly husband handed me a book. “Read that”, he said. It was a paperback edition of Dante’s Inferno translated into English verse by John Ciardi.
I had not read a line of Dante before. It was like the storm breaking all over again. That book led to a life in which Dante has been presidential. I wish I could remember my benefactor’s name. But his wife was Grace, and the publisher Mentor.
It set me reading and translating Dante’s Inferno. My prose version was completed in 1978. It was the beginning of my experience of Dante. He has never gone away”.
Dante Alighieri is one of the chapters Graham has recently completed for a book-in-progress about his poetry life, Being There.
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.
Nick Smart – David Bowie: The Collector
Tickets £8 or Book and Ticket £25 from: Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER Box Office 01823 337742 or click here for online booking
If it’s true that most musicians who worked with Bowie did their best work with him, is it also the case that Bowie’s work benefited enormously from the ideas and creativity of the people he surrounded himself with? As he himself said, ‘It’s not what you steal, it’s how you use it!’A study of the people from whom Bowie borrowed from is long overdue. Bowie’s own genius is beyond question, but Nick Smart teases out the elements on which Bowie built his success. His profound sense of artifice, his ability to tap into the zeitgeist of his times and his gift for gathering ideas and influences from a variety of sources and rearranging them to produce not only new perspectives but also brand-new ideas made him the artist he became.
Having interviewed dozens of David Bowie’s friends and collaborators as joint editor of David Bowie Glamour magazine, Nick finds himself with an enviable perspective about what – and who – made the David Bowie that is celebrated worldwide today. He describes the influences that Bowie picked up on and examines the creative ideas drawn from those he surrounded himself with to produce a unique portrait of a unique star and the myriad ideas that inspired him.