Yes! We're coming to BRIGHTON

The Bookish Supper Society will be meeting at Naked Eye Gallery, Farm Mews, Farm Road, Brighton on Weds September 18th.  Doors open at 6.45. 
Delicious supper.  Complimentary glass of wine. TWO amazing authors - Harriet Lane (Alys, Always) and Guy Pratt (My Bass and Other Animals)
Harriet has had quite staggering reviews for her book and I can honestly say it's the best novel I have read for years.
Guy Pratt has played with Pink Floyd, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Mcfky and The Smiths....expect a lot of laughs.

Tickets on sale at Brighton Dome Ticket Office (01273) 709709

MANY THANKS TO ORION PUBLISHERS

Book Lovers Supper Club

Kate Mosse

Will be talking about her new book CITADEL and we will be quizzing her on living in France, The Women's Fiction Prize, Baileys and much more.... Tickets from Brighton Dome Box Office on (01273) 709709 or in person from The Mint House Hurstpierpoint where you get a lovely discount on all BLSC books, and from The Post Office in Ditchling


Simon Toyne

will also be joining us to talk about his new book THE TOWER, the FBI, conspiracy theories, and NASA. We'll also be sipping raspberry vodka (the best yet *says she modestly*)

So, make sure you have your tickets for 26th June. Door open at 6.45 and a great supper awaits you



Love Laura & Mel x

Yes, you read it right....Simon Toyne AND Kate Mosse....we really are spoiling you! a most delicious supper with a glass of wine some home made chocolates and a few surprises await you on June 26th at the glorious barn in Ditchling - but hurry, hurry, tickets going FAST.
Brighton Dome Ticket Office (01273) 709709
In person from: The Mint House, Hurstpierpoint or The Post Office, Ditchling

See y'all at the barn

Laura & Mel X

Exciting authors coming up!

Hi Book Lovers,

The Peter James event at Danny House is SOLD OUT - but fear not, we have some very exciting authors coming to the barn in Ditchling soon.... Kate Mosse (no, not that Kate Moss, THE Kate Mosse) Simon Toyne, Harriet Laine and Dorothy Koomson are all booked in for you and we'll be telling y'all the dates very soon!
A glass of wine, a gorgeous supper and some home made treats await you in the beautiful barn in Ditchling.

We look forward to seeing you there

Laura & Mel x

"The place to be for book lovers and foodies alike" The Argus

"What a great idea.  This is superb." BBC Radio Sussex

"The place to go to meet like minded people" The Mid Sussex Times

"Love it, love , love it." The Latest

Tickets are £20 and include supper and a glass of wine.  Available from The Mint House, Hurstpierpoint, The Post Office, Ditchling and Brighton Dome Ticket Office (01273) 709709

Peter James has to be one of the best loved authors of Sussex Do join us for prosecco, canapes, chat and a reading from his brand new book Dead Man's Time on 7.30pm Thursday May 16th at the beautiful Danny House in Hassocks, Sussex.
Tickets from The Mint House, Hurstpierpoint, The Post Office, Ditchling, & Brighton Dome Ticket Office on (01273) 709709
Looking forward to seeing y'all there!
Laura & Mel x

The place to be

"A great place to meet like minded people over a delicious supper, a free glass of wine and chat with two best selling authors" The Express
"Sounds wonderful! What a great idea" BBC Radio Sussex
"If you love books, love food and enjoy meeting people - this is the place for you." Mid Sussex Times

That's just some of the quotes we've had from very happy people - so what are you waiting for? Grab a ticket and come and join us.  We'd be delighted to see you.  Our next event is April 10th at the barn in Ditchling.  We have Daisy Waugh and Aifric Campbell reading from their fantastic new books.

Tickets are available from The Mint House bookshop in Hurstpierpoint, The Post Office in Ditchling or from Brighton Dome Ticket Office on (01273) 709709

Look forward to seeing you there!

Laura Lockington & Melanie Whitehouse x

April 10th - Wit, Waugh & insider dealing

We had such a great evening with Lesley Pearse - we spoke of David Bowie, Japanese sex workers,Sushi, the Kray twins and much much more. A pretty all rounded evening, I'd say!

The next event is on April 10th at the barn in Ditchling where we have Daisy Waugh reading for the first time from her new book - Melting the Snow on Hester Street. Daisy is the grandaughter of Evelyn Waugh and the daughter of 'Bron' Waugh - so writing is most definitely in her blood. She's also a journalist for the Sunday Times. Her book is set in the golden age of Hollywood and we meet Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, Douglas Fairbanks and a couple that seem to have everything... Rich. Beautiful. Damned.

Aifric Campbell has written the most thrilling book - On the Floor. It's a dizzy whirl through the world of the stock exchange and Aifric was the first woman trader on the floor, so she writes from experience. Let's find out what a Dead Cat Bounce is.... and we'll talk of bankers and bonuses.

 As ususal there will be a warm welcome for you, a glass of wine and a fabulous supper. Tickets are from The Brighton Dome Ticket Office on (01273) 709709 Look forward to seeing y'all there - doors open at 6.45.

Dry those salty tears!

Dry those salty tears Book Lovers. Last minute tickets can still be bought for the Sarah Rayner & Lesley Pearse (and she's only number two in the Sunday Times bestseller list!) event at the barn on the 27th February. Call (01273) 709709

Save the date - Feb 27th

Save the date fellow book lovers... Wednesday February 27th for the masters of story telling - Sarah Rayner and Lesley Pearse are coming to Supper Club. They are both gripping reads and we're anticipating a sell out - so get in quick! Tickets available from the usual places. In person from The Mint House in Hurstpierpoint, The Post Office in Ditchling or from Brighton Dome Ticket Office (01273) 709709 The lovely people at The Mint House bookshop are also offering 10% discount on all Supper Club books, so if you want to read them before the event, you can. Do bring them along for the authors to sign! A wonderful feast awaits you as well as a free glass of wine. See y'all there! Laura x

Frosty night but a sellout!

What a fantastic evening! It was a cold and frosty night but we had a full house in teh cosy barn in Ditchling. Though we were all chilled to the bone with scary readings from Julia Crouch (who revealed that a film of her first book CUCKOO published by Headline is in the offing)and we shivered when Tom read from his book SKIN & BONES published by Preface when he describes a massacre in a small village in East Sussex - very much like Ditchling. *Scream* But the tots of quince vodka kept our spirits high! Do join us for our next Book Lovers' Supper Club on February 27th with Sarah Rayner and best selling author Lesley Pearse, who has told me that David Bowie wrote a song about her (faints with excitement) Join us on Facebook - Book Lover's Supper Club or follow us on twitter @bookloverssupper to keep uo with all the news! Laura X http://www.midsussextimes.co.uk/news/local/authors-crouch-and-bale-have-a-taste-for-fear-1-4695867

Tickets going very fast - please make sure you buy early - we don't want any tears! Thriller writers Tom Bale & Julia Crouch *SCREAM* January 16th. Doors open 6.45. The Barn, Ditchling. Nearest train station: Hassocks. Tel (01273) 719719 to buy tickets

Book Lovers' Supper Club

BOOK LOVERS' SUPPER CLUB What is it? Well, it has the glorious advantage of doing exactly what it says on the tin.... If you love books, and enjoy good food and wine then this is for you. We hold the event (which is about once every six weeks) in the gorgeous vintage barn in Ditchling, East Sussex. It starts at 6.30 and you arrive and are welcomed with a glass of wine. Grab a seat at the tables and enjoy your Sussex based tapas style supper (the menu changes seasonally) but to give you a taste of the menu from last time we had: High Weald Dairy Sussex Cheese, homemade green tomato chutney, mushroom & walnut pate, courgette & lemon croquette, roasted butternut squash and spicy winter coleslaw, followed by homemade chocolate gingerbread and a nip of damson vodka. We then have a reading from a couple of best selling authors, followed by an interview with them and a chance to ask questions (as well as getting books signed) We have some truly amazing authors lined up for 2013 - so do come and join us, either on Facebook - Book Lovers' Supper Club or on twitter @ Bookloverssupper Tickets are available either in person from The Post Office, Ditchling, or The Mint House Hurstpierpoint, or from Brighton Dome Ticket Office on (01273) 719719 Look forward to seeing you there!

Isabel's Skin by Peter Benson published by ALMA What a treat. And the perfect weather to read this gothic tale of misty haunting horror in. Perhaps horror is too strong a word - but certainly low level menace and mystery. Stylish, sharp and memorable. I urge you to give it a go. Especially if you are curled up infront of a fire with a glass of red wine. Enjoy.

Book Doctor

April 23rd. World Book Night. And where else would I be other than the local library - offering my services as The Book Docotor. Bored with your bookshelves? Hacked off with your holiday reading? Then come and talk to me.... I've done this a few times now, and it always starts off the same. People are a little shy, then they notice the home made Madelaines and the bottle of Maderia ( a nice Proustian touch I thought) and then pretty soon there's a queue. First up was a charming woman who just lost her sparkle with reading. "I regularly go to Waterstones, but I look at all the covers on the 3 for 2 tables and I end up buying stuff that I just know I'm not going to like" A common problem madaam, and one I can sympathise with. We had a chat about older books and she went off clutching a prescription for some Angela Thirkell, Sylvia Townsend-Warner and Molly Keane. Next up was an Irish girl who only really enjoyed science-fiction and "nothing with monsters in" Marge Piercy it is then... An elderly woman who wanted something modern. A Visit from The Goon Squad was soon on loan from the library. Two very assured teenage girls who 'rather enjoyed speculative fiction'. Gulp. And loathed Harry Potter AND Twilight were given I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and the woman who was splitting up from her partner and needed a joyous good read - well - there's was only one choice really - Nancy Mitford. Natch. The queue was now out of the door and I had great fun writing prescriptions for some classics, some moderns and some mates books too.... especially Every Vow you Break by Julia Crouch - now THAT should help the insomnia (evil laugh) Really looking forward to the next time - perhaps by then I will have got myself a white coat.

Things that you make go hmm

I don't know what's wrong with me.  Every new book that I pick up I feel like hurling across the room. Admittedly I did set myself the onerous task of reading Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell over the holidays. - three hundred characters.  Yes.  Three hundred.  Then there was The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst.  And someone who was raving about it gave me The Rules of Civility....oh dear.  Well, let me say that Dance to the Music (12 volumes.  Yep, 12) is going to have to dance on without me and Alan Hollinghurst who is a fabulous writer lost me on that one too... As for Rules of Civility - well, I don't feel like being very civil about it to be honest - Dominick Dunne dun it better guv.  Honest. Oh yes, and I read Pure which won plaudits and prizes galore and I was like - meugh...I've read better. So it's not that I haven't been reading (frankly that will never happen) but it's just that I haven't been inspired.  AT ALL. I even in a moment of desperation picked off the shelves an old Iris Murdoch - The Philosopher's Pupil. Crikey.I gave that a miss, too.
Then - thank goodness I went to swish bookish party at Waterstones in London and in my goodie bag was a freebie proof copy of My Policeman by Bethan Roberts. Hoozah and Hoorah! Finally - a great book.  One worth reading.
It's set in Brighton in the 50's and is an absolute corker. I don't want to give anything away - but do urge you to read it.  You'll LOVE it.

Holidays

Well, it's been a while and I do apologise... Holidays and life has got in the way and a general dearth of what I call GOOD books.  I knew I was in trouble when I was sitting at the airport waiting for a flight to Sicily and I realised that I had no shampoo or conditioner with me but I did have a lemon zester and seven paperbacks. Most of them old books that have recently been re-issued.  Holiday reading fills me with panic.  Madly dash around the airport books hop - NO.  I once relied on that at Heathrow and it was closed - can you imagine the horror? So I bought a load of Stella Gibbons old novels that have just been released.  Hmm, well... Oh dear.  I mean I know that if you're written a big stonking best seller like Cold Comfort Farm you probably never need to write another book - and really, I wish she hadn't - or that I had lower expectations of them and simply hadn't bought them. 'Nuff said.
However due to the joys of The Harpies (book club) I have certain prescribed books that i would never have normally read - A Visit for the Goon Squad is one of them - I adored it....and I am just about to start The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - yet another I would never have bought -so for that much thanks.  But  I find myself when going away always throwing certain books into the bag ( yes, I do see that a Kind;e would help here but I'm going to side step that issue for the moment) Saki, Waugh, Mitford, and Forever Amber are usually to be found in my luggage as you cannot rely on airports.  Heed the advice - do take some comfort re-reads with oyu!

Risotto with Nettles

Gosh, I love foodie books.  NOT cookery books (though I do of course like 'em) but books that lovingly recall forgotten meals along with memorable friends and relatives.  Of course *ahem* I wrote one myself, so I would, wouldn't I?  But Anna Del Conte who wrote Risotto with Nettles raises the bar.  The first thing I learnt which really surprised me was that whole towns were built in Italy to capture the sea breezes, purely for drying out pasta.  So whole streets had massive fringes of fresh spaghetti drying in the sun.  Must have been a wonderful sight... Also, fresh home-made pasta was in such demand and held in such high regard that women in the war would gather together over the kitchen table, often pulled out in a sunny square and make ravioli or tagliatelle to sell - and then with the money buy dried pasta to feed their families.  The food is mouth watering in itself but her life story is amazing too.  Shot at, nearly thrown in prison, her first job as an au pair in England, her marriage, her career as a cook are spellbinding.  And then, there's the irresistible pull of the Italian food. This is dear to my heart too, so much so, that I am off an a Sicilian adventure very soon to a cookery school in that sun drenched island of lemons.  No doubt I shall be making pasta but I sincerely I hope I avoid being shot at.
Oh - the jar next to the book is that wonderful thing that I make this time every year: Damson vodka - perfect for a Winter Twinkle cocktail (one part damson vodka, two pats frosty prosecco)

CULL

Yes, it's cull time again. I try to be ruthless.  Honest.  But then sentimentality gets the better of me.  Politeness, too.  I mean, I KNOW some of these authors and even if I'm never, ever going to read them again, I can't chuck them.  And then I'm vexed as to what to actually DO with 'em.  Yes, yes, of course I do charity shops...well, to be honest, I do when I can cajole someone with strong arms to carry them there.  Then we have the 'library' in the entrance hall where the top post shelf are full of the 7 flats here unwanted books.  The theory is of course that you 'borrow' one and replace one.  That's the theory.  In practice what happens is that it gets chock with unwanted Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer (NOT mine I hasten to add)  Then I take a book bag to book club every month and dish 'em out.  Ditto to friends.  But even with all that I swear the pesky things are breeding.  Then, the other night, it happened.  The thing that I'd been dreading and yet expecting for some time.  An avalanche in the middle of the night.  A tsunami of books flooded the bed.  Crashing down on me (and Flo who really was no help at all.  In fact if I had ever thought that she would be any use as a guard dog, that theory was firmly quashed as her trembling body tried to wriggle under my pillow whilst making imploring yelps of distress.  Not growls of attack.) So, the bedside table is looking a little empty, the shelves are groaning, there are three book bags ready for the next strong armed friend to take to the shop and Flo is looking, well, a little more secure...

Penguin Classics

It's my own silly fault.  I was seduced.  Yes, yes, by the 'one click' on Amazon.  (I swear it will reduce me to bankruptcy) But those Penguin classics look so, well, classic. Who can resist them?  Also, and I lay my hand on my heart here, I thought that I would have binge of GOOD books. Now don't get me wrong there is absolutely nothing wrong with chick lit - or - women's contemporary fiction as we are all meant to call it now, Indeed, I have written books myself of that genre.  But I wanted something a bit more, well, classic... So, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers seemed to fit the bill.
I'd heard of her, and she also wrote The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, so I thought I was on to a winner.  But, then, oh dear... the eye started to skip paragraphs, the fidgiting got worse, and in the end I'm sorry to say I gave up.  But then, what a fool I was to think that I could appreciate it anyway.  Set in small town southern states in the fifties....that ALONE should have told me that it wasn't for me. I dislike the decade, I dislike anything to do with small town America, (unless of course it's Little Women) I don't want to read about mill workers, I have only the haziest of ideas as to what a Cotton Gin is (and frankly care even less) and then there is her talk of negro workers, which makes me squirm.
I perservered for a while longer, but the main protaganist is a deaf mute, the town is dreary, teh people are quite horrid and nothing much happens really....Or it hadn't by the time I gave up and irritably tossed it off the bedside table and reached with relief to Joan Wyndham and Dawn Chorus (another one click and SO jolly and uplifting I thank the book gods that I did)
Now, in the case of Carson I can say that I know it to be a case of 'It's not you, it's me,' as I know that she has been lauded, and still is, as a fantastic writer.  But definitely not for me.  If anyone wants it - just let me know and I'll pop it in a jiffy bag to you.