Authors Among The Bookshelves - Celebrating Independent Bookshop Week 2025
Warwick Books, Warwick, CV34 4SL
Friday 20th June 2025
Promising you a colourful evening, and most possibly a touch chaotic, but with the aim to celebrate literature, writing and independent bookshops!
Come and join us in celebrating independent bookshops with local authors who will be available to talk about their books and what they are recommending to read at the moment.
You can expect drinks and nibbles and a special 10% discount on all purchases on the night as well as a £5 Warwick Book Gift Voucher to use as well!
Authors attending are Adam Sharp, Caroline Lea, Fran Hill, Kit de Waal, Leena Norms, Natalie Marlow and Rick Thompson.
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
An evening with Fran Littlewood - The Favourite
Warwick Books, Warwick Books,, CV34 4SL
Tuesday 24th June 2025
Join us to hear Fran talk about her latest book and have the opportunity to ask questions and get your book signed. A bit about The Favourite: Alex, Eva and Nancy. Three grown-up sisters; each wonderful and messy in their own individual ways. And loved equally by their parents, Vivienne and Patrick. Or so they thought . . . Until on their annual family holiday, Patrick accidentally reveals that he has a favourite daughter - causing other long-buried secrets to come to light.
Set over a single week, but examining the highs and lows that define a family over the decades, The Favourite is a story about rivalries and long-held resentments, about loss and grief and blame – and, above all, about love. Fran Littlewood’s debut Amazing Grace Adams was an instant New York Times bestseller, Read With Jenna pick and was published in 17 territories. Amazing Grace Adams was published to huge critical acclaim including: ‘Littlewood writes with ferocity and compassion . . . Read it and weep, then cheer’ (The Times), ‘A glorious tragicomedy’ (Daily Express) and ‘Rarely have I felt more seen than by this book’ (Good Housekeeping).
‘Now and again I read a book which is so FABULOUS I get queasy with jealousy. This is one such book. God, I wish I had written it. 3 sisters in their 40s. Funny, dark, fascinating and utterly UTTERLY convincing. On my QWJ (Queasy With Jealousy) Scale, I award it 16/10.’ Marian Keyes
‘Fran writes like a wilder, more breathless Claire Lombardo . . . A huge talent. Set over the course of a family reunion that goes very wrong, THE FAVOURITE is a layered, textured story about the reverberations of the past and secrets in a family, and a psychologically astute look at love and relationships. It’s wonderful and very funny. You’re in for such a treat. I LOVED it.’ Georgina Moore, author of The Garnett Girls
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
Smartphone Nation by Dr Kaitlyn RegHer - Why we're addicted to screens and what we can do about it
Warwick Hall, Warwick, CV34 4SL
Monday 30th June 2025
A chance to listen and ask questions as Dr Kaitlyn Regehr talks about her latest book, Smartphone Nation, where she gives the tools and understanding you need to protect yourself, and your family.
More about the book:
Smartphone Nation will transform the way you – and your children – understand your devices and how they affect you. In this practical, agenda-setting book, Dr Kaitlyn Regehr – one of the UK’s leading experts on digital literacy – explains the corporate and technological structures that hold us all on our screens that bit longer and gives you the tools to push back against them effectively.
This life-changing guide provides not only practical tips, clear takeaways and tested strategies, it also sets out why we are still so unprotected in the digital space and why we should all be challenging tech companies and governments to create change. Covering Regehr’s ground-breaking research on algorithms, screen addiction and the rise of online misogyny, this book transforms how we understand our devices and their impacts on us and our children.
Smartphone Nation is essential reading for parents and anyone who has ever worried about how they interact with their devices
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
An evening with Abigail Johnson - The Secret Collector
Warwick Books, Warwick, CV34 4SL
Tuesday 1st July 2025
Join us for a conversation with author Abigail Johnson talking about her book - The Sercet Collector. When an elderly eccentric collector and a troubled teen become each other's only hope of getting their lives back on track, what can possibly go wrong?
Alfred is an elderly widower who uses antiques and collectibles to fill the hole in his heart left by his late wife. Kian is a lost teen who has been let down by the care system and finds it difficult staying on the straight and narrow. After Kian throws a brick through Alfred's window, the shock sends Alfred to hospital and a social worker to his home, where his hoarding becomes impossible to ignore.
Begrudgingly, and at the request of the authorities, they both agree to enrol Kian on a restorative justice programme, helping to make Alfred’s home liveable again. The only problem: Alfred doesn't want to throw any of his treasures away, and he certainly doesn’t want Kian for company. What unfolds is a surprising and delightful journey of two characters who help each other more than they ever could have anticipated and, along the way, form the unlikeliest of friendships.
An uplifting and warm story about friendship across generations, the power of community and finding hope where it had been lost. Perfect for fans of Sally Page’s The Keeper of Stories and Evie Woods's The Lost Bookshop.
'Wonderfully drawn characters you really root for . . . a delightfully uplifting story' - Mike Gayle, author of All the Lonely People
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
An evening with Kathy Slack - Rough Patch: How a Year in the Garden Brought Me Back to Life
Warwick Books, Warwick, CV34 4SL
Tuesday 8th July 2025
A MEMOIR OF BREAKDOWN, RECOVERY, GROWTH AND LESSONS FROM THE EARTH
Please expect and prepare to be getting your hands dirty as we connect to the soil and listen to Kathy's inspiring story.
When Kathy was forced to quit her high-flying career in London, she was a wreck – burnt out, anxious, consumed by depression. But she found solace in an unlikely place – the veg patch. She put her hands in the soil and found a way to grow, to sow some small seeds of hope. In ROUGH PATCH, Kathy draws us into the world of the kitchen garden to reflect on the lessons she learnt from the soil, along with sharing recipes inspired by the land. Weaving together her own story of recovery with the year she spent growing and cooking her harvests, Kathy realises that the two are tightly bound together and that reconnecting with the earth could restore her hope and renew her life. Along the way there are tales of marauding pigs, transformative insights from planting leeks, recipes for an unchecked courgette glut and the discovery of why a radish seed is worth staying alive for. The result is a candid, hopeful and sometimes funny story about the healing powers of nature; a quiet manifesto for a more connected life...
'Kathy Slack’s story is transformative. Life-affirming, inspiring and most of all, full of hope, it proves beyond all doubt the miracle cure that is mud beneath your fingernails.’
KATE HUMBLE
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
An evening with Robin Ince - Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal : My Adventures in Neurodiversity
Friends Meeting House (Quaker Society of Friends), Warwick, CV34 4AX
Friday 11th July 2025
A powerful, personal exploration of anxiety, ADHD and neurodiversity, Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal reminds us all – no matter how weird we feel – that it’s okay to be a little different. We all are. 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.
In Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, Robin uses his own experiences to explore the neurodivergent experience and to ask what the point of “being normal” really is. Packed with personal insights, intimate anecdotes and interviews with psychologists, neuroscientists and many
neurodivergent people he has met along the way, this is a quirky and witty dive into the world of human behaviour.
With Professor Brian Cox, he created and presents the award-winning BBC Radio 4 show The Infinite Monkey Cage, which ranks among the most popular science podcasts worldwide. He also won Celebrity Mastermind but forgot that calcium was the dominant element of chalk. After being diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 52, he finally has an excuse.
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
An evening with A. D. Bergin - The Wicked Of The Earth
Warwick Books, Warwick, CV34 4SL
Tuesday 23rd September 2025
The biggest of all British witch trials. The mass, all-female campaign to free the accused. A. D. Bergin in conversation about his break-out historical thriller ‘The Wicked Of The Earth’, the appalling true history, blending fact and fiction, and the uncomfortable contemporary resonance of the events of 1650.
October, 1650 Traumatised Parliamentarian spy James Archer returns north seeking his sister Meg, missing in the aftermath of Newcastle's recent witch trials. Aloof, enigmatic Elizabeth Thompson draws him to investigate the ongoing killing of women who had worked to free the accused. But when Elizabeth herself becomes hunted, the only chance of escape lies in Archer setting himself as bait.
Set against the backdrop of the greed and brutality of Interregnum England, The Wicked of the Earth is an historical thriller perfect for readers of Andrew Taylor, S J Parris, or C J Sansom. The Newcastle Witch Trials of 1649 and the fervour which surrounded the Republic claimed the lives of twenty-six women and one man. Following the English Civil War, the women who had maintained the land and towns of England, came under scrutiny for their elevated position in society.
Combined with the Republic's puritanical Christianity, the Newcastle Witch Trials swept through the city. Unlike other trials of the time, the Newcastle "witches" were hung from the scaffold. This book is dedicated to their memory.
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
An evening with Sasha Butler - The Marriage Contract
Warwick Books, Warwick Books,CV34 4SL
Tuesday 14th October 2025
Join us for an evening with Sasha talking about her latest book The Marriage Contract. You'll have the opportunity to ask questions and have your book signed by the author. A little more about The Marriage Contract:
‘Once she had thought of them, their love, as a fortress that nothing, not giants nor dragons nor men with fists and minds of gore could tear down. She realises now, that their love is malleable, mouldable, breakable. As soft as dreams.’ Summer in Worcestershire, 1577.
Eliza Litton, a talented artist, is in love with childhood friend, Francis. But her tyrannical father, who rules the household with insults and fists, has other ideas. As summer comes to an end, Francis vanishes after a drunken night at the inn and Eliza’s father forces her to marry a gentleman, Edmund. Thrown into a new, unfamiliar life with her husband who appears distant and cold, Eliza cannot tear herself from the memory of Francis. Yet her feelings for Edmund soften with time; he presents a life to her better than she ever dreamed. He provides her a safety she never had beneath her father’s roof and encourages her to paint, to pursue the things she loves. As she begins to fall for Edmund, Francis is adrift on his own voyage, doing all he can to survive, fixated on returning to Eliza. But as Eliza grows closer to Edmund, she uncovers a deceit she never imagined, causing her to question her own loyalties and commit her own betrayals. After everything, who will Eliza be? And what choices will she make? The Marriage Contract vividly portrays life in the precarious and unforgiving Elizabethan era, exploring love’s many forms; how we can betray the ones we love, and how we can find forgiveness; and explores a woman’s fight to follow her desires and find her autonomy.
You can book tickets in the shop or online at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/warwick-books
“A venue fit for a king! It was a fantastic evening, they had arranged it all perfectly. I am gobsmacked and over the moon all at once!”
We’re delighted to host a rich series of literary events in and around Warwick. These include our popular 'Meet the author' events. The talks usually last about an hour, followed by questions, and then there is an opportunity to meet the speaker and have a book signed. Previous authors Melvyn Bragg, Jodi Picoult, Kate Williams, Professor Edith Hall and Dr Elizabeth Goldring. These events take place across Warwick including the beautiful Lord Leycester Hospital. We also support Warwick Words Festival.
Refreshments provided by local independent businesses are served at all of our events!
“Huge thanks for a fab event yesterday!”