EVENTS

Upcoming:   * Jenny Eclair * Shirley Ballas *

We run a vibrant series of high profile author events in favourite local venues ~ including our bestselling Literary Lunches. These are jolly social occasions and Tickets make great presents. For advance notice sign up to our Newsletter on the Home page.

Tickets from the bookshop, or by telephone 01253 796 958.

If you would like a Signed Book from an Event please visit the Signed Books page to pre-order or pop into the bookshop.

Lunch with acclaimed comedian & novelist

Jenny Eclair

Jokes, Jokes, Jokes: My Very Funny Memoir

Fri 11th Oct 2024 

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon) 

Tickets £42 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Acclaimed comedian, broadcaster and bestselling author Jenny Eclair will be returning to her home turf of Lytham to celebrate the publication of her memoir. The first woman to win the Perrier Award – the UK’s top comedy award – in 1995, she has a huge list of credits to her name. She has toured multiple successful shows, written 7 novels, co-written & starred in Grumpy Old Womenon BBC1, co-hosts the podcast Older and Wider, written the BBC Radio Four Little Lifetimes monologues and has been a contestant on Taskmaster, Richard Osman’s House of Games, Celebrity MasterChef, The Great Pottery Throw Down Festive Celebrity Special, The Apprentice: You’re Fired!, and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here to name just a few!

How did little Jenny Hargreaves become Jenny Eclair and elbow her way into the male dominated world of 1980s stand-up?Daughter of Major Derek Hargreaves (spy?) and June Hargreaves (spy’s wife?) sister of Sara (born to be Head Girl) and Ben (the usurper), Jenny’s comedy career took off via drama school, cider, sausage rolls, sleeping with men who looked like they lived under a carpet, punk poetry, anorexia, bedsit misery, waitressing and not really having a clue about anything. This was a world before microphones, mobile phones, before everyone gave up smoking or started taking coke. Jenny Eclair was on the comedy circuit before there really was a comedy circuit and was the first woman to win the Perrier Award along the way.

Still gigging to sell-out crowds forty years later, Jenny Eclair’s memoir charts her childhood, her career and the changing face of women in comedy, all told with hilarious brilliance in Jokes, Jokes, Jokes, her very funny memoir.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with world renowned dancer & Strictly Judge

Shirley Ballas

Dance To The Death

Wed 16th Oct 2024 

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon) 

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Shirley Ballas is Queen of Latin Ballroom, a bestselling author, and head judge on BBC 1’s Strictly Come Dancing. Originally from Wallasey, Shirley has been dancing since the age of seven. She is three time ‘British Open to the World’ Latin American Champion, ten-time US Latin American Champion, and multiple-times British National Champion. Shirley is one of the most renowned dancers in the world. She writes the Sequin Mysteries with Sheila McClure, a news and entertainment producer/cameraman for over a decade, who writes romcoms and cosy crime.

It’s Christmastime in London and all is not calm . . . After solving a series of murders at Blackpool Tower Ballroom, all Lily Richmond and Susie Cooper want is a peaceful Christmas. The last thing they expect is to find a dead body backstage at the Royal Albert Hall. Even worse, the victim is one of Lily’s students, a trust fund debutante set to be the new star of the ballroom dancing world. Lily and Susie set to investigating, but every clue throws up more questions, and around every corner lurk more suspects. And along the way, familiar faces on the dance scene will make themselves known – some that ought to stay in the past. Will the unlikely duo manage to wrap up the case in time to enjoy the holiday with their loved ones? Or is there a greater danger behind the scenes than they could have imagined? 

Two amateur detectives on the case. One second chance romance. Sex, lies and backstabbing.  And a whole lot of deadly ambition. . . If you like your crime deadly and your romance spicy, look no further!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

PREVIOUS EVENTS

We have run lots of fantastic events over the years – a huge thankyou to everyone for coming and making them so successful! Here are some of our recent previous events:

Lunch with iconic bestseller & creator of Rebus

Sir Ian Rankin

Midnight and Blue

Tues 8th October 2024 ** SOLD OUT **

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon) 

Tickets £42 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Join us to hear Sir Ian Rankin, the multimillion-copy worldwide bestseller of over thirty novels and creator of John Rebus. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. In 2024, a new Rebus six-part TV series was broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Sir Ian Rankin is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards, including the Diamond Dagger, the UK’s most prestigious award for crime fiction. In the United States, he has won the celebrated Edgar Award and been shortlisted for the Anthony Award. In Europe, he has won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the German Deutscher Krimipreis. In 2022, he received a knighthood for his services to Literature and Charities.

They say there is nowhere more dangerous for a cop than prison. John Rebus is about to find out just how true that is.

John Rebus’s appeal is stalled and his lawyers have stopped calling, as he hopes for the best but fears the worst. As the days bleed into each other, and the nights stretch before him, even the legendary detective struggles to keep his head. That is, until a murder in a locked cell presents a new mystery. They say old habits die
hard. Everyone else is about to find out just how true that is too.
 
On the outside, Siobhan Clarke investigates the disappearance of a girl who never came home from school. Jasmine Andrews’ friends swear they haven’t seen her, and she hasn’t contacted them. But something about this case doesn’t add up. Is Jasmine, missing or on the run? Is she in danger, or is this something stranger?
 
Back inside, as new friends and old enemies begin to circle, Rebus finds himself at the centre of a case where the prisoners and the guards could all be suspects. But how do you find a killer in a place full of them?

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with broadcaster & award winning writer

Louise Minchin

Isolation Island

Mon 23rd Sept 2024 

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon) 

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Louise Minchin is most famous for her 20 year stint on BBC Breakfast, but she has also been the main news anchor on the BBC News Channel and the BBC’s One O’clock News and presented The One Show, Five Live Drive, Real Rescues and Missing Live. Her television career has also seen her participate in a number of
reality TV shows including ITV’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Channel 4’s Time Crashers and the BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef. Louise last visited Lytham with her bestselling and award winning Dare to Tri her inspiring journey from the BBC Breakfast sofa to representing Great Britain at the World Triathlon Championships. Isolation Island is her first novel.

‘pacy and tense with true-to-life characters that leap off the page. I loved it!’ – CLARE MACKINTOSH

 

IT’S A PRIZE ANYONE WOULD KILL TO WIN…
Ten celebrities have arrived to take part in the most gruelling – and lucrative – reality survival show ever
devised: two weeks completely alone on a remote Scottish island, in the depths of winter.
With a production team that seems incapable of keeping them safe, a gathering storm and the
unrelenting gaze of hidden cameras, the contestants are stretched to the limit as they try and outshine
their fellow competitors and hide their darkest secrets.
But when a contestant winds up dead, it soon becomes clear that the players are not just fighting for the
prize, but for their lives.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with international bestseller & creator of ITV’s GRACE

Peter James

One Of Us Is Dead

Tues 17th Sept 2024 

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon) 

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are thrilled to have a return visit from Peter James – internationally bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper.

Much loved by crime and thriller fans for his fast-paced page-turners full of unexpected plot twists, sinister characters, and accurate portrayal of modern day policing, he has won over 40 awards for his work and to date has written an impressive total of 20 Sunday Times No. 1s.

When James Taylor arrives late for a funeral, he has to stand at the back of the small church. But, as the service progresses, Taylor notices a man six rows in front of him.

At first he thinks he must be mistaken, but the more he looks at the man, the more convinced Taylor becomes that this is his old schoolfriend Rufus Rorke. Except it couldn’t be him, could it? Because two years ago Taylor attended Rufus Rorke’s funeral. He even delivered Rufus’s eulogy.

On the other side of Brighton, at Police HQ, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has been alerted to a number of suspicious deaths that he can’t get out of his mind. But how are they linked? And how could they possibly be connected to Rufus Rorke? Roy Grace is about to find out just how dangerous a dead man can be.

‘Peter James is one of the best British crime writers and therefore one of the best in the world’ – Lee Child

‘Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business’ – Karin Slaughter

‘One of the world’s most popular detective series’ – The Guardian

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch to celebrate

Lucinda Riley’s

The Hidden Girl

with son & co-author Harry Whittaker

Thurs 12th Sept 2024 

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon) 

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Long before she became the bestselling author of The Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley wrote ‘Hidden Beauty’ as Lucinda Edmonds. This standalone novel has been reworked and given new life as The Hidden Girl by Harry Whittaker, Lucinda’s son and co-author of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt. We are delighted to welcome Harry back to Lytham after his last sold out visit!.

You can’t alter destiny . . .Born and raised in a small village on the Yorkshire moors, Leah Thompson grows more beautiful with each passing day.

When she catches the attention of the influential, troubled Delancey family, she knows her life will never be the same again. Years later, Leah takes the modelling world by storm, travelling from Milan to London and New York and living life in the lap of luxury. But her past follows her like a dark shadow, mysteriously intertwined with the tragic tale of two young siblings in Poland during the Second World War. As two generations of secrets threaten to explode, Leah is haunted by a fatal, forgotten prophecy from her past, and must fight to challenge the destiny that has been mapped out for her in the stars . .

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with international bestseller & creator of VERA and SHETLAND

Ann Cleeves

The Dark Wives

Thurs 29th August 2024 **SOLD OUT**

** This Event is Sold Out but you can still preorder Signed Books **

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12 noon  (doors 11.30am) * Earlier Start *

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are excited to welcome back internationally bestselling author Ann Cleeves. The author of 37 critically acclaimed novels, an international bestseller translated into over 20 languages worldwide, Ann is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, found in ITV’s VERA, BBC One’s SHETLAND and ITV’s THE LONG CALL.  The Dark Wives, is her 11th Vera novel.

A body is found by an early morning dog walker on the common outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member, who never showed up to work.

DI Vera Stanhope is called out to investigate. Her only clue is the disappearance of fourteen-year-old resident Chloe. Vera can’t bring herself to believe that a teenager is responsible for the murder, but even she can’t dismiss the possibility.

Vera, Joe and new team member Rosie are soon embroiled in the case, but when a second body is found near the Three Dark Wives standing stones in the wilds of the Northumbrian countryside, folklore and fact begin to collide. Vera knows she has to find Chloe to get to the truth, but it seems that the dark secrets in their community may be far more dangerous than she could ever have believed.

Join us for this fantastic event.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with bestselling author and broadcaster

Reverend Richard Coles

Murder At The Monastery

Wed 12th June 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to be welcoming back bestselling author and broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles to Lytham.  A writer, broadcaster and an Anglican priest, Rev Richard Coles is best know to us from Radio 4 where he co-presented Saturday Live and from TV where he appears, from time to time, on QI, Have I Got News For You, and Would I Lie To You?

Canon Daniel Clement has suffered a secret humiliation and to recover takes respite at the monastery where he was a novice. But the monastery doesn’t allow the break he needs, for tensions are building there too. There is a death at the monastery, and Daniel thinks it might be murder.

Meanwhile back at Champton, Daniel is the subject of village gossip, his mother Audrey is up to something again, there’s trouble at the dress shop, trouble up at the big house, and the puppies are running riot. As dark secrets unfold, can Daniel solve the mystery at the monastery without the help of Detective Seargeant Neil Vanloo?

‘Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice’ Ian Rankin
‘Charming and funny’ Observer
‘Even better than I knew it would be’ India Knight
‘The unlikely heir to Barbara Pym’ Telegraph
‘Quintessentially English’ Sunday Express
‘Beautifully written, charming, funny, intelligent and mordant too’ Sunday Times

Join us for a fantastic and un-missable event with all round National Treasure Rev Richard Coles!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with international bestseller

Santa Montefiore

Shadows In The Moonlight

Mon 17th June 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We welcome Santa Montefiore to Lytham for the first time – one of our most requested authors! The internationally bestselling author of 26 novels and 4 books for children, we are excited to hear about her new novel, the first in a new series.

‘Remarkable and compelling’ JULIAN FELLOWES

‘Nobody does epic romance like Santa Montefiore’ JOJO MOYES ‘ 

FORBIDDEN LOVE. AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE… When Pixie Tate is summoned to the wild Cornish coast to unravel a curious mystery at the stately St Sidwell Manor, she knows that something quite extraordinary must be hiding in its shadows.

Over one hundred years ago, in the dark of night, a child vanished from his bed never to be seen again – and Pixie must now discover the truth of those final moonlit hours. As she loses herself in the past, secrets are revealed, love affairs exposed and, ultimately, Pixie will be forced to make a devastating choice that will change her life forever.

Join us for a magical afternoon.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with bestselling thriller writer

Harriet Tyce

A Lesson in Cruelty

Thurs 23rd May 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £35 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We’re excited to host Harriet Tyce for the first time in Lytham. Tyce practised as a criminal barrister for ten years before changing her career path to creative writing and crime fiction. The Sunday Times bestselling author of Blood Orange, The Lies You Told and It Ends at Midnight will be talking about her new book A Lesson in Cruelty.

They say you can’t always get what you want. But you can take it. Anna wants a fresh start. She doesn’t believe she deserves it, but after three years behind bars she has finally paid her dues. Most of them, anyway. 

Lucy craves the attention of the only man she can’t have, her alluring Oxford professor. He’s married – not for the first time. Maybe she should be next in line?

Marie the recluse has been locked up for too long. She’s not ready to be free, but some rules are meant to be broken. 

Everyone wants a perfect life. But not everyone is prepared to take it. Unless someone decides to teach them a lesson. 

Join us for a thrilling treat of an event!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with the bestselling Lake District writer 

Kerry Irving

Forever Max

Wed 10th April 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to welcome Kerry and his spaniels to Lytham! Kerry will be talking about Forever Max, – the heartwarming, inspiring final chapter in the life of Max the Miracle dog.

A dog can be more than just a best friend. Sometimes they can be our hero. Shortly after a traumatic car accident, Kerry Irving met Max, a Springer Spaniel who completely changed his life. But Max didn’t stop there. For over ten years, he was a source of inspiration to countless others around the world, with hundreds of thousands of pounds being raised in his name. His was truly a life well lived.

Forever Max sees Kerry and his trusted companion take on their final adventures around the Lake District, from providing joy to those stuck inside through lockdown to adjusting to Max’s twilight years, helped along every step of the way by fellow spaniels Paddy and Harry.

Join us for this fantastic event!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners. (Please note we cannot unfortunately welcome your own dogs to this event)

Lunch with the bestselling author of Finding Hildasay

Christian Lewis

Hildasay to Home

Wed 27th March 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Ex-paratrooper Christian Lewis hit headlines around the world with his amazing journey walking the coast of Britain, raising money for SSAFA the armed forces charity, and his first memoir Finding Hildasay was a Sunday Times Bestseller. We’re delighted to welcome him to Lytham to hear about the next stage of his journey – interviewed by local author and walker Steve Garrill.

Walking saved his life. Now it will help find him a family.

Since his time on Hildasay, Chris’ adventure has only gotten wilder. No one was more surprised than Chris when, in November 2020, he had an unlikely (seemingly destined) encounter with fellow adventurer Kate. The two turned out to be kindred spirits and “ even more astonishingly” Kate made the bold decision to join Chris on the walk of a lifetime.

Day in, day out, as they trekked the coastline down from Scotland together, their relationship grew, and soon the couple were thrown in at the deep end when their first child, baby Magnus, arrived. But, away from Scotland, Chris’ struggles with mental health returned. The solitude of Hildasay seemed far away, and he unravelled once again.

Through injuries and setbacks, with Jet the dog ageing and baby Magnus growing by the day, the adventurous family of four had to find their feet and come together to complete this epic challenge. They’ve navigated the east coast of Scotland, through Yorkshire and East Anglia, and struggled on to the Jurassic Coast where Chris slowly came back into himself. In Hildasay to Home Chris finally crosses the finish line back in Swansea with almost half a million pounds raised for SSAFA.

He reflects beautifully on all that he’s learned and the family he’s found for himself along the way.

Join us for an inspiring event!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

An afternoon with broadcaster & debut novelist

Lorraine Kelly **Sold Out – signed copies still available to order **

The Island Swimmer

Mon 12th Feb 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £35 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to welcome beloved broadcaster Lorraine Kelly to the Lytham with her debut novel.  Lorraine is best known for her weekday show on ITV and has also hosted and presented many other TV programmes including The Last Leg, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Have I Got News For You and The Paul O’Grady Show. She has also appeared as a guest on shows as diverse as Question Time and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Her novel is inspired by her passion for the Orkney islands and its people.

 

When Evie’s father falls desperately ill, she finally returns to the family home on Orkney and the wild landscape she left as a teenager, swearing never to return. Not everyone is happy at her arrival, particularly her estranged sister Liv, their relationship broken after a childhood trauma. As Evie clears out her father’s neglected house to prepare it for sale, lonely Evie finds herself drawn to a group of cold-water swimmers led by her old friend Freya, who find calmness beneath the waves.

Together they help Evie face up to the mistakes in her past, unlocking a treasure of truths that will reverberate through the community, and shake her family to its core.

The Island Swimmer is a captivating story about the importance of being true to yourself, with characters so real it is as if they are sitting beside you! Join us for what promises to be a brilliant event.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

An afternoon with international bestseller

Tess Gerritsen

The Spy Coast

Thurs 25th Jan 2024

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are thrilled to welcome internationally bestselling and multi-award winning Tess Gerritsen to Lytham. Author of over 31 suspense novels over a 36 year career, which began while on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she will be talking about her latest novel, the first in a new series.

Maggie Bird is many things. A chicken farmer. A good neighbour. A seemingly average retiree living in the seaside town of Purity.

She’s also a darned good rifle shot. And she never talks about her past. But when an unidentified body is left on Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a calling card from old times.

It’s been fifteen years since the failed mission that ended her career as a spy, and cost her far more than her job. Step forward the ‘Martini Club’ – Maggie’s silver-haired book group (to anyone who asks), and a cohort of former spies behind closed doors. With the help of her old friends – and always one step ahead of the persistent local cop – Maggie might still be able to save the life she’s built.

‘Gerritsen is a born storyteller, and this new series showcases her talents more than ever. Irresistible and highly recommended!‘ LEE CHILD

‘Action-packed pages, G-force twists and turns, and a platoon of fascinating characters’ DAVID BALDACCI.

 ‘I loved it. A hugely entertaining read!’ ANN CLEEVES

Join us for a fantastic thrilling event.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with multi-million international bestseller

Terry Hayes

The Year of the Locust

Thurs 16th Nov 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

For the last decade the most asked question in our bookshop has been ‘Has Terry Hayes written the book after I Am Pilgrim?’

We are beyond excited to say ‘Yes’ and to welcome the internationally bestselling Terry Hayes to Lytham with the much anticipated The Year of the Locust.

If, like Kane, you’re a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA, then boundaries have no meaning. Your function is to go in, do whatever is required, and get out again – by whatever means necessary.

You know when to run, when to hide – and when to shoot. But some places don’t play by the rules. Some places are too dangerous, even for a man of Kane’s experience.

The badlands where the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet are such a place – a place where violence is the only way to survive. Kane travels there to exfiltrate a man with vital information for the safety of the West – but instead he meets an adversary who will take the world to the brink of extinction. A frightening, clever, vicious man with blood on his hands and vengeance in his heart…

Hayes is a former journalist and a multi-award-winning screenwriter. He wrote screenplays for, among others, Mad Max, Dead Calm, From Hell and Vertical Limit.

Hayes has said “It’s the 10th anniversary of the publication of I Am Pilgrim which to my eternal gratitude found a huge audience around the world. To my great relief I have now completed my new novel which has been a far longer journey than I anticipated. To say that it’s epic is something of an understatement.”

Trust us – this is one event you don’t want to miss!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

An afternoon with international bestseller

Sir Jeffrey Archer

Traitors Gate

Thurs 28th Sept 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £27 from the bookshop 
include author talk and signed Hardback

We welcome back Sir Jeffrey Archer – consumate storyteller and one of the world’s bestselling authors, with sales of over 275 million copies – with his new novel Traitors Gate.

24 hours to stop the crime of the century. The race against time is about to begin…

THE TOWER OF LONDON… Impenetrable. Well protected. Secure. Home to the most valuable jewels on earth. 

But once a year, the Metropolitan Police must execute the most secret operation in their armoury when they transport the Crown Jewels across London. 

SCOTLAND YARD… For four years, Chief Superindendent William Warwick – together with his second-in-command Inspector Ross Hogan – has been in charge of the operation. And for four years it’s run like clockwork. 

THE HEIST… But this year, everything is about to change. Because master criminal Miles Faulkner has set his heart on pulling off the most outrageous theft in history – and with a man on the inside, the odds are in his favour. Unless Warwick and Hogan can stop him before it’s too late…

An unputdownable new thriller from the master storyteller.

Format: author talk, audience Q&A and a signed hardback.
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958

 

Lunch with broadcaster and author

Julia Bradbury

Walk Yourself Happy

Mon 18th Sept 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

Join us to hear Julia Bradbury as she tells us about her new book Walk Yourself Happy. Julia is best known for launching three television channels and presenting numerous significant long term series including Watchdog, Top Gear and Countryfile.

Can something as simple as going for a walk really improve your life? Julia says the simple answer is: YES. Julia knows first-hand the profound impact of nature: it has helped her survive breast cancer, overcome infertility and continue through failed IVF treatments; it balances the soul and acts as a confidante and therapist. Walk Yourself Happy  explores the importance of building nature into your everyday life, so you eat well, sleep better and move more.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Bookshop Signing with International Bestseller

John Connolly

The Land of Lost Things

Sat 9th Sept 2023

4pm in the bookshop

Tickets FREE from the bookshop 

We are thrilled to welcome back the multi-million copy bestseller John Connolly as he makes a tour of his favourite bookshops! John will be signing copies of his new book The Land of Lost Things – the follow up to The Book of Lost Things.

‘I’ve been waiting for this book for over 15 years and it is everything I hoped it would be and more. Simply breathtaking’ Mark Billingham.

If you would like to meet John in persn and have a book signed (and dedicated if you wish!), then do join us in the bookshop. This is a ticketed event and tickets are free – please contact us to reserve your free ticket.

Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958

 

Lunch with internationally bestselling author

Kate Mosse

The Ghost Ship

Tues 18th July 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £39 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are thrilled to be welcoming back international bestseller Kate Mosse with her new novel The Ghost Ship.

 

Piracy. Romance.Revenge. Across the seas of the seventeenth century, two seafarers are forced to fight for their lives. The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months it has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved during the course of their merciless raids, manned by a courageous crew of mariners from Italy and France, Holland and the Canary Islands. But the bravest among them are not who they seem. The stakes could not be higher.

If arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes. Can they survive the journey and escape their fate? A sweeping and epic love story, ranging from France in 1610 to Amsterdam and the Canary Islands in the 1620s, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling novel of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes and hidden secrets on the High Seas. Most of all, it is a tale of defiant women in a man’s world.

The Ghost Ship is the third in the No 1 bestselling Joubert Family Chronicles, which includes The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears. Kate Mosse is an international bestselling author with sales of more than five million copies in 42 languages. Her fiction includes the novels Labyrinth, Sepulchre, Citadel and The Winter Ghosts.

Kate is the co-founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction (previously the Bailey’s Prize and the Orange Prize) and in June 2013 was awarded an OBE for services to literature.

Join us for what will be a brilliant event with this internationally renowned author.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with internationally bestselling thriller writer

Shari Lapena

Everyone Here Is Lying

Thurs 20th July 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £36 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to welcome Shari Lapena to Lytham. She is the internationally bestselling author of the thrillers The Couple Next Door, A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest, Someone We Know, The End of Her and Not a Happy Family, which have all been Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers.

 

Welcome to Stanhope – a safe neighbourhood. A place for families. William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road.

So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter Avery unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery’s family declare her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery’s neighbours become increasingly unhinged. Who took Avery Wooler? Nothing will prepare you for the truth.

Shari Lapena’s books have been sold in over forty territories around the world. She lives in Toronto so this is a rare opportunity to hear her talk in the UK about her new book – join us for a thrilling event!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with bestselling historical novelist 

Alison Weir

Henry VIII: The Heart & The Crown

Tues 20th June 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £40 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

Alison Weir, the No 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Six Tudor Queens series, and one of the UK’s foremost historians, returns to Lytham with her latest historical novel about Henry VIII.

Six wives, One King. You know their stories. Now it’s time to hear his. The magnificent new Tudor novel from the author of the Sunday Times-bestselling Six Tudor Queens series.

A second son, not born to rule, becomes a man, and a King…In grand royal palaces, Prince Harry grows up dreaming of knights and chivalry – and the golden age of kings that awaits his older brother. But Arthur’s untimely death sees Harry crowned King Henry of England. As his power and influence extends, so commences a lifelong battle between heand and heart, love and duty.

Henry rules by divine right, yet his prayers for a son go unanswered. The future of his great dynasty depends on an heir. And the crown weights heavy on a king with all but his one true desire.

Alison Weir’s most ambitious Tudor novel yet reveals the captivating story of a man who was by turns brilliant, romantic and ruthless: the King who changed England forever.

‘History has the best stories and they should all be told like this‘ Conn Iggulden

‘Alison Weir makes history come alive as no one else’ Barbara Erskine

‘This novel will open your eyes and, at times, break your heart. By the end of it, I felt like I had met Henry for the first time’ Tracy Borman

‘Alison Weir is ahead of the curve – and at the top of her game. Her wide knowledge and unparalleled understanding of the Tudor era fuels a sympathetic…portrait of England’s most compelling King.’ Sarah Gristwood

Join us for an enthralling event with one of the UK’s best historians and historical novelists.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with Broadcaster and Bestselling Author

Reverend Richard Coles * SOLD OUT *

A Death in the Parish

Mon 19th June 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £38 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to be welcoming bestselling author and broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles to Lytham. His debut, Murder Before Evensong, was a No 1 Sunday Times bestseller, and he will be with us to talk about A Death In the Parish, which sees the brilliant return of Canon Daniel Clement.

A writer, broadcaster and an Anglican priest, Rev Richard Coles is best know to us from Radio 4 where he co-presents Saturday Live and from TV where he appears, from time to time, on QI, Have I Got News For You, and Would I Lie To You?

Canon Daniel Clement is back… and so are his mother Audrey, the inhabitants of Champton and – of course – Cosmo and Hilda, Daniel’s beloved dachshunds.
It’s been a few months since murder tore apart the community of Champton apart. As Canon Daniel Clement tries to steady his flock, the parish is joined with Upper and Lower Badsaddle, bringing a new tide of unwanted change. But church politics soon become the least of Daniel’s problems. His mother – headstrong, fearless Audrey – is obviously up to something, something she is determined to keep from him. And she is not the only one.  
And then all hell breaks loose when murder returns to Champton in the form of a shocking ritualistic killing…

‘Whodunnit fans can give praise and rejoice’Ian Rankin
‘Charming and funny’Observer
‘Even better than I knew it would be’ India Knight
‘The unlikely heir to Barbara Pym’ Telegraph
‘Quintessentially English’Sunday Express
‘Beautifully written, charming, funny, intelligent and mordant too’ Sunday Times

Join us for a fantastic and un-missable event with all round National Treasure Rev Richard Coles!

 Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with International Bestselling Crime writer

Mark Billingham

The Last Dance

Thurs 8th June 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £38 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

After a brilliant event in February, we are thrilled to welcome back the No 1 bestselling crime writer Mark Billingham with the first in a brand new series set in Blackpool.

 ‘Readers rejoice! A captivating new series from Mark Billingham, the very best in the business’ RICHARD OSMAN

 

Meet Detective Miller: unique, unconventional, and criminally underestimated… He’s a detective, a dancer, he has no respect for authority – and he’s the best hope Blackpool has for keeping criminals off the streets.

A double murder in a seaside hotel sees a grieving Miller return to work to solve what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. Just why were two completely unconnected men taken out? Despite a somewhat dubious relationship with both reality and his new partner, can the eccentric, offbeat Miller find answers where his colleagues have found only an impossible puzzle?

‘Funny, moving, and full of surprises … an absolute treat’ MICK HERRON

‘Billingham blends caustic humour, raw emotion and rollercoaster thrills. His new series is bursting with wit, charm and intriguing, complex characters’ JANICE HALLETT

Come join us to hear about the first of Mark Billingham’s brand new series.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with International Bestseller

Joanne Harris

Broken Light

Wed 24th May 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £38 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to be welcoming the internationally renowned and award-winning author Joanne Harris back to Lytham. Joanne is best known as the author of the bestselling Chocolat, which was adapted into a film with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, and she was last in Lytham with a sold out event for The Strawberry Thief. She will be talking about her latest stand alone novel Broken Light.

 

Bernie Moon’s ambitions and dreams have been forgotten by everyone else – including Bernie herself. At 19 she was full of promise, but now facing 50 and going through the menopause she’s a fading light. Until the murder of a woman in a local park unlocks a series of childhood memories, and with them, a talent that she has hidden all her adult life. What happens when the frustrations and power of an older woman are finally given their chance to be revealed?

Joanne Harris is the internationally acclaimed author of eighteen novels, plus novellas, scripts, short stories, libretti, articles and most recently a self-help book for writers. She is honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College Cambridge, and is Chair of the Society of Authors. In 2012 she became one of the elite group of authors to join the Platinum Hall of Fame – authors who have achieved a million sales of a single book in the UK – and all her subsequent novels have been bestsellers. She was awarded an OBE in 2022 for her services to literature.

Come join us for what promises to be a fantastic event!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with Lucinda Riley’s son & co-author of the Internationally bestselling SEVEN SISTERS series

Harry Whittaker

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt

Tues 16th May 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £38 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

We are huge fans of Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series and are delighted to welcome her son and co-author Harry Whittaker to Lytham to talk about the final book in the internationally bestselling series.

  

Spanning a lifetime of love and loss, crossing borders and oceans, Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, co-authored by her son Harry Whittaker, draws Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series to its stunning, unforgettable conclusion. 1928, Paris. A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible.

But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is. As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no-one’s safety is certain.

In his heart, he knows the time will come where he must flee once more. 2008, the AegeanThe seven sisters are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly. To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts.

But for every truth revealed, another question emerges. The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew. And even more shockingly: that these long-buried secrets may still have consequences for them today.

Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died on 11 June 2021, surrounded by her family. An award-winning radio presenter for the BBC and co-author of the Guardian Angels series for children with Lucinda, Harry has completed the Seven Sisters series on behalf of his late mother.

Come join us to hear about the epic final in this internationally bestselling series.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Lunch with a hotly tipped US Debut – for lovers of Where The Crawdad Sings

Shelley Read

Go As A River

Wed 3rd May 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £34 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

We have that special bookseller feeling about GO AS A RIVER – a beautiful first novel from fifth generation Colardoan Shelley Read. If you loved WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING you are going to love this. We don’t often do events for first novels – previous events for debuts have included The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, Educated by Tara Westover and This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay, all of which became bestsellers.

• Go As A River has just debuted at No 7 in the Sunday Times Bestsellers charts!
• Optioned for movie development by the company who produced The Guernsey Literary & Potatoe Peel Pie Society!

Go As a River is set on a peach orchard in 1940s rural America. A majestic, beautiful coming-of-age story and a captivating tale of a young woman’s love for a mysterious drifter, where the landscape is as central to the book as its characters – a landscape that Shelley Read clearly knows in her bones.

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much danger as passion. 

Inspired by true events surrounding the town of Iola, Go As A River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river – gathering and flowing, and always finding a way forward.

‘Shelley Read’s lyrical voice is a force of nature and when she lends it to a woman leading a hardscrabble life in rural Colorado, the result is tragic, uplifting and completely unforgettable’ BONNIE GARMUS, LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

Shelley Read lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Go As a River is inspired by the true story of the fate of a rural community.

‘Completely spellbinding, vivid, and luminous‘ JANE GREEN

Come join us for a rare UK event with Shelley Read and be amongst the first to fall in love with Go As A River.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Literary Lunch with international bestselling author

Jojo Moyes

Someone Else’s Shoes

Tues 21st Feb 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

We are thrilled to be welcoming the international bestselling Jojo Moyes to Lytham for the first time! Best know for her novels ‘The Giver of Stars’ and ‘Me Before You’ which was made into a blockbuster film, her novels have been translated into forty-six languages, have hit No 1 in twelve countries and have sold over 51 million copies worldwide. Her fantastic new novel ‘Someone Else’s Shoes’ is a giantly uplifting story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances!

 

Two women. Two lives. One day that changed everything. Meet Sam … She’s not got much, but she’s grateful for what she has: a job she’s just about clinging on to and a family who depend on her for everything. She knows she’s one bad day away from losing it all – and just hopes today isn’t it .

Meet Nisha … She’s got everything she always dreamed of – and more: a phenomenally rich husband; an international lifestyle; and she’s just been locked out of it all after her husband initiates divorce proceedings .

Sam and Nisha should never have crossed paths. But after a bag mix-up at the gym, their lives become intertwined – even as they spiral out of control. Each blames the other as they feel increasingly invisible, forgotten, lost – and desperately alone. But they’re not. No woman is an island. Look around. Family. Friends. Strangers. Even the woman you believe just ruined your life might turn out to be your best friend.

Because together you can do anything – like take back what is yours . . .

‘A delightful reverse-Cinderella story of two women who seem polar opposites – until circumstance forces them to experience each other’s lives. Nobody writes women the way Jojo Moyes does – recognizably real and complex and funny and flawed’ JODI PICOULT

Come join us for what promises to be a brilliant event with Jojo Moyes!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets: £37 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Literary Lunch with bestselling author

Elly Griffiths

The Last Remains

Thurs 9th Feb 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

One of our most requested authors is coming to Lytham for the first time! We are thrilled to be hosting a lunch with Sunday Time’s bestselling author Elly Griffiths – author of one of Britain’s bestselling crime series, with the 15th and final installment of her multi-award winning Dr Ruth Galloway series.

Ruth and Nelson are working on a murder case in which Cathbad emerges as the prime suspect. Can they uncover the truth in time to save their friend? When builders renovating a café in King’s Lynn find a human skeleton behind a wall, they call for DCI Harry Nelson and Dr Ruth Galloway, Head of Archaeology at the nearby University of North Norfolk. Ruth is preoccupied with the threatened closure of her department and by her ever-complicated relationship with Nelson. However, she agrees to look at the case and identifies the bones as the remains of Emily Pickering, a young archaeology student who went missing in the 1990s. Emily attended a course run by her Cambridge tutor, who immediately falls under suspicion – and also on Ruth’s friend Cathbad, who is still frail following his near death from Covid. As they investigate, Nelson and his team uncover a tangled web of relationships within the student group and the adults leading them. What was the link between the group and the King’s Lynn café where Emily’s bones were found? Then, just when the team seem to be making progress, Cathbad disappears. Was it guilt that led him to flee? The trail leads Ruth and Nelson to the Neolithic flint mines in Grimes Graves which are as spooky as their name. The race is on, first to find Cathbad and then to exonerate him, but will Ruth and Nelson uncover the truth in time to save their friend?

Griffiths may be bringing her beloved series to a close… but intrigueingly this may not be the last time we see Ruth Galloway…. Join us for what promises to be a fantastic event!

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets: £37 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Double Literary Lunch with 

Val McDermid – 1989

& Mark Billingham – The Murder Book

Thurs 2nd Feb 2023

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £35 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and 2 signed paperbacks

We are thrilled to be welcoming the internationally bestselling authors Val McDermid and Mark Billingham for a double bill event – two amazing and multi award-winning crime fiction writers at one lunch!

Val McDermid has sold over 17 million books to date across the globe and has been translated into more than 40 languages. She is perhaps best known for her Wire in the Blood series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for television starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris. Her most recent TV series Traces aired in January 2021, and a second series is currently in production, as is ITV’s adaptation of Karen Pirie based on Val’s cold case detective of the same name.

1989 follows her bestselling 1979, and is the second in her new series featuring journalist Allie Burns.

Val is also lead vocalist with The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, – possibly the only band made up of crime writers ever to play at Glastonbury – along with her co-star here Mark Billingham!

Mark Billingham started his career, 21 years ago, as the new young voice in crime fiction. He
brought a fresh, edgy and terrifying twist to the genre and his lead character, Tom Thorne, was every
bit as quirky and different as his creator. Billingham’s novels have now sold over 6 million copies. He has had 21 Sunday Times bestsellers (every one of his titles) and has spent over 120 weeks in the top ten. Two TV series have been made of Mark’s books – Thorne by Sky starring David Morrissey, and In the Dark by the BBC. A third is currently in development. The Murder Book is his latest bestseller to feature Tom Thorne.

Come and join us for a fantastic event with these two un-missable authors.

Format: Welcome drink & two signed books on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets: £35 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are lively social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Literary Lunch with bestselling authors

Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan 

Mad Honey

Thurs 17th Nov 2022

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £32 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, authors talk and signed Hardback

Join us to hear bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan as they discuss their new novel MAD HONEY – a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves. The most compelling, challenging and contemporary novel you will read this year – and which will start conversations we need to have around authenticity, identity, and gender.

Olivia fled her abusive marriage to return to her hometown and take over the family beekeeping business when her son Asher was six. Now, impossibly, her baby is six feet tall and in his last year of high school, a kind, good-looking, popular ice hockey star with a tiny sprite of a new girlfriend.
Lily also knows what it feels like to start over – when she and her mother relocated to New Hampshire it was all about a fresh start. She and Asher couldn’t help falling for each other, and Lily feels happy for the first time. But can she trust him completely?
Then Olivia gets a phone call – Lily is dead, and Asher is arrested on a charge of murder. As the case against him unfolds, she realises he has hidden more than he’s shared with her. And Olivia knows firsthand that the secrets we keep reflect the past we want to leave behind – and that we rarely know the people we love well as we think we do.

Jodi Picoult is the author of 25 novels, including My Sister’s Keeper, Nineteen Minutes and Small
Great Things, with 40 million copies sold worldwide. Her last twelve books have debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, including her most recent, Wish You Were Here.  Five novels have been made into movies and Between the Lines (co-written with daughter Samantha van Leer) has been adapted as a musical. She is the recipient of multiple awards, including the New England Bookseller Award for Fiction, the Alex Award from the YA Library Services Association, and the NH Literary Award for Outstanding Literary Merit. She is also the co-librettist for the musical Breathe, and the upcoming musical The Book Thief, which will open in the UK in September. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband.

Jennifer Finney Boylan is the author of numerous works of fiction and non fiction, including the seminal She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders, which was the first bestselling work by a transgender American.  She is a human rights activist and a professor at Barnard College of Columbia University, and a 2022–2023 Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She has frequently appeared in the US media including The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Today Show.  For many years she was the national co-chair of GLAAD as well as a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She lives in New York City and Belgrade Lakes, Maine, with her wife, Deedie. They have a son, Sean, and a daughter, Zai.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL

Tickets: £32 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are fantastic social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables. If you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Literary Lunch with worldwide bestseller

Ian Rankin –

A Heart Full Of Headstones

Wed 12th Oct 2022

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £37 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are thrilled to have Ian Rankin in Lytham for the first time.Ian Rankin is the multimillion-copy worldwide bestseller of over thirty novels and creator of John Rebus. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. Rankin is the recipient of four Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards, including the Diamond Dagger, the UK’s most prestigious award for crime fiction. In the United States, he has won the celebrated Edgar Award and been shortlisted for the Anthony Award. In Europe, he has won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the German Deutscher Krimipreis. He is the recipient of honorary degrees from universities across the UK, is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, and has received an OBE for his services to literature.

John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. Although it’s not the first time the legendary detective has taken the law into his own hands, it might be the last. What drove a good man to cross the line? Or have times changed, and the rules with them? Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke faces Edinburgh’s most explosive case in years, as a corrupt cop goes missing after claiming to harbour secrets that could sink the city’s police force.

But in this investigation, it seems all roads lead to Rebus – and Clarke’s twin loyalties to the public and the police will be tested to their limit. A reckoning is coming – and John Rebus may be hearing the call for last orders…

Join us to hear Ian Rankin talk about his latest book and receive a signed copy.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets: £37 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are great social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Literary Lunch with creator of ITV’s Roy Grace

Peter James – 

Picture You Dead *SOLD OUT*

Mon 26th Sept 2022

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £35 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed Hardback

We are delighted to be welcoming Peter James to Lytham for the first time.
Peter James is a UK No.1 bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper.

Much loved by crime and thriller fans for his fast-paced page-turners full of unexpected plot twists, sinister characters, and accurate portrayal of modern day policing, he has won over 40 awards for his work.

To date, Peter has written an impressive total of 19 Sunday Times No. 1s, sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into 38 languages. His latest novel features Roy Grace –

Harry and Freya, an ordinary couple, dreamed for years of finding something priceless buried amongst the tat in a car boot sale. It was a dream they knew in their hearts would never come true – until the day it did…

They buy the drab portrait for a few pounds, for its beautiful frame, planning to cut the painting out. Then studying it back at home there seems to be another picture beneath, of a stunning landscape. Could it be a long-lost masterpiece from 1770? If genuine, it could be worth millions.

One collector is certain it is genuine. Someone who uses any method he can to get want he wants and will stop at nothing. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace finds himself plunged into an unfamiliar and rarefied world of fine art. Outwardly it appears respectable, gentlemanly, above reproach. But beneath the veneer, he rapidly finds that greed, deception and violence walk hand-in-hand.

Harry and Freya Kipling are about to discover that their dream is turning into their worst nightmare.

Join us to hear Peter James talk about his latest book and receive a signed copy of Picture You Dead.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL

Tickets: £35 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are jolly social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Free ticketed Signing with 

John Connolly –

The Furies – Charlie Parker No 20

Fri 5th August 2022

in the bookshop at 12.30pm – contact us for a free ticket reservation

We are honoured to welcome back the multi-million copy bestselling John Connolly as he makes a tour of his favourite bookshops! John will be signing copies of his new book The Furies, number 20 in his Charlie Parker series (every one a Sunday Times bestseller!) and will be bringing special bookshop treats of custom printed book bags for customers.

If you would like to meet John in person and have a book signed (and dedicated if you wish), then do join us in the bookshop. Tickets are free – please contact us for a free ticket!  If you can’t make the Signing in person but would like a signed book then just let us know the details (or preorder on the website) and we will arrange it for you.

‘John Connolly is the creator of a unique blend of thriller and horror who receives rave reviews every time for his lyrical, almost poetic language’ The Sunday Telegraph

‘EPIC’ Mail on Sunday

‘Menace has never been so secductive’’ The Guardian

‘John Connolly is the creator of a unique blend of thriller and horror who receives rave reviews every time for his lyrical, almost poetic language’ The Sunday Telegraph

“Charlie Parker …is one of modern crime fiction’s most popular creations, a unique combination of a man who has one foot in the temporal world and the other in the spirit world’ Irish Independent

A Literary Lunch with BBC’s REPAIR SHOP

Jay Blades –

Making It

Wed 11th May 2022

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £26 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed paperback

We are thrilled to welcome Jay Blades MBE, the beloved star of hit BBC One show The Repair Shop and of the inspirational BBC 2 documentary Learning to Read at 51. Making It is his inspiring memoir about beating the odds and turning things around even when it all seems hopeless.

‘We had our hardships, and there were times that we didn’t have a lot of food and didn’t have a lot of money. But that didn’t stop me having the time of my life.’ In this book, Jay Blades shares the details of his life, from his childhood growing up sheltered and innocent on a council estate in Hackney, to his adolescence when he was introduced to violent racism at secondary school, to being brutalized by police as a teen, to finally becoming the presenter of the hit primetime show The Repair Shop.

Jay reflects on strength, weakness and what it means to be a man. He questions the boundaries society places on male vulnerability and how letting himself be nurtured helped him flourish into the person he is today. An expert at giving a second life to cherished items, Jay’s positivity, pragmatism and kindness shine through these pages and show that with care and love, anything can be mended.

Join us for lunch and hear Jay Blades talk about his new book and receive a signed copy of Making It.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets: £26 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are jolly social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

Come and meet the new No 1: 

A Literary Lunch with

Tom Pemberton –

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Friday 29th April 2022

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

Tickets £35 from the bookshop 
include welcome drink, 1 course lunch, author talk and signed hardback

Tom Pemberton’s debut has just become our No 1 bestselling book in 20 years of bookselling! He makes it to the top spot past tough competition from the likes of Jeffrey Archer, Amanda Owen, David Baldacci …. and even Harry Potter! Come meet our new No 1!

Local lad Tom Pemberton has a hit Youtube channel (TomPembertonFarmLife) and just presented BBC 3’s The Fast and The Farmer-ish. His new book is a delightful account of a year on the farm – which we all know locally as ‘Pemberton’s’ with its fantastic ‘Pemberton’s Farm Shop’.

For six generations, the Pemberton family have farmed at Birks Farm in our beautiful town of Lytham on Lancashire’s Fylde Coast, working at the heart of the area since the 1830s and supplying dairy produce to the local community ever since. Things don’t always go to plan, especially when you’re the farmer’s son, but every day’s a learning day and Tom approaches work as he does life in general: stay positive and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Make Hay While the Sun Shines takes us behind the farm gate and follows a year on the farm: from calving cows to maintaining machinery, from mucking out to planning and building a brand-new cow shed. Tom gives us a unique insight into everyday life on a busy dairy farm with all its highs, lows and hard graft.

Full of heart, amusing anecdotes and unforgettable characters like Tom’s dad, Andy – aka the Ginger Warrior – this is Tom’s story of determination, adventure and how to keep a smile on your face even when you’re knee deep in cow poo.

This is perfect for anyone who enjoys seeing ‘behind the scenes’ farm life!

Join us for lunch and hear Tom Pemberton talk about his new book and receive a signed copy of Make Hay While the Sun Shines.

Format: Welcome drink & Signed book on arrival, followed by lunch, author talk and audience Q&A
Venue: Fylde Rugby Club, Blackpool Rd, Lytham FY8 4EL
Tickets: £35 from the bookshop at 87c Clifton St, Lytham FY8 5ER, or by telephone 01253 796 958
Seating: Our lunches are jolly social occasions – seating is pre-planned and you will be seated with the other members in your party on shared tables – if you are coming alone, we will make sure we seat you with other solo diners.

A Literary Lunch with

Sophie Hannah –

The Couple At The Table

Thursday 27th January 2022

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm  (doors 12 noon)

 

A Literary Lunch with

Amanda Owen 

Celebrating the Seasons with the Yorkshire Shepherdess

Friday 19th November 2021

at Fylde Rugby Club, Lytham 12.30pm (doors 12 noon)