Events
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David Olusoga: History’s Missing Chapters
St George's, Bristol St George’s Bristol, Great George Street, Bristol, United KingdomWe are delighted to support this event taking place at St George's Bristol.
In a brand-new talk for 2025 David examines some of history’s missing chapters to uncover how and why some events and some people are remembered and others forgotten. Taking examples from the world wars, the Industrial revolution and other pivotal moments in global history David uncovers history’s missing persons.
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Rosa Vásquez Espinoza: The Spirit of the Rainforest
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomJoin us to celebrate the publication of The Spirit of the Rainforest by Dr Rosa Vásquez Espinoza with an author talk and signing.
Before you step into the jungle, there are a few things you need to know... Join scientist Dr Rosa Vasquez Espinoza as she uncovers one of the most unexplored regions on the planet. Dr Rosa is no stranger to the Amazon.
Growing up with the rainforest as her back garden, she learnt the lessons of the rainforest from her grandmother, a native healer in natural medicine. She went on to pursue a classical education in science, gaining a PhD in the US, but has always been pulled back to the heart of the Amazon. As a leading biologist in her field, Rosa continues to explore the region through a unique blend of scientific inquiry and ancient insight.
Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a Peruvian Amazonian-Andean scientist, conservationist, National Geographic Explorer, and award-winning artist. She blends science with indigenous knowledge to protect biodiversity and culture.
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Writers’ Day at the University of Bristol
7 Woodland Road 7 Woodland Road, BristolThe University of Bristol is hosting a day of talks, discussion and workshops for new and established writers. We are thrilled to support the event with a book stall throughout the day. Full details and link to register: https://bristol.ac.uk/english/study/part-time/short-courses/writers-day/
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Independent Bookshop Week – Partnership with Foundry Editions
Throughout Independent Bookshop Week, we are delighted to be partnering with Foundry Editions to celebrate their stunning books. Look out for our Foundry window display and art work, book club reading one of our absolute favourites published by Foundry and a very special event with Chiara Valerio celebrating the publication of The Little I Knew. More about Foundry: Foundry Editions was set up in 2023 out of a love for discovering and sharing new voices, a love for the Mediterranean and the people and lands that surround it, and a love of internationalism and reading across borders. We are on a mission to uncover authors who are new to English speakers, and to share the joy of reading their stories, which come from a part of the world that has always been a source of cultural and emotional inspiration for English language readers.
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Music for Poetry in Herons: Steve Page
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomWe are doing things a little differently in June! Celebrating the start of Independent Bookshop Week, rather than a poetry reading we are delighted to host our first gig, with songs inspired by great books. Steve Page is best known as the front man of blues americana band Blind Justice Page. Steve’s songwriting has always been inspired by the world of literature. Tonight every song has an author to thank for its genesis. Homer, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Michaels, Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, TC Boyle, Denis Johnson, Truman Capote, and Toni Morrison, are all in the mix. A selection of reading. Entry is free but it would be lovely to know if you are coming: please email read@heronbooks.co.uk. Some standing, some sitting; if you have any requirements, do let us know in advance.
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Chiara Valerio: The Little I Knew
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomHeron Books is delighted to welcome Chiara Valerio to celebrate the publication of The Little I Knew.
Do join us to meet Chiara, hear a discussion about the book and get your copies signed on 18 June, part of our Independent Bookshop Week partnership with publisher Foundry Editions.
The event is free but please do RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk so that we have an idea of numbers.About the book:
In Scauri, an end of the line seaside town forty miles or so from Rome, Vittoria dies unexpectedly in her bath. Whilst the townsfolk meet the event with sad but respectful southern Italian silence, Lea, the town lawyer, wants to investigate. Who was Vittoria, what were her secrets, why had she mysteriously arrived in Scauri thirty years earlier? And was her relationship with Lea all that it seemed?In this unforgettable portrait of a small town and the women who live there, reverberations from the past catch up with present. Through the silences, Vittoria’s story is revealed and everything - passions, emotions, and relationships - changes forever.
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Poetry in Herons: Katrina Naomi
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomFor our July monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to Katrina Naomi, author of Battery Rocks.
Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.
Arrive at 5pm. We’ll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.
5.10-5.40ish, we’ll enjoy some poetry.
5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet’s books.
Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.
It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk
Katrina is an award-winning poet and performer. Her fourth poetry collection, Battery Rocks, (Seren, 2024) is the winner of the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors. Katrina’s previous collections have won an Authors’ Foundation Award and Saboteur Award; she is a recipient of the Keats-Shelley Prize and has twice been highly commended in the Forward Prize. Katrina’s poetry has appeared on Poems on the Underground, BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, Open Country and Poetry Please, and in The TLS, The Poetry Review and Modern Poetry in Translation. She has a PhD from Goldsmiths and tutors for Arvon and the Poetry School. Katrina lives in Cornwall.
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Bristol Talks: Bruce Hood – The Science of Happiness
Bristol Folk House 40a Park St, BristolWe will be providing a book stall at this fascinating event organised by Bristol Talks: Join us for what promises to be an enlightening and enriching conversation between Bruce Hood (Professor of Developmental Psychology in Society at the University of Bristol) and Andrew Kelly (former Director of Bristol Ideas and visiting professor at the University of the West of England) about happiness. In The Science of Happiness, Bruce drew on decades of neuroscience and developmental psychology research to show that the key to happiness is not self-care but connection. Bruce and Andrew will be discussing these insights along with many others as they explore the roots of wellbeing in today’s world. It is a conversation that promises lessons for Bristolians of all ages plus practical actions that we can all take to promote collective wellbeing in our local community.
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Poetry in Herons: Anna Saunders
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomPlease note that, with huge apologies, this event has been cancelled. We are so sorry that the reading can't go ahead but highly recommend reading Anna's poetry and would love to chat with you about it. Apologies again.
For our August monthly poetry reading, we are delighted to welcome Anna Saunders.
Anna is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox (Indigo Dreams), Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew, The Prohibition of Touch, ( all Indigo Dreams). Her latest book is Eurydice in the Ruined House, ( Indigo Dreams).
Anna has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North, ‘a modern myth maker’ by Paul Stephenson, and Tears in the Fence said of her ‘Anna Saunders’ poetry is reminiscent of Plath – with all its alpha achievement and radiance’. She is also the Founding Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival.
Free entry. Come for the poetry. Stay for the poetry.
Arrive at 5pm. We’ll offer you something fizzy. Usually a drink but perhaps one day it will be a sherbet fountain.
5.10-5.40ish, we’ll enjoy some poetry.
5.40-6pm, finish the fizzy things and perhaps buy the poet’s books.
Some seating. Some standing. Get in touch with us about any requirements you may have.
It is free and unticketed but it would help if you let us know that you are coming. RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk
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Adam Sisman: The Indefatigable Asa Briggs
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomPlease join us to celebrate the publication of The Indefatigable Asa Briggs by Adam Sisman. Please RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk. Order the book here.
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Franny Moyle: Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomJoin us to celebrate the publication of Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun: The Extraordinary Entwined Lives of Two Eighteenth-Century Painters by Franny Moyle We are delighted to welcome Franny Moyle for a talk on her fascinating new book on Angelica Kauffman and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. In the spring of 1790 two of the most gifted artists in Europe met in Rome and became fast friends, sharing their views on art, visiting the city’s ancient sites and making trips to the opera together over several happy weeks. The Swiss history painter Angelica Kauffman and the French portraitist Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun are no longer household names in the early twenty-first century but were much-fêted celebrities in the late eighteenth. The two had much in common: both had been child prodigies; both were members of the prestigious Academies of their respective countries; both had been celebrated court painters; both had made disastrous marriages that had drained them financially and made them the subject of scandal. Franny Moyle uses their meeting in the eternal city as the point of departure for a lavishly illustrated ‘life and times’ biography of two brilliant but neglected women artists whose lives and creative careers straddled the political upheavals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun allows Moyle to explore an age of political, aesthetic and social revolution via a web of connections that embraces many of the most intriguing and powerful personalities of the time – to view a whole era of changing ideas and political ferment through the prism of the intertwined tales of two remarkable, rediscovered female lives. The event is free and unticketed but seats are limited so please do RSVP in advance so that we can ensure you are sitting comfortably and your glass will be full.
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Cécile Tlili: Just a Little Dinner
Heron Books 7a Regent Street, Bristol, United KingdomHeron Books is delighted to welcome Cécile Tlili to celebrate the publication of Just a Little Dinner.
Do join us to meet Cécile, enjoy a discussion with her publisher, Richard Village of Foundry Books, and get your copies signed.
The event is free. Please RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk so that we know how many to expect.
About the book:
In tired, hot Paris at the end of August, a group of friends, who’d rather still be at the sea, meet for a dinner in one couple’s apartment. Taking us behind the shutters of the Sixth Arrondissement, with a cast of characters that both delight and repel, fractured relationships, manipulation, bad behaviour and desperation are all laid bare in this very contemporary take on a Parisian huis clos story. What starts as just a little dinner ends up having monumental consequences for everyone.