The Paddington Bear Party

Cynthia Gamble's book launch

Persephone Books at Acton Round

We were delighted to take part in Wenlock Festival by organising an event with Nicola Beauman, founder of Persephone Books. We had a wonderful evening, well blessed by the weather. My thanks to the Kennedys for their generosity in hosting the event, and to Tom Foxall for these photos. More of Tom's work can be seen at http://www.tomfoxall.com/

Poppy Adams

First time novelist Poppy Adams spoke to a full house at the Guild Hall on Friday 4th July.

Children's Reading Group: Dower House Garden

We took our lovely children's reading group to have a picnic tea at the Dower House garden with Katherine Swift. The rain meant that we took our picnic in the kitchen but it didn't stop us from exploring the garden.

Katherine talked to the children about the research for her book, and about the many intriguing excavations she made while first digging the garden.

The children took notes, and we hope they will write something about their afternoon: watch this space!

The Morville Hours: champagne and strawberries!

Some forty of us descended upon the Dower House Garden on Sunday June 22nd to enjoy glasses of pink champagne and bowls of luscious strawberries, locally picked by Katherine and Sandy, served with lashings of clotted cream. What a feast! Add to that the beauty of the garden on an afternoon when the rain just held off, and we've got a pretty special event.

After a browse of the garden, Katherine led us into her library and talked to us about the writing of the book and the making of the garden. Lots of interesting questions followed, which Katherine answered with grace, humour and frankness: we were charmed!

The book signing afterwards looked something like a mini-Hay!

How Fiction Works

The first course of seminars run by Betty James concluded with afternoon tea at the Copper Kettle. The next course starts in October and will study The Good German by Ford Maddox Ford with How Fiction Works by James Wood. It is a seven week course held at the bookshop on Tuesday afternoons, and costs £2.50 per session. Each person attending will need their own copies of the texts.