We are privileged to be hosting the inaugural Rycroft Reads event, the first of an ongoing series of fundraising events in memory of Rycroft Alport Foster.

Proceeds from this event will go towards Rycroft’s charities, including funding a library/reading corner at both Great Ormond Street intensive care unit and Colchester GH neonatal unit.

Rycroft Alport Foster

Rycroft Alport Foster was a beautiful, smiley little boy whose home was Wivenhoe all his life. Born with a rare genetic condition called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome, he spent much time on Colchester Hospital Children’s Ward and at Great Ormond Street Hospital.  Sadly he died aged just sixteen months and two days in June 2023.

Books played an important part in Rycroft’s short life – being able to read and share stories with him when he was in hospital was a huge comfort to his parents, Andrew Foster and Catherine Alport.  The evening before Rycroft’s funeral at St Mary’s, Andrew and Catherine launched a fundraising appeal and so far have raised £60,000 to Rycroft’s charities – Colchester Children’s Ward, Great Ormond Street Hospital and SDS UK. This exciting event is part of their plan to reach £200,000 by the end of 2024.

The award-winning author Evie Wyld is a close family friend, and she has very kindly agreed to be the guest of honour at the first ever Rycroft Reads event, to be held at the Nottage Institute on Wivenhoe Quay on Friday 4th October.

Evie will joined in conversation by the author Karen McLeod, who will also be talking about her brilliantly funny smash-hit memoir, Lifting Off. Both authors will share with the audience the inspiration behind their writing, behind the scenes of life as an author as well as reading from their respective new titles which will be available to buy on the night.

The Echoes

Love is what brings about a ghost – Isn’t it? The unfinished business of love. The Echoes is a novel about love and grief, stories and who has the right to tell them. It asks, what of our past can we shrug off and what is fixed forever, echoing through the years?

‘Wyld is a genius.’ Guardian

‘A masterly achievement’ Sunday Times

‘A book that will stay with you forever’ Observer

‘Precise and unforgiving’ Guardian

‘Compulsively readable’ Financial Times

‘It takes brilliance to leap into the darkness’ Anne Enright

‘My favourite Wyld novel’ Paula Hawkins

About Evie Wyld

Evie Wyld is the award-winning author of four novels and one graphic novel. She has won the Betty Trask Award, Miles Franklin Award, John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, Encore Award, Jerwood Fiction Prize and the European Union Prize. In 2013 she was included in Granta’s once-a-decade list of Best of Young British Novelists. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and helps run an independent bookshop in Peckham called Review.

Lifting Off

An absorbing and often hilarious account of the author’s 12 years as closeted cabin crew for British Airways. It’s a story of love, creativity and acceptance, the transformative power of lesbian love and more.

‘Witty, irreverent, deeply felt, and exquisitely written, Lifting Off lifts the lid on one of the strongest performers and authors in queer UK, and in doing so lifts us all. I can’t recommend this extraordinary memoir enough. Stunning.’ Joelle Taylor

‘In a deceptively gentle self-evocation, Karen McLeod shares the hard parts and the juicy stuff with warmth and generosity’ Stella Duffy

About Karen McLeod

Karen McLeod is a writer, performance artist and creative writing teacher. She is writer in residence at Bookseller Crow on the Hill. She is also a visiting lecturer in creative writing at UCAS. She performs comedy as ‘Barbara Brownskirt’, a Judi Dench mega-fan and poet-in-residence at the 197 bus stop on the Croydon Road in south-east London.