Independent Book shop in Downham Market
Upcoming Events
We try to keep our events FREE so they are accessible to all ( and you can spend more on books!) But pleased register your attendance by emailing, phoning us or calling in the shop.
Words & Wonder 1st Birthday 1st & 2nd August 9.30 - 4.30pm
We are 1! Come & join us for our first birthday weekend
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We will have 10% off of everything (excluding Makers Crafts) - so all books, cards, diaries and notebooks.
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We will have exciting free to enter competitions and giveaways.
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We also have two local authors in-store on Saturday 2nd. Camilla Balshaw will be with us from 11.45am and Sadie Norman will be joining us at 2pm to chat with customers and sign their books.
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We would love to see you!
Andrew Bergin - The Wicked Earth
Thursday 11th September 6.30pm
Andrew Bergin will be joining us to talk about his novel historical novel The Wicked Earth, based on the true events in Newcastle 1650.
October, 1650
Traumatised Parliamentarian spy James Archer returns north seeking his sister Meg, missing in the aftermath of Newcastle's recent witch trials.
Aloof, enigmatic Elizabeth Thompson draws him to investigate the ongoing killing of women who had worked to free the accused.
But when Elizabeth herself becomes hunted, the only chance of escape lies in Archer setting himself as bait.
Set against the backdrop of the greed and brutality of Interregnum England, The Wicked of the Earth is an historical thriller perfect for readers of Andrew Taylor, S J Parris, or C J Sansom.
The Newcastle Witch Trials of 1649 and the fervour which surrounded the Republic claimed the lives of twenty-six women and one man. Following the English Civil War, the women who had maintained the land and towns of England, came under scrutiny for their elevated position in society. Combined with the Republic's puritanical Christianity, the Newcastle Witch Trials swept through the city. Unlike other trials of the time, the Newcastle "witches" were hung from the scaffold. This book is dedicated to their memory.
Camilla Balshaw - Named
Wednesday 1st October 6.30pm
What’s in a name? Everything we carry, and everything we are.
Our names are a shadow we carry around with us. They are part of who we are. Our names are a marker of our self-identity and our sense of self. Our names have the power to shock. They have the power to heal, and they have the power to trigger conversations around race, class, social mobility and belonging. But what is a name? What do our names tell us about ourselves? And why do they matter?
Named is a fascinating exploration of names, global naming conventions and identity politics woven into a moving, personal narrative about the finding of family and self. At the intersection of memoir and social and cultural history it is a truly fascinating book about the seemingly ordinary and every day.
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Camilla will be in conversation with graphic memoirist Dr Nicola Reeten
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Camilla Balshaw -
has an MA (Distinction) in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths. She writes fiction and nonfiction, and her work has been published in The Guardian and The Observer. In 2020, was longlisted for the Fish Prize and shortlisted for Penguin Random House WriteNow. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham in the Institute for Name Studies.
When she is not writing, she practices and teaches yoga. She has practised yoga for over 25 years and is the co-director of the Norfolk Yoga Centre.
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Dr Nicola Reeten -
UK-based multi-award-winning graphic novelist and comics scholar. Her graphic memoir Billy, Me & You (Myriad Editions, 2011) was followed by The Inking Woman (Myriad Editions, 2018) a 250-year illustrated history of British women’s cartoonists. This was complemented by theoretical publication UK Feminist Cartoons and Comics: A Critical Survey (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). She is currently working on Yield, her second graphic novel, a fictionalised story set at the radical American alternative community Black Mountain College (1933-1957). In 2024 she collaborated with her daughter Sally Plowman to publish We Are Hungry, an illustrated vegan cookbook.
Nicola is based in Norfolk where she co-runs The Grange Projects Artists Residency with artist spouse John Plowman.
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Rory Clements - Evil in High Places
Thursday 16th October 6.30pm
Rory will be joining us to discuss his new historical novel Evil In High Places.
Set during the Munich Olympics of 1936, this gripping historical thriller from the author of the Tom Wilde series follows Detective Sebastian Wolff, who is tasked with finding a vanished film star who also happens to be Joseph Goebbels' lover.
The closer you get, the further you have to fall.
Munich, 1936. All eyes are on the Bavarian capital for the upcoming Olympic games. As athletes fight for gold and the Nazis fight for power, Detective Sebastian Wolff faces a battle of his own.
A famous actress has disappeared and Wolff has been ordered to find her, fast. But Elena Lang is no ordinary film-star: she is the mistress of Joseph Goebbels - Hitler's right-hand-man in the party that Wolff despises.
But corruption runs deep in Munich and Elena is just the first to go missing. In a search that will take him from high society to the city's darkest corners, Wolff is about to learn just how easily the hunter becomes the hunted: this is a city on the brink of war, and some enemies are better left alone.
Walking the tightrope between justice and jeopardy, Evil in High Places is the gripping new historical thriller from the million-copy-bestseller, Rory Clements.
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Rory Clements writes full time in a quiet corner of Norfolk. He was raised all over the world while his father served in the Royal Navy, an experience that went on to inspire Rory's beloved historical thrillers.
Previously a journalist for various papers, he is now a Sunday Times bestselling author, two-time winner and three-time nominee of the CWA Historical Dagger Award. His books have sold over 1 million copies to date.
Charles Moseley - To The Eel Island
Thursday 23rd October 6.30pm
Many people as they get older have to face leaving a village or town they have loved, a place redolent with memories and connections, to relocate somewhere more – as they say – ‘manageable.’ It is different for everyone, and not always easy, for our ghosts go with us. But everything connects with everything else. There is no such thing as a new beginning. Such a move need not be a matter for repining and regret, but a new adventure. This book records just that journey, of having to learn that new place to which Time is bringing you. Charles Moseley writes about his move from a fenland village to the nearby historic little city of Ely and he breathes life into the history, natural world and the generations of people who have made his new home what it is today.
Charles Moseley grew up on the Lancashire coast, went up to Cambridge to read English, and never left. Life Fellow at Hughes Hall, Cambridge University today, his varied career has included being a printer, a publisher and a peasant, but has mainly been spent teaching literature in Cambridge and attempting to persuade his victims to take this pursuit seriously. He has lived in a little Fenland village for a very long time and has now settled in Ely. He also writes books.