A K Blakemore & Holly Pester

in conversation

7pm Friday 7th June

St Mary’s Annexe

Wivenhoe

Entry £6.00

incl soft drink/wine

We are delighted to host an evening of readings and conversation with highly acclaimed authors A K Blakemore and Holly Pester.

A. K. Blakemore is a poet and novelist from London. Her first novel, The Manningtree Witches, won the Desmond Elliott Prize for Best First Novel and was shortlisted for the Costa and RSL Ondaatje Prizes.

Her second novel, The Glutton, is inspired by the story of Tarare, a peasant and showman in revolutionary France who made a living by demonstrating an extraordinary ability to devour things.

Holly Pester is a poet, writer and academic. She has worked in sound art and performance, with BBC Radio, Women’s Art Library and Wellcome Collection. Her debut poetry collection Comic Timing was shortlisted for the Forward Prize.

Praise for ‘The Glutton’

‘Blakemore is a breathtakingly fine writer – there are few writers who can be truly likened to Hilary Mantel, but Blakemore is one: not only because Mantel wrote novels about both the French Revolution and the life of a human exhibit, but because Blakemore shares her rare ability to reanimate the past in a way that makes it knowable to us, while remaining true to itself. ‘ The Guardian

‘Shocking, sensual and moving… Unfailingly original’ The Times

‘A baroque triumph… Unforgettable’. Financial Times

‘Incredibly impressive… As original as it is refreshing’. Irish Times

‘A tour de force of sustained, visceral brilliance’. Mail on Sunday

Praise for ‘The Lodgers’