Ely Events and Reading Groups
In this atmospheric medieval city, just over an hour from London by train, author events range from reading groups and intimate events in the bookshop to the drama of performances under the world-renowned Octagon of Ely Cathedral. We hold events all year round, but in the autumn there is a special focus on the Ely Literary Festival.
Swallows Reading Group
Sunday 11th January, 10.30am
The Swallows Book Group is the perfect opportunity for book lovers aged 9-12 years to make new discoveries, and new friends! Join us in The Bookshop …
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Reading Group - Rector's Daughter
Tuesday 13th January, 7.30pm
Dedmayne Rectory is quietly decaying, its striped chintz and darkened rooms are a bastion of outmoded Victorian values. Here Mary has spent thirty-five years, devoting herself …
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Reading Group - The Garden of Evening Mists
Tuesday 13th January, 7.30pm
Eng's much admired novel is a beautifully written study of memory, culture and the aftermath of war, unfolding over three time periods and tracing the complex …
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Lady Anne Glenconner
Thursday 15th January, 7pm
Lady Anne Glenconner, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret and Maid of Honour at the Queen's Coronation, returns with a rich, sparkling memoir told through an A to …
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Queer Reading Group - Big Swiss
Tuesday 27th January, 7pm
Greta liked knowing people's secrets. That wasn't a problem. Until she met Big Swiss.Big Swiss. That's Greta's nickname for her - she is tall, and she …
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Oliver Bullough
Wednesday 28th January, 7pm
Without money laundering, few crimes of acquisition would be worth the trouble. South America's drug cartels would be stuffed without it, as would Nigerian kleptocrats, Afghan …
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Julian Barnes
Thursday 29th January, 7pm
A new book from the Booker Prize-winning Julian Barnes, about looking back, facing the future, and coming to the end of life.Departure(s) is a work of …
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David McCloskey
Friday 30th January, 7pm
What happens when a spy is forced to reckon with the consequences of his deception?Kamran Esfahani, a Persian Jewish dentist from Stockholm, dreams of starting afresh …
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Reading Group - The Proof of My Innocence
Tuesday 10th February, 7.30pm
Post-university life doesn't suit Phyl. Time passes slowly, living with her parents and working a zero-hours contract at Heathrow Airport, while her budding plans of becoming …
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Reading Group - Foreign Affairs
Tuesday 10th February, 7.30pm
Two American academics - and unassuming Professor of Children's Literature and a brash engineer - who could hardly be more different, meet awkwardly on a flight …
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Elly Griffiths
Wednesday 11th February, 7pm
We are delighted to be welcoming back Elly Griffiths for the second book in the Ali Dawson Mystery series. Join Ali Dawson and her cold case …
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Lionel Shriver
Monday 16th February, 7pm
Gloria Bonaventura, a divorced mother of three living with her 26-year-old son Nico in a sprawling house in Brooklyn, decides to participate in a new city …
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Alwyn Turner
Tuesday 17th February, 7pm
After the calamity of the Great War, there was a desire in Britain for escapist fun - the lights of the Jazz Age, radio comedies and …
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Sophie Hannah
Tuesday 24th February, 7pm
What if the only way to prevent a murder is by confessing to it?Jemma Stelling has confessed to a murder - one she can't have committed. …
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Queer Reading Group - Call me by your name
Wednesday 25th February, 7pm
During a restless summer on the Italian Riviera, a powerful romance blooms between seventeen-year-old Elio and his father's house guest, Oliver. Unrelenting currents of obsession and …
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Philip Parker
Thursday 26th February, 7pm
Britain is a land steeped in legend. From the Scottish Islands to the valleys of Wales, or the coves and inlets of Cornwall, scarcely a hillock, …
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Reading Group - Poems
Tuesday 10th March, 7.30pm
From elegant lyrics to forceful political statements, humorous and sardonic squibs to luminous recollections of childhood, celebrations of friendship to impassioned evocations of the natural world …
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Francis Spufford
Thursday 12th March, 7pm
It's the summer of 1939. London is on the brink of catastrophic war. Iris Hawkins, an ambitious young woman in the stuffy world of City finance, …
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Jill Dawson
Tuesday 17th March, 7pm
"Pixie". I like it. "Pixie Pamela". It's a good name for me: sometimes tiny and invisible. Other times bouncing up to the ceiling to look down …
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Reading Group - The Trumpet Major
Tuesday 14th April, 7.30pm
Hardy's only historical novel, The Trumpet Major is a shrewd and bittersweet, tale of a dignified and intelligent young woman's pursuit by three contrasting men, set …
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Mary Beard
Friday 17th April, 7.30pm
What's exciting about a piece of bread 4,000 years old? Or some pots of paint abandoned in the eruption at Pompeii? Why should we be bothered …
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Andrey Kurkov
Wednesday 29th April, 7pm
Fresh from case of the stolen heart, one that shattered his belief in the regime he works for, Samson Kolechko is confronted with a mystery that …
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Simon Barnes
Wednesday 6th May, 7pm
A unique and all-encompassing exploration of the wonders of flight and the way different species have evolved different solutions to the problem of defying gravity - …
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Reading Group - Fictions & The Invention
Tuesday 12th May, 7.30pm
Creating awe-inspiring dream-like worlds of puzzlement and mystery within a tiny space, the short fictions of Borges are amongst the most original and intriguing writings of …
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