Past Events

Since April 2006 our Meet the Author events have brought Jodi Picoult, Joanna Trollope, Salley Vickers, Alexander McCall Smith and Alice Sebold to Winchester.

Below is information about some of our past events.

Meet local author Mags Mackean

Event Date:

29th July 2008

Meet local author Mags Mackean

Tuesday 29th July 7.30-9.00pm Northguild Lecture Theatre
(next to the Central library)
She will discuss her book Meetings on the Edge –A high level escape from office routine

Praise for ‘Meetings on the Edge’
Matthew Parris, writer and broadbcaster said, “I loved it… she had seen just the same Pyrenees as I have”
Bear Grylls, adventurer, “She is quite simply one of life’s ‘braves’.”

Meet the Author: Stefan Merrill Block

Event Date:

13th May 2008

In our Meet the Author events, we’ve hosted several big names – Jodi Picoult, Joanna Trollope, Salley Vickers, Alexander McCall Smith, Alice Sebold and Louis de Bernieres to date – but it was always our intention to bring new talent to Winchester. Which is why we invited Stefan Merrill Block to be our guest, his only event outside London.

It would seem Stefan charmed our audience:

Hello Guy

I just wanted to say how enjoyable the talk from Stefan was last night, he was a really engaging character and I am really looking forward to reading his book. Thanks again for organising some really great events. Looking forward to the next one.

Kind regards, Karen Marsh

Hello Guy

What a success last night was - and what a charming lad Stefan is! I think he won over a few hearts with that smile. I missed a trick - when he made that comment about reading groups being better than sex, I should have mentioned we've got a meeting this Thursday.... The other two from our group were too busy swooning to make the connection, as well!

Thanks, Vivienne Jarvis

And his publicist was very complimentary, too:

Dear Guy

I wanted to email you to say THANK YOU for such an amazing evening. It was absolutely perfect, and we all left for London absolutely buzzing - Stefan had a great time, and he said how it out did so many of his American events. It was wonderful to have such support for a debut author, and thank you to you and all the newbooks people and readers for making the event such a success. He also commented on how good the audience questions were (not to mention yours too!)

Thanks again- I’ve come back to Faber declaring that Guy Pringle does the best events, and we all look forward to working together more in the future!

All best wishes, Becky

Read on for 3 of our reviewers’ thoughts on his debut novel The Story of Forgetting, which tackles a thought provoking theme - Alzheimer's - that potentially affects all our lives.

See also Stefan's article on the Guardian website. There is also a Story of Forgetting animation on YouTube.

Meet the Author - Louis de Bernières

Event Date:

1st March 2008

We were delighted to host Louis de Bernières' literary visit to Winchester (he also staged a very enjoyable musical evening at the Discovery Centre the same weekend).

newbooks reviewer, Daphne Poupart, was good enough to interview Louis behind the scenes and her report will appear in a future issue of newbooks.