Events

Look out for our upcoming events - opportunities to hear writers talk about their work, buy signed copies, and meet fellow readers. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find details of ticketed events we have coming up!

 

INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP WEEK 2024 - bringing festival feels!

We've put together our own Collected Books Festival to celebrate this year's Independent Bookshop Week, 15-22 June! We'll be open as usual throughout the week, handing out High Five £5.00 National Book Tokens to the first 100 book buyers of the week, and bringing you a series of brilliant book events with amazing authors:

Lauren Elkin on her debut novel, Scaffolding

Edith Hall on Facing Down the Furies

Clare Finney on Hungry Heart

Amy Twigg on Spoilt Creatures

(event listings for ticket purchases are at the bottom of the page)

And then... BOOKS&BEATS is BACK!

Friday 21 June, late night shopping and live dj through to 10pm

 

BOOK CLUB - monthly on Wednesdays (usually!); get in touch to book your space

Each month we run a book club, bringing authors, writers, and translators along to join the discussion as often as possible. To buy book club books and secure your place, please pop into the shop or email us on hello@collectedbooks.co.uk


NEW SOCIAL BOOK CLUB! now FULL, sorry...
Yellowface by Rebecca F. Kuang
Wednesday 5 June, 6.30pm

BRAND NEW Social Club!! You cannot imagine how excited we are. The club will be a place for you to come, alone or with friends, and chat about some of our (and your!) favourite books and drink some wine (or beer or coffee or softs or tea!) and create a wonderful social reading community.

We're delighted to be starting with YELLOWFACE by Rebecca F. Kuang - and we've got an indie exclusive edition! Reading the book is strongly encouraged before you attend so you can get the maximum juicy discussion - there will be no coyness when it comes to spoilers!


JULY: Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson
Monday 29 July, 6.30pm (please note change from our usual day)

We'll be joined by Rachel Dawson to talk about her heartwarming, funny and a little bit filthy queer coming-of-age story with a cracking '80s soundtrack!

Eluned Hughes is stuck. It's 1984 in a valley in south Wales: the miners' strike is ravaging her community; her sister's swanned off with a Thatcherite policeman; and her boyfriend Lloyd keeps bringing up marriage. And if they play '99 Red Balloons' on the radio one more time, she might just lose her mind.

Then the fundraising group Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners comes down from London, and she meets June, a snaggle-toothed blonde in a too-big leather jacket. Suddenly, Eluned isn't stuck any more - she's in freefall. June's an artist and an activist.

With June, Eluned can imagine a completely different life for herself. But as her family struggles with the strike, and her relationship with her sister deteriorates, should she really leave it all behind?

FREE but spaces are limited so... GET IN TOUCH TO SIGN UP! Paperback copies of the book available from the shop now


AUGUST: The Postcard by Anne Berest, translated by Tina Kover
Wednesday 14 August, 6.30pm

We'll be joined by translator Tina Kover to discuss this enthralling investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and a vivid portrait of twentieth-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life.

In January 2003, the Berest family receive a mysterious, unsigned postcard. On one side was an image of the Opéra Garnier; on the other, the names of their relatives who were killed in Auschwitz: Ephraïm, Emma, Noémie and Jacques. Years later, Anne sought to find the truth behind this postcard.

She journeys 100 years into the past, tracing the lives of her ancestors from their flight from Russia following the revolution, their journey to Latvia, Palestine, and Paris, the war and its aftermath. What emerges is a thrilling and sweeping tale based on true events that shatters her certainties about her family, her country, and herself. At once a gripping investigation into family secrets, a poignant tale of mothers and daughters, and an enthralling portrait of 20th-century Parisian intellectual and artistic life, The Postcard tells the story of a family devastated by the Holocaust and yet somehow restored by love and the power of storytelling.

FREE but spaces are limited so... GET IN TOUCH TO SIGN UP! Published in paperback on Thursday 4 July when copies will be available to buy from the shop