Jeremy Page
Thursday 23rd January, 7.30pm
New York to California is not what you might expect. Approaching middle-age, acclaimed novelist Jeremy Page feels the call of his ancestral East Anglian home. With an eccentric companion and an unexpected whippet, he traces a route through the Lincolnshire Fens and Norfolk coastline, searching for the essence of this liminal landscape and enigmatic people. […] See more »
Sinclair McKay
Thursday 6th February, 7.30pm
It was called the ‘Florence of the Elbe’. In February 1945 the Allies obliterated Dresden. Explosive bombs weighing over 1,000 lbs fell every seven and a half seconds and an estimated 25,000 people were killed. Was Dresden a legitimate military target or was the bombing a last act of atavistic mass murder in a war […] See more »
Reading Group – The Wilder Shores of Love
Monday 10th February, 7.30pm
Lesley Blanch – Wilder Shores of Love An impassioned and insightful study of four women who abandoned the comfortable world of Europe to settle in the Middle East, The Wilder Shores of Love has acquired the status of a classic. Lesley Blanch led an adventurous life herself and her close identification with the women whose remarkable lives she recounts is palpable. See more »
Reading Roup – The Stolen Bicycle
Monday 10th February, 7.30pm
The Stolen Bicycle – Wu Ming Yi A writer embarks on an epic quest in search of his missing father’s stolen bicycle and soon finds himself caught up in several strangely intertwined stories… See more »
Elly Griffiths
Tuesday 11th February, 7.30pm
She has a new job, home and partner, and is no longer North Norfolk police’s resident forensic archaeologist. That is, until convicted murderer Ivor March offers to make DCI Nelson a deal. Nelson was always sure that March killed more women than he was charged with. Now March confirms this, and offers to show Nelson […] See more »
Guinevere Glasfurd
Wednesday 12th February, 7.30pm
In 1815, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia brings ash and ice, ushering in strange storms and political turmoil. The old ways disappear and there is a hunger for justice and equality. The Year Without Summer is a worldwide canvas peopled by passionate individuals who long for a better future, each one brought to life in […] See more »
Tracey Thorn
Thursday 13th February, 7.30pm
Before becoming an acclaimed musician and writer, Tracey Thorn was a typical teenager: bored and cynical, despairing of her aspirational parents. Her only comfort came from house parties and the female pop icons who hinted at a new kind of living. Returning to the scene of her childhood, Thorn takes us beyond the bus shelters, […] See more »
John Bercow
Friday 14th February, 7.30pm
Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely are delighted to announce an evening with John Bercow. The irrepressible former speaker of the House of Commons is making fewer than a handful of national appearances to publicise his much-anticipated book of memoirs. Unspeakable is John Bercow’s characteristically forthright and incisive account of his unique vantage-point into British […] See more »
Annie Gray
Tuesday 18th February, 7.30pm
Described by Lucy Worsley as “the queen of food historians” Annie Gray is always welcome at Toppings. Her engaging wit and warmth are matched by a wide and effervescent knowledge that make her the dinner party guest sans pareil and a wonderful public speaker and raconteur. Victory in the Kitchen: The Life of Churchill’s Cook is […] See more »
Prue Leith & Peta Leith
Saturday 22nd February, 7.30pm
Prue Leith has been at the top of the British food scene for nearly sixty years. She founded the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine, and is a Michelin-starred chef, caterer, restaurateur, teacher, TV cook, food journalist, novelist, and cookery book author. Well known as a judge on The Great British Menu, she is […] See more »
Natasha Pulley
Wednesday 11th March, 7.30pm
It’s time to step back into the enchanting, mesmerising and unexpected world of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. Natasha Pulley’s extraordinary sequel takes readers to Japan, where time, destiny and love collide to electrifying effect. Natasha, alumna of Soham Village College and UEA, won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club […] See more »
Jim Kelly
Thursday 12th March, 7.30pm
A lone German bomber crosses the East coast of Britain on a moonless night in the long hot summer of 1940. The pilot picks up the silver thread of a river and following it to his target, drops his bomb over Cambridge’s rail yards. The shell falls short of its mark, and lands in a […] See more »