Lady Anne Glenconner visiting The Holt Bookshop to sign her latest book
Best-selling author Lady Glenconner will be visiting The Holt Bookshop on Saturday 14th December at 11am to sign copies of her latest book, Lady Glenconner’s Picnic Papers, which invites both old friends and new acquaintances to explore the curious British obsession with dining alfresco, despite our famously unpredictable weather!
We have a couple of big events coming up in The Holt Bookshop, the first of which is raising money for a charity that is very important to both of us.
On Saturday 16th November we have a VIP (Very Important Pony) Jack Brock – famous Norfolk-based Shetland pony & dementia ambassador – with his owner Ali Stearn coming to promote her first children’s book, an eponymous tale which has been written and illustrated by her for children aged 3-7. Jack Brock will be at the shop from 11am for an hour, so come and meet him and have a minced pie and a glass of mulled wine with us and help raise money for Dementia UK.
Also, we are very excited that Henry Porter is coming to Holt to talk about his latest best-selling book, The Enigma Girl, on Thursday 21st November in St Andrew’s Church Hall at 6.30pm start. Tickets £5 (including refreshments) available from the bookshop or email sales@holtbookshop.co.uk
Henry is a journalist specialising in liberty and civil rights, and an award-winning thriller writer. One of his previous novels, Brandenburg, set at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which he covered as a journalist, won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award. He is a very entertaining and knowledgeable speaker.
His tenth book, The Enigma Girl is a masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Porter has based his main villain, Ivan Guest, on Al Fayed whom he investigated back in the 90s when he was Editor of Vanity Fair UK. Partially set in Norfolk, the book has received fantastic reviews in The Times, FT, Literary Review, and also Thriller Book of the Month in The Sunday Times. Rory Stewart described the book as “surprising, engrossing, with a blazing moral energy.”
Friday 4th to Sunday 6th Oct, 2024The Maltings, Wells-next-the-SeaIn October 2024 a new festival will celebrate the unique landscapes of North Norfolk and the British Isles with a weekend festival of the arts – including poetry and prose, readings and discussions, workshops for children and adults, exhibitions and field trips. The Holt Bookshop look forward to being a part of this great new event.Full details at www.literatureandlandscape.org
The Instrumentalist book launch and concert on Thursday 29th August 6.30pm at St Andrew’s Church, HoltThe Holt Bookshop’s biggest ever Summer event. 2024 Observer debut novelist Harriet Constable will be in conversation with Nick Acheson about her book The Instrumentalist, a fascinating story of music, ambition and womanhood in 18th Century Venice.
The interview will be followed by an interval when Harriet will be signing copies of the book, Bloomsbury publishing’s biggest book of the year.
At 8pm a trio of musicians from Norwich Baroque: Rachel Stroud, violin; Sarah Ridy, triple harp; and Kate Bennett Wadsworth, cello; will be playing a selection of music from the period, including pieces by Arcangelo Corelli, Bernardo Storace, Barbara Strozzi, Maddalena Laura Sirmen and the red priest himself, Antonio Vivaldi.
Refreshments will be available before the event and during the Interval, with proceeds going the St. Andrew’s Church Fund.
Tickets £17.50 are now available from The Holt Bookshop
sales@holt bookshop.co.uk | 01263 715858
We hope you can join us for this very special event
The programme:
Violin Sonata in D Major op 5 no 1 – Arcangelo Corelli
La Monica – Bernardo Storace
Che si puo fare – Barbara Strozzi
Trio Sonata in F Major, op 1 no 1 – Maddalena Laura Sirmen
Largo from The Four Seasons (Winter) – Antonio Vivaldi
Holt Festival 2024 – Saturday 13th to Saturday 27th July 2024
Claire Daverley In conversation with Keith Britten
Claire Daverley is an exciting new writer who has just published her debut novel, ‘Talking at Night’,to rave reviews. It’s a celebration (and commiseration) of first love.
Spanning several decades,Talking at Night is about sudden connections, missed opportunities and the many loves we have over a lifetime.
Will and Rosie meet as teenagers.The are opposites in every way, but on secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer, destined to be one another’s great love story.
Until one day, tragedy strikes, and any possibility of them being together shatters. But that tragedy – and their history – is what will connect them forever …
For those that willed on the romance between Emma & Dexter in David Nicholls’ ‘One Day’ and felt the pang of first love between Connell & Marianne in Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’, it is time to add Will & Rosie’s will-they-won’t-they love story to the bookshelf …
Come and find out more!
‘A beautifully observed, tender love story … I devoured it’ Jojo Moyes
‘A passionate, page-turning debut’ Daily Mail
‘Ifyou love really gentle, beautiful and very cleverly written love stories, then this book is for you ‘ Fearne Cotton
Running time: 60 mins with Q & A plus book signing
£15 – Book at www.holtfestival.org
Friday 26 July 2024 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM at St Andrew’s Church, Holt
Sarah Perry in conversation with Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Sarah Perry is an internationally bestselling author. Her gothic fantasy ‘The Essex Serpent’ won Waterstone’s Book of the Year, the British Book of the Year Award and was made into a miniseries with Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes. She followed this with ‘Melmoth”.
Her latest book ‘Enlightenment’, is her finest novel to date; an unforgettable story of love, faith and astronomy, told over the course of 20 years through the lives of two unlikely best friends as they become obsessed with the ghost of a vanished 19th century astronomer.
She has also been nominated for other major literary prizes including the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Sarah Perry will be in conversation with Hugh Aldersey-Williams, a prize-winning author of several science books, including ‘Periodic Tales’, which featured on Radio 4’s ‘Book of the Week’. In 2021, his book ‘Dutch Light: Christiaan Huygens and the Making of Science in Europe’ won the Samuel Pepys Award.
Sarah Perry’s other books include the novels After Me Comes the Flood, The Essex Serpent, Melmoth and the non-fiction Essex Girls.
Running time: 60 mins inc Q & A plus book signing
Monday 22 July 2024 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM at St Andrew’s Church
Slightly Foxed at
The Holt Bookshop
Thursday 4th July 6pm – 8pm
Join us to meet the team behind the leading literary quarterly Slightly Foxed as they launch their summer issue and classic editions for the season.
Ticket £5 – please ask in the shop or email sales@holtbookshop.co.uk .
Tickets include a glass of wine and are redeemable against any publication from Slightly Foxed.
The Holt Bookshop nominated at The British Book Awards
The Holt Bookshop has been shortlisted for the independent bookshop of the year category at The British Book Awards 2024.
The British Book Awards is a celebration of books, and all who make and sell them.
Commenting about the shop, a regular customer said: “It’s a small shop but punches many times above its weight thanks to its owner’s knowledge, empathy, and ability to translate even the vaguest enquiry into real books. Round the corner the second-hand section provides more treasure. Pam and Keith add the miracle ingredient: imagination. Lady Anne Glenconner sat on a bench outside, happily at a launch. Elly Griffiths became the conductress on a vintage bus touring the sites familiar to Ruth Galloway. The Crime Film & Author Festival added another strand to the cultural life. These and similar events build a real community of book lovers: The Holt Bookshop is its motor.”
Co-owner Pam Horrocks commented: “We were thrilled to become a regional finalist in the 2024 Independent Bookshop of the Year Award. The fact that this award comes from a panel of our peers gives us a great sense of achievement and pride. National recognition for our shop makes all the hard work worthwhile, as well as inspiring confidence in our business throughout the community.”
Fourth February Film Festival ‘It’s Love, actually!’
Between Friday 16th and Sunday 18th February Holt Community Centre will be hosting a festival of Love and Romance, in conjunction with The Holt Bookshop. This will involve conversations with authors, followed by a showing of favourite films of their choice.
Individual tickets £5.00. Early Bird Offer, weekend ticket, £20 for all 7 films, available till the end of January from The Holt Bookshop. Refreshments will be available throughout the weekend.
FRIDAY 16TH FEBRUARY
6.00pm Bar open & refreshments available.
FILM ‘Love is All’ (12) – to be shown throughout the weekend in the lounge bar – explores love and courtship in all its shapes and sizes on the silver screen, using a selection of footage from British archives, including the BFI National Archive and the Yorkshire Film Archive.
7.00pm In conversation authors DJ Taylor & Rachel Hore, followed by book signing and film introduction
8.00pm – 9.53pm FILM ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (15) chosen by DJ Taylor
SATURDAY 17TH FEBRUARY
10.30am – 12.00noon FREE CHILDREN’S FILM ‘Lady and the Tramp’ (U) and pyjama party, (nightwear optional), plus Best Dressed Teddy competition.
All children must be accompanied by an adult.
1.00pm – 3.00pm FILMS
‘Love At First Sight’ (PG) (2010) a short Comedy/Romance (12 mins).
followed by feature ‘While You Were Sleeping’ (PG)
3.30pm – 5.30pm FILM ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’ (15)
chosen, with a short introduction, by The Reverend Canon Howard Stoker, Rector St. Andrew’s Holt
6.30pm In conversation Sarah Mitchell (author) followed by book signing.
7.30pm – 10.00pm FILM ‘Cinema Paradiso’ (PG) with subtitles, chosen with an introduction by Sarah
SUNDAY 18TH FEBRUARY
10.00am – 1.00pm FILM ‘The English Patient’ (15)
2.00pm in conversation Jenni Keer and Clare Marchant (authors) + book signing
3.00pm – 5.00pm FILM ‘A Room With A View’ (PG) chosen and introduced by Jenni and Clare
6.00pm – 7.30pm FILM ‘Brief Encounter’ (PG) chosen with an introduction by Rachel Hore
Tickets on sale now at The Holt Bookshop, Lion House Court.
sales@holtbookshop.co.uk
01263 –715858.
Early Bird Offer, £20 for all 7 films, available till the end of January.
Exhibition: ‘Expressions of Love’
Submit your own ‘Expressions of Love’ – ‘What you love’ or ‘What Love means to you’ – the people, places, animals, and/or things. These will be displayed as in a film strip, around the main hall of the Community Centre. Two free tickets, to the film of your choice, will be awarded to the entry that, in the view of the Committee, best expresses Love, actually, submitted by the end of Sunday 11th February. A final selection will be made by the Film Committee.
Please support the annual February Film Festival
If you like the idea of a film festival, please come to as many films as you can. Even better consider buying a £20.00 weekend ticket – giving you entry to 7 films for the price of 4, even if you can’t manage to come to all the screenings. We have to purchase a Public Video Screening Licence for each of the films shown, needing to sell at least 20 tickets for each film to cover this cost, so buying a weekend ticket will therefore help make the festival financially viable.
All profits go to Holt Community Centre charity, and The Community Café.
Elly Griffiths launched her new book this November at The Holt Bookshop.
Norfolk: A photographic journey through the land of Ruth Galloway is a stunning companion to Elly Griffiths’ beloved crime series, the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, and a photographic journey through magical Norfolk. Norfolk, a land of peaceful broads, marshy fens, sprawling coastline and shady brecks, is the home of Dr Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist. A place steeped in folklore and history, visibly shaped by the lives of those who have come before, it has become an integral character in Elly Griffiths’ bestselling crime series.
In this book Elly takes us through a year in the Norfolk landscape, featuring the fascinating locations that have inspired her series and her writing. From seascapes to farmlands, wetlands to woodlands, churches to cottages, this beautiful book captures Norfolk in all its glorious variety and is the perfect gift for any Elly Griffiths fan.
We have signed copies in the shop.