Events and Talks

 

The Travel Bookshop hosts several author events every month, from the launch of a local author's first novel, to interviews with the world's best travel writers.

Spaces are limited to 30 people making it the perfect opportunity to meet your favourite travel writer in a relaxed atmosphere and  enjoy a glass of wine while browsing our unparalled collection of travel books.

Tickets are £3 for all talks. Contact us at the shop (by email or phone) to reserve a place or If you would like to reserve a signed copy of the author's book.

 

 

All talks start at 7:00pm (Doors 6:30pm)

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If you would like to organise a talk at The Travel Bookshop then please email Saara on saara@thetravelbookshop.com

 

Please note that we have a series of free events on the 9th, 15th, 16th and 18th of September being hosted by the British Guild of Travel Writers.  These events are hosted by experts in the field of travel writing and are invaluable to anyone who is a practising or aspiring travel writer, or those who just love to travel!  Please click here for more information.

7:00pm on Tuesday 21st of September

Anne Watts on Always the Children

In Always the Children, Anne talks about her interesting though harrowing experiences as a nurse in the Vietnamese war, and also in Cambodia under The Khmer Rouge.

£5.00

7:00pm on Thursday 23rd of September

Tim Butcher on Chasing the Devil

Tim Butcher, author of Blood River, talks about his new book Chasing The Devil.

£5.00

7:00pm on Saturday 25th of September

Adam O'Riordan, Christopher Reid and Alan Brownjohn

Three unique and exciting voices in contemporary poetry, Adam O'Riordan, Christopher Reid and Alan Brownjohn, will be joining us to help kick off our poetry season at The Travel Bookshop

£5.00

Thursday 30th of September at 7:00pm

Jennie Rooney - The Opposite of Falling

Jennie will be talking about her new book, The Opposite of Falling, focusing in particular on the jaunty escapades of the early Thomas Cook Tours which feature in the novel

Jennie will be in conversation with Clare Clark, and they will be discussing, amongst other things, the process of writing historical fiction.

£5.00

7:00pm on Tuesday 5th of October

Norman Lebrecht: Why Mahler?

Norman Lebrecht talks about his new book Why Mahler?, a journey around the landscapes of a mind that changed our world.

£5.00

Thursday 7th of October at 7:00pm

Roy Moxham on Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me

Join us at The Travel Bookshop to hear Roy Moxham talk about his fascinating new book, Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me.  The book is an account of how he helped Phoolan Devi obtain justice following her shocking plight at the hands of a gang of rapists, her revenge and resulting imprisonment.

£5.00

7:00pm on Tuesday the 12th of October

Philip Barclay on Zimbabwe:Years of Hope

Philip Barclay talks about his new book, Zimbabwe: Years of Hope and Despair.

£5.00

7:00pm on Thursday 14th of October

Pete Brown: Hops and Glory

Disappointed with the state of what, today, passes off as India Pale Ale, Pete Brown travelled to India in search of the original IPA.   Hops and Glory is a witty account of his journey of discovery.

£5.00

Thursday 21st of October at 7:00pm

Michael Peel on A Swamp Full of Dollars

Michael Peel talks about his shocking expose of the oil industry in Nigeria, A Swamp Full of Dollars.

£5.00

7:00pm on Tuesday 26th of October

Toby Wilkinson on Rise and Fall of Egypt

Toby Wilkinson joins us to talk about his new book, The Rise and Fall of Egypt.

£5.00

7:00pm Thursday 28th of October

Mary-Anne Bartlett - Painting in Africa

Travel is inspiring. The life, colours and contours of Africa lend themselves to taking out a sketchbook to sit calmly painting.  Sometimes everywhere you look there is another picture. 
Travel artist and director of Art Safari, Mary-Anne Bartlett, talks about painting wildlife in national parks in Africa.  She will show images of where she goes and explain and demonstrate the techniques she has developed for drawing moving animals from life.  Mary-Anne is also the co-author of the Bradt Travel Guide to Malawi 2006.

"The most rewarding times I have had in Africa have been when sketching - it causes an interaction that is seldom found between tourists and local people.  It's also thoroughly absorbing and addictive.  Trying to record a sunset or a market scene in colour, or a moving elephant in line, can be the most intense experience.  You have to observe carefully and allow the feeling of the environment into your image.  Above all there's nothing more satisfying than drawing with the full adrenaline of being near animals, or with the sense of calm when they are peacefully distant in their landscape."

Her own artistic career was shaped by an expedition to Malawi, following the footsteps of Sir John Kirk (her great-great-grandfather) and Dr David Livingstone.  Both explorers always travelled with a paint box.

Art Safari has developed over the last 8 years as a special interest holiday, leading creative journeys through stunning areas of Malawi, Zambia, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia with safari guiding and art tuition.
Art Safari's 'out of Africa' destinations include Antarctica and India.
Guests are invited to join as travellers looking for new ways of seeing the world, or as experienced artists or as beginners, using observation as a way of learning about the land, people and wildlife.

£5.00

7:00pm on Thursday 11th of November

Rosamund Bartlett on Leo Tolstoy

Join us at the Travel Bookshop to mark the 100th anniversary of Tolstoy's death and the publication of biographer Rosamund Bartlett's latest book "Tolstoy: A Russian Life".

"A hundred years ago in November 1910 Count Leo Tolstoy died on a remote Russian railway station, attended by the world's media, taken ill as he was finally attempting to escape his decadent (as he saw it), aristocratic family life. Tolstoy has been universally recognised as a colossus of world literature whether by his contemporaries or critics. In this exceptional biography Rosamund Bartlett draws extensively on the many fascinating new sources which have been published about Tolstoy since the collapse of Communism to write about one of the most compelling, maddening, brilliant and contrary people who has ever lived. She and we discover a remarkable and long life in one of the most fascinating and turbulent periods of Russian history, straddling the 19th and early 20th centuries. Tolstoy spent that life rebelling - not only against conventional ideas about literature and art but against traditional education and eventually against family life, organised religion and the state."

£5.00

7:00pm on Tuesday 16th of November

Elaine Feinstein on Anna Akhmatova

Poet and biographer Elaine Feinstein will be talking about the poet Anna Akhmatova.  As well as her sparkling genius as a poet, Akhmatova showed immense courage in her resistance to Stalin's regime, during which her husband and son were held captive. 

This promises to be a fascinating talk in which Elain makes special reference to her best-selling biography Anna of all the Russians: A Life of Anna Akhmatova.

"The image she paints of her subject, the faded aristocrat scrabbling for food, warmth and cigarettes in post-revolution Russia is immensely powerful, and her admiration for the poet shines through." (The Sunday Times)

£5.00

6:30pm on Saturday 20th November

Pass On A Poem - Free Event!

As part of The Travel Bookshop's Russia Season, Pass on a Poem presents a very special evening of readings of classic Russian poetry. This evening is likely to be very popular so please email enquiries@passonapoem.com if you'd like to take part or attend the reading.

Pass on a Poem was founded in 2006 to give as many people as possible the opportunity to enjoy more poetry and, in some cases, to discover its pleasures and uses for the first time. Believing that a very effective way to convey the excitement and value of poetry is to read it out loud, we organise or encourage and support live poetry events in intimate, informal and relaxed settings, whether at home, at work, in a hall, pub or club, or in an institution. People read out loud or just come along to listen to published poems chosen for their special, personal significance.  No previous experience of either poetry or reading it live is required.
Readings last for about one and a half hours maximum or less.
For more information, please see http://www.passonapoem.com

£0.00

7:00pm on Monday 22nd of November

Rachel Polonsky on Molotov's Magic Lantern

Academic Rachel Polonsky will be discussing her book Molotov's Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History.

"A luminous, original and unforgettable exploration of a country and its literature, viewed through the eyes of Vyacheslav Molotov, one of Stalin's fiercest henchmen."

"Everywhere on this journey, Polonsky shows great curiosity about the web of personality and history, the connections between power and literature that form Russian history and society today, her erudition is always lightly worn ... I was gripped by this book." Simon Sebag Montefiore

£5.00

7:00pm on Tuesday 23rd of November

Rosamund Bartlett on Chekhov: The Traveller

Rosamund Bartlett, biographer and translator of Russian literature, will be discussing the work and life of Anton Chekhov, looking in particular at his travels and the important impact that place had on his work. Join us for what promises to be a fascinating evening.

Rosamund Bartlett is the author of Chekhov: Scenes from a Life, editor of Chekhov: A Life in Letters, and translator of two anthologies of Chekhov's stories.  She is Director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation set up to preserve Chekhov's house in Yalta.

£5.00